Short report: everything above about 3900' is still under a LOT of snow, and the lakes are all frozen (!). This is a uniquely heavy-snowpack year, highly atypical. Parked at Necklace Valley #1062, hiked road to West Fork Foss R #1064. Hiked to Chetwoot Lake and continued cross-country to Tank Lakes and exited via Necklace Valley (Foss Lakes High Route, aka Alpine Lakes High Route). Perfect snow conditions for cross-country travel. Now is a fine, unusual opportunity to do this route! They are putting resources into these trails: both have new deluxe privvies at the trailhead. Astonishing snow conditions for July, 2011 being an absurdly heavy snowpack year (Cliff Mass says 200-700X normal). It's more like March! Everything above 4000' is heavily blanketed with snow. It's gorgeous. Excellent snow-travel conditions, 2" of moist mush-on-crust, no postholing. Looked like great ski conditions. This is a fine time to do this high route; the snow cover makes it more appealing and much easier. I've done it in late season when the terrain is rough, rocky, slower, more arduous, and less dog-friendly. Weather was changeable but ideal. All lakes were completely ice-covered except Trout, Otter and Delta. Jade Lake was 5% open. Rivers are high. Bugs down low not bad, but will be soon. 7.5' USGS map (Big Snow quad, I think), ice axe, altimeter handy if poor viz, crampons arguable (I did not take or need them), dog belay gear. West Fork Foss R #1064: The new bridge is not in yet, but the early parts of the trail have been magnificently repaired. Work in progress. The temporary crossing log is almost awash -- I've never seen stepping-stones on a crossing log before -- it looks slippery, but was not. I belayed the dog here. It's a good crossing, just be careful, and a long pole will be handy. There is some blowdown on the trail, but not a major issue. Perhaps 1/4 mi. past Trout Lake, visit the Trout Lake Mine. A small trickle crosses the trail; the mine adit is 30' directly below this. Backtrack 50' and clamber downslope a bit, and you'll find the triangular tunnel just below the water drip. [Discovering Washington's Historic Mines, vol. 1, Oso Publishing, p. 173, a most interesting book, recommended. Also Northwest Underground Explorations, http://www.flickr.com/groups/34725791@N00/] The waterfall is stupendous. At one point, I had wildflowers, birding, old growth shade, waterfall, all at once. The lower woods are primed to explode in flowers... and insects. First snow was about 3900', near the Malachite Lake drainage. Past here, it was all snow until about 4300', below Jade Lake. The new handrail on the bridge is gone )-: but it's a wide bridge. Even if snow travel is not your thing, you should be able to get at least to Copper Lake; still iced-over but melting. A really nice walk and getting better, thanks to the trail crews. Foss Lakes High Route: Turns out, this was much easier than when it's dry. Firm crust with 2" moist snow on top. No postholing. Kinda technical, steep in places, ice-axe travel. Crampons might be a good idea, but I did not bring or need them (it did freeze Sunday night at 6000', but softened quickly). All of these little peaks are blanketed with snow, looks like skiers' paradise. I've never seen it like this. The dog loved it. I don't think I'd have tried it if I wasn't familiar with the route. There's a potentially dangerous steep section between Little Heart and Big Heart Lakes, but there's a snow tongue with good runout; be careful, the trail here is deeply buried and this little bit was definitely ice-axe travel. You have to climb to a high shoulder to get above a 600' vertical cliff to the east before you drop to Big Heart Lake; don't screw-up the navigation. Followed the hogback between Big Heart and Angeline to Chetwoot Lake, and camped on snow on the 5500' spur directly S of Azurite Lake, nice flat spot. Awoke to morning drizzle and slept til noon. Weather was supposed to clear, so we got going. Travel was faster than expected. Climbed Iron Cap Mtn., all snow, the N ridge not corniced (don't assume this! I feared cornices until able to view the ridge from above). Robbed of the Chimney Rock view. Note: if you want to bivvy near Iron Cap's summit, I believe a snowpatch persists well into late season east of the summit crest. Crossing Iron Cap's N ridge is tricky navigation and routefinding, esp. in limited viz.: my way is, ascend to 5800, climb the N ridge if you want, then descend to 5400 and traverse SE to the saddle, thence NE to Tank Lakes. You need a 7.5' map and routefinding skills. Getting around the N ridge of Iron Cap is the crux; there are cliffs to avoid above and below. Altimeter handy in poor viz. Beckey identifies a bench a little lower down, but I like this higher way; worth it for the view and the summit option. From the Gap, we traversed the big snow bowl to the Tank Lakes outfall. Dangerously steep ice-ax terrain but mostly good runouts (as I recall). Might be safer to stick to the high ridge above, esp. if it's rockier or no ax. We jetted through Tank Lakes, went to Tahl Lake, and ascended W to the ridge up a snow bowl with safe runout. Otter Point 6359 was about the first dry ground we saw that day, and I bivvied on the benchmark (perk of going solo: you don't need a big campsite). Sunset through roiling mists, then it cleared to a starry night, no tent, and cloudless dawn. Nice to have a dog that fits in the sleeping bag. One of the best days I've spent outdoors. The view from this modest summit (an easy scramble) makes it really hard to leave. Necklace Valley #1062: 10:00 Left Otter Point Summit. 11:45 Left Tank Lakes pass. Followed the moraine into upper Necklace Valley, lovely easy snow travel, ice axe, but you could likely do this with poles. 12:20 Upper Necklace Valley. Surprise: 12" suncups, making it rougher, slower travel than the high country. The navigation in here is not straightforward, can be confusing S of Jade Lake, esp. in limited viz. There are 3 drainages, and you want the middle one. There is a map-edge problem, too; if you can print a map with upper Necklace Valley in the center, might be nice. I found 1 set of footprints and a tiny dry campsite at the N end of Jade Lake, 4600. The lake is 5% open. First dry trail at 4300'. The trail is entirely dry below the BRAND NEW! double logbridge at 3800'. Beautiful job, thanks! This bridge used to be scary. It's still... interesting... but it's two logs with a handrail (the handrail may not last, it's already bent a bit; handrails seem short-lived). Between the crossing of the East Fork Foss R and Jade Lake, this trail is very rough, rocky, rooty, wet, with considerable blowdown and brush. A tough stretch of trail, with puncheon that looks like it dates to CCC days. I'll bet it was originally a mining trail, not engineered for posterity. But it's lovely. Some of the blowdown is very big, but one guy with a pruning saw could do a lot. The first 5 mi. of the Necklace Valley trail are an easy cruise: gradual, lovely, angels have recently removed all the blowdown (this was a big job, hooray), wildflowers, insects. Between mile 3 and 5, some really big fresh bear turds and other bear sign (rocks pulled up). At the campsite near the crossing, some fool let their child play Daniel Boone with a hatchet, blazing trees in camp and cutting down a 4" live tree. Great. The tram hangers are still there, but I didn't see the old bearing; hope nobody stole it. I've been seriously impeded by ripe berries in upper Necklace in the fall. Those bushes are still under deep snow now. The bears will be starving this year, remember that.

The East Foss trail is one of the easiest, most pleasant forest hikes in the Cascades - at least for the first 4.5 miles. It follows an old railroad grade for the first mile, then gently ambles along the East Foss creek to a log crossing at 4.5 miles. Then it ascends up into the beautiful Necklace Valley which is dappled with several pristine Alpine lakes. The trailhead is adjacent to the Foss River road. It immediately plunges into an easy forest walk until it comes to Burn Creek. There it climbs up to a tilted bridge and then back down to the grade. Further on it clambers over some rocks and roots to gain another 100 or so feet but then continues its modest gain up the valley. We only went in about 2.5 miles to the marsh lake but others were going on to a campsite further up.

Did an overnight trip on the Necklace Valley Trail that started on a soaking Thursday. The first 5 miles of the trail are relatively gentle and well maintained. I met the US Forest Service Trial Crew out working on clearing blowdowns. As of Friday they only had 1 left to clear before the 5 mile camp. Once you get past the 5 mile camp however, the trail becomes quite a bit more challenging. Right after the camp there is a log over the water that the trail crew has turned into a bridge and attached a handrail to. In order to reach the bridge you have to step into thigh deep, and very cold, water. The bridge itself is pretty sturdy, but can be slippery. After a short walk there is another log bridge followed by a rock scramble. It can be tough to find the route here, look for the stacked rocks and follow those. The trail emerges at the top of the rocks and then becomes very steep, and in some parts overgrown. There are a number of large blowdowns on the trial as well. I turned back just before the final bridge due to the snow. It was quite soft and I had some problems with postholing. Made camp for the night at the 5 mile camp. On Wednesday night someone had left bacon in their tent and were greeted in the middle of the night by a black bear who destroyed their tent. There were obvious signs of bear activity in the area including tracks, scat, and bear trails so be careful with your bear precautions.

My original plan was to hike to Lake Dorothy but the railroad had the road closed for construction. I made a quick decision to try nearby Necklace Valley which I had not hiked before. FSR 68 is in good condition. There are some potholes but nobody will have trouble getting there. I found 3 cars at the trail head when I arrived but only saw a couple coming in near the end of my hike out. Solitude was the game of the day! Weather wasn't terrible either, sunbreaks and occasional sprinkles. I did have one other visitor early on in the day. It was a large rodent and he charged me! He scurried down the trail and he was gone as quick as he came. The forest was lush and green the whole 4 miles or so I hiked up the trail. Wildflowers became more abundant the further up the trail I went. Vegetation was plentiful and overgrown in places and crowding the trail. There were several creek crossings, mud, mudholes and water in general. My feet stayed fairly dry in my boots and my trekking poles came in handy at the creek crossings. Less than 2 miles in I entered the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and bagged my first of the year. About 3 miles in the blowdowns started. All were easy to navigate around. Somewhere over 3 miles in I finally found myself above the East Fork Foss River. I continued on a bit further until I became level with the river. I found a polished rocky spot to stop and take my break. The river was full with runoff and moving fast. I ate lunch and enjoyed the sound of the rushing water. Too soon it was time to start my way back, it had taken longer than I thought it would to get to the river. If you're looking for a easier hike in a great section of forest, look no further.

Like many others, I found it impossible to stay inside on such a nice day, so I took the day off and hit the trail. I was looking for a nice, long-ish, snow-free hike on a trail I hadn't been on before. After scouring recent trip reports, I selected this one. It has its pluses and minuses. The first five miles of the trail consist of flat, endless, straight-ish path. Aside from occassional glimpse upward at the surrounding peaks there isn't much in terms of scenery until the river crossing. So, lots of green. Not a lot of wildflowers right now. Nevertheless, any time on the trail on a nice day is better than a day in the office. There were a couple of splash-across stream crossings, a little bit of mud on the trail, some bugs (though not many), a couple of minor blowdowns, and several piles of shoo-do-do-wanna-be-like-you-doobie-doo (that's bear scat, if you couldn't figure it out). Nothing too unpleasant or even particularly unusual for this time of year. After the river crossing, I pushed ahead (and upward) for maybe another mile. The trail was snow-free as far as I went, though there were several larger blowdowns on that section of the trail.