East Fork Foss - Necklace Valley — Thursday, Jun. 3, 2004

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - West

With Friday off from work, time to check a trail I had not been on before, so headed up SR-2 to Skykomish and the Foss River Road. When I got to the trailhead the parking lot was empty. The first mile of the trail is on an old road, used when the area was logged many years ago, as the second growth trees are getting pretty large. The first big stream crossing is on a old log/cedar plank bridge over Burn Creek, which is really roaring with the snow melt high above. After getting to the end of the old road, the real trail starts with several ups and downs along the way. Passed Alturas Lake/marsh while going up the valley. For some unknown reason, this lake is not shown on the GT Skykomish map, but is shown on my 1905 U.S. Dept. of Interior Geologocal Survey map. The lake is still there. After a few more creek crossings, the trail comes back down to the East Fork of the Foss River. I went as far as the log bridge crossing, 5 miles from the trail head. The bridge does need some work, as part of the hand rail has rotted away and fallen into the river. Did get a view of Mt. Hinman. I had lunch at the camp site that is about 1/4 from the bridge over the Foss River. While there I spotted some old mining relics. There were three parts from aerial tram cars used back in the late 1890's. Each part was date stamped, ""TI PAT May 18 1897"". But it is a mystery why they would be way up the Neckless Valley trail, since there were no mines in the area. There were mines at Trout Lake up the West Fork of the Foss River. Only saw one other hiker the whole day, when I was coming back out. Not to much wildlife on this trip, only one chipmuck, a few birds, some butterflies and one daddy longlegs spider out for a hike (it was traveling light, no pack). There were several blown down trees along the way, but you can get over them, only one you have to go under. Check out this valley hike while the snow is still melting in the high county.