East Fork Foss - Necklace Valley, Tank Lakes — Saturday, Jun. 29, 2019

I've hiked this trail a few times before but never did make it to Tank Lakes due to snow or aversion to route finding. This time around after successfully navigating other difficult trails I decided it was time to try again.  

The road in was just about how I remembered, smooth until shortly before the trailhead. Potholes a plenty but if you go slow you shouldn't have any problems. 

There were only 4 cars at the trailhead when I arrived a little before 9 am. As mentioned in other trail reports the first 5 miles are very brushy and overgrown at times. At around 4 miles the trail is so overgrown you can barely see where you're walking. I would strongly recommend pants or full coverage gaiters. I was in shorts and half gaiters, I got ripped up pretty good. 

At about 5 and half miles on the portion of the trail that elevation gain begins in earnest I had a pretty good scare. I heard rustling in the brush to my left and I looked over locking eyes with a medium-sized brown bear about 6 feet away from me. Fortunately it seemed like it wanted less to do with me than I did with it as it ran down the hillside as fast as it could. 

The rest of the trip up to the cabin was uneventful. The trail was in pretty good shape hardly any blow downs but muddy. The bugs were hardly noticeable until I got to the cabin when all of a sudden I was swarmed. I emptied the small bottle of spray I had with me and that worked a little.  I pressed on, didn't see any backpackers or other hikers until I was navigating the talus field when I saw guy on the ridge above me headed down. From then on it was just me and the whistle pigs. They serenaded me the rest of the way up. 

The last mile or so is still snow covered. Watch your footing as it is melting and there are some snow bridges. The lakes and surrounding mountains were absolutely beautiful. The lakes are still a little snow covered. The trek up was more than worth it, this is definitely a top 5 hike for me. Now I have another excuse to go back for an overnighter.