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September 14, 2000
It was great to finally get this one under our belts. Karen and I had been planning a Delta Lake excursion for about 2 months, and we couldn't have picked a more beautiful day. This was a first for Kathy and Karen, but I had visited the area twice before. The first time had been under wet and overcast conditions, the second in complete darkness-well sort of. In any event, finally getting up there amongst sunshine and warm temperatures was like hiking it for the first time.
We departed the trailhead just after 10 AM and quickly made our way up the rocks, through the trees then up to the Foss crossing 0.5 miles from the trailhead. Kathy was the first across followed by myself with Karen bringing up the rear. The first half has finally dried out; the second half utilizes a series of two downed trees complete with handrails to cross the main channel. Once across we were off through more trees gaining elevation as we walked. Past a big tree and extensive slide area we attained Trout Lake, elevation 2020'  . We hoofed it another 0.5 miles up the trail to about 2300' where we left the main trail for good and headed down nearly 300' though open forest.
After working our way down (almost back to lake elevation), we crossed over the low waters of the outlet of Malachite and Copper Lakes. A fair amount of water to make things interesting, but more of a rock hop than the thigh deep wade you'll find in May or June. Once across we bashed through a minor D-Club swath and quickly picked up the trail paralleling the Foss  . My first reaction was "Wow, what a beautiful area". My second, "Who the heck put up all these flags?" Orange and pink flags were everywhere strung high and low every 50 ft along the OBVIOUS trail, good lord! Kathy and I took up flag detail while Karen concentrated on her photography, and she had no shortage of spectacular settings in which to shoot. We followed the trail (though minor brush) with moderate ups and downs, never more than 75' from the river. Eventually, we made our way to the first spectacular falls, Kathy and I posed for a quick picture, then the three of us started the steep ascent up and over the falls. A "fisherman's path" no less, strait up we went using roots and branches to ease the strain on our legs. After a couple hundred feet, the way flattens and makes its way back towards the river.
Through here, it was really apparent that this trail is getting some good use. The majority of the severe brush sections have really been cleared out, which saved us the trouble of swimming though a lot of wet brush. More flats, a little weaving amongst large forested rocks, a steep climb here and there, and a brushy slide chute brought us to the next falls (even more spectacular than the first). The three of us stopped for several pictures on a moss pad underneath a large D-Fir and then continued up to the next vantage point, 100 steep yards up the trail. Karen and I picked our way down near the base of the falls while Kathy pushed on up the increasingly steep trail. After several shots, Karen and I scurried our way back to the trail with Kathy just 100 or so yards ahead. We climbed for a bit and then entered the brush flat just a couple hundred yards north of Delta Lake. We walked for several minutes until we reached the lake , elevation 3230', ~ 3 hours from the trailhead. The lake was especially attractive this day with the warm and bug-free conditions. We plopped on the logjam for some pictures and lunch and evaluated the trip up--all were agreed that the hike up the valley was of moderate difficulty, but fantastic scenery.
After a brief stay on the logs, Karen and I headed to the south end of the lake for some photo opportunities of the Angeline outlet while Kathy stayed behind with the packs. We made our way across the logjam over to the east side of the lake. Here we past though a campsite and just to the south found the waytrail extending to the south end of Delta and beyond. We followed the path up and down around minor cliffs and steep chutes for a good 20 minutes until we found views to the more open south end of the lake . Here we stopped for 10 minutes and took yet more pictures before retracing our steps back to the napping Kathy.
The trip back was somewhat uneventful as we cleaned out the remainder of the flags, fishing line and rope and got the place back to tip top condition. We did miss a couple flags on the far side of the Foss. How they got there, or more importantly why I'll never know, but they'll be gone next year.
Contributed by Randy Busch
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