East Fork Foss - Necklace Valley — Wednesday, Jun. 27, 2012

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - West

We headed up to Skykomish for a sunny day of hiking on the East Fork Foss River Trail. Had not been on this trail in 8 years. There is a new restroom at the trail head parking lot. The trail starts out on an old logging railroad grade for the first mile. There is an old log bridge across Burn Creek that is in bad shape and will need to be replaced in the not too distant future. The creek is really roaring now from the snow melt up above. After leaving the railroad grade the trail makes small ups and downs on the way to Five Mile Camp. There are a few small creek crossings to make while rock hopping. While hiking on the cedar planks across a wet area, watch out for a couple of loose ones that teeter. This is about 1/4 mile past Alturas Lake. We hiked through a couple of fern forest areas where the bracken ferns are 6 feet tall. When we got to the section of the trail where it goes along the East Fork of the Foss River, we met three young Forest Service Rangers out checking the trail. They told us they will have more trail help this summer due to getting some grant money. So the Skykomish Ranger District will have an 8 person trail maintenance crew to work on trails. There is a view up the valley of Mt. Hinman. We had lunch and turned around at Five Mile Camp where there are some old mining relics lying around from a mining operation that was proposed up at La Bohn Gap. No mining was ever done. On the way back out we met a father and son back packing in and carrying brushing tools. Only saw one animal the whole day, one frog. We heard birds chirping but never saw any. Not one squirrel or chipmunk was seen or heard. It was pretty quiet except for the roaring of creeks and the river, plus two Navy jets flying down the valley. Some flowers are now out. For the most part, the trail is in good shape. Only a few mudding areas. Makes for a nice forest hike on an uncrowded trail.