We set out this morning with the intention of hiking Copper Lake. About 1 mile from the trailhead on NF-68 there were multiple trees down blocking the road. We could see 3 trees down a few hundred feet from each other. There were 2 cars parked in front of the trees who must have walked the remaining distance but this made it impossible to turn around. We had to back up for a while before we were in a suitable spot to turn around . 

Challenging trip up to Turquoise Peak via the West Fork Foss trail with Glen99 and Aferrenberg. We got started at 8:10am from the trailhead. The trail up to Trout Lake is in good shape. Up past this at around 2600ft, there is a huge blowdown across the trail. Someone has added some logs and cut some steps into the blowdown to help get up and over it, which is helpful. The tree that fell must be 5' in diameter.

Just before the foot bridge that takes you over the outflow of Lake Malachite, we left the trail and headed up steeply thru the somewhat open forest. After a short bit the grade really steepened, and there were many brushy areas that we had to navigate through. We also had to pick the correct route, as we ran into some vertical rock faces that were to our climbers left, and had to avoid a steep narrow drainage that was to our climbers right. Some spots were mega steep, so we put on our microspikes to help with traction. There were also a couple of talus sections that looked inviting, but the moss covered boulders were loose and slick, so we avoided them.

Up around 4430ft we got out into the open on some talus, and spotted a cairn. We veered to the right through some trees, and now were in a large basin. Here we went up 400 vertical feet up some talus, before turning to the left, where we headed up some heather, which was now snow covered. We then headed up another drainage before veering to the right to begin a rising traverse, first on more snow covered heather, and then snow covered talus to get to a sub peak of Turquoise Peak at 5616ft. Here we had to drop down to a saddle between this subpeak and Turquoise. From this saddle we had to drop down to 5400ft to begin a tedious traverse below some cliff faces above us on some snow covered talus to get to a steep gully. This steep gully put on the NW ridge which we took up about 100ft. Above us was some 5th class scrambling on snow covered rocks that we had to avoid, so we did a careful rising traverse in the snow above the cliff faces to the NE ridge.

Once at the NE ridge we were faced with a class 3 scramble with exposure on both sided on about 4" of snow covered rock. We dropped our packs, took out our ice axes, and headed up. There was a few trees that we were able to squeeze through for protection, as we were in a no fall zone, which was made much more difficult with the snow. The last 20ft to the summit was the easiest. Awesome views from the summit. We didn't stay long, and began our descent back to our packs. It was slow going, as our foot placement had to be perfect. We retraced our steps carefully, and took a break back at the sub peak, before the careful descent back down to the foot bridge on the  West Fork Foss trail. Coming down off trail is always difficult in this type of terrain, as it is so easy to get off trail, so we were very happy to back on the main trail. On back on the trail we hiked back to the car, arriving at 5:40pm

Great trip! 10.4 miles with 4918ft gain

Hikes the first 5.5 miles to Trout, Malachite, Copper, and Little Heart Lakes.

Road to the TH wasn’t too bad, but had the occasional washboarding and sizable pothole.

Vault toilet at the trailhead was clean, despite weeks of parks service shutdown. Overnight permit box was empty, likely for the same reason.

First 1.5 miles to Trout Lake were well maintained and easily hiked. Loads of camping spots around Trout Lake, but no campfires allowed in the area - even when fire bans are lifted. Still a great place to pull up a log and sit for a snack.

About 2 miles in, there is an enormous tree blocking the trail. Smaller hikers may be able to squeeze underneath if they don’t mind getting dirty. For everyone else, a makeshift bridge up the side of the tree and across another is available, with carved footholds across. A very fun obstacle, just be careful.

After a few good switchbacks for the next mile or so, you’ll find the turnoff to Malachite Lake. The path is incredibly steep but the lake is serene. Didn’t see many camping spots but there is a toilet.

Continuing to Copper Lake takes you up a little higher and across a gorgeous river crossing where you get to hop across boulders and logs to get to the other side. This was likely the last easily accessible moving water source before the lake, but close enough that campers can easily come here to filter water.

The walk up to Little Heart crosses several large rockslide areas with great views. Little Heart allegedly has several campsites across the log jam, but I didn’t make the trek across to verify.

Snow levels were probably only a couple hundred feet above Copper Lake. Bugs weren’t bad by the lake but gnats were in biblical quantities at the Copper Lake campsite. Site was well sheltered from the wind but footprints for tents were quite small. There is also a toilet down the trail but is quite steep.

   Excellent but tough 3 day / 2 night backpacking trip with ngie, as we got up to five summits, Camp Robber Peak, Atrium Peak, Tourmaline Peak, Wild Goat Peak, and Saint Agnes Ridge.

Sat 10/4-(red track) We got started at 7:30am from the West Fork Foss Trail and backpacked in to Big Heart Lake. We took the second campsite past the outflow of Big Heart Lake. We had light rain for a bit and it was sprinkling when we set up our tents. After setting up our tent we took off for Camp Robber Peak. It was around 1pm. Be backtracked down to the outflow of the lake, and then took the trail down to the toilet, and then followed a faint path down to the lakeshore. From here we went up some talus and then some heather and to get up to a beautiful heather bench with a few tarns. There were a few berries here, but most had already fallen. At the end of this nice bench we had to get down to the shoreline of Big Heart Lake again. This part was a chore as the terrain was mega steep. We found a slot down thru a rock face, and then went straight down a dried up creek bed. 

Once back down to the lakeshore, we had to do a rising traverse on some more talus, and then up anther super steep slope of dirt, grass, and trees. After this it was pretty much boulder hopping 1000ft+ all the way up to the summit. The rain had stopped, but we were in the fog, so not much in the way of views from the summit 

From the summit we decided to traverse over towards Tourmaline and come down that way, instead of dropping down the way we came up. This traverse worked well, but it was tedious at times, and it involved lots of boulder hopping. The top of the ridge between Camp Robber and Toumaline Peaks is all jagged cliffs, so our traverse was well below the ridge top. We had a track from onehikeaweek that we used that worked out nicely. It was starting to get late, so we decided to traverse over at around 5750ft to get back down to the trail before nightfall. We got down to the trail between Big Heart Lake and Chetwoot Lake about 6:30pm. Now we had to drop down 500ft before heading up 400ft to get up to the summit of Atrium Peak. It was now dark, so we did the final scramble up to Atrium Peak in the dark with headlamps, getting to the summit at 7:50 pm. We then hiked back to our camp in heavy fog, arriving at 8:30pm. 14.5 miles with 7362 gain.

Sun 10/5-(blue track) We got started at 9:00am under sunny skies for our ascent attempt on Toumaline and Wild Goat Peaks. We took the same way we took back the night before, and left the trail at 5340 for our ascent up to Tourmaline. We knew the route up to 5700ft which eliminated any route finding, which was nice. We now had the 500ft ascent up more boulders up to the summit of Tourmaline Peak. This summit has some excellent views. Such a nice day!!

Since it is all cliffs on the south and west sides of Tourmaline Peak, we had to drop back down to 5700ft to find a way down to Chetwoot Lake. The first part was straightforward enough, but the final 700ft down to the lake was a chore. So much super steep terrain with tons of brush. It worked, but it was tough, and time consuming. Once down near the lake we went up some more heather, passing an un named lake, before heading up more steep talus and boulder hopping to get to a saddle just below Wild Goat Peak. Once at this saddle we had the final ascent boulder hopping up to the summit. Wild Goat summit also has some great views. On the way down we took the more standard route down to Chetwoot Lake, going down on the south side of f the lake. The traverse down to the lake involved more boulder hopping, which was the story of the trip, and took us much longer than we had anticipated. Along the lakeshore, there is a rock buttress that goes all the way down to the lakeshore. I found it easier to go up 150ft from the lake finding a nice heather bench to bypass this, than to try and do an exposed scramble down closer to the lake. Once down at the outflow of Chetwoot Lake we filled up with water, and now had the hike back to camp, which involved some big ups and downs. We arrived back at camp at 8:45pm 9.8 miles with 5492ft gain.

Mon 10/6-(yellow track) We started at 8:20am for our ascent to Saint Agnes Ridge. We took the trail up towards Atrium Peak, where at around 4900ft  we took a faint trail that headed over to the outlet of Angeline Lake. You can't get to Angeline Lake with out dropping down 300ft because it is all cliffs, and there is a huge canyon for the outflow of the lake. The last 150 vertical ft down to the outflow of Angeline is mega steep. I put on microspikes for this section, and still was hanging off of tree limbs to safely get down, and then back up on the way back. Once down to the base of the canyon, it was a short boulder hop over some huge boulders to get to the other side. You could hear water running underneath. Once at the other side of the outflow, there was a faint trail to follow at times, with the occasional cairn to help lead you thru some tricky parts, but for the most part followed the ridge up to around 5200ft. Here  at 5200ft we traversed over on talus underneath some cliff faces, and found a way up and around these cliffs to the north side, where the grade was much more gradual than the ridge spine. Summit of Saint Agnes is in the trees, but there are some sweet views from near the summit. The summit register is in a glass mason jar. The jar is ok, but the lid has rusted away. The paper is dry, and we added a couple more plastic bags to it, and place it upside down, but it needs a new register container, and also some new paper. After our summit stay, we retraced our steps back to camp, where we packed up, and hiked back down to the trailhead arriving at 4:50pm. 11.1 miles with 2782ft gain.

Great trip in a beautiful rugged area. Our total for the 3 days was 35.4 miles with 15,636ft gain

My goal was to explore beyond Big Heart to Angeline and potentially Chetwoot, but due to a combination of smoke, time, and stamina, I called it a day at Big Heart. 

Highlight: Thanks to an old trip report, I found a viewpoint I loved! Even in the smoke, it was beautiful; I’d love to go back and see it on a clear day. It also shows up on Gaia.

• Between Little Heart and Big Heart, 6.5 miles from the trailhead, take a side trail on the left (see picture).
• There are two viewpoints there: one over Trout Lake, and one (see picture, which doesn’t nearly do it justice) looking southeast. You can see all of Delta Lake, almost directly below you by 1600 feet, a corner of Otter Lake, Angeline Falls, and a piece of Angeline Lake above.

Road:

• First 3.5 unpaved miles: ribbed, but next to no potholes.
• Final 2 unpaved miles: many avoidable potholes and a few unavoidable ones.

Parking lot:

• Spots to spare, but 35 cars and zero humans, 15 minutes after sunrise on a smoky Sunday! All campers.
• At 3:30 PM, I forgot to count, but the lot was mostly empty.

Bathroom:

• Clean and stocked, morning and afternoon. Thanks!

Trail condition:

• The blowdown pictured in other reports is huge – diameter a bit taller than me, and I’m 5’7”. It’s almost exactly 3 miles from the trailhead, between Trout and Copper. Sticks and steps cut into it make it simple enough for an adult to get over, though small dogs or children might need to be carried.
• Several short dirt sections on the switchbacks between there and Malachite Falls are starting to erode a bit. Nothing emergent, but showing wear and tear.
• Several blowdowns on the downhill to Big Heart; none more than 2-3 feet thick, all navigable, none look new.

Views:

• I began smelling smoke passing Trout Lake. It was clear at Copper and Little Heart on my way up. On the way up from Little Heart to Big Heart, there had been views of Trout Lake below, but very shortly afterwards on the way back, the valley was a wall of grey. By then, I couldn’t even see the other side of Little Heart, which is only a couple thousand feet across.
• Likely because the air was clearest, I particularly loved Copper Lake (see picture). Nothing like morning light and fall colors to bring out beautiful reflections in emerald waters. The trail hugs it for about half a mile, so you get plenty of time to enjoy it.
• After admiring very tall waterfalls from downstream, it’s very satisfying to hear them below you!

Navigation:

• The trail was quite evident. The only times I checked the map were when my legs were wondering how far we were from the next lake.

People:

• On the way up, nearly every campsite at every lake was full; on the way down, between noon and 3 PM, every single one was empty. Main topic of conversation was smoke – how was it where you just were? – but conditions change more quickly than hikers hike, so in the end, such comments were not as useful as they seemed.
• Very few day hikers – maybe 6 times, all when I was headed back down.

I love this area – Big Heart, Necklace Valley, Surprise/Glacier, all of it. I’m looking forward to going back on a clearer day next year, with less smoke, more time, and more energy, to revisit the views and make another attempt at Chetwoot!