My 12 year old son and I hiked to Jade Lake the first night and camped at the north end of Jade Lake. It's a stiff hike since the majority of the gain is in the last few miles. We fished the evening hatch and caught a bunch of little fish (less than six inches) and went to bed.
In the morning, we hiked past Emerald (weedy) and Opal (easy to miss if you're on the trail) and followed cairns up the valley to the west below La Bohn Peak to the rocky plateau filled with tarns. The swimming was excellent, the views even better, and the bugs weren't that bad. On the way back, we heard lots of stories of the black bear that was wandering around the lakes in the Necklace Valley, but we didn't see it. We fished again, but couldn't match the dry fly hatch so caught only a couple.
We got up early the third day and made excellent time coming down. We sampled berries throughout the trip. The best blueberries are above the cabin on Emerald Lake. There are red huckleberries and salmonberries below the bridge across the Foss. There's a small patch of wild raspberries that are excellent in the rock fall above the bridge.
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