Did the loop from the West Fork Foss trailhead to the Necklace Valley trailhead as a 2 night backpack over the weekend. We started in the early afternoon on Friday and easily made it up to Big Heart Lake to camp for the first night. As other reports have mentioned, there IS a bee's nest directly in the center of the trail shortly after the turnoff to Malachite Lake. Our group crossed one at a time, quickly and purposefully, and no one got stung
Day 2 was an adventure! We took the low route (opting not to go over Iron Cap) from Big Heart to Tank Lakes. About 5 miles is technically off trail, and although there are some cairns for most of the way, GPS and route finding experience proved extremely helpful. Going was SLOW across endless boulder fields and a few very steep spots - plan more time than you think you need. Word of caution - if camping at Tank Lakes (and you should, it's beautiful), there are several mice at the large campsite overlooking the lake, and they are not shy. A few of our group felt them run across their feet while cooking dinner and one unlucky member had their tent chewed on due to accidentally leaving m&ms in a pocket.
Getting down the moraine the first mile from Tank is slow going, but after that the trail is easy to follow. The descending is pretty much done after 5.5 miles, and you can fly down the remaining miles to the car.
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