East Fork Foss - Necklace Valley, Square Lakes, Tank Lakes, Tuck and Robin Lakes, Deep Lake, Deception Lakes & Tonga Ridge / Mount Sawyer — Saturday, Sep. 14, 2013

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - West

Trip Report YOLO Loop Sept 2013 For those who have a week to hike and like some off trailing, this may be for you. This route had good trails, bad trails, no trails and several hazards and may be attractive to some adventurous types. This is a write up of a trip that I did with my two sons, David and Jason in September 2013. We planned food at 2 lb./person/day with a caloric density of over 120 calories/oz. This would be around 4000 calories per day but even then I figured we would still be caloric deficient. We went gluten free and aimed for lower carbohydrates. To do this we used commercial gluten free mixes, added powered eggs, powdered milk and some protein powder. Also used peanut and almond nut butters for toping cornbread and pancakes. The nut butters have twice the caloric density as syrup and were a big hit. What we didn’t eat much of was summer sausages and beef sticks. Our packs weight in on average 43 lbs. Not too bad. This was named the YOLO loop for a couple obvious reason, at least to us. The loop entered the East Foss River trail head to Necklace Valley, then to Tank Lakes, Williams Lake, Deep Lake, Tuck and Robin Lakes down to Leyland Lake, up Square Lake, over to Deception Lake, out Tonka Ridge and then 10 miles walking on the road back down to the East Foss River trail head. Day 1: Trail head to Emerald Lake 14 Sept 2013(8.5 miles, start 1600’- end 4700’) Left Ballard and parked at the East Foss /Necklace Valley trail head and hiked to Emerald Lake. Had a nice camp site and a near full moon was hanging over the mountain to right of La Bohn Gap. Jason soaked in the lake and I got in up to my knees in the cold water. Day 2: Emerald to Williams Lake (7 miles, start 4700’- high point 5800’ end 4600”) Followed the trail toward La Bohn Gap and turned right to follow the stream and boulder field to Tank Lakes. Plenty of snow bridges over the stream and some interesting rock and crystals that we took time to enjoy. After taking some beautiful pictures of the Tank Lakes and the glaciated mountains (Summit Chief and Overcoat) to the south, we headed left toward Williams Lake. This is definitely cross country and the way is hazardous. There are extreme drop offs down to the Middle fork of the Snoqualmie river. We struggled here but I did find a route to a large boulder field which gave us safe passage down to Williams Lake. I broke off the lower third of my hiking pole, but fortunately the extended two remaining sections were just sufficient. Poles really are needed. David had to grab a bush to keep from sliding off the mountain. He found out later that this removed his wedding ring. To get by this hazard, best to stay to the left and high and find the boulder field for the descent. Got to Williams Lake and set up camp and again Jason got in the cold lake for the last time. Shortly after making camp the clouds started to boil up the valley. We got into our tent and had a very close up encounter with an extreme thunder and lightning storm. It must have lasted 45 minutes. It was continual multiple lighting flashes, and was right over us. Did a lot of praying. Day 3: Williams to Deep Lake (13 Miles, start 4600’-high point 5000, low point 3000’, end 4400’) Got up and put on our rain gear and headed to Dutch Miller Gap. This is the old Cascade Crest Trail so the was very nice. The waterfall into Ivanhoe Lake was really flowing with the on and off rain. Stopped for a break at Ivanhoe Lake during a brief sun break, but the rain returned so we headed on down to Waptus Lake. When we got there the sun was out so we spread out on the gravel breach, ate and dried out a bit. After an hours rest, we packed up and headed to Deep Lake for the night. Day 4. Deep Lake to Tuck Lake (10 miles-start 4600’ low point 4000’, high point 5600’, end 5300’) Left Deep Lake and while ascending the ridge and we were passed by a through hiker. He had started at the Mexican border and was excited that he had only a week or 2 left. He got worried when we told him that we started off from the Stevens Pass highway, since for him Stevens Pass was yet ahead and he thought maybe he missed it. But a little more discussion and he was fine. We got a bit higher and got into a white out. This lasted a few miles, until we got over the ridge and looking down onto Hyas Lake. There was a large wash out on the PCT which took some time to navigate, but got to the intersection with the Hyas Trail. We met a middle age son and his elderly dad at the intersection who were hiking between the passes. I was worried about them navigating the PCT washout that we just came over. We headed south a bit before ascending the Tuck and Robin Lakes Trail. This trail is as the guide books describes, a really steep climb. Got to Tuck Lake and the weather was windy, misty with poor visibility. I was tempted to push on but a couple who were camped at the lake’s outlet waved to us that there was a good campsite near them. This was a blessing since it was a protected nice dry camp. We had planned on camping at Robin Lake for the night, but since we had allowed for at least an extra day we took the extra day here. Jason cooked up some dried chili which came up on him during the night a couple times. Thankfully he made it to the outside of the tent each time and he was recovered the next day. Day 5: Tuck to Robin Lake (1.5 miles-start 5300’, end 6200’) Left Tuck Lake in a moist, windy and near freezing white out and headed up to Robin Lake, with our rain gear and pack covers on. Dave had a black plastic bag for his pack cover and when the wind blew it was inflated, and it looked like he had a double size pack on. We met a group coming down, and they said it had snowed last night and they were very cold. One girl in the group just had tennis shoes on! We got up to a ridge which would have been looking at Robin Lake but with 20 ft. visibility we could not find it. We walked around for a while until we got close enough and in the right direction to find the lakes. We were the only ones there so we camped at the campsite between the 2 lakes. Finally the weather started to break and we could see the other side of the main lake. We started to dry out and then begin to enjoy the views. Day 6: Robin to Square Lake (11 miles-start 6200’, high point 6400’, low point 3400’, end 5000’) Left Robin and headed to the Granite Mountain Potholes. Beautiful clear day now and the views were very welcome. Stayed high and went around the south side of the potholes and then over onto a large boulder field to Phoebe Lake. Easy going and fun traveling. From a guide book we thought we might find an old trail from Phoebe to Leyland Lake, but found nothing that went anywhere. So we basically slide down the hill toward Leyland Lake. We lost our plastic ground trap on the slide but the weather was dry now so not a big loss. Poor planning on my part and we ended up at the head of the lake. We then had to fight our way thru blowdowns and over growth to get to the outlet end. I slipped twice on the same large bare downed tree and fell flat on my chest each time. But no damage done. Jason tried to take a short cut across a little bay by walking across a floating log. His short cut was interrupted when the log started to move away from shore. He reacted quickly and jumped back to shore avoiding a deep dipping. We fought, slipped and fell but eventually made it to the outlet where we expected to find a nice trail. Well, there was not a trail to find. We did find a start of a trial but it quickly disappeared. We attempted to follow the stream down but gave that up and started again to look for a trial. Eventually we found the faint trail and followed it down to the intersection to the Square Lake trail. I was tried and slipped on the rocks crossing the stream and filled my boots up. But we thought that now we would be on a good trail. The trail disappeared after a few miles into an overgrown field of very tall fireweed. After the trail disappeared we headed up the ridge towards the obvious saddle and eventually David found the faint 6” wide trail which we then followed to Wolverine Lake. At this point the sun was down and we were traveling with head lamps. This trail section was very good and we camped at the outlet of Square Lake to the sound of water lapping over the dam. Needless to say we were the only ones there. A beautiful full moon came up as we set up camp. These 2 trails probably have not been maintained in 20 years. Day 7: Square back to East Foss trail Head (14 trail miles plus 10 road miles-start 5000’, high point 5600’, low point trail 3200’ trail, low point to East Foss trail head 1600’) We followed the trail around Square until it also disappeared. We got to the head of the lake and started up the ridge following a steep ravine. It eventually got too steep to follow and we tried to find a way out to the right but could not. After descending a bit Jason did find a nice boulder field to the right which we then followed up to the top of the ridge. At this point we were sure we were going to have good travel the rest of the way. We descended cross country and found a trail that lead to the PCT. Passed a few hikers at Deception Lake and made the right turn to the Tonga Ridge trail. There were some beautiful large Douglas Firs and a lot of mushroom the whole time. Jason got stung by some weird bee or wasp and his head inflated a bit. We took a bit of a rest and his head eventually started to go down and he was good to go. Followed the Tonga Ridge trail and the great views looking back to the mountains above Dutch Miller Gap which we saw close up earlier in the loop. Got to the Tonga Ridge trail head nearing dusk. We left the packs with Dave and then Jason and I started the 10 miles but 2700 ft down the road back to the trail head where our car was parked. We had talked about descending to Fisher Lake and then cross county 3 miles with 3 thousand feet of drop to pick up the Necklace Valley trail but we agreed that we had enough cross country travel and went for the Tonga Ridge trail head and the road. Maybe next time! As darkness descended on Dave, he heard some weird sound coming down the trail. It turned out to be a singing day hiker. Anyway the singer talked to Dave and explained he was singing in an ancient French dialect, the whole time shining his head lamp in David’s face. Go figure. A lake bagger picked Jason and me up and drove us the last 2 miles. He thought we were lost day hikers and was initially reluctant to pick us up. But we explained our trip and then he figured we were OK. He did remark that there was no trail to Square Lake and we totally agreed with him. Final notes, we probably only ate 1 ½ lbs. of food per day instead of the planned for 2. Our feet were wet for most of the hike so we had good blisters and the boulder fields left some damage. Overall it took a couple months to recover but we had a lot of adventure, and saw some great country. So give the YOLO loop a try!