East Fork Foss - Necklace Valley — Saturday, Jun. 13, 2009

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - West

This is a splendid early season trail with very little altitude gain and lots of deep forest and foliage to admire. The trailhead is well marked at a parking lot just a little beyond the Tonga Ridge road off of the Foss River Road. The first mile is through lush 2nd growth forest to a bridge that is sturdier than it looks. Up to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness sign the blowdowns have been cleared. For about the next 2.5 miles there are some large blowdowns but we cut the branches so they are easy to cross. A WTA crew was working out there today and they constructed some very nice drainage. At just over 3 miles there are nice big rocks down a the river for a rest and lunch. From there to the bluff gets a bit overgrown and then comes the really nasty blowdown mess where we turned around. Lots of flowers if you look for them: bunchberry, bleeding hearts, wild ginger, devil's club, skunk cabbage, foam flower and solomon seal,vanilla leaf and violets. We even found a calypso orchid. Also two frogs. A frog on the trail is good luck.