We started out with overnight packs and two dogs at about 1pm. There were several other cars in the parking lot and three other groups waiting to fill out permits so we were a little wary. The bathroom at the trailhead was the cleanest I’ve ever seen through! The first five miles are beautiful and pleasent with multiple shallow stream crossings that were easy to cross without getting feet wet. They were great for keeping the dogs hydrated. You follow the river most of the way as well. A couple of blowdowns provided some fun to climb around. The log bridges were in okay shape and were easily crossed. Trillium were blooming all over the place. There are camp sites sprinkled out for the first 5 miles, many of which were right by the river and easily accessible. Two of the groups made camp down by the river with plans to day hike up to the lakes the next day. We really took our time with pictures and chatting and made 2mph along this section. This alone would make a nice walk in the woods that is worth the drive. The scramble up started without mercy and the cairns were helpful for moral- that yes, you are supposed to go right up these rocks. We are young and in decent shape, but with our packs the next 2-3 miles up were difficult. It’s not quite Mailbox Peak, but if you didn’t enjoy that hike I would skip this one. There are a couple of areas of respite, but in general you get to work for your prize. Bug spray was helpful here! The bugs were pretty bag. Jade lake was amazing and clear. The two best camp spots were taken. By this time it was getting cold and there were some spots of snow on the ground. To get past the lake we had to take our shoes off and walk along the lake shore – ouch! There are many trails to the other lakes that are easy to follow, but a topo map was nice for peace of mind. The trails were all very muddy, and most had become streams for the melting snow. Several stretches of snow had to be crossed and we did them in boots, but cramp-ons/spikes would have been helpful. We explored Emerald, Opal, and Cloudy lakes quickly-all of which were clear, hiking another couple miles before going back to a secluded camp site we had seen. The next day we passed a lot of people on the trail, and were very glad we came the day before. It seems that this hike and the camping spots get on long weekends. Hiking poles were helpful on the way down. I’d post pictures, but we left the camera on top of the car… if anyone sees a black camera in a black case shoot me a message :) Thanks!

We headed up to Skykomish for a sunny day of hiking on the East Fork Foss River Trail. Had not been on this trail in 8 years. There is a new restroom at the trail head parking lot. The trail starts out on an old logging railroad grade for the first mile. There is an old log bridge across Burn Creek that is in bad shape and will need to be replaced in the not too distant future. The creek is really roaring now from the snow melt up above. After leaving the railroad grade the trail makes small ups and downs on the way to Five Mile Camp. There are a few small creek crossings to make while rock hopping. While hiking on the cedar planks across a wet area, watch out for a couple of loose ones that teeter. This is about 1/4 mile past Alturas Lake. We hiked through a couple of fern forest areas where the bracken ferns are 6 feet tall. When we got to the section of the trail where it goes along the East Fork of the Foss River, we met three young Forest Service Rangers out checking the trail. They told us they will have more trail help this summer due to getting some grant money. So the Skykomish Ranger District will have an 8 person trail maintenance crew to work on trails. There is a view up the valley of Mt. Hinman. We had lunch and turned around at Five Mile Camp where there are some old mining relics lying around from a mining operation that was proposed up at La Bohn Gap. No mining was ever done. On the way back out we met a father and son back packing in and carrying brushing tools. Only saw one animal the whole day, one frog. We heard birds chirping but never saw any. Not one squirrel or chipmunk was seen or heard. It was pretty quiet except for the roaring of creeks and the river, plus two Navy jets flying down the valley. Some flowers are now out. For the most part, the trail is in good shape. Only a few mudding areas. Makes for a nice forest hike on an uncrowded trail.

The East Fork Foss is running high and fast right now. I was there almost a year ago to the day (June 18, 2011 and June 17, 2012), and it was not difficult to cross the river at the big log. This year the water was up to the height of the bridge and a large pool was blocking the access to walking to it. I was able to make it with no water in my boot wearing my OR Gaiters and gortex boots and moving fast. My friend took of his shoes and socks and was thigh high in water. I have heard this called 5 mile camp. We were there in 90 minutes, not an unheard of pace for us in day packs. The hike up into the valley is a climb. It was snow free for aways. Here my pace slowed significantly. I would say I hiked an hour before I saw consistent snow. You will bushwhack a bit through a lot of overgrowth, and you will get soaked if it has rained or is still holding onto moisture. We hit patches of snow, but nothing too bad. The snow became consistent past the Nesby footbridge. The snow level was lower last June. We were not able to make it to Jade Lake. After climbing through snow, and crossing on a snow bridge, my best guess for where we hiked to is here (+47° 35' 33.75", -121° 15' 58.13"). I just tried to use google maps to map it. Give it a month, and hopefully it will be melted out.

We left Bellevue at 8:45 and were hiking by 10:15. One other car at the trailhead, a family of 4 backpacking in for an overnight at the 5 mile camp. We were focused on a 2 hours in, 2 hours out, hoping for 8 miles roundtrip as we get back into our hiking routine. Forecast of mid 50's with 20% chance of rain in Skykomish, which meant mid 40's and drizzle at the trailhead. The trailhead has a vault toilet and picnic table, neither of which we remember from the last time we did this hike (for me, it was likely 2003, Bill did it in 2006 with our old dog, Jake). The trail is in good condition, with no blowdowns blocking the way (thank you WTA!). Several creek crossings, all easy, and the log bridge over Burn Creek is sturdier than it looks. Since this was a wet hike, foot placement was careful! Lots of wildflowers: trillium (mostly bloomed and drowned out by now), Canadian Dogwood, bleeding heart, a few calypso orchids, bluebells. Fiddlehead fern patches popped up frequently after 2 miles or so. We turned around at a campsite on the river after 2 hours. We didn't get to the big crossing. It was raining, and after a quick PBJ sandwich, and a big gulp of water, we decided to keep moving. Funny thing, neither of us remembered the terrain as it was - we remembered a big valley with a big cliff off to the left as we hiked in. Maybe we are just slower, and that was ahead of us. And today was socked in pretty good. Nonetheless, it was beautiful, with lots of old growth and remains of the big ones logged long ago. We were back at the car by 2:30, and after a mostly dry hike out, it started raining again, as we were trying to get Scout dried off and ourselves changed into dry clothes. Go figure.

Short version – we failed our ambitious one day loop goal on a minor technical detail of it taking almost 25 hours. Long version started at 4 am on Saturday morning with me and two very brave companions who, apparently, don’t read my callouts carefully enough. We started at West Foss River trailhead at 6:30 am with the first rays of sun poking through the forest. I actually found the forest walk part very entertaining. The forest there is very much alive, wet and green, nothing like dead dry trees you often see on the east slopes of Cascade Mountains. There are many wild mushrooms and berries and many animals – chipmunks, chickarees, frogs, mice and tons of pikas. And, yeah, some huge trees. Alpine lakes (as soon as you get to them) are just amazing too. They have cleanest bluest water and it gets only cleaner and bluer with every next lake. And there are really many of them too. And finally they are huge, especially Big Heart and Angeline. Sometimes it feels like you are walking on an actual sea with mountains just poking out of water like islands. But why do alpine lakes only have female names? I’ve never seen a lake called Bob for some reason. Without any adventures we soon reached the Big Heart Lake and the trail end. From there to the trail end of Necklace Valley trail I only had very approximate route registered on my GPS. I have drawn this route myself on a map from reading reports and following the topography. I generally tend to invent routes based on following ridges and also find that climbing up is easier than going down. So of we went on tiny overgrown boot track to the top of the ridge between Big Heart and Angeline. This is probably left by campers just searching for an optimal viewpoint for two lakes. And it is! On the top of this ridge we got to the point where we could see both huge lakes, almost as blue and pretty as the Crater Lake in Oregon. From this ridge we dropped down all the way to where Chatwood lake outflows into Angeline Lake, almost to the Angeline Lake level. Next we scrambled back to the top on a very steep avalanche chute. We got to the land of granite, snowfields and boulders. On one of the snow fields Deep slipped and slide down a few feet into a huge hole, where the rock was poking out of the snow. Fortunately he was not hurt, but after this incident he because understandable cautious of snow. We tried to avoid snowfields and only do boulder hopping and this made us even slower, cause boulders are hard (this time of year ice is hard too, but easier to walk on). Oh, and the mosquitos. I try not to use bug repellents as I consider myself to be their friend. As you know only female mosquitos drink blood and they only need for reproduction. Obviously I cannot refuse girls and I feel moral duty to help young mothers too. I also think people should really be proud that a wild animal like this even considers us humans for such an important role in its life as reproduction. Finally I don’t think killing mosquitos helps anyway. So I just try to bear with it. It was not easy. My body was covered with mosquitos at all times. Around the lakes, on the stones and on the glacial ice too. Some of them are stupid and would fly into my mouth and try to bite me inside too. And finally they would get into pictures all the time. I was appalled to see that mosquitos, just like humans, are eager to use completely unsustainable harvesting practices for their food. Hey, mosquitos, what gives? Finally following the ridge we entered a huge granite circle with an Iron Cap lake inside. This place is magic and desolate. Only lots of snow and ice, deep blue water, glacier-polished granite and broken stones all around. There is no single sign of vegetation anywhere the eyes can see. And yet there were two hoary marmots looking at us from the rocks! We dropped to the Iron Cap lake, touched the water and scrambled back up to the ridge. Boulder hopped all around Iron Cap mountain, dropped again and started on another ridge up to where Tank Lakes should be. Storm clouds where coming to the sky. It was 7 and soon became dark. Very dark, with no moon or stars. It is actually quite difficult to scramble in darkness. Well, maybe not. Some things are actually easier, cause you cannot see how exposed you are. But headlamps don’t give enough light to see where you are going too, so it is easy to get stuck under some walls you cannot climb. It took us three attempts of scrambling up and back down again before we could find a successful way up to the ridge. At the top we stopped to filter water from a small tarn. It is hard to see in the darkness and my GPS got accidentally dropped into the lake. Fortunately I didn’t loose it, but let me tell you something about my GPS. It was on a lot of adventures. It’s life is hard. On one of trips it got dropped on a rock so hard that some plastic part came off. The thing works still, but it is not waterproof anymore. After dropping into the lake it stopped working. Here we are, in darkness, in the middle of nowhere with no map or compass, no food and no camping gear. It is quite cold too. There is a lot of snow around. To make things even better storm finally came and brought rain, heavy wind and lots of lightning. At this point we really wanted to call 911, which would be both embarrassing (considering two out of three on this hike are SAR volunteers) and impossible (because there is no cellphone reception in the wilderness). Staying in one place was also not an option, because we could freeze. I was thinking of starting a fire too, but it is quite hard to find burnable wood when it pours rain… on top of a snowfield… with only granite around. So we wondered sometime around and around. From our last position I knew we are only .5 miles away from Tank lakes. Finally, I managed to find Tank lake in the darkness, matching its image with the what I have seen on the internet. More good luck followed and I managed to dry up my GPS a little and make it work again! With it we hopped on the boulder fields all the way down along the creek to the Opal Lake (we figured out that the creek has no choice but to lead us to it) and Necklace Valley trail end. It was around 1 am and we still had 9 miles to go to the car. Unfortunately the walk was slow. It was not difficult or tiresome, but I just felt so sleepy that my eyes would close automatically and stop registering the trail. I have no idea what happened or for how long but at some point I woke up to see three people (including myself) just sleeping dead dropped across the trail on bare earth. It could be 15 minutes only sleep, but somehow it helped a lot. With the new energy we managed to cover last two miles to the car and drive back to the city. We walked out to the trailhead a few minutes past 7 with the first light of sun poking through heavy rain, almost exactly the same as we started the trip, but almost 25 hours later. My poor GPS registered 29.5 miles of walking, including whooping 19K feet of cumulative elevation gain from all the scrambling up and down. I proposed to go back immediately cause we have not really seen half of the lakes due to darkness, but somehow I didn’t get any enthusiastic response this time. And so we drove back.