We started out on the Foss River Trail with blue skies above. The first 2 miles were a lovely stroll through the woods with a gorgeous river crossing and a well made bridge. The next 3 miles were Very overgrown with bushes, nettles and an assortment of plants hanging over the trail. It was very difficult to see the trail in places and got buggy in these areas. There were many spots along the river to camp, within the 5.2 miles where you cross the East Fork of the Foss River. We camped at a beautiful, big flat area on the river just before the river crossing. We did see a black bear just before camp, but we were not bothered at all during our two nights there.
We stayed there two nights and hiked to Jade Lake the next day on another sunny blue sky day. The trail was much less brushy, but had multiple blow downs, so we were very glad that we did not have our backpacks that day! There were also quite a few campsites along the river on the way to Jade Lake that were beautiful and seemed to be bug free ( as our river campsite was also). The lake was as stunning as all the pictures showed! We sat with our feet in the cool mountain lake and had lunch then meandered around the lake ( part of the trail was still in the water so we went barefoot). We could not find the trail at the far side of the lake at first to the other Necklace lakes, so look carefully, as it is right at the far end of the lake and you cross over the river on rocks to the other side.
The day we hiked out had some light rain in the morning, which made the slog through the overgrown, brushy trail back to the trailhead much harder. We had to push through the brush for about 3 miles.
Beautiful area, we will be back once the trail gets cleared out! It made us appreciate the trail crews that much more......
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