My original plan was Wallace Falls but the park ranger had just closed the road to the full parking lot. I had to rack my old brain for someplace where I could do a bunch of miles and not hit snow immediately. The Necklace Valley trail came to mind since the first 5 plus miles have almost no net gain but a number of minor ups and downs. There were more cars at the TH than I expected but still not packed. The trail was in really good condition at the start but progressively deteriorated in that 5 mile stretch. As reported earlier, there are tons of trillia (or whatever the plural form of trillium is) and skunk cabbage. The pleasant surprise was the sprinkling of calypso orchids in the first couple of miles. At first, the creeks are minor events and the blowdowns are easy stepovers. As I remembered, there is a section with noisy frogs although they seemed less noisy today. Perhaps I just needed my hearing aid inserted. After 3 miles or so, there were tougher creeks, more blowdowns and encroaching slide alder, a 100 or so yards where the trail is under 3 to 6 inches of water, some mud, and some minor snow patches (gone in a week). The bridges are intact where they need to be but the creeks are really roaring under them. I ran into 2 guys that were trying to do a ski trip to Bears Breast; they and one other person were probably the only 3 to make it to the lakes today. I had lunch at the last log crossing before the trail pitches up significantly. Note to self; do not return to Seattle on Hwy 2 on a Sunday afternoon.

The East Fork Foss River trail rolls up and down, first away and then alongside the river. Trillium and Skunk Cabbage are in bloom. The side streams were easy enough to cross. There were small patches of snow and a couple of trees down that did not cause any real difficulty. I hiked to the first campsites along the river at about 3 miles, took a break and turned around. On my return, I witnessed a bear crashing through the bushes/forest on a hillside above the trail. |Exciting| I only encountered a pair of hikers this morning. The forest was |beautiful| and I enjoyed the |peace|.

If you want a brutal but rewarding snowshoe outing, try hitting the Tank Lakes plateau in Feb! I've been up in early April before, which is still quite a struggle from mid-way to Jade Lake and above, but after coming across a trip report from Steph Abegg she did in late Feb I decided to try for it mid-winter, for more pristine snow and heavy-coated peaks. The East Foss Lakes TH is generally inaccessible by car in mid-winter, but you can park about 1.5 mi from it at the end of the maintained (plowed) county road (right after going under the train trestle), and hike/snowshoe to the TH. The first 5 miles along the river were decent on the way in, several parties of the past week had laid down a bit of a trail to follow. You can basically choose your own path in winter, just heading up the valley, but on the mid-section between the bridge (river crossing marking the end of the flat first 5 mi) to Jade Lake, you'll want to stick to the summer route as much as possible to avoid steep ravines, creeks, and cliffs. Every snow outing is different of course, and pretty much 100% dependent on the weather and snow condition. I had 4-6" of soft pow on the way in, atop an older base that would hold my 240lb load (w/ pack) on 35" snowshoes (MSR Lighting Ascents, 30" w/ tails) with an acceptable amount of post-holing. The last two days however, it decided to DUMP. Forecast was for showers and misc breaks, but instead it dropped about 16+" in 24 hrs. My inbound tracks were completely gone, and it became a painstakingly slow and painful effort heading outbound, even downhill. Despite the storm, it was still a beautiful trip. Complete solitude, crazy ice formations, occasional phantom sun outlines poking through the snowfall. The worst part was that despite my 3 night camp up above Tank Lakes, not once did Summit Chief, Chimney Rock, and Overcoat come out to play or be photographed (the main reason to get up there). I think Tank would make a pretty awesome ski touring trip. It's a long 10 mi, but making turns on all that powder up there would be phenomenal! Maybe next year. Love any beta if anyone has done this before. Notes: - Go prepared. I wouldn't try the upper valley unless you've done it before in summer or are rather familiar (or going with someone who is). - I had overnight temps around 0 before wind chill, I slept in a North Face Inferno 0, with heavy base layer, puffy, insulated pants and heavy socks, heated Nalgene bottle, and still got kinda cold by late morning. - My 35" snowshoes were not enough to keep me afloat from Jade Lake and above, or any exposed open slopes or meadows below. - My in/out times were about 9 moving hrs up/6 moving hrs down. If the snowpack firms up I'm sure you can shave an hour or two off that.

Attempted Tank Lakes in a day but didn't make it. Started at 5pm Friday evening and hiked through the night about 8 miles to a spot under point 5190. 8 miles should have taken me further than this, but routefinding at night in the untouched snow added almost an extra mile. Also, had to park about 1.5 miles from the valley trailhead due to icy roads when my tire chains were being uncooperative. Camped, had a nice 4 hour nap followed by a delicious cup of hot chocolate and made my way back to the car. The route is rather uneventful and nearly flat even though I did accumulate over 3100' elevation gain over about 15 miles of total hiking. Snow alternates between icy crust and soft wet snow, making time consuming switches between snowshoes and traction/crampons a necessity. I would rather do this in summer, but now that I've been turned away once, I only feel the urge to make it to Tank Lakes even stronger.

We were staying at a cabin just off Foss River Road, so we figured we'd check this trail out. The road up was packed snow, and there were two cars and a pickup stuck, so we parked at the turnout at the railroad bridge. The map for "East Fork Foss River Snowshoe" puts the pin at this approximate location, but there din't seem to be any sort of trail here. I'm wondering if it's just a generic placeholder for all the trails in this area? That's what most of the reports seem to be. We ended up walking up the road, taking a right at the fork, to the Necklace Valley trailhead. The trail was in good condition, with a pretty firmly packed snowshoe track. We only went about 3 miles in though, so we can't vouch for the condition further up.