Went to East Foss Fork on a beautiful sunny Tuesday - we were 1 of 2 cars in the parking lot all day. Hiked along the river for the first 6-7 miles which was relatively easy. There are quite a few trees down across the trail but you can easily navigate around/see where other hikers had carved a new path. We made it to the campsite in about 3 hours. The bridge crossing the river that takes you onward to the lakes was washed out. You could still pass it, but be careful. We ended up dipping our feet in the freezing water and enjoying some lunch by the riverside. Only people out there, which was wonderful. Will definitely plan on continuing up to the lakes next time. Sidenote: The road to the trailhead is not bad, a couple pot holes here and there but make sure you have a spare tire in your car any time you're driving along those mountain roads. We ended up having a punctured tire (don't know what we hit, something sharp!) and had to change our tire. We were driving a 4 runner.

We decided to go on this hike last minute since we couldn't drive up to Tonga Ridge. This hike is an easy one up to about 4 miles. It was pretty flat with hardly any gain. We had to turn around about 4 miles in because we lost the trail because of the snow. There was a nice spot we stopped to have some hot apple cider on the trail and the sun was even out. There are a lot of tress down on the trail probably from the wind storm that happened the weekend before. It's still passable. I would like to go back once the snow melts and hike the whole thing.

After reading the trip reports from a few days ago, I thought I would see how far I could get up the Foss River R to the East Fork TH. At the county road end where the plowing stops, I saw where there were places to park but decided to drive a little further up. I made it up a mile or so before I feared I did not have enough clearance, so I backed up to a turn out where I managed to get stuck. After digging myself out, a very nice person came along and gave me just the push I needed to make it back down to where he had smartly parked his truck. From there I walked up towards the TH, soon to be passed by another car. Not much after that, they too were backing down the road. Why, you might ask? Because shortly before the road for Tonga Ridge, someone had left their completely stuck pickup right in the middle of the road. So, even if you could make it, the road was blocked. Hopefully he'll be back with a friend with a bigger and badder truck than his. After the truck, the snow is pretty deep and it looks pretty mush like construction vehicle tracks, snowshoes and ski marks. I did make it to the East Fork TH on foot, opting not to use my snowshoes. I wandered down the trail for a mile or so, and then time had me heading back to my car. The folks in the other car that had to back up were heading in with snowshoes.

Arrived at 10:15 am in our 4x4 silverado, 2 other cars parked at the end of the county road, we continued on to the intersection of 68 & 6830 and parked there, the road looked fairly sketch after that with few recent tire tracks. Had our aussie, wore snowshoes to the trailhead, about 1/2 mile, but they weren't necessary, the road was hard packed. Hiked 2.5 miles of the Necklace Valley Trail, beautiful and light snow about 25 degrees. A few trees / branches down to navigate in snowshoes and several creek crossings. Looked like someone had recently hiked in boots and postholed often, would recommend snowshoes for the hike. Turned around after the footbridge over Burn Creek, had afternoon plans we had to return to. Saw 2 ladies with a dog at the trailhead when we returned, another group of 4 in a Toyota Truck parked next to us, he did not dare to go further on 68 as well due to the road conditions. Loved the solitude, will return to do the full 5 miles to East Fork Foss river crossing and turn around there, hoping to backpack to Jade Lake this summer.

I got an unusually late start, 1130, which allowed a relatively short window so I chose to take my SLR rather than my pocket camera and a tripod. The trail was wet and a bit muddy and, in places, covered over for intermediate stretches with fallen brances and other detritus which could make it a bit difficult to follow. There were a lot of blown down trees. Big trees. This lent to a bit of difficulty. The bridge over Burn creek was at an awkward angle and really slick so BE CAREFUL! Snow was at 2000ft, approximately, but light and intermittent. It became more prevalent at about 2100, keeping in mind that the inital 5 miles gains only 600ft.