Devil's Dome Loop, Jackita Ridge, East Bank Ross Lake & Devil's Ridge — Tuesday, Jul. 9, 2019

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.