For Labor day weekend I explored the Necklace Valley with four friends. This was the triple backup plan…we applied for an Enchantments permit, after getting rejected decided Ice Lakes, after the fire decided Hart’s pass, after the rain forecast decided Necklace Valley. Given that it was the triple backup it was still a freaking awesome trip. We heard a lot of rumors about the hike such as “you have to want it to get in” and “Necklace Valley involves a ton of bushwhacking” and “after the river you climb straight up a boulder field”. None of these were particularly true…although we did really want it, there was no bushwhacking involved to get into or around the Valley, and although it gets tough after the river the grade is ~1000’/mi and is not exactly “straight up a boulder field”. The trail was in great shape, the bugs are basically gone (too cold?), and there was no snow (although snow possibility will increase in the coming weeks, esp. in the upper valley). It took us ~4 hours of hiking with full packs to get to Emerald lake (2 hours to the river, 2 hours up) and ~3.5 hours out on Monday. Once we got into the valley, it took a little while to find a nice campsite since there were quite a few people looking for one at the same time (due to the holiday?) and lots of places were pretty soggy. We eventually asked these three dudes camped near IIswoot if we could set up close to them and they said no problem. Later one of us overheard them saying, “Dude, I think they are staring at us”. Although our relationship was off to a rocky start, they later offered us Fireball and we had good times. We ran into the 3 Fireball Dudes several other times throughout the trip. I believe the 3 Fireball Dudes also lost their GoPro, and we saw a note at the trailhead on the way out said someone found a GoPro, and left the following number: two-zero-six-eight-eight-three-six-two-eight-eight. The hardest part of the trip was figuring out what the name of the lake we camped at was. The map says “IIswoot”, which is unhelpful because the first 2 letters are ambiguous, are they Is or Ls or one of each? To avoid confusion, we renamed this lake Liliswoot (please spread the word). In any case, Lake Liliswoot has the most unique lake color, and we thought our campsite was the second most beautiful campsite in the entire valley. On Sunday we went for a day hike/run from our basecamp at Liliswoot. Our goal: go to all of the lakes. We ended up missing a couple (Jewel and Tank in particular), but that just gives a reason to go back! Jewel looked a little challenging to get to (unless you swim across Locket). My favorite part was looking down at the Chain Lakes from close to La Bohn gap; check out the gpx track from our day hike…what we lacked in navigation skillz we made up with unique route finding. The most disappointing thing that happened on the trip was passing two trailrunners who told us about a secret waterfall. Although we then saw many waterfalls, we didn’t know if any of them were the secret one, and will likely never know. Why tell someone about a secret water fall without telling how to decipher secret vs. un-secret waterfalls? I dunno what their motive was.

Decided to take a day hike up the Necklace Valley and see how far up I could get before turning around. Starting at 6:15 am I began my trek up the East Fork Foss trail. The first 5 miles you gain 600 feet and it went by in about an hour and a half. You cross the river and head up stream a little to the left. This is where the fun begins. You gain 2400 ft in the next 3 miles or so climbing pretty steep in sections. After about a mile it levels out a little before climbing again up to Jade Lake. It to me about 3 hours to get here from the TH. It's swimmable if you're okay with pretty cold water. There is one medium sized blow down when hiking along the lake. After the lake you have to climb up the large rocks and onto Emerald Lake. Pushing onto Opal Lake, or so I had hoped, this is where the trails get confusing. The reason being, there isn't just one trail. There is a whole network of trails going I multiple directions. Knowing Opal lied straight ahead I made my way in that direction. Not finding Opal, and using directions from other hikers I started to make my way in the direction of Tank Lake. Lets get one thing straight, the trail to Tank isn't a trail. Its more like a scramble where you go 30 feet and look for the next Cairn. You need to head to the right and head up, following the creek most the way before popping over a ridge. I don't believe I made it to Tank Lake but a little tarn just before it. I braked for lunch enjoying views of La Bohn Peak, Glacier Peak, and Sloan Peak before heading back down. Stopped at Jade to take a dip and soak sore feet before heading back down the valley. The quick easy flat 5 miles that you started your hike with becomes a curse on your way back dragging on and on. Total mileage was around 19 miles with about 4000 ft of gain

Necklace valley is a beautiful place, but you really have to want to go there! We took three days, mid-week to backpack here. One day in, one day to explore, one day out, sounds like a good idea right? The hike in is basically an easy 5 mile hike to the crossing of the East Foss river, and then 3 mile of climbing into the hanging valley where the lakes are. Only it's not really like that. The 5 miles feel easy, but as one notices on the way out, there is more up and down than you think. So... we were feeling pretty good eating lunch at the very pretty river crossing before the climb, but we were really more tired than we thought. Then we began the climb, up a pile of large scree, in and out of the forest (at least it was shady most of the hike), then up various ladders of roots, and then over ledges that required a knee up and both hands (many of these), and many nasty rocks which required careful foot-placement. There's a pretty foot-log bridge over the East Foss creek, where we saw a Pine Marten (mid-week is good for wildlife). After the creek crossing there is more rock climbing and root ladders and then more rock climbing and root ladders.. and you get the picture. When I felt like throwing up we still had half and hour of steep climb left. However we got to the valley more or less intact and camped at Iltswoot lake, the deepest and clearest lake. The next day we explored through the valley, attempting to climb to La Bonn lakes. We followed cairns up a steep slope of large scree, views were pretty good of the valley. The cairns eventually brought us to a shoulder high ledge with way too much exposure to be considered a "hike". There was no good way up and it looked like more of the same for the next hundred feet or so, so we turned around. It would have been a better idea to climb the glacial moraine up to Tank lakes, we could see the whole of it from the way to La Bonn, and it looked safe the whole way. We hiked down an meandered among the lakes, Opal is mostly a beautiful meadow, Emerald has nice camps but more mosquitos. There are a couple camps up at the head of the valley that are nice, near the start of the creek and the scree as well as camps at the lakes, some are hard to find. We did not get to check out Al, Locket or Jewel lakes, next time! The hike down was knee and shin punishing, and the 5 miles out was very tiring after the steep descent. I would recommend doing this hike in 5 days, one to hike in to the nice camps on the river in the lower valley, then spend a day climbing the steep slope and finding a good camp at the lakes, then two days to explore, going up to tank lakes, and over to Locket and Jewel, then one day out.

The first 5 miles are very easy with minimal elevation gain, and the log bridge across the East Fork Foss River makes for a good spot to take a load off for both dayhikers and backpackers. If you don't enjoy elevation gain then turn back here, because the next three miles are brutal if you aren't used to it. You gain about 600 feet over the first five miles, and then in the following 3 miles you gain about 2400 very inconsistent feet to Jade Lake. The sign at the trailhead says 7 miles to Jade Lake, which is not true in the least, I've done this hike twice now, and both times there has been at least 2 Suunto GPS watches in my group (mine both times and another on each trip, 3 total). All 3 watches have indicated that the trail is actually about 8 miles to Jade Lake. Jade Lake is gorgeous and appears to be a decent spot to swim in, however, there is only one truly established campsite on the southeast corner of the lake, so you'll want to get there early if you want that spot. There is one other small spot suitable for a smaller tent on an "island" between the inflow of the lake, but this is directly on the trail so expect some foot traffic if you camp here. Emerald Lake is more or less a large swamp. It is very shallow but there are a few more spots to camp along it, most notably a rocky ledge overlooking the lake on the center of the west side, and there appears to be room to camp by the broken down cabin as well. Opal Lake is most comparable to a large canal system. There are lots of streams carving through a marshy grassland, and it makes for a pretty cool photo op but other than that there isn't much to see at Opal. We saw several groups around the valley, most of whom had gone on to one of the extended trips, La Bohn Lakes or Tank Lakes. Tank Lakes was our destination, and after the crash course with route-finding/scrambling/bushwhacking that I experienced on my last trip up to them I wanted to find a true trail up to them. After Opal Lake just follow the trail and the cairns. It should start getting rockier and more overgrown, but still easy to follow. Keep going until you come to a stream that begins to slant uphill to the right marked by several cairns, this is the path that leads to Tank Lakes. The path leads you up the stream into a gully. Keep your eyes peeled for cairns on the right side of the gully because the most obvious route up branches off right here and follows those cairns. It is very exposed in this part of the valley so definitely bring sunscreen. There is no defined trail to speak of, so you'll basically be relying on cairns the whole way up, but if you lose the cairns then just head west or southwest the best you can through the granite scree fields. Once you get to Tank Lakes you are greeted by views of Chimney Rock and Summit Chief Mountain. There are several camping locations around the lakes so find one that suits your needs. The bugs here are horrendous without bug spray, even at night. Our tent had about 30 mosquitoes on it at any given time, so bring bug spray, don't forget it like I did. The total distance to Tank Lakes is about 11 miles and a total elevation gain of 4200 feet, and definitely worth the miles, although the 5 mile stretch at the start feels like it never ends.

Overall this was a beautiful hike! Was very rainy while we were up there and the trek back down was slick with tons of mud and the trail turning into a stream essentially. We hiked up to La Bohn lakes on the second day, was really foggy and roughly 35 degrees Fahrenheit. The hike to Jade lake was about as you'd expect on a normal hike. There's a cool old cabin just beyond Jade lake that makes for pretty good shelter over a tent.