East Fork Foss - Necklace Valley — Friday, Jun. 25, 2021

Started our backpacking trip at 5:30pm 6/25 in the 94 degree heat. 6 other vehicles were parked at the trailhead. The first few miles are nice and flat and follow the river with some cool crossings. There's about a half mile of very overgrown stinging neddle which was annoying. The river crossing was slightly sketchy but doable right before the climb to Jade. Here there is a good stretch of downed trees which are a pain to crawl over and under. One snagged and ripped my pack open. Arrived at the camp around 10pm and it was taken but we found a flat spot a quarter mile away by the river. Saturday morning we sent out for Jade Lake with day packs and hammocks, in hopes of being able to push further to Opal. The snow right before and around Jade proved to be too treacherous with deep post holes opening up and snow bridges collapsing everywhere. We hung our hammocks here for the day and soaked in the half frozen lake periodically while the temps reached 90 even up there. Saw a bear Sunday morning at camp eating some devil's club and not caring about us whatsoever. Will definitely be coming back when the snow has thawed but I'm not looking forward to those downed trees again!