East Fork Foss - Necklace Valley — Saturday, Sep. 26, 1998

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - West

The first five miles are a nice hike through the woods -- a bit of a rolling trail -- not bad heading in but a bit tiresome on the way out at the end of a 16 mile dayhike. We had a little trouble locating the trail a little ways after the main creek crossing at 5 miles. There is another fairly well-used log that crosses another creek but at first we didn't see the cairns on the other side and weren't sure if it was the ""designated"" crossing -- there seemed to be other crossing options (incorrect ones as we discovered). The worn log is correct and the indentifiable cairns are to the right up the slope not to the left as we initially had looked. Then it is straight forward up to the lakes. The trail gets a bit muddy and wet at spots but nothing some well placed steps on appropriate logs or in the mud can't accomplish. The first and second lakes were rather low, but the whortleberry bushes are turning that fine shade of russet magenta that turns the slopes into a natural verions of stain glass windows in the late afternoon light. But alas, no berries -- a bad berry year overall as far as I can tell. We reached the first lake in around 5 hours or so give or take a few breaks and returned in 3 hours. A long but pleasant journey. We passed 5 parties of overnighters as we headed in -- none of whom had seen the other while camping in the vicinity.