East Fork Foss - Necklace Valley, Mount Hinman — Saturday, Aug. 1, 2020

My friend Jack and I arrived at the trailhead Friday night around 9pm. We managed to get nearly 4 miles in the dark to a nice campsite by the river. It was warm and humid - there was no dew in the morning and I slept mostly out of my sleeping bag. We started hiking again at ~8:30am Saturday and the trail quickly got hot and difficult going up the valley. I had chosen to wear big boots the whole trip instead of a mix of boots and trail runners (which Jack did) and it became clear this was a mistake as soon as we hit the uphill, as I could tell that I was already developing blisters. 

Once we reached the cabin at ~7 miles we looked around for a spot in the area (all the nice Jade lake spots were taken) and found a really nice one on the N end of Emerald. I was curious about Lake Ilswoot but we weren't sure how much of a detour that would be so we didn't scout it out (it looked very pretty from Hinman though). We then started hiking up to La Bohn gap in the early afternoon (~1pm). Make sure not to follow the trail that veers right soon after the Necklace Valley cabin if you're trying to reach La Bohn gap as that will lead up to a different part of the ridge (though I went that way on a previous trip and it was also very pretty there). We made that mistake and corrected partway up by bushwacking back to the right trail - it was not a long detour.

The trail disappears at the edge of the boulder/scree field. We were checking a route Jack had saved on Gaia which said to go up left towards the waterfall, but it looked impossible that a trail would exist there so we decide to scramble straight for the saddle, which was fun and not too challenging. Once on top, we headed up the ridge towards Hinman. The Beckey book said 2 hrs for this scramble - it took us far longer. It's 1.7 miles of mostly scrambling over boulders and between that and not being able to see the cairns were significantly slowed down. Near the summit there's a small snowfield but we were able to cross that without crampons in just ~10 minutes and reach the top. The views from here were amazing and we spent awhile admiring Bears Breast and Summit Chief to our immediate S as well as a view of Stuart across the valley past Daniel. Glacier and Adams could also be seen at a distance.

We started descending at around 6:30pm. Our original plan was to try and do a big circle and also do La Bohn Peak and Otter Point before circling back to our campsite, but this was clearly not an option anymore if we were to make it back before dark. The scramble down was much quicker but it still took us awhile to reach the Gap again. We made our way past a few people camping to the edge of the gap. On the way down, we actually found the route that we had dismissed on the way up - this is an amazing and steep trail that follows the waterfall. I was very enchanted with the scenery at the gap and with the trail in particular - one of the coolest I've experienced in awhile. I'll definitely be back sometime to camp somewhere up there rather than experiencing it in passing. 

We made it finally back to our campsite at Emerald around 10-10:30pm and found that another party had camped in our general area as well. We ate a quick dinner and went to bed, rising again at a little past 7 in the morning. The hike out Sunday was brutal, as I was tired from the previous day, and now my feet were especially hot and blistered. Nonetheless, we slowly made it out and reached the trailhead around 2pm. 

I strongly recommend this area! I think the ideal way to do this would be with 3 full days and to camp up at La Bohn Gap both nights, using the middle day to scramble the surrounding peaks. The campsites we found were also very nice but after seeing the area up there, that seems like the place to be. We both felt that it had the beauty of the Enchantments but without all the people.