West Fork Foss River and Lakes — Saturday, Jul. 2, 2016

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - West

Decided to to this as a day hike on this Saturday because I couldn't swing an overnight. I've done this trail a few years ago as an overnight and remember it being a grind. Well the trail is in better condition now than it was then and after the road repair the road in is in great shape. I went up with a couple friends and got a semi-early start out of Seattle We got to the trailhead at around 8:30am and parking was already at a premium. We started on the trail around 9am. The beginning segment of this trail winds through the forest near the eastern front of the West Fork of the Foss River. At about 0.75 miles we reached the new river bridge which features a sturdy steel I-beam as it's spine - nice work USFS! Continue another 0.75 miles and about 400' of elevation up to Trout Lake. This segment took us about 35 minutes and passed what I'm guessing is one of the largest trees in the valley. There are nice campsites along Trout Lake, but for those that are more ambitious, continue onward... and upward to Copper Lake and beyond. The trial after Trout Lake is what makes this trail a difficult one. For the next 2.5 miles you gain ~1900'! This portion consists of switchbacks, one major blowdown section, some sun exposed areas and a lot of overgrown brush on the trial. For us, day hiking, it wasn't so bad, but I remember it being a LOT harder when I backpacked it previously. After 2 hours of hiking, we reached Copper Lake (the junction to Malachite Lake is only 0.25 miles before). We applied some sunscreen and DEET, grabbed a bite and were on our way towards the Little and Big Heart Lakes, respectively. The gnats at the base of Copper Lake were pretty annoying and swam you the second you stop so keep moving to higher ground. The walk to Little Heart Lake is mostly just traversing to the southern side of Copper Lake and continuing for another 15 of so minutes from Copper. There is one campsite along this trail and it is alone, has a water source and seems pretty nice. We reached Little Heart Lake after 2.5 total hours of hiking and 1.1 miles after reaching Copper Lake. Continuing from Little Heart Lake onward the trail gets tougher. There is a major blowdown that lies on the trail just after this lake and requires you to climb on top of the tree and walk along the trunk to the other end, where the trail continues. This section of trail, up to Big Heart Lake, is not as well maintained as the starting portion, but still not bad. Continuing on for 1 mile and gaining 700' of elevation you reach the high point of the hike at 4900' before winding down the other side of the ridge to Big Heart Lake - a total of 1.6 miles past Little Heart Lake, it took us 3.5 hours in total. We stopped at Big Heart Lake and chatted with a USFS ranger who was there before picking a spot near the outlet creek and sitting down to eat lunch and refill water, at 1pm. We departed Big Heart Lake at 2pm and on the way out passed at least 7 groups of backpackers all headed to Big Heart Lake or possibly Angeline Lake? Either way it was likely a busy night at the lake, but also gorgeous! We trail ran the last 1.5 miles of the trail, which put us back at the car around 5pm.