TL;DR - WARNING! Reports of this being a high-theft trailhead are accurate. Came back to a smashed window - even though I had left the glove box open and center armrest to prove there was nothing to take. They got nothing - I got a pain in the neck.

3-day, 2-night loop from Necklace Valley TH to West Fork Foss TH. Trail portions magnificently well maintained with hard labor from WTA trail crews!

Route finding skills, tools, and experience highly recommended for anyone wanting to explore the area between Tank Lakes and Chetwoot Lake. Minimal snow patches remain, but still some snow to negotiate. Ice ax and/or traction not needed, but best to try and avoid the higher angle snow slopes.

Camped one night at Tank, the second night at Chetwoot. Took the low route traverse by Iron Cap Lake; with an afternoon jaunt from camp up to Iron Cap Mtn ridgeline for extra views.

Bugs are horrendous. Aside from one 2-hr reprieve midday for a swim and lounge at Chetwoot, it was a constant battle. Would I do it again? Yeah - clearly I have brain damage from all the mosquito bites .

Big thanks to kind Nick who gave us a ride from West to East TH, saving us an extra 2 mile hike! You’re an angel.

Went up for a one-nighter to Tank Lakes via Necklace Valley.  Left the trailhead at noon.  Passed the WTA Backcountry crew, and thanked them for being there on the trail, putting in the hard work.  Reached East Fork crossing, roughly 4.5 miles, at 1:45.  The trail was easy, except for a few very brushy areas with stinging nettles.  The climb up to Jade Lake has 3 trees blown over the trail, two of them are along the trail itself, and so you just walk along the downed log.  But, I hope the WTA Crew will have it all cleared up by tomorrow.  

Quick swim at Jade Lake, but the few mosquitos didn't let me linger.  Little did I know how many of them awaited me up top.  The trail up to Tank Lake is not too hard to find, just look for the cairns marking the way.   I think the trail heads uphill before hitting Opal Lake, since I don't recall seeing it.  Reached Tank Lake at 5:30, covering roughly 10.5 miles?  

Other than the trail crew which camped at the East Fork crossing, and the lone hiker coming out from Tank, there were only two other parties heading up that I saw.  Both were couples with a dog, and I saw one of them arrive at Tank shortly after me.  Plenty of space to spread out, and lots of good campsites.  The only serious issue were the mosquitos.  They were relentless.  After setting up camp, I walked up to a higher point in search of a breeze to give me some relief.  That helped a little.  After dinner and sunset, I happily dove into my tent around 9:30.

I was hoping the next morning, that the slight chill would give me some time before the bugs reappeared, but no, when I woke at 5, they were already on my tent.  So, despite the perfect views, I packed up and was on trail by 6.  Hiking out was smooth, and I reached the trailhead at 10:35.

Just want to mention once again how grateful I am to WTA for their trail crews.  Watching 7 of them hiking up the Jade Lake trail this morning carrying all the saws, axes, and pulaskis to take care of those blowdowns reminded me of the hard work that volunteers give for all of our benefit.  

We did a 3 day 2 night loop up the West Fork Foss, traversed Iron Cap, and out past Tank Lakes and the Necklace Valley from June 24-26th.

ROAD: The road was in good condition to either trailhead, with some avoidable potholes.

WEST FORK FOSS TO BIG HEART: There have been a couple of good reports for the West Fork from this weekend so I won't say much about this section, but the trail was in good shape with inconsequential snow to Big Heart Lake.

BIG HEART TO CHETWOOT: The trail past Big Heart had an abrupt change of pace as it got a lot steeper, more rugged, scrambly in spots, and less defined. There were slightly larger snow patches in places, but nothing difficult to get through. On the way up Atrium there was a small split in the path at one point and we accidentally went left instead of right, but corrected quickly.   

Once we dropped down into the saddle on the ridge after Atrium, we had significantly more snow, but we didn't use traction this day and made it to camp near the small mostly frozen tarn just above Chetwoot Lake. We met a pair who had done the traverse the opposite direction (and climbed a bunch of the surrounding peaks to boot), which boosted our confidence that conditions were passable!

CHETWOOT TO IRON CAP GAP: This day's adventure was almost entirely off-trail, involving navigation through lots of boulders and snowfields. It was a very rugged day, with lots of route-finding through difficult terrain. Don't underestimate this section of the route!

We left camp and descended to the edge of Little Chetwoot (melted out). We scrambled along the bouldery edge and briefly to the shore of Chetwoot (mostly melted), before climbing back up and heading to the lake below Iron Cap (still frozen for the most part). 

We decided to try and head up Iron Cap with hopes of a summit instead of following where the summer trail traverses around the mountain. The route we ended going involved some scrambling, along with a short snow slope traverse that we used crampons and ice axe for. Sadly, by the time we worked our way up to the summit ridge it was fairly late in the afternoon. We saw how much boulder hopping was still involved to attain the summit, and we decided to forego the summit and just drop down in interest of getting to camp at a sane hour.

The descent off the Iron Cap summit ridge started out with some straightforward class two boulders but quickly devolved into some steep, brushy, scrambly trees, and we even crawled under a snow bridge to get into a moat between snow and rock at some point. We eventually popped out into yet another boulder field and made our way along and around another basin before climbing up to Iron Cap Gap where we found a flat spot to call home for the night.

EXIT VIA TANK LAKES/NECKLACE VALLEY: The terrain was significantly more mellow from Iron Cap Gap to Tank Lakes, with mixed easy snow, melted out rock and even patches of trail, which were exciting! More of the same on the descent down the moraine. The section at the base of the moraine through the trees was confusing and we lost it a couple of times. 

The rest of the hike out was fairly straightforward although it felt a little less maintained than the West Fork Foss. There were more trees down with one particularly large area of blowdowns that we worked around, and other "normal" trail obstacles with areas of overgrown brush (the previous trip report before mine goes into a bit more detail about this section, if you need more info).

GPX: Linked below, but my phone died on the exit so I don't have the full loop. We relied pretty heavily on GPS for this route.

BUGS: Were pretty annoying, they weren't the worst I've ever had considering I didn't use any repellent or bug net, but I definitely got a whole bunch of bites.

WATER: Lots of water sources on route.

GEAR USED: Microspikes, crampons, ice axe, poles.

Follow along on instagram for more photos/videos/adventures! @thenomadicartist

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!

Day 1: Necklace Valley TH -> Jade Lake 7.4mi:

With some minor washboarding and shallow potholes, this gravel road was a dream for my sedan. Trailhead outhouse was stocked with toilet paper, plus someone put air fresheners inside, so all-in-all quite pleasant.

Trail starts off relatively flat, with the occasional bug. After the trail draws closes to the river ~3mi in, the bugs improved a bit, while the trail grew increasingly brushy. At 4.5mi, the trail crosses the river on a log bridge, then winds aggressively up through alternating talus, forest, and brush. Trekking poles were a nice bonus but not absolutely necessary for this section. Also noted several straightforward blowdowns to navigate. All water crossings were bridged or simple to rock-hop. Took almost 6hrs to reach Jade Lake including breaks/lunch.

Bugs descended en masse starting at Jade Lake and higher elevations. My blood generated so many free meals for mosquitoes, I believe I deserve a humanitarian award. Bug-spray seemed to grant a temporary reprieve, at best, and still I managed to get breakthrough bug-bites.

Camping situation at Jade Lake: PSA no campfires allowed after crossing the river above ~2200ft elevation. At Jade Lake, 1-2 sites at the outlet (cross the logjam), then 3 sites near the inlet (2 of these being shoreline prime real estate). If all these sites are taken, keep on going, there is a 4th site after the inlet on a mini plateau, and then many more between Jade and Emerald Lake. It seems like most people are taking the first available spots at Jade Lake, but spotted many open sites after Jade. Sites at Emerald Lake were divided between those overlooking the lake from above (right off the main trail), or taking a side trail down to the shoreline. There is also a very buggy public use log shelter with wooden slats right before Emerald Lake. Would have searched for Opal Lake's campsites, but the bugs cut my explorations short.

Day 2: day-hiked from Jade Lake to Tank Lakes ~2.1mi oneway

Spoiler alert, bugs did not improve while gaining elevation. Trail was straightforward to follow for the most part, with the occasional cairn, but lost track of the cairns in the endless talus field right below Tank Lakes, so some GPS assistance was beneficial. Trekking poles were also helpful in this section, as the cairns at times followed a ridge edge along a crumbly steep loose gravel path. Crossed two non-dangerous flat snowfields right before Tank Lakes, but otherwise no snow on the trail.

Camping situation at Tank Lakes: plenty of sites, but mostly exposed due to lack of trees, and so very buggy. Wandered around the lakes for a bit, but sadly could not sit still and enjoy the scenery, as any lack of motion seemed to be a beacon for mosquitoes. Ended up exploring some of the other lakes including Al Lake (but no lake was spared by bugs), and the bottom of the talus field below La Bohn Lakes. Hid in my tent to nurse my bugbites. Other than the bugs, it was a beautiful day to be outside.

Day 3: Jade Lake -> Necklace Valley TH:

Woke up at the crack of dawn, since I couldn't wait to escape the bugs. The mosquitoes were marginally less bothersome while packing up our gear, but still managed to get some bites. Hightailed it out of there, took ~4.5hrs to reach the car.