East Fork Foss - Necklace Valley — Friday, Nov. 14, 2014

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - West

We intended to backpack to the Tank Lakes (cross country) but trail conditions on the Necklace Valley trail slowed us down considerably and we didn't make it. First off, there are a lot of blowdowns on the section of trail parallelling the E Foss River. Most of them can be stepped or saddled over. A few are more tricky. We definitely weren't the first people over them, we were guessing they came down in the recent windstorms. The last major blowdown seems new- smells fresh too-- it's just after you cross the river on the two separate footlog bridges and start uphill. This section is confusing because of a major blowdown between the two bridges. Yes, cross the blowdown and take the second footlog across the other part of the river. A few cairns mark a route through the talus- the trail is confusing here because of the huge blowdown. You'll be heading up, to the left and into the forest. The Necklace valley is a lovely area which we had all to ourselves- not too surprising with temperatures in the teens at night, and the twenties during the day. We recorded 4.5F this morning at Opal Lake with wind chill considered in our weather station. It was 20 in the sun and colder in the shade- 10am. I lost a hat on the way up that was untouched on the return. No sign of other spikes in the ice or footprints in the snow- doesn't look like anyone has made it to the lakes since the freeze/snow. We found frozen mud footprints under a layer of ice over 2" thick in places. The ground is frozen by the time you reach the Alpine Lakes boundary sign. It's the hoarfrost/mud combo that makes little towers of ice. Sometimes they hold, sometimes you fall a few unexpected inches. A few streams (closer to trailhead) aren't frozen yet, but many that weren't frozen on Friday were frozen on Saturday. It can be tricky to cross partially frozen streams with icy rocks, icy/frosty footlogs, or fully frozen streams with the disconcerting sound of water running beneath the ice. Stretches of the trail above 2500 are all ice over rock. We climbed up without traction, often needing to detour to find a better route and used traction on the way down. We recommend the traction- we have microspikes. It took us quite a while to make it through this section with 40-50 lb packs. Crampons would have been better as the spikes slid on some sections of icy trail, but since it alternates ice and stretches of rock/trail, the crampons could be annoying/destructive to vegetation. If you want to go to the middle section Opal Lake there is a stream crossing that is all ice- you can hear the water beneath. It was almost a deal breaker. It's a waterfall of ice right now. We camped at Opal lake in sub 15 degree temps overnight. Yep our new hilleberg tent, 15 degree double sleeping bag and homemade primaloft overquilt worked! We weren't cold in our sleeping bag, but BOY WAS IT COLD OUTSIDE!! FYI the campsite at the far end of Jade Lake is a very lumpy pile of ice. Jade lake is frozen and constantly makes cracking and pinging sounds as if freezes further. It was a little disconcerting to walk alongside it with all the sounds. Finding unfrozen water we could get to was a challenge. Had to sleep with our water filter in the sleeping bag to make sure it didn't freeze and crack! Frozen peanut butter! Frozen everything! We came home a day early having not made to the Tanks. It was so darned cold at Opal Lake this morning that we didn't want to head farther up in elevation. You literally couldn't take your gloves off for more than 1 minute before your fingers were going numb. Had to wear a balaclava to keep nose and cheeks from hurting. It was novel to walk in the middle of a lake and see it on our GPS route- some of the lake was all the way frozen so we felt comfortable walking across it. Some of it wasn't quite and we didn't The wind was really picking up and temps were dropping so we bailed at 12:30 for the 5 hour hike out- finishing by headlamp. If you lost an unopened container of Pringles and an unopened 70% dark Lindt chocolate bar on the first 1/2 mile of this trail-- we found them on Friday, they were *still* there on Saturday so we carried them out. They're by the trailhead bathroom. ^_^