East Fork Foss - Necklace Valley, West Fork Foss River and Lakes, La Bohn Gap, Mount Hinman, Tank Lakes & Chetwoot Lake — Friday, Jul. 11, 2025

I've had the Alpine Lakes High Route and Mt Hinman on my list of trips to knock out at some point, so a buddy of mine and I decided to combine them into one trip and hope for the best. I knew the heat would be a factor, but I didn't realize it would impact me as much as it did! https://youtu.be/nWUSYwndlHM

We started up Necklace Valley and everything was going fine until about mile 7 when I hit the wall. I was way too hot, burning through water and electrolytes like crazy. It was a very slow grind to La Bohn Lakes but eventually we made it. Bugs were not bad all the way from Necklace Valley to La Bohn Lakes.

The next morning we woke up to some fog and a cool breeze which was a life saver for me. We went up Hinman and checked that off the list. Side note, Gaia and Caltopo show 2 different summits as the true summit, so we did both just in case.

We got back down to camp and packed up and continued the route to Chetwoot Lake for the night. Bugs started getting bad before Iron Cap Lake, and then they were horrendous at Chetwoot. Nothing was slowing them down, so good luck. The trail here was pretty well defined, but decently slow going since there is a lot of rock hopping you have to do.

The next day we trekked all the way out through West Fork Foss. Getting from Chetwoot to Big Heart Lake as a process but after that it is pretty clear sailing. Again bugs were pretty good from Big Heart all the way to the trailhead. So they seem to be in that sweet spot between Chetwoot's elevation and La Bohn.

We clocked about 33 miles and 11,200' elevation gain.