We set out Saturday afternoon for an overnight excursion up the east fork Foss River. Following the directions listed in Snowshoe Routes-Washington. We parked just before the railroad trestle on Foss River Road, and set out with winter gear, snowshoes strapped to the packs. There was up to six inches of snow on the road as we followed it 1.8 miles to the trailhead. The snow on the trail varied from nothing to four inches or so. The only tracks belonged to us and a deer. Since we got a late start we only went a mile in. There was a campsite just past the Burn Creek bridge. The creek roared us to sleep that night. The next day, awakening to enough fresh snow to fill our tracks from the day before, we headed on up the trail a ways with partial packs. About two miles away from camp we stopped to admire a wide spot in the river that had iced over. It was framed with perfectly flocked trees and beautiful towering mountain sides. We found this a peaceful place to have some lunch. The birds sang to us for a while but soon became silent as the clouds started to drop along with the temperature. Before we had packed up the remains of our lunch it was snowing. It was back to camp for us and then back to the car and home. On the road hike out we amused ourselves by attempting to catch the falling snow on our toungs, giggling all the way. Our spirits had been refreshed!

Four of us were on the East Fork Foss River trail # 1062 at 8:20 AM on Friday, October 11, 2002 under overcast skies and temperatures in the 40s. The trail into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness is in great shape as it meanders for five miles gaining only 600 feet through forest before the crossing of the river. The fall colors were subdued by the gray skies. As the bridge area is approached, the old broken bridge comes into view first, which brought on fallen feelings, as it would not have been passable. Travel a few more feet to see the nice new bridge, with a handrail too! Across the bridge the going becomes more challenging as it crosses a big log and heads up a steep talus field to the trail. Over the next 3 miles, the trail gains 2,600 feet through mostly forested slopes. The trail was in generally good condition although a few patches could be described as mud bogs. There are also enough roots, rocks, and water in a few places to suit most anyone’s fancy. A couple of downed trees were easy to get around. The trail along the shoreline of Jade Lake has been built up of rock to provide a lake edge trail with views into the clear depths of the lake and of LaBohn Peak beyond the end of Necklace Valley. Pressing onward, we arrived at Emerald Lake (4,800 feet) at 3:00 PM. The snow of the previous day still clung to the trees and in patches on the ground. The lake is disappointingly shallow. The Adirondack shelter on the west side was built in 1950, is now rather rustic, but is still usable. We pitched camp a hundred yards or so away where the views of the shelter amidst the rugged mountain setting added a measure of ambiance. By 5:30 PM, the temperature had fallen to 28° F under partly cloudy skies. Shorter days this time of year brought darkness by 7:00 PM and bedtime. Saturday morning was cold enough to solidly freeze the mushy and muddy areas. Hoar frost was everywhere under foot. After breakfast in the low 20s, we continued south-south-westerly toward the end of Necklace Valley, passing Opal Lake under bright, clear, warming skies which melted off the snow on the trees and ground. One party member waited for us there while the other three of us scrambled up a lower snow field and steepening talus slope toward LaBohn Gap, with the goal of summiting LaBohn Peak. The upper snow field in the visible gap was thoroughly iced over. Too hard to kick steps into. An ice axe could not effectively penetrate it. Crampons were needed, but not available. While one skilled rock enthusiast managed to scramble up to the ridge, the other two found the rock walls too challenging. After trying for an hour and a half, we all turned back toward camp. A twisted ankle of one party member on the return significantly slowed our return to camp and exit on Sunday. Saturday night was cool, clear, and breezy with mild frost on Sunday morning. The fall colors were brilliant along the lower five miles of the trail on Sunday. No bugs to speak of all weekend.

Trail is in decent shape, although lots of mud in the last mile. Completely snowfree until about a mile beyond Emerald. There was about 10 overnighters in the area that I noticed but there's a lot of camping space - especially around Emerald. Footlogs makes all the crossings very easy. Nice recent footbridge at the 5 mile crossing. Lots and lots of bugs.

Previous Neclace Valley Report hit the high points of the trails to the lower lakes. The High Route up and over to Otter Lake below Iron Cap Mtn and La Bohn Gap is spectacular. Fully snowed and good walking with minor avalanche debris. Afternoon temps were shirt sleave and the views were unlimited. All the pass lakes are still frozen in, but some heather is showing on the rocky outcrops at the top. The route down to Otter is snowed and the lake looked high. Cross country travel is tough in the afternoon with all the streams up. We spent 4 days playing in the upper meadows and came out on the 24th.

Took an overnight trip to Necklace valley this weekend. A lovely weekend-- for once we had good luck with the weather. The trail is clear of snow to Emerald Lake (OK, maybe one small patch, but it's not long for this world), but has water in places (either mucky or stream-like). The crossing formerly known as ""dangerous"" is no longer so due to a nice log bridge with a railing (thanks, trail crews!). The last 3 miles to the lakes are pretty hot and sweaty in the sun but there are lots of places to stop and refill your water. We saw a nice campsite at Jade lake and lots at Emerald-- all snow-free. After Emerald lake, the trail becomes more and more snowy, until after Opal it's more or less a choice of rock hopping or walking on snow (rotten in places). However, as long as you watch your footing it's definitely passable and we hiked to the valley head and gazed upon LaBohn Gap. Didn't have time to do much more than that. Locket and Iswoot Lakes are easily accessible from Emerald-- about 10 or 15 minutes to get to each one. Didn't see nay obvious campsites on Iswoot but Locket looked like it might have some, is a bit more off the beaten path than Emerald. Emerald and Jade are shallow (but very cold!) lakes with interesting mud colors on the bottom (not swampy, though); Locket and Iswoot are deep, blue lakes which closer match my mental image of an alpine lake. All are beautiful. Even though we were at Emerald, obviously a spot of much camping activity, we saw very few people throughout the weekend. As far as we could tell, there were a total of 4 overnight groups (including us), and we saw 2 day hikers on Saturday and 4 on Sunday. We were quite stunned (in a good way) that such a nice trail, so easy to get to from Seattle, didn't have a million people on it. There were some bugs, but not too many Saturday. We could eat dinner outside the tent in relative peace. The hike back Sunday afternoon seemed much more bug-a-riffic.