14 lakes in 28 miles and 34 hours!
Yesterday, I completed the Alpine Lakes High Route - starting at the West Fork of the Foss River up to Chetwoot, across Iron Cap Mountain to Tank Lakes, and back down to the East Fork TH. I did it in two days, and while I think it could be done faster, I think it'd be a real stretch. If you choose to do this route, prepare for hard to find trails (and/or no trail) and not to see anyone else between Chetwoot and the Necklace Valley. There's some solid beta on this site, as well as this great quote -
"If you love it, leave it just the way you found it… er, maybe minus a few fish! Mmmm!
On my last go round there was garbage at a few sites and even a smoldering campfire deep the wilderness. Don’t be a dick."
Basic Breakdown
Fall is here (at least in the alpine!) All the heather is starting to turn, and the colors are beginning to show. Get out there before the snows come!
The trail from the West Fork TH to Big Heart is great - easy to follow, with a fair amount of elevation change, but nothing too serious.
From Big Heart to Chetwoot the trail gets harder to follow, and involves more scrambling, though there are still pretty regular cairns and a relatively obvious boot path. The views of Angeline and Big Heart Lakes are incredible, and you'll get your first sighting of Iron Cap Mountain (it's that lumpy close one).
Once you've scrambled down to Chetwoot (which is beautiful and has some great tent sites), grab water and get ready for the off trail portion of the traverse.
In my opinion, there's enough information out there about this traverse, but here are a few seasonal updates and clarifications:
- There are many many ways to do the traverse, and the beta will not be consistent. Find your own way and don't rely on cairns, because they're hard to follow and often don't make sense.
- Iron Cap Mountain is a pretty easy summit to reach, once you're on the North Rib. It's getting there that's difficult.
- Besides Iron Cap Lake (a relatively brutal scramble down loose talus and scree) there's no water from Chetwoot until the East side of Iron Cap Mountain (there's meltwater below all the cliffs).
- Get ready to spend an incredible amount of time on talus. This is the trail
- It's worth sleeping up on one of the ridges of Iron Cap for the views of Overcoat and Chimney (and Rainier if it's clear!) in the morning.
After Tank Lakes, it's a long slog down loose talus. Don't bother following the cairns too closely, they still don't make that much sense, and they're pretty irregular. Just generally trend downvalley and skiers left, and you'll get to Opal Lake at some point.
There are still blueberries near Emerald Lake!
The trail after the Necklace Valley is glorious - obvious, well constructed, and with lots of beautiful bridges and walkways over wet patches. The initial drop from Necklace down to East Foss is pretty steep, but it's still nothing compared to the talus-fields earlier. And once you get to the East Foss trail, it's 5 miles of this glorious highway through old growth forest, back to the TH and civilization.
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