The forecast said possible thunderstorms Friday but otherwise nice weather, so we set off Friday on a 3-day trip to Necklace Valley and Tank Lakes. The Necklace Valley trail is in great shape, although I wish the steepness were more evenly distributed over the entire thing. It is quite steep in places and totally flat in others. Sigh. Fri night we camped at Jade Lake, which was surpisingly bug-free. However, an aside: please, please, PLEASE use the privies along the river (before the steep uphill starts) or south of Jade Lake, and even if you can't, please do NOT poop near campsites and leave your TP there! Be considerate of location, and pack it out, people! Saturday morning we headed up to Tank Lakes by turning west on a climbers-type trail near Emerald Lake. This soon became a completely trail-free route through not-so-bad brush, then over a rock field and some snow until we clambered over the ridge and into the Tank Lakes area. There are still snow fields up there, but it is navigable. Unfortunately, the thunderstorms stuck around an extra day, making us reluctant to go much further. We set up camp on a flat rock and explored the basin between rain and hail squalls. Bugs were annoying, but we were OK with DEET and head nets. Sunday morning we headed back, using the cairned route further south than the way we came in. This route goes along the lateral moraine going southwest at the southern end of Necklace Valley. It is steep in places, and there are so many cairns that it should be clear that there is no "one right way" to go-- just find footing that suits you and head down to the valley. We were sometimes on the moraine itself, sometimes in a stream, sometimes on other rocks... you get the idea. This way is easier to follow than the way we went, but it is still possible to lose the route in the snow, so be sure to have a map with you. Though the Necklace Valley trial is mainly forested, there were already some ripe huckleberries down low, and in the valley lots of bear grass flowers, heather, etc.

We arrived Friday around 6:30 at the trailhead. The 5 day old Ranger report said there was a lot of snow around the lakes (which concerned us a little). Due to the rain the two days prior, we were pretty soaked with the overhanging foliage that had grown over the trail. Other than that, the trail was smooth. We got to the bridge marking the easy/hard transition about 8:30am and took a little break. We arrived at Jade Lake around 11:30am and were greeted with high water from the rains and dense mosquitos. To go farther than Emerald, get to the west side. We got to Opal just after 12pm (Opal is very shallow and basically a marsh on the upstream end). We looked at La Bohn Gap, and it was too snow for us (we had no ice axes or crampons with us). We decided to aim for Tank Lakes the next day. After our attempts at finding a dry camping spot failed, we worked our way back to Emerald. Saw some sort of weasel creature in a rock fall. Could have been a mink, but looked more like a Marten. At Emerald, we took a break to try some fly fishing and dryed out our boots and socks in the plentiful sunshine. Both endeavors were successful, although the cutthroat trout were small. We headed down and set up camp at Ilswoot. Ilswoot, being a larger lake, had larger fish that were just as eager. Ilswoot is an amazing color. Still plenty of Mosquitoes. Early to bed. Night temps dropped to 40 degrees. Saturday, we left Ilswoot around 8:15a to head for Tank Lakes and explore a little bit. We got to end of Opal in about 35 minutes and headed up into the hills. We stayed on rock for most of it, but had to walk on snow in few spots, especially higher up. Got close to Foehn Lake around 10:00. We saw a minor peak just north of Tank Lakes and west of Foehn. We decided to head there instead of heading right for the Tanks. It is the beginning of a ridge that tops out at 6359ft, and the older Topo maps list that point as “Otter” (just east of Otter Lake). We made the minor summit (6135ft) around 11am took in the view, which was amazing 360 degrees around. We weren’t interested in continuing along the ridge as we didn’t know if we’d need climbing gear (which we didn’t have.) We left the summit about 11:50. We got down to the small pond above and just west Foehn Lake. We stopped, and the braver one of us jumped in to the snow filled water to meet a challenge that was given beforehand on Facebook. We stayed on a rocky spine most of the way down to avoid the snow. Still lots of mosquitoes up there. Temps in the low 70s. We got back down to Opal about 1:30p. Since we decided earlier not to go to La Bohn Gap, we had pretty much decided there wasn’t anything pressing to keep us an extra night (except maybe more fishing.) We smelled a campfire about the time we got close to Emerald. Got back to Iswoot about 2pm. Packed up and left about 325p. Saw a Ranger on our way up from Ilswoot, never seen one in the wild before :-). She was looking for a campfire. We told her it wasn’t down at Ilswoot and carried on. Left the valley about 3:45. We met numerous hikers heading up to the valley. Most had questions for us. Got to the river about 5:20p. Took a 10 minute break. We were both worn out from the nearly non-stop descent. On the path along the river, we were surprised at how long it was. It didn’t seem that way yesterday. But after our day hike, it made sense that we would be exhausted. We really pushed our exhausted selves and made it in just over 2 hours to the trailhead. We finally made it at 740p. The parking lot was full, and there were even six vehicles out on the road. The road has nasty potholes. Watch out! Amazing trip. Plenty of Mosquitoes and Frogs, Some rodents (guard your trail mix at night...)

We attempted to hike the loop, starting at West Fork Foss and ending at East Fork Foss, going off trail from Big Heart Lake to Opal Lake. We allotted 2.5 days and brought my border collie mix. This was all a bit unrealistic and we only made it to Azurite Lake - out and back via West Fork Foss. OFF TRAIL CONDITIONS: in the rain, the off-trail portion of this route gets very slippery and dangerous. Much of the off- trail route is steep, very brushy, and a bit cliffy in places. If there's snow (and there was past Big Heart Lake), traction and an ice ax would have been helpful, though weren't necessary. Most of us had poles. The snow right now is very sketchy/snow bridges, post holing etc! CAMPING: as expected, there seem to be limited spaces to pitch a tent, especially more than 1 tent, in the backcountry portion of this loop, between Azure lake and Iron Cap Pass/Tank lakes. GPS/ROUTE finding: route finding can be a challenge, we averaged 1 mile/hr at most. DOGS: I would NOT recommend bringing a dog past where the trail ends. My border collie mix did not have any trouble, but I would not bring him again or recommend bringing a dog to anyone else. We had to hoist him up some rockfaces in a few spots. BUGS: Lots of bugs until Big Heart Lake, after which they were minimal. Loop Trail description: The West Fork Foss Trail to Big Heart is snow free and well maintained. We arrived Friday afternoon and camped at Little Heart Lake - multiple campsites and a toilet are on the other side of the lake outlet. Day 2: Past the outlet of Big Heart Lake, a trail exists, though is sometimes harder to follow. There was a nice campsite a little past the outlet overlooking the lake. We followed the ridgeline between Big Heart and Angeline - which was slow going - We averaged about 1 mile/hour. There were large snow patches, some steep. Also since the snow is melting, large areas were very sketchy - post holing with dangerous boulder fields or running water underneath. After the ridge, we descended to the outlet of Little Chetwood and crossed the river. This was a relatively easy descent, however on the way back we followed the lakeshore to Chetwood and ascended via a steep cliff/ridge on the north side of Chetwood Lake following some cairns - definitely do not recommend this route and these cairns should be taken down! I don't think it would even be possible to go down this way. Instead ascend/descend the northeast side of the ridge above of Little Chetwood. Once across the outlet of Little Chetwood, the area gets very steep, brushy, and there is either no trail, or it is very easy to lose. Apparently this is the case for most of this area until Tank Lakes. Areas where you can pitch a tent are limited, and space for more than 1-2 tents is very very limited/not available. Our route had us passing Azure Lake and then following the lakeshore of Azurite lake, heading south/southeast to Iron Cap pass and then northeast to Tank lakes. However, we ended up on top of a ridge after Azure Lake, looking down at Azurite, instead of on the lakeshore of Azurite. It was pouring, 6pm and the trail was getting too slippery to continue. With our location and slow progress, we didn't think we could successfully hike out the rest of the loop on day 3. Some of us were low on food supplies for a potential 4th day and had work on Monday, I had sprained my ankle somewhere around Azure Lake, and another member in our group had some crazy blisters, so we backtracked, camped on a ridge above Azure lake and then hiked back out via West Fork Foss on day 3 (a long day). This was a beautiful hike and we had a blast until it started pouring - we hope to return with better weather, later in the season (no snow), no dog, and a little more preparation in terms of waypoints on our GPS. If we attempt the loop again, we would plan for 4 days - but try to do it in 3 full days. We met two experienced hikers around Big Heart who had done the full loop in 3 days, but they said it was rough, long days, and they were pretty scraped up.

Three of us decided to see how far up the valley we could get on a one night trip and ended up camping at Opal Lake. The first five miles were as expected - easy and well maintained. After crossing the bridge and boulder field at 5 miles the trail becomes pretty steep and muddy or loose in some places, especially the final push to Jade Lake. We had patchy snow before the boulder field leading up to Jade but nothing difficult. Snow was constant starting at the boulder field below Jade so we had to kick steps to get up. Skirting Jade was pretty difficult on the way in, but doable with poles or an ice axe. From the end of Jade, cross the stream to the right and follow the signs of a trail to emerald and then Opal Lake. We were pretty wiped out so we decided to camp on snow at Opal Lake. After a nice swim, we left most of our gear and continued up the valley and to the southwest. La Bohn gap looked pretty steep for a snow ascent so we headed towards tank lakes. We made it up to around 6150 feet on top of the ridge between Tahl and Tank Lakes and decided to call it a night (about 7pm now). I used crampons and an Ice axe for our excursion from opal to this point, others did not and were fine, although they would have helped. After soaking up the views of we headed back to camp, glissading about half the way down. The next morning we headed back but had much harder snow. Crampons were really useful, others had microspikes which worked as well. The worst part was skirting Jade Lake again. It would be pretty easy to fall in if you lost your footing. 23 miles round trip, max elevation 6150.

Did a quick solo overnighter to explore the Necklace Valley lakes. I was expecting plenty of snow, so packed accordingly. The first 5 mile forest walk was beautiful, with a host of wild flowers in bloom (bunchberry, trillium, columbine, and more). There were a couple blow downs that required climbing over and some of the low flowers/herbs are a bit overgrown on the trail so I'd recommend wearing rain pants or tall gaiters if you're doing this in early morning or just after a rain. Mosquitos were plentiful and hungry down there, so bring repellant if you plan to stop for more than second. Snow patches started just after the Nesby Memorial Bridge @ 6.9mi, but cleared again until about .5 mile before Jade Lake where the snow coverage was complete and a few feet deep. I visited Jade, Emerald and Opal lakes. All were still mostly under snow. I'd recommend having an ice axe or trekking poles to stop you from sliding if you plan to travel by snow beyond Jade. No bugs (yet) in the high valley. Other than a pair of fellas camped out at Jade, I had the area to myself. Views were largely non existent thanks to cloudy/rainy weather, but it was still a pleasant outing.