East Fork Foss - Necklace Valley — Saturday, May. 30, 2009

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - West

East Fork Foss River 5/30/2009 My Mountaineers group had a great time on this trail. We did have to work a little to get by the residue of harsh winter storms. Many trees were down once we passed the Wilderness boundary. And we were stopped by a huge avalanche/landslide obliterating the trail at about the 4 mile mark. It is passable though. Now for the good stuff. There is a great waterfall at about a mile in where Burn Creek drops right under a sturdy bridge. We enjoyed wonderful early season flowers: calypso orchids, trillium, stream violets, bleeding heart, salmonberry, spring beauty, and skunk cabbage. The forest is fine and gets better the further up the trail you go. There are many big majestic old Douglas firs and cedar. The forest is open with an understory of ferns, flowers, moss, and low shrubs. At a little over 3 miles is the prime lunch spot on the river edge next to rapids and falls where the river works around some house size boulders that came down from one of the surrounding peaks long ago. Another great lunch spot is on a moss covered rock slab at the top of a bluff, with views of the mountains to the west (only about 2 minutes away). After the lunch spots there are some clearings with views of Bald Eagle and Silver Eagle mountains. These 6000+ ft. peaks tower 4000 ft. above the valley floor. We had 4 or 5 interesting creek crossings, with a few wet feet. We found mud, and walked on snow . Only two tiny snow patches were actually on the trail. But there were quite a few scattered around in shady low spots in the woods from about 2 1/2 miles on. This is an easy trail by Mountaineers standards but we got a good workout going over, under, around and through all of the downed timber of various sizes. Some of the detours lead through groves of devils club, so beware ! The devils club has not leafed out yet so it is harder to see and avoid right now. The river was very cold, it’s source is the glacier melt from Mt. Daniel and Mt. Hinman in the heart of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. The river roar was one of the day’s sensual pleasures, as were the smells of the forest (fir needles, pitch, skunk cabbage, fresh broken tree trunks). Each little creek had it’s own gurgles and roar as we approached. Winding along the trail the only other sounds were bird songs. We briefly encountered about 10 other people all day. Statistics: Trailhead elevation 1600 ft. High point elevation 2100 ft. 8 miles , 700 ft. gross gain 75 miles from my Seattle home. Robert Michelson