Elevation Gain: Approximately 2500 ft.
Time: 11:30 am - 6:15 pm
Weather: Overcast, cool, rainy, with occasional sunshine while raining.
Since Creighton could not make it on the Saturday hike up to camp Pleasant, he and I planned a day hike on Sunday. I was not really sure where to go, but I thought about returning to the Necklace Valley. I overnighted there about a year ago (actually almost exactly 1 year ago to the day). Last time, I was only able to go about a half a mile up the valley because of snow. This year Creighton and I got further because the snow levels were a bit lower, but we still had to deal with snow and some route finding issues.
We started around 11:30 am in the classic PNW liquid sunshine. It was rainy and the sun was shining. Unfortunately, it was more overcast today than sunny, but that just made the sun breaks that much more spectacular. The trailhead signs indicated it was 7 miles to Jade Lake and another 2 miles past that to Opal Lake. The first stretch is a gradual, slow gain that ends with a big log crossing. This took about 90 minutes.
The East Fork Foss is running high and fast right now. This year the water was up to the height of the bridge and a large pool was blocking the access to walking to it. I was able to make it with no water in my boot wearing my gaiters and boots and moving fast. Creighton took of his shoes and socks and was thigh high in water. I have heard this called 5 mile camp. We were there in 90 minutes, not an unheard of pace for us in day packs.
The hike up into the valley is a climb. It was snow free for aways. Here my pace slowed significantly. I would say I hiked an hour before I saw consistent snow. Bushwhacked a bit through a lot of overgrowth, and got soaked. The snow became consistent after climbing for an hour. We were not able to make it to Jade Lake. After climbing through snow for about 30 minutes, and crossing on a snow bridge, my best guess for where we hiked to is here (+47° 35' 33.75", -121° 15' 58.13"). I just tried to use google maps to map it.
Orchid: Sun break on the trail on our way back to the car.
Onion: Hurt my ankle on the steep downhill.
Picture:
Google Map
No comments:
Post a Comment