West Fork Foss River and Lakes — Thursday, Jul. 5, 2012

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - West

Started at the trailhead around 11am for a two-night backpack to Little Heart Lake. We had originally hoped to hike past Big Heart Lake if possible but ran into too much snow, too little trail and energy toward the evening--however we were rewarded by finding a small snow-free campsite at Little Heart Lake. Popular trail up until Copper Lake and even beyond there were a few groups of backpackers. We heard there was a snow-free, pretty campsite at Copper Lake. Here is the run-down of our hiking adventure: Trout Lake comes up fast and is completely clear of snow. Trail is in the sun as you gain elevation toward Copper Lake--it was like hot yoga hiking. Start to hit snow before you reach still mostly-frozen Copper Lake but there are footprints and you never lose sight of the trail. Copper Creek is a little high making the rock-hoping cross likely to leave you with wet boots. On the east side of Copper Lake now the trail is fairly easy to follow to a point. We had no footprints to follow and the deep snow in places will require some route-finding ability to stay near the trail. Post-holing is part of the adventure so watch where you step. We were really hoping to at least make it to Big Heart Lake and gave it a good shot, however right about where the switchbacks hit the highest elevation we lost the trail irretrievably in the snow and decided to turn around and camp at Little Heart Lake. Weather was very warm and beautiful, we watched the lake thaw out a little in those three days. Big Heart Lake should be accessible with the warm weather to those with route-finding experience in the snow.