Necklace Valley Aborted

Wanting to make the most of the prime backpacking season, I planned on heading back to Necklace Valley, in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness of the Cascades, for a night or two. I'd been there twice ... once in my rookie days, and once when Karen was barely pregnant with Kelsey. There's some beautiful high country up there! But, this time, my knees met their match.

For the first 4ish miles, the trail is a very nice tread, gaining 800 to 1000' through beautiful forest, generally following the East Fork Foss River. Then it crosses the river and turns seriously up, gaining another 2500' over the next 3 miles. The unfortunate part is that the quality of the trail degrades significantly ... a talus slope, then rocks and roots, while heading quickly up. At any rate, after about gaining about 1000' in this section, my knees were complaining, and I was uncertain as to how they'd handle the remainder of the up, and the eventual coming down. Being hesitant to get myself deeper into this predicament, I opted to turn around and head back out. I like to think of it as a tactical retreat, but it's the first time since the 80's that I can recall turning around mid-hike. Kind of humbling, and perhaps requires some reconciling with the aging-body realities. But it was still great to get out!