East Fork Foss - Necklace Valley — Friday, Jul. 13, 2007

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - West

A friend and I started at 0945 and it took us almost exactly 7 hours to reach Opal Lake. We didn't rush and took our time and had a nice lunch at the point where you cross the river and begin the major ascend (about 4.5 miles). There was some blow-down along the way but nothing that could not be navigated. The river crossings were pretty smooth with the exception of one where the bridge was out and the trees that were used to replace the bridge were pretty narrow and with packs it took a little time to cross. The only other real hairy spot included a huge downed tree across the trail with a very severe dropoff. We found the bugs to be very bad once we hit Jade Lake. We continued to Opal hoping they would get better...no luck, in fact, we thought worse. We came back to Jade and spent the night. Once it began to get dark, the bugs did subside. The morning once again brought lots of mosquitoes during the tear down and hike out. We tried three different kinds of bug juice. The hike out took 5 hours. Overall, the trail is in good condition with a few areas where extra attention will be required to navigate.