Had other objects in mind today but due to the conditions on trail it took me longer the further I got down the trail. The first 5 miles are very well maintained and had no problem at all. You'll start running into some down tress that are easy to navigate around, above or below. This goes on for 3ish miles before a ranger team cleared 3 miles before Rainbow camp. After that it turns into a mess. I counted 35 trees down in a 10 minute span. This went on for multiple hours. Once I made it to Lighting Creek Camp I decided to turn around because I knew on the way back it be the same and id be tired and may slip and injure myself. I estimate 250 trees are down on the trail and double as much of branches. I maybe removed a dozen or so of them but realized I can't waste energy like that. Hopefully the ranger team is able to make quick work of the trees over the next two weeks. 

We hiked from Hwy 20 until a just past Roland Creek. Trees down across trail frequently starting about 3.5 - 4.0 miles in (beyond where Hidden Hand splits off). These were at times a little difficult to get around. In a few places, uprooted trees had ripped 8 foot chunks out of the trail.

The May Creek boat-in campsite is accessible via a little spur trail. Nice camp, nice view.

Back in 2014 I hiked this loop, including Desolation Peak, with Lindsey. Our trip didn't have a lot of flowers and also fire smoke diminishing the views. I finally returned to repeat the loop under clear skies.

Parked at the East Bank trailhead and hiked the connector trail over to Canyon Creek. The bridge here is indeed smashed but one could still use it in combination with the fallen tree to get across. Or the ford would be easy from further upstream in the campsites. Knee deep I'd say. The trail from the start up to McMillan Park is a bit overgrown in places but overall in good shape. I was the first to arrive at Devil's Park so had my pick of camps. I went as far up into the park as I could and found a nice site about where the creek goes underground. One could probably camp even further out off-trail in the park for better views but would have to carry water. A few other parties passed through but largely I had it to myself, along with lots of ground squirrels. Mosquitoes were bad. No clouds meant a chilly night but I stayed nice and warm in my quilt. Still very happy with it.

11.1 miles, 4800 ft gain.

Packed up somewhat early and hit the trail. Climbed straight out of the park and up on to Jackita Ridge. Pleasantly cool morning temperatures and a light breeze made this nice. Great flower show up here and awesome views slowed my progress. I skipped the side-trip up to Jackita Ridge highpoint in favor of a slower pace to enjoy the flowers and views. Only one short easy snow patch to cross. I also made sure to catalog any campsites and water along the way since we had some trouble finding either in good combination before. I saw several newly established camps, especially around Devil's Creek. Water is available at the creek below Jackita highpoint, Devil's Creek, and Devil's Pass.

Made the side-trip over to the spring at Devil's Pass to get water. The pass itself was nicer than I remembered, though last time we were both tired and cranky and out of water when we arrived. I continued on through nice trail to Devil's Dome. Fantastic flowers on top. It was quite windy on top, and surprisingly even windier down at the pass, though it thankfully died down near sunset. Several groups passed through and one PNT hiker named "Enigma".

13.6 miles, 3834ft gain

Nice sunset though not as colorful as I'd hoped. Still better than sunrise: I awoke in a drippy and windy cloud. I'd expected this so wasn't too surprised, worth it for the evening views. Waited for a break in the weather and then started down. Somewhere around Bearskull shelter I dropped out of the rain so made a side-trip to see the place and change out of rain gear. Then it was a long and thankfully smooth descent to Ross Lake. I went down to the shore and had lunch at the Devil's Crossing boat camp, hoping maybe the water-taxi would go by and offer me a ride. No such luck. Not sure if they would even be able to land anyway. So then a long walk back on the East Bank trail. Mileage went quickly since it's such a good trail. Very pretty too in the stretch between Devil's and Rainbow points. I wish more of the trail would hug the lake shore like this.

20.8 miles, 2435ft gain (including side-trip to shelter, beach camps)

Loop is in great shape right now! Flower show is really incredible. Highly recommended.

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My two boys and I had a wonderful four day, three night outing along the East Bank Trail. Our main two objectives were to camp at Lightning Creek and hike up to Desolation Peak. When we got to the ranger station in Marblemont we found out several (most) camps were closed due to low water level, this included Lightning Creek, our hopeful destination. We had to settle with the next closest camp which was at Devil's Creek. I'm still not sure why camps are closed to hikers and why low water has something to do with it...

As of this writing and as I understood it, the only camps that were open were Hidden Hand, Roland Creek, May Creek, Devil's Creek and Desolation camp way up on the ridge. Keep this in mind and plan accordingly. Unfortunately this new twist scuttled our plan to hit Desolation peak as it was close to 20 mile round trip from Devil's Creek and our team wasn't up to the challenge.

We did however have an excellent stay at Devil's Creek Stock camp. We were visited by deer, several very large bucks still in velvet, almost every morning and evening... I suspect they were in looking for pee spots. The intermittent showers we had on Thursday's hike in cleared up on Friday and gave way to  nothing but sun. I found the bugs to be almost non-existent which was a pleasant surprise! Sitting around the fire Saturday morning enjoying a cup of coffee, I saw a black bear moving through the forest above camp, about 75 yards off. Very cool...

The trail was in good condition with a few blow downs to sidestep. Water can still be found all along the trail so no need to pack in a lot. We each had a water bottle and it was more than enough between stops. There was a section of trail that had been washed out along the steep banks of the lake but folks have been busy beavers in getting the trail back together. I must say it's coming along very nicely!

In our push to Desolation on Friday, we made it up to just above the spring (maybe half way up?), which is still a viable water source, before we hit our turn around time. We still managed around 16 miles RT for a day hike AND we saw two more bears! These guys were closer to the trail but we never felt threatened as we announced our presence and they both seem to acknowledge us and just wander away... Fine by us!

We had a great time swimming and exploring all up and down the trail. Both my boys and I have been along this trail before but it's always fun to come back!!

I did a solo trip on the Devils Dome loop.  I had it at about 43 miles with over 10,000 feet of elevation gain.  I ended up doing it clockwise because the Devils Creek camp area was already booked for my planned second night, but available on the first night. I think this direction was probably harder as most of the climbing was concentrated in a single (middle) day, and the approaches to many of these climbs was over more loose/unstable tread than their respective descents.

Day 1 – East Bank Trail: 12.5 miles, ~1000 feet elevation gain/loss.  Started at the East Bank trailhead because of the reported outage of the Canyon Creek bridge.  Drop down from the trailhead to a pleasant walk in the woods.  Most of the East Bank trail is on a wide, stable tread that meanders through the woods well away from the lake.  There were no particular obstacles on the trail, although there was one section where the trail had a minor collapse through an area supported by a retaining wall (see picture).  This was still easily passable, but might present an issue for stock.  I didn’t have my first view of the lake until over 7 miles in, although the last 3 miles or so run along a ledge overlooking the lake. The Devils Creek hiker camp has 3 sites each with room for 3-4 tents.  There is a small stream for water adjacent to the stock camp.  Access to the lake was another ½ mile to the Devils Junction boater camp. Water level is very low, so the (brand new) dock at the boater camp is well above the lake.  There are a few other hiker camps along the way to Devils Creek, and boater camps, but the boater camps are all closed.

Day 2 – Devils Dome Trail: 16.5 miles, ~7500 feet of climb.  The climbing starts immediately out of camp and continues at a steady grade for about 4 miles, then kicks up a bit steeper for the next mile and a half.  There were not obstacles on the trail for the first 4 miles, then a few downed trees for the steeper section. After about 5 ½ miles from the Devils Creek campground, you level off a bit and reach an area with a few camps sites, but no apparent water source.  Less than ¼ mile after that is a side trail (may be difficult to spot) to the Dry Creek shelter which, reportedly, has water, but I did not investigate.  Then you begin a gradual ascent to Devils Dome.  There is a nice campsite along a small creek in the bowl below the dome.  After this campsite, the climb steepens, and the footing becomes mostly loose rock and uneven tread.  The final climb to the dome top took longer than I expected because of the loose rock, the steeper grade, and the surplus of opportunities to stop and take pictures.  There is small campsite on top of the dome where someone has built a rock wall presumedly as a wind break.  There is no water. 

After the dome, there is a gradual descent on mostly stable tread and then little elevation change until Devils Pass.  There were not any obstacles on the trail until about ½ mile before Devils Pass.  There as no snow on the trail.  There was a small campsite at Devils Pass, but, again, no apparent water source.  From Devils Pass, continue for another 2 ½ miles on the Jackita Ridge trail, with little elevation change, until you approach the North Fork of Devils Creek.  To get across the creek, you first lose, and then gain back 1000 feet of elevation all within about 1 ½ miles. There are few camp sites before crossing the creek that have access to water.  After crossing the creek, the trail climbs steeply, and the few additional sites shown on the (latest) Green Trails map are well above the creek and did not have any apparent water sources.  The next site with water is about 2/3 mile after finishing the climb and is situated between 2 small creeks.  It has room for 1 or 2 tents.  I was grateful that it was unoccupied when I got there.

Day 3 – Jackita Ridge to Ruby Creek: 15 miles, ~2000 feet of climb. The trail starts climbing immediately out of camp, again, and rolls along four about a mile before it starts to zig-zag up a scree field to a saddle along Jackita Ridge at 6800 feet. It then descends gradually to Devils Park in the midst of broad basin/meadow area.  I didn’t take the time to explore, but Devils Park appeared to have, at least, 4-5 established camp sites with room for multiple tents each. After Devils part, the trail loses about 800 feet of elevation over the next two miles and then rolls between 5000 and 5200 feet for another 2 miles to the intersection with the Crater Lake trail.  After the Crater Lake trail, Jackita Ridge loses 3200 feet over 4 miles of relentless switchbacks with stable though sometimes overgrown tread.  There were a number of downed trees on the section, but nothing that required much of an extra effort to get over or around.

At the bottom, the trail intersects with the Ruby Creek trail.  Although the Canyon Creek bridge is out, you can get across the creek, without getting your feet wet.  A downed tree makes it possible to get to the remains of the bridge and finish the crossing. I, nonetheless, continued along Ruby Creek.

I understand the Ruby Creek trail is no longer maintained, and it is clearly in need of some love.  It apparently does not see a lot of traffic, but it was generally easy to follow and only had a few obstacles along the way. The noise of the creek competed with the noise of Highway 20 while the trail rolled along for the next 3+ miles until finally delivering you to an intact bridge across the creek at the intersection with the East Bank trail.