A bit of backgroud:
I hiked this
loop in 2019, on the same Labor Day weekend.
Saw a fallen hiker.
It spooked me so much that I stayed away from this area, ... until now.
I'm hiking the same loop, hoping to rid of my phobia.
But this time, I'm sticking to the trail on the map. Yes, now there's a trail on the map.
For a slight variation, we are going clock-wise instead,
8/30, Saturday.
Dropped my partner at
Necklace Valley TH.
Saw a couple of bikes here. Must be from people who are doing the same loop. Not a bad idea.
I continued driving on the gravel road to West Fork Foss River TH, where we'd end our hike.
A lot of cars parked along the road.
Many potholes, otherwise, wide and smooth road.
I was following a Prius, so going slowly.
The Prius pulled into a small turn-around spur.
I did too, and parked there. Worried that I wouldn't find another parking spot due to the busy long weekend.
Saddled up, and started walking back along the road.
A group of 3 guys with overnight packs walking ahead of me.
Passed a couple with backpacks walking towards me.
The girl waved at me and said "see you tomorrow"!
Yes, if you do this loop in the opposite direction, you will meet on Day 2.
Took me a little over 40 minutes to walk the 2.4 mile flat road. I started hiking ~11:20am.
The first 1.5 hours were in the woods.
Once out of forest and into high bushes by the East Fork Foss River.
A couple of good campsites by the river. I like this one with old mining tools marking the trail.
5 miles from TH, comes to this nice large camping area next to the river.
So far, pretty much flat, mostly in shade. So easy going, less than 2 hours.
This is the 4th marked on Caltopo along the trail.
Soon, cross the river on a log bridge.
From then on, the trail goes up. More sun. Mid day. It's uncomfortable.
I tried to hide behind trees whenever I needed a break.
We took a longer break near the 6th camp marked on Caltopo.
The 5th and 6th are both on the opposite side of the creek, so didn't see how they look like.
Ate the roasted chicken drumpsticks which I intended to finish at the TH.
And a can of cold beer (won't be cold for long).
Washed sweat off. Refilled some water.
Continued on.
More clouds, blocking some sunshine.
It didn't get hotter later in the afternoon.
We stopped at Jade Lake for over an hour to rest, swim and fishing.
A boy who camped at the north end of the lake, fished on the west side of the lake.
3 fishing rod on the east side of the lake, where the trail is.
The south end of the lake has the large group site.
Continued on, passing Emerald Lake. There's a 3 walled shelter.
Water level is low and almost a marsh land. Pretty though.
Met a guy coming down from Locket Lake, who camped at the beginning (north end) of Opal Lake, which is mostly marsh.
He said that they didn't see other good tent sites nearby.
We continued on, Opal lake looked too swampy. Elevation ~4800'.
We settled at the south end of Opal, again marsh land, no open water.
Too bad, no swimming or fishing. At least we have a little stream nearby.
Already ~6:20pm, and the sun was going down sooner now than in the summer.
Many side trails in this area, where folks hunt or found camp sites.
At the same time when we were looking for overnight spots, another couple right at our heels were looking for a spot too.
Washed and cleaned the mushrooms picked up by my partner.
By the time dinner is ready, the sun was gone. Only 7:30-ish.
8/31, Sunday. A little hazy. Warm.
I took off shortly after 6:30am, leaving my partner to pack up the camp (thank you).
We set to meet at Tank Lake around 11am, which I hoped to reach ~10:30, giving me 4 hours for my little excursion.
The goal this morning is
La Bohn Peak, if not, at least La Bohn Gap.
Morning air is crisp.
Follow the trail to an open willow area (a pond on the map, but no pond on the ground) and take the left fork. ~4900'.
There're braides of creek flowing, plenty place to set up camp.
From here, it's quite clear where I should go.
Note, you cannot see the gap nor the peak from here. Where I marked "to La Bohn Gap" is only half way there.
The peak you see on the photo is only a bump along the way.
I dropped my backpack behind some rock, next to a "trail".
Repacked a day pack with water, food, water filter, a shell.
Once I was on the tallus field, no more sign of any trail.
Instead of following the "trail" marked on Caltopo (which headed to La Bohn Lakes first), I followed a track I downloaded, headed straight to the gap, which is less steep, seems an obvious choice.
As I gained elevation, the view down to Necklace Valley opens up, and I could see Opal Lake, Cloudy Lake and Lake Liswoot.
Too bad, it's getting hazier by the hours.
Odd, some rusted iron, mining equipment?
One snow patch (the higher one in the photo), I squeezed by on the right side (this year, it's dry, so possible not to have any snow gear).
Above that, it's more gentle, a long boulder field. Very large boulders.
Near the gap, it's flat. The little pond is completely dry, the bigger pond is still a pond.
My track was on the right (west) side of these ponds.
Higher above to the east, on the way to Hinman, are the 3 La Bohn Lakes.
Saw a yellow tent south of the La Bohn Lake. A few more tents further south on the west bank of the 2 smaller lakes.
Instead of going to the gap proper, I started going up towards La Bohn Peak, over all the boulders.
Soon, picked up a trail in the heather field.
Followed it until it disappeared again in the boulders.
The trail goes around to the south slope of the mountain, and then easy scramble up to a flattish ridge.
On the way, you can see the tarns below the gap, William Lake further down, and the peaks across Middle Fork Snoqualmie River Valley: Little Big Chief, Middle Chief, Summit Chief, Overcoat, Chimney Rock...
Once on the top ridge (or false summit), traverse left (west) to La Bohn Peak proper, elevation 6587'.
It's a bit narrow here.
You can see the Necklace Valley, the mountains north of Hwy-2 (like Barring) and the route south to Tank Lake area, but not those lakes (blocked by Peak 6263).
I retraced my way back almost exactly as I climbed up, even though it seems safe to go down on the east slope to La Bohn Gap.
On my way down at the beginning of the talus field, met one guy going up to La Bohn Lakes.
At the bottom, in the sandy willow field, where I was looking for my stashed backpack, met one guy taking this fork by mistake.
After I picked up my pack, I met him again, going up to Tank.
Once I'm back to the main drag, start seeing a lot more people.
From the trail junction, it's over 1000' gain to a low ridge before going slightly down to the Tank Lakes basin (5800'). Temperature rising, I was losing steam.
Very pretty here, the highlight of the loop, and the destination for most hikers.
It was 11:50 already, way past our agreed meeting time.
My partner was chill, resting by the lake to the east, off the main drag. Some huckleberry too.
There are many side trails here to various camp sites and ponds, very easy to be lead stray.
We walked by at least 2 more ponds.
Started this arduous traverse, or as some calls it, "high route".
It surprised me how many people do this traverse.
Definitely having a trail on the map and on the ground makes it easier, but this is not easy.
A lot of boulder fields to traverse, and some steep hills to go up and down, where we had to wait for opposite traffic to get by.
Saw a Chinese group all wearing helmets.
Also, need to pay attention to the map. We took a side trail (maybe to Iron Cap Mountain) by mistake for a short while.
At one of these step-aside-wand-wait, I saw the couple who waved at me yesterday on the road.
At another occasion, saw a girl with a giant yellow plastic banana strapped on top of her backpack. It's maybe 2m wide.
Only ~2.5 miles to Iron Cap Lake - the 2nd highlight along the loop, and the farthest from car.
It was warm and hazy.
On the way, found a little stream (a little stale) to fill some water.
Met a guy going the opposite direction, whom I inquired about water source before Ion Cap Lake.
He said he didn't see any... (hum...).
While fetching water from the little pond, he mentioned that his original plan to Glacier Peak area was cancelled because of road closure due to fire.
Here is heather and huckleberry fields.
We dropping 600', and then up and down traversing around 5200'.
Later on the boulders, found a better water source. Washed and filled up our water bottles, plus an extra liter of unfiltered water.
Iron Cap Lake is silty, not the best water source.
Finally at 3:50pm (4 hours!), Iron Cap Lake. Deep glacier green.
My partner went swimming, and I found a small shaded area to rest, and filter my 1L water.
Two guys were asking around about the next camp options and decided to stay put.
Not a lot of flat dirt space to pitch a tent. Too rocky. One of them set his tent on a boulder.
After a long break, we continued. ~1.3 miles to Chetwood Lake, our destination for the night. Elevation ~5000'.
On the way, saw Otter Lake, Azurite Lake from afar.
Similar terrain, like in the photo when we first saw Chetwood Lake, so slow going.
Thankfully, more clouds now, and temperature didn't rise in the late afternoon.
Many camp site amidst huckleberry bushes. The best, close to the lake, was taken.
We found a small site above the outlet, so we have running water.
Saw 2 more parties arrived after us.
Went swimming (for me, just dipping my legs).
By the time we all cleaned, eaten, already time for bed. Exhausted.
9/1, Monday.
Up early. We headed out ~7am. For some reason, my back suddenly to hurt badly. Couldn't bend at all.
Going up and hike along the ridge between the Big Heart Lake and Angelina Lake.
However, it's not a ridge proper, nor flat, views are obscured. You don't get to see these two large lakes most of time.
This is the first view of Angelina Lake at the south end of the ridge.
Clouds and maybe smoke to the north.
It's 2.8 miles to Big Heart Lake camp, but you see this large lake much earlier.
The trail goes up and down winding over the wide ridge, amidst trees and rocks.
Walked by a couple of ponds, one is big enough to camp at, and was where I camped in 2019.
Otherwise, it's warm and dry all along.
Finally, we reached the camp at Big Heart Lake (at the north end), the only accessible spot to the lake. Elevation ~4200'.
However, too many logs choking the outlet. Difficult to get to the lake.
Took a long break to cool down, swimming, filling water.
Water is very clear, almost aquamarine.
From now on, the trail is easy to follow, no more boulder hopping.
It's West Fork Foss River trail.
1.6 mile to Little Heart Lake (also ~4200), need to go over a ridge.
Another break to cool down. Again, too many dead logs.
1.4 mile to the camp at Copper Lake at its north end, another huge lake. Beautiful, clear water.
We made a stop before the camp (which is also choked with dead logs), where we have good access to water.
More swimming and cooling down.
From Copper Lake, it's about 3 miles, zigzag near Copper Creek down ~1500' to Trout Lake.
More clouds in the afternoon, enough trees to provide shade. This section is a bit boring.
Last lake of the weekend: Trout Lake.
Found a small clearing before the large camp area for a semi-secluded swim and rest.
From then on, it's an easy walk ~1.5 miles along West Fork Foss River to the TH, then 5 min walk to car.
Drove back along Hwy-2 had no traffic. It is a pleasant surprise.
When I got out of the car, I could barely stand up and walk.
update 1: incidentally, one guy in my office also did this loop, counter-clock-wise.
He posted a bunch of photos on Slack. That's how I knew.
We must have run into each other.
update 2: booked an appointment to see a physical thearapist.
~10 days later, went to see a chiro practicioner. Took some X-rays of my spine.
Nothing broken, I'm leaning on my left.
Ernie Dornfeld, archivist/historian of Kubota Garden Foundation, and information system manager for King County and the City of Seattle,
showed us archival photos and the history of the garden and the Kubota family.
9/17, Wednesday 4pm. Gates' Discovery Center hosts a celebration of the new documentary Rethinking Higher Ed by RoadTrip Nation, funded in part by the Gates Foundation.
2 of the 3 participants of this movie were on stage giving their testemony.
One is a fashion student in NYC, another studying in Univ Hawaii where he grew up from.
Both are very well spoken, maybe why they got picked or may due to the experience of this road trip.
Seems every year, RoadTrip Nation sends out multiple buses. If you know a highschool student, apply.
Totally unaware that Chelsea Walfe (vocal/guitar) performed before intermission.
No wonder the lobby was full of people during the first hour of the concert, buying drinks and T-shirts.
Quite a few in Holloween costumes even with fake blood.
8:30pm, the Norwegain Group came on stage. Total 6 men 1 woman. 3 of the men have very long hair, and swing their heads often to showcase the flowing hair.
4 giant lights towards the group, casting long shadow onto a screen.
There's also a video projection on the screen from time to time. Both are employed very well.
The group plays nordic music. Melodic but simply tunes, orchestrated in big sound and reverberration, conjuring up the soundscape of a vast land.
They use ancient instrucments, like this pair of bronze Lur, and this very long birch Neverlur.
Here's Einar Selvik, the lead singer, playing a Kraviklyra.
At the end of the concert, Selvik gave a short speech: worship the nature, embrace the difference.
Then he played a lullaby solo on his lyre.
The tune is very similar to the rest of the music.
Well maintained trail. As busy as ever.
Zigzag up the ridge, good view starts early. Early fall color.
From the ridge, excellent view of Snow Lake.
Drop 400' down to the lake.
Saw a standup paddle board, and on our return, a different one.
Continued around the lake, a little ups and downs, passing the outlet here in this photo to the right.
Water looks very clear, and inviting.
Finally, the trail starts to go up again, passing a small pond, and quite some huckleberry patches.
A talus field later is Gem Lake.
It's not as pretty as Snow Lake. A quick dip and some berries.
We headed back down.
I arrived just in time for the workshop, as the first hour was lunch: pasta, salad, sweets.
Instructor of the day actually flew in for this, and he doesn't work for Google.
Google contracts him (or his company) for these education session.
Many Google employees were on site to answer questions or fixing problems (like, providing power supply).
It's a typical Cloud workshop. This one is 3 hours.
Afterwards we were separated into 2 groups.
My group went down to the fields for happy hour first, food and drink on the field.
Then my group was escorted to the press room, where all the interview is filmed here.
Ichiro's sign was still on the table, where he sat a few days ago, when being interviewed for entering the Hall of Fame.
Many of us got their photo taken sitting on the podium.
Then we visited the Randy Adamack Press Box, where the press anotate and watch the games.
Finally, the most interesting, is a guy working for MLB's Statcast.
He talked about data collection, showed us where the cameras are mounted, answered questions.
They also sell statistics data for sports betting.
On walking home, saw this car parked on 1st ave S. What a decoration!
Today is first Thursday. Pioneer Square was bustling.
Occidental Square is transformed to a street fair.
Not sure if this street fair is a one time deal, or a monthly occurrance. Live music.
Walked through a couple of galleries. Very lively.
Dropped my partner at Necklace Valley TH.
Saw a couple of bikes here. Must be from people who are doing the same loop. Not a bad idea.
I continued driving on the gravel road to West Fork Foss River TH, where we'd end our hike.
A lot of cars parked along the road.
Many potholes, otherwise, wide and smooth road.
I was following a Prius, so going slowly.
The Prius pulled into a small turn-around spur.
I did too, and parked there. Worried that I wouldn't find another parking spot due to the busy long weekend.
Saddled up, and started walking back along the road.
A group of 3 guys with overnight packs walking ahead of me.
Passed a couple with backpacks walking towards me.
The girl waved at me and said "see you tomorrow"!
Yes, if you do this loop in the opposite direction, you will meet on Day 2.
Took me a little over 40 minutes to walk the 2.4 mile flat road. I started hiking ~11:20am.
The first 1.5 hours were in the woods.
Once out of forest and into high bushes by the East Fork Foss River.
A couple of good campsites by the river. I like this one with old mining tools marking the trail.
5 miles from TH, comes to this nice large camping area next to the river.
So far, pretty much flat, mostly in shade. So easy going, less than 2 hours.
This is the 4th marked on Caltopo along the trail.
Continued on.
More clouds, blocking some sunshine.
It didn't get hotter later in the afternoon.
We stopped at Jade Lake for over an hour to rest, swim and fishing.
A boy who camped at the north end of the lake, fished on the west side of the lake.
3 fishing rod on the east side of the lake, where the trail is.
The south end of the lake has the large group site.
Continued on, passing Emerald Lake. There's a 3 walled shelter.
Water level is low and almost a marsh land. Pretty though.
Met a guy coming down from Locket Lake, who camped at the beginning (north end) of Opal Lake, which is mostly marsh.
He said that they didn't see other good tent sites nearby.
We continued on, Opal lake looked too swampy. Elevation ~4800'.
We settled at the south end of Opal, again marsh land, no open water.
Too bad, no swimming or fishing. At least we have a little stream nearby.
Already ~6:20pm, and the sun was going down sooner now than in the summer.
Many side trails in this area, where folks hunt or found camp sites.
At the same time when we were looking for overnight spots, another couple right at our heels were looking for a spot too.
Washed and cleaned the mushrooms picked up by my partner.
By the time dinner is ready, the sun was gone. Only 7:30-ish.
8/31, Sunday. A little hazy. Warm.
Morning air is crisp.
Follow the trail to an open willow area (a pond on the map, but no pond on the ground) and take the left fork. ~4900'.
There're braides of creek flowing, plenty place to set up camp.
From here, it's quite clear where I should go.
Note, you cannot see the gap nor the peak from here. Where I marked "to La Bohn Gap" is only half way there.
The peak you see on the photo is only a bump along the way.
I dropped my backpack behind some rock, next to a "trail".
Repacked a day pack with water, food, water filter, a shell.
Once I was on the tallus field, no more sign of any trail.
Instead of following the "trail" marked on Caltopo (which headed to La Bohn Lakes first), I followed a track I downloaded, headed straight to the gap, which is less steep, seems an obvious choice.
As I gained elevation, the view down to Necklace Valley opens up, and I could see Opal Lake, Cloudy Lake and Lake Liswoot.
Too bad, it's getting hazier by the hours.
Odd, some rusted iron, mining equipment?
One snow patch (the higher one in the photo), I squeezed by on the right side (this year, it's dry, so possible not to have any snow gear).
Above that, it's more gentle, a long boulder field. Very large boulders.
Near the gap, it's flat. The little pond is completely dry, the bigger pond is still a pond.
My track was on the right (west) side of these ponds.
Higher above to the east, on the way to Hinman, are the 3 La Bohn Lakes.
Saw a yellow tent south of the La Bohn Lake. A few more tents further south on the west bank of the 2 smaller lakes.
Instead of going to the gap proper, I started going up towards La Bohn Peak, over all the boulders.
Soon, picked up a trail in the heather field.
Followed it until it disappeared again in the boulders.
The trail goes around to the south slope of the mountain, and then easy scramble up to a flattish ridge.
On the way, you can see the tarns below the gap, William Lake further down, and the peaks across Middle Fork Snoqualmie River Valley: Little Big Chief, Middle Chief, Summit Chief, Overcoat, Chimney Rock...
Once on the top ridge (or false summit), traverse left (west) to La Bohn Peak proper, elevation 6587'.
It's a bit narrow here.
You can see the Necklace Valley, the mountains north of Hwy-2 (like Barring) and the route south to Tank Lake area, but not those lakes (blocked by Peak 6263).
Once I'm back to the main drag, start seeing a lot more people.
From the trail junction, it's over 1000' gain to a low ridge before going slightly down to the Tank Lakes basin (5800'). Temperature rising, I was losing steam.
Very pretty here, the highlight of the loop, and the destination for most hikers.
It was 11:50 already, way past our agreed meeting time.
My partner was chill, resting by the lake to the east, off the main drag. Some huckleberry too.
Finally at 3:50pm (4 hours!), Iron Cap Lake. Deep glacier green.
My partner went swimming, and I found a small shaded area to rest, and filter my 1L water.
Two guys were asking around about the next camp options and decided to stay put.
Not a lot of flat dirt space to pitch a tent. Too rocky. One of them set his tent on a boulder.
After a long break, we continued. ~1.3 miles to Chetwood Lake, our destination for the night. Elevation ~5000'.
On the way, saw Otter Lake, Azurite Lake from afar.
Similar terrain, like in the photo when we first saw Chetwood Lake, so slow going.
Thankfully, more clouds now, and temperature didn't rise in the late afternoon.
Going up and hike along the ridge between the Big Heart Lake and Angelina Lake.
However, it's not a ridge proper, nor flat, views are obscured. You don't get to see these two large lakes most of time.
This is the first view of Angelina Lake at the south end of the ridge.
Clouds and maybe smoke to the north.
It's 2.8 miles to Big Heart Lake camp, but you see this large lake much earlier.
The trail goes up and down winding over the wide ridge, amidst trees and rocks.
Walked by a couple of ponds, one is big enough to camp at, and was where I camped in 2019.
Otherwise, it's warm and dry all along.
Finally, we reached the camp at Big Heart Lake (at the north end), the only accessible spot to the lake. Elevation ~4200'.
However, too many logs choking the outlet. Difficult to get to the lake.
Took a long break to cool down, swimming, filling water.
Water is very clear, almost aquamarine.
From now on, the trail is easy to follow, no more boulder hopping.
It's West Fork Foss River trail.
1.6 mile to Little Heart Lake (also ~4200), need to go over a ridge.
Another break to cool down. Again, too many dead logs.
1.4 mile to the camp at Copper Lake at its north end, another huge lake. Beautiful, clear water.
We made a stop before the camp (which is also choked with dead logs), where we have good access to water.
More swimming and cooling down.
Last lake of the weekend: Trout Lake.
Found a small clearing before the large camp area for a semi-secluded swim and rest.
From then on, it's an easy walk ~1.5 miles along West Fork Foss River to the TH, then 5 min walk to car.