Lovely 2 night trip with our dog! Day 1 we hiked up to Emerald lake. Got to the trailhead around 11am which was moderately busy. Privy at TH was stocked and open. 

The hike up to the Necklace Valley is in great shape. Slightly overgrown in areas and a few blowdowns, but I’ve seen far worse. Lots of boulders on the 3 mile climb out of the Foss River and to the Valley. Trekking poles encouraged. I would not recommend this for a small dog as it’s lots of rock hopping and scree which is harsh on their paws.

Day 2 we camped at the same spot at Emerald and explored the valley. Absolutely beautiful area. SO MANY ripe berries, I was snacking on them all day. Got moderately cold at night, my guess would be upper 40s. I can definitely feel fall in the air. 

Just an FYI: my party of three women were up near Jade Lake sept 1 and had what we expect was an unwelcome guest at our camp. Two party members sharing a tent woke up to a fully unzipped tent fly in the morning. Both recall hearing someone unzip the tent but being sometime in the wee hours of the night and half asleep thought the other person responsible so thought nothing of it until we discussed it in the morning. We do not suspect it was an animal or a lost hiker. No one in that tent saw any lights on during the zipper incident and no other unusual sounds during that time. As far as we can tell, nothing stolen even though multiple backpacking/camping items left outside. The hike was otherwise lovely but tough, we had toyed with the idea of day hiking to tank lake from jade but after the incident, we thought might be safer to head down. Heads up to anyone solo hiking or sees any unusual activity up there this weekend. Someone without a sense of personal boundaries may be afoot…

Spent several nights at locket - a secluded, difficult to reach lake involving several hundred steep, rooty, brushy feet of ascent *and* descent each way with incorrect paths that cliff out 30' above the lake. On the way back each night I was cursing my decision to not stay closer to the head of the valley, but the solitude was nice and the lake was slabby and deep. 

There's only one campsite with 2-4 tent spots. I didn't see anyone until Friday night, and the group declined my cozy invitation. Shame, because I'd carried a bottle of whiskey up before I remembered I can't stand the stuff, and lugged (most of) it back down too.

Some campers at la bohn on grass in the meadows near the likes... yikes.

Spent three nights at Tank Lakes and took day hikes to Iron Cap Mountain and Otter Point. Fourth night at Jade Lake. 

Sunday 8/21 hiked up to Tank from the Necklace Valley TH. The mosquitoes at Tank Lake made quite a show of force, to the point where eating outside of the tent, even with a head net, was pretty uncomfortable. Was glad I brought my Crazy Creek chair so I could sit and hang out in the tent and escape the swarming clouds of mosquitoes, even if I could still hear them buzzing around constantly. 

Monday 8/22 day hike from Tank Lakes to Iron Cap Mountain: Getting to Iron Cap Gap was pretty straightforward and well-cairned. However, I couldn't quite figure out the route to the summit of Iron Cap approaching from Iron Cap Gap. The route up/around Iron Cap involve lots of boulder/talus traversing and I spent some time crossing through trees higher on the mountain and employing a lot of "tree belays" to make it across. I made it to the east peak of Iron Cap which is about 200 feet below the true summit, but quite a ways traversing to the northwest to get over to the actual summit. There is no easy way to get directly from the east summit to the true summit, as there is basically a chasm separating the two. 

Tuesday 8/23 day hike from Tank Lakes to Otter Point: While on Iron Cap I looked over at Otter Point to the north and it appeared to hold potential for a beautiful ridge walk, so I gave it a go on Tuesday. You can get up to the ridge by approaching from the second/northern Tank Lake, and then immediately to the northwest there is a fairly gradual ridge of large boulders. After a couple hundred feet of third class scrambling over said boulders, you're up on the ridge and can enjoy ambling along for a ways, with a bit of third class here and there, until you reach the summit of Otter Point. There are a few places where you need to cross over from the north to south side, but it's pretty straightforward. Just follow the most obvious line and try to avoid heavy tree/brush bushwhacking. There is a path that is discernible at times, but it didn't seem like Otter Point gets a ton of visitors. In the summit register which we were somewhat surprised to find, there were only four other ascents in 2022. 

Bugs at Jade Lake were not bad at all -- hardly any mosquitoes and mostly just tiny, innocuous flies. 

Overall a great time out in the mountains!

Jogged up Hinman today via East Fork Foss (Necklace Valley). I went up the Waterfall Route to La Bohn Gap then took the standard climber's route (class II) east to the summit.

Trail conditions: There are a few blowdowns before and after Jade Lake which will be annoying for backpackers. There's some brush in the lower portions of the trail, but not enough to slow you down or be painful (if you avoid the devil's club). Between Jade Lake and La Bohn Gap, the standard route (what's on opentopomap.org) is in great shape with no obstacles. There are great bridges on all the water crossings which can't be hopped over.

The scramble and gear: Above La Bohn Gap, I made a few deviations from the standard route based on where the snow patches are. The snow conditions made me wish I had magically acquired skis at the summit; there was 2-3 inches of corn/slush on a firm layer. This means spikes are almost useless (since they fill with slush) and any steps you do kick are slippery (unless you have boots and can really dig into the firm layer). There were one or two little patches of ice, but not enough to warrant gear. I brought spikes and put them on for the last push to the summit, then kept them on for half a mile on the way back (to the top of the short stretch of steep snow leading up the little point at 7250'). I stayed on lower-angle snow rather than rocks much more going back down, and should have heeded previous advice and done the same going up. The steep slope just before the summit was doable but it would have been more comfortable to wrap around further, following the standard route. Going down from the summit, I had a nice fast glissade down 75' and across 250' (my watch says I only hit 15 mph, but it felt faster, probably because it was quite bumpy). I'd have preferred to stay under 10 mph, but didn't want to dig my fingers in. If I were doing this again tomorrow, I'd leave the spikes at home and bring full-fingered gloves instead. The snow was perfect consistency today for finger cramponing.

Water: Every few miles. Last significant water before the summit is La Bohn Lakes, although there's a few little puddles and streams above that. The biggest of La Bohn Lakes is still 15% snow-covered.

Crowds: A ton of backpackers (~20 groups) up to Emerald Lake, but I didn't see anyone above that. Saw one or two sets of tracks up on Hinman, probably from yesterday. I got to the trailhead at 7 am and there were several spots open but quite a few cars along the road, presumably from backpackers arriving yesterday before day folks left.

See my route in the CalTopo map linked below, titled "Hinman 14AUG22" in the "Summer Hikes" folder. Also see a Google photo sphere I took from the summit.

Overall stats: 23.3 miles, 7100' gain, 8.25 hours (including 1 hour of breaks)