Set out with a couple intrepid friends to do the Devils Dome loop over four days with a primary goal of celebrating one of their birthday's on the dome. We snagged a permit for the Devils Creek CG, so the overarching plan was to take the loop counter-clockwise with two longer, harder days followed by a short, easy day and one final longer day hiking out along the lake. 

Day 1: East Bank TH to Devils Park shelter

After picking up our permit, we departed from the East Bank TH, in part due to the bridge being out at the Canyon Creek TH. On a Tuesday, there were only a few other cars there mid morning when we arrived. The TH is right off of Hwy 20, so it is easily accessible. First part of the hike rolls along the creek and is relatively easy and straightforward. It is quite brushy (a theme for the trip), and despite some weed-whacking with trekking poles, there is still a lot of pushing through some thick brush. Nevertheless, the trail is easy enough to follow. There is a section of the trail that is largely washed out along the river, and while it is passable now, it would not take much for that entire section to disappear, which would cause some significant access problems. There are a number of blowdowns along this section, but all are passable one way or another although some require creativity when you have a full pack (the most difficult one perhaps being the one that took out the Canyon Creek bridge). The trail climbs quickly and steadily after passing Canyon Creek TH and continues to be brushy at many points. Once we reached McMillan Park, the bugs became pretty bad, and there is significant water on the trail. Be prepared with bug spray and waterproof boots, but it is incredibly beautiful otherwise. The rain we had avoided all day started just as we left McMillan Park to climb towards Devils Park. We managed to stay relatively dry and reach the shelter there, which we were grateful to have to ourselves. The shelter is in decent shape, although the roof has seen some better days and the cots have lots of nails sticking out. We elected to set up our tents (two could fit on dirt the floor side by side) to provide some respite from the bugs, to save our sleeping pads from puncturing on nails on the cot, and to ensure protection from the rain. We needed rain flys due to the holes in the roof, although our gear which was on the cots did stay dry. The water source behind the shelter is great and there is a hammer in the shelter to dig catholes. 

Day 2: Devils Park Shelter to Devils Dome

After some heavier rain during the night, the morning was mostly light drizzle mixed with patches of blue sky. Climbing out of Devils Park, the views and the wildflowers become utterly spectacular. This section along the Jackita Ridge trail is undulating and works gradually around a few shoulders along the ridge taking you up and over and then down into the valley with a few creek crossings. Nothing difficult, and the water sources are plentiful and strong for the time being. This section is again very brushy and with the rain, it made for very wet hiking and wet boots, socks and legs. There are a couple small snow patches to cross, nothing difficult or dangerous, however. The largest one was maybe 100-150ft long and we plunge stepped or pseudo-glissaded easily enough although I could see climbing up from the other direction being a tad tricky. I would imagine these patches will be gone within the next few weeks. We did not stop for water at the spring below Devils Pass as we had enough and wanted to try to exploit a window of clear weather to get to the top of the dome and set up camp before more rain blew in. There is no good water between the pass and the top of the dome, but there is a good water source just beyond the dome about 1/4-1/2 mile as the trail begins to drop back down towards Ross Lake, so we used this for our time on the dome. We had the dome to ourselves and set up camp in the established site. We squeezed in two tents and looking around there were 1-2 other smaller sites that would be usable without harming the meadow. The wildflowers on the dome are going full bore and we lucked out as the clouds cleared up enough to start getting some spectacular views in almost all directions. The night itself was very windy, which made sleeping interesting to say the least. 

Day 3: Devils Dome to Devils Creek CG

We woke up at 4:30 to catch a magnificent sunrise and then went back and took naps until about 8:30 since we had a short, easy day all downhill to the CG. We left the dome around noon as the uplift socked us in again and made our way downhill, stopping to appreciate more incredible views and wildflowers. I think I lost my spork on top of the dome, so if anyone finds it, please pack it out on my behalf, I don't like breaking LNT principles but didn't notice it was missing until we got all the way down to the lake. Along the way down we stopped to try to help clear a particularly bad blow down section. I relived some Pasayten BCRT moments by hauling one of the trees well off the trail and then managed to break enough branches off the larger one to allow hikers to get under it. This should decommission the little route around trail and allow hikers to use the proper trail again. We took the last remaining campsite in the hiker's section of the Devils Creek CG and had a leisurely afternoon complete with a nice swim in the rather depleted Ross Lake. We had some visitors to our campground in the form of 2 beautiful bucks with full racks who were not at all bothered by our presence.

Day 4: Devils Creek CG to East Bank TH

A long mileage day, but easy terrain. We left around 8:30 and made good time. The trail is again quite brushy, but it is a pleasant hike along the lake. We were finished by early afternoon and took time to soak in the creek before heading back home, tired but very happy.

Overall, this is a fantastic loop with incredible views, even with a little rain. We never got the full clearing to see 360* at the dome, but with the constantly changing clouds, it was truly spectacular nonetheless. Water along the route is currently not an issue as there are plentiful sources at regular intervals all along the loop. I'm not sure how many are seasonal, so this may change, but for at least the next few weeks, water sources shouldn't be an issue. 

My 8yo and I took the Ross Lake Resort water taxi from hwy 20 to Hozomeen Camp, on July 6. We then through-hiked to our water taxi pickup at May Creek on July 9. We stayed three nights, at Hozomeen Lake, Deerlick stock camp and Devil's Creek stock camp.

Everything was wonderful, including the weather. Some salient points:

• Water level is low on Ross Lake! Lots of exposed stumps of trees. It's a hike down to the water from all the boat camps, all of which are closed for camping.
• Water taxi was able to get us within a mile of Hozomeen Camp, and picked us up just down the hill from May Creek boat camp.
• Hardly any bugs. Just a few around Devil's Creek stock camp (none at Ross Lake near there).
• Trail was in great shape. There was an eroded bit between Devil's Creek and May Creek, but it was well-shored-up.
• We were permitted for Devil's Creek hiker camp, but there was a large group there that was probably using more space (i.e., all of it) than they were permitted for. The stock camp was just fine, though.

Hiked a short 3 miles in to the Hidden Hand Campground for a night. It was a steady up and down trail without too steep of elevation the whole way. Take the .5 mile path to the Ross Lake Outlook. Very beautiful!

Completed devil's dome loop on July 5th. The June 16th trip report described the trail well, so I won't repeat it. The snow is essentially gone, just a couple patches. Parking at east bank is the way to go, so you don't have to ford the river.

There were quite a few blow downs and the trail was fairly overgrown in sections. This didn't make the trail hard to find or interfere too much with the experience, but it was difficult to run some of the overgrown sections and so my time was a couple hours slower than I expected for the miles and vert profile.

Also, there were a number of unmarked trail junctions, so be sure to have a reliable map!

The two of us spent 6-days hiking the Canyon Creek variation of the Seven Pass loop, which means Sky Pilot, Holman, Woody, Hopkins, and Castle passes plus the gorgeous and challenging Big Face Basin, ~75 miles total.  If you like walking the ridges, this trip is worth your time.  We started and ended at the Canyon Creek Trailhead on Hwy 20.  Note:  As of July 4th, 2019 both the Jackita Ridge and Canyon Creek trails were "officially" closed. Both were passable in spite of the closures.  Read on for details and make your own decisions.  The wildflowers were near peak in the alpine.  Beyond a salt-curious deer on the East Bank trail, we did not see any significant wildlife, though we saw fresh bear scat every day.  Aside from the few miles where our route hit the hiking superhighway that is the Pacific Crest Trail, we had the wilderness all to ourselves.  We probably saw 150 hikers on the PCT and only 2 other people the other 60 miles of the trip.  In terms of equipment, we were happy to have carried good sandals for the fords at Cascade, Holman, and Big Face Creeks.  We also carried ice axes and crampons based on a previous trip to the Devils Dome area at this time of year, but they proved totally unnecessary the first week of July in 2019.  I wish that I'd thought to use PCT Holman-Castle trip reports as a proxy for snow conditions on the Three Fools and Center Mountain ridges.

Day One.  Canyon Creek Trail to Chancellor (trail 754, 9 miles), there was conflicting information on the web and at the trailhead as to whether trail 754 was open.  Even the Sedro-Wooley forest service office couldn't offer definitive information.  The more official looking signs indicated that the trail had been closed indefinitely since 2011 from Macmillan Creek to Cedar Crossing, but handwritten notes stated that the trail was repaired in April 2019 so we decided to risk this route (as we had already hiked beautiful Jackita Ridge on a previous trip around Devils Dome.)  The Canyon Creek trail to Chancellor is in surprisingly good shape (wide with excellent tread, mostly clear of blowdowns) in spite of its long closure.  I expected a flat, forested valley trail, but Canyon Creek trail has enough ups and downs and peekaboo views that I'll be keeping it in mind as an early season hike in the future.  It's not called "Canyon" Creek for nothing; at many points the trail tops canyon walls hundreds of feet above the water.  The signage at the MacMillan bridge sternly indicated that the trail was closed from there to Cedar Crossing, but as the bridge was intact, we continued, figuring that we would turn around if we hit any serious obstacle.  The trail turns left immediately after crossing the MacMillan creek bridge. (The right hand trail leads to a decent camp above the creek).  The trail between MacMillan and Cedars Crossing traverses multiple rock slide paths with steep drops into the canyon (presumably the reason for trail closure).  I would not take a horse on this section, but the tread seemed stable enough for people, even to a height-and-exposure-averse hiker like myself.  Just after the Cedars Crossing bridge there is an active slide area and the trail is unstable for 30-50 feet, it's only a few feet above the creek so we risked a soaking (note a slip here would be dangerous during spring runoff).  Continue on a couple miles and there is a fine camp just to the right after the bridge crossing to the old Chancellor trailhead.

Day Two. Chancellor to Holman Pass (trails 754 / 752 / 2000, 10.1 miles) Expect wet feet and a bit of route-finding (look for cairns) at the Cascade Creek ford just before you start the switchbacks up Center Mountain.  The tread is faint but fairly easy to follow.  We lost it a few times in the alpine meadows, but always regained it within a minute or two.  Beautiful ridge walking starts here.  The final mile of trail 752 from Sky Pilot to Holman Pass was the most challenging part of our entire trip.  MAJOR old growth blowdowns to clamber over, under, and around, plus the trail was brushy and overgrown thus hard to follow and made significantly less fun by a downpour. (This section of 752 could be a candidate for the WTA Lost Trails project.)  After two days of solitude we were shocked to encounter 10-15 tents at the uninspiring and waterless PCT camp at Holman Pass and wished that we had stopped at the pretty little camp just after the stream crossing early in the descent down to Holman Creek ~5400 ft.  The Holman Pass shelter has collapsed into an unusable den.

Day Three. PCT from Holman Pass to Castle Pass (trail 2000, 13.8 miles)  Gorgeous, gorgeous section of the Pacific Crest Trail.  We were amazed at the number of thru-hikers and trail runners.  We learned that many north-to-south PCT hikers hitch to Harts Pass and hike up to the Canadian border to touch the monument and then double-back for their long trip south. That meant that the uninspiring and buggy Castle Pass camp was crowded with tents shoulder-to-shoulder.  To get water, we hiked about 5 minutes north from Castle Pass on the PCT and then bushwacked a minute off trail into the Route Creek drainage.  If you have the energy, max out your water capacity and forge on about 2 miles farther on the Three Fools trail to solitude at a beautiful, though waterless camp in the meadows at ~6400 feet.

Day Four. Castle Pass to Little Fish Shelter.  (trail 749, 14.1 miles) In the morning, we were happy to escape the shared snoring, farting, and shuffling in the dark that is a PCT camp.  We spent a few minutes locating the Three Fools trail out of Castle Pass among all the bathroom trails of this camp and quickly returned to ridge walking.  Great views for hours in the alpine and through the old burns.  Tread is faint but easy to follow until the final switchbacks down to Big Face Creek.  There is a decent-looking camp in the woods just before (eastside) of the ford.  Trail is hard to follow from Big Face Creek around the low traverse of the Joker Mountain shoulder and back up the drainage.  We lost the trail in the meadows and finally just hiked uphill until we found it again.  I think that the real trail stays to the right of the main watercourse until it hits a small rock face and starts traversing left.  Once back above treeline, the tread returns to faint-but-obvious and the lovely ridge walk resumes.  The descent from 6600’ on the Skagit Peak ridge down to Three Fools Creek at 2900’ is painful.  Ow. Ow. Ow for thousands of steps.  There are some blowdowns but the trail is not hard to follow.  It was a treat to soak our feet at the creekside camp about a mile west from the end of the switchbacks.  Note, while the camp is signed Little Fish Shelter, only scraps of structure remain.  To be clear, this is a different camp from the similarly-named Little Fish Camp a few miles farther on.

Day Five. Little Fish Shelter to May Creek (trails 749, East Bank, 16.8 miles) Mixed day of forest and lakeside trails seemed flat after the previous day's exertions.  The shelter at Little Fish Camp has a new roof but it is locked up tight with all openings nailed shut.  We had originally planned to cheat and use the Ross Lake water taxi for our return, but low lake levels and no answer on the resort phone conspired to give us the full loop.  The East Bank trail above Ross Lake is a glorious work of trail engineering.

Day Six. May Creek to Canyon Creek Trailhead.  (trails East Bank and Ruby Creek, 10.7 miles)  It is satisfying to complete a loop, but this was the least interesting trail day.  The Ruby Creek section parallels highway 20 so the final miles are more car noise than creek babble.  Sometimes the trail is at eye level with the highway and you can easily see the faces of the drivers.  The Jackita Ridge trail (738) bridge over Canyon Creek was crushed by a fallen tree over the winter 2018-19.  My husband chose dry feet and a serious balancing act to cross using the aforementioned fallen tree and broken bridge.  I chose to pull out my sandals and ford the creek instead.  In this low-snow year, fording the creek just downstream of the bridge was challenging but doable in early July.  Safety reminder, if you chose to ford, don't forget to undo your waist and sternum straps so that you can slip out of your pack in the event of a fall.  Happy trails!