Backpacked from East Bank TH to Rainbow Point, then to Lodgepole, then up to Desolation Camp, then down to Lightning Boat Camp, then to Hozomeen Lake, then back to Lodgepole and out to the TH.

Thankfully the one cool and drizzly day was the day we hiked up to Desolation camp since we had to carry extra water. My backpack was 50 lbs fully loaded. The trickle 1.5 miles from Desolation camp was still flowing but I was worried that it would clog my MSR water filter so we skipped it. Lookout Jim Henterly was there and gave us a great tour.

There is a much bigger stream with a waterfall about a mile before the trail starts climbing up to Desolation Camp so I would recommend collecting extra water there instead of hauling it from Lightning Creek. Just be careful of the 8" cedar tree on the SW side of that creek since it had some kind of hornet nest and I got stung. Only after that did I notice the small hornets going in and out of the hole near the base of the cedar.

We saw a young adult bear (with some light fur) at Lodgepole and heard what sounded like a bear walk through our camp at Hozomeen Lake. Huckleberries were abundant there and none of our bear canisters were disturbed. The bear wire seems to have fallen down on the side facing Hozomeen Mountain and was too low to hang bags from. The bridge over Nightmare Creek was undermined during a storm and has warnings to cross at your own risk. We did since the stream was pretty deep to ford and it looked safe enough with the main log strapped to another tree. But it might not be safe after another winter storm.

We heard what definitely sounded like wolves howling at Hozomeen Lake. (There was one howl, followed by a more distant howl, followed by an even more distant howl.)

There were only a few bugs along Ross Lake but Hozomeen Lake had a lot of flies and white faced hornets. Hozomeen Lake is beautiful and there were a lot of Loons calling in the morning and at night. I'm looking forward to the reopening of the Silver-Skagit road so I can drive to Hozomeen/Winnebago Flats and then day hike to Hozomeen Lake. While Hozomeen Lake is beautiful, it was hard to sleep between the loon calls, wolf howls, and bear visiting our camp. Most of the blue huckleberries on the trail were between Hozomeen Lake and the nearby Willow Lake. (There were also some red huckleberries, thimbleberries, and a few black raspberries.) The hike from Lightning to Hozomeen Lake has a sun-exposed section with a 800 foot climb in 0.8 miles so it's best to do that early if possible.

We met two hikers at Lightning Creek who had taken the shuttle boat to Hozomeen and then hiked from there to Hozomeen Lake followed by the longer hike to Lightning Creek. While most trail-accessible boat camps fill up on the weekends, he said that he has been able to get Sunday or Monday night reservations at Lightning Creek Boat Camp (or the nearby waterfront Lightning Stock Camp) for 10 years. 

We had planned on staying at Roland Creek the last night but decided to hike directly from Lodgepole to the TH. It was worth the longer hike in the heat to get a shower and back to a real bed, but on a really hot day it is probably better to split that up into two days.

Overall it was a great trip and I definitely want to go back to Ross Lake, though next time I'll try a canoe, kayak or shuttle boat. 

Three of us did a 3 day 2 night trip to Desolation Peak and back.

Day 1 - East Bank Trailhead to Devil's Creek Campground

Parked at East Bank trailhead and hiked to Devil's Creek Camp.  Trail is in great shape the whole way.  There are plenty of streams to filter water and the bugs were only pretty bad between May Creek Camp and the split off to Hidden Hand.  Saw a few other folks heading out but otherwise the trail was pretty empty.  Made it to camp in the early afternoon, set up tents and took a swim.  Two other tents had sprung up during our swim.  Bugs aren't too bad at camp as there is a nice breeze.  I clocked about 12.5 miles for the day. 

Day 2 - Devil's Creek Campground to Desolation Peak

We broke camp and had breakfast.  While I was using the privy I heard a bit of crashing around in the brush so i made haste and scooted back to the camp site.  Once we were about 1/2 to 3/4 miles outside of camp we startled a bear that was foraging on the side of the trail.  We had been chatting and generally being fairly noisy so it must have been really doing its bear thing.  It scooted about 15 - 20 feet off the trail and watched as we gave it space to move along.  It seemed pretty unconcerned and we moved on our way.

Desolation Peak has no water so we stopped at the creek 1/2 mile before the turn off to start going up.  We filled up roughly 14 liters worth of water for the rest of the day plus the camp that night.  Lets just say that makes for some heavy packs.  We found a trickle of a stream a mile from the campsite so we drank a healthy amount of the water we were lugging and then topped off again.  Just note this was a trickle and will likely be gone in a week so your last opportunity for water is the stream or lake before going up.  We made it to camp set up our stuff and then went to the summit for sunset.  Epic views and we were the only ones on the mountain...Pretty sweet!  I clocked one bear encounter, about 11.75 miles, and close to 5k feet of total gain for the day.

Day 3 -Desolation Peak to Eastbank Trailhead

Easy uneventful hike back to Devil's Creek Campground where we planned on spending the night.  We went for a swim and as we were leaving the beach we see a bear coming down from the forest.  This one was light brown whereas the other one we saw had been black.  It clearly wanted to come to beach but chose to take the path back up the campsites to avoid us.  We made sure to be chatty and noisy on our way up to camp and saw the bear rooting around by the privy.  We gave it space as it wandered away and then moved kind of toward camp.  It was not at all aggressive or very interested in us but clearly was hanging out in the camp and surrounding area.  Being three bear shy mid-westerners we decided to just hike out to the trailhead that day instead of camping another night. 

We made good time and didn't see another sole on the trail the whole way back.  We did spot one other bear near Roland Creek.  It moved off the trail and went a bit further up the side of the mountain.  Once back at the car we found that a mouse or some little rodent had gotten in and nibbled on all of our post hike food...very annoying. I clocked two bear encounters and about 21 miles for the day.

Notes

-Trail is in great shape and most people seem to be boating in so its pretty peaceful along the way.

-Prepare accordingly for Desolation Peak.  There is no water once you start going up and it is hot.

-There are clearly bears in the area so be vigilant with food and other smelly stuff.

-Views from Desolation Peak are epic.  Jack Mountain is a new favorite.

Just did this as a 7 mile round trip day hike from the TH out past Hidden Hand camp on the Ruby Arm. 

I would recommend this hike if you want to get away from crowds, have a gentle grade in a forest with a nice lake view at the end. 

Most people do this trail as a backpack so the parking lot is full but void of day hiker traffic. The hardest part is at the beginning, walking down and across the river (beautiful bridge) and then back up. The trail is very well used and could be a great trail run. At the junction to continue on the East Bank trail (about 2.8 miles in), go straight towards Ruby Pasture, then past hidden hand camp, and then the trail ends with the best view of ross lake. 

We did a 4 day/3 night backpack starting from Canyon Creek TH and ending at East Bank TH from July 1st-4th.

CANYON CREEK FORD: Since we had two cars we opted to drop a car at the East Bank and headed to Canyon Creek to start our adventure. The creek crossing at Canyon near the old bridge site was a bit over knee-deep at deepest points for me, a 5'2" or so humanoid. The rocks were slippery, but no one fell in. 

CANYON CREEK to DEVIL'S PARK: Lots of up up up on day one led us to camp at Devil's Park. There was a small bootpath leading to the left as we entered the park area that took us to a nice stream. We paid the blood admission price to the Devil's lair here, as the voracious mosquitoes descended upon us at camp, officialy kicking off headnet season.

DEVIL'S PARK to DEVIL'S DOME: Day two led us from Devil's Park to Devil's Dome without much event. We did traverse an area where the trail had been taken out by an avalanche, and walked across some very minimal snow. There was good water from where the North Fork Devil's Creek crosses the trail (marked on Caltopo) for a way up the trail, all the way to a nice waterfall at maybe 5800'.

The ridge was dry after that but we did find water in a drainage below the trail as we traversed below Cinnamon. It was not really obvious from the trail, but when we dropped down to inspect the stream bed, there was still enough flow for us to stock up on water before heading to the top of the Dome for a high camp. Bugs were not bad here! Hallelujah!

BEAR SKULL MT: We slept in the next day before heading up a casual summit of Bear Skull Peak with gloriously light day packs. We dropped down the trail westwards for about 300' vertical to where we could get water, before heading back up, gaining the ridge and followed it to the top of Bear Skull. It was pretty easy off-trail travel with some minimal boulder-hopping and one narrow spot by a crumbly gully. Views were amazing at the top - well worth the detour.

DRY CREEK PASS/CAMP: We headed back to camp, packed up, and dropped down to Dry Creek Pass. We were worried the creek was going to live up to its name but we spied a note carved into a log that said water was 600-900 ft from camp. We headed down a steep bootpath and lost about 300' of vertical before we came across some small pools that were adequate for drinking - not the best water we'd ever had, but we were grateful it was there! Had I known beforehand the work it would take for water, I would have probably just carried water from the stream we had paralleled for a bit coming over from Devil's Dome. Bugs were present but not too bad here.

DRY CREEK PASS to EAST BANK TH: This day was pretty mind-numbing, starting with a 5 mile drop of several thousand feet, brushy at times. And then a never-ending slog along the well-maintained East Bank trail back to our car. We stopped for a dip in Ross Lake at Rainbow Point, which was refreshing.

Follow along on instagram for more adventures! @thenomadicartist

My buddy and I hiked to Rainbow Point on day 1, Lightning Creek on day 2, then back to May Creek on day 3, and out on day 4.  Campsites were in excellent condition.  Rainbow even had TP in the outhouse.  In all cases we had the entire sites to ourselves, which surprised us.  All three had resident deer and lots of squirrels and chipmunks.  We saw a small adult black bear just north of Roland Creek campground on our way out.  He was not interested in us and initially climbed a tree, then came down and ambled away to the east. This is a good moderate-elevation hike for old hikers to get back in the game (our case) or for new hikers to try out backpacking in a beautiful place without as much vertical as many other hikes require.  As others have noted, surprisingly not much of this trail is even within sight of the lake.  An exception is a section north of Rainbow Point that has some nice cliff exposure directly over the water.