East Bank Ross Lake — Thursday, May. 24, 2007

North Cascades > North Cascades Highway - Hwy 20

We had decided to take a boat taxi up the East Bank of Ross Lake and hike from one camp to another, exploring the mid to upper stretches of the area. The weather was fair as we reached rainbow point camp. With the lake being down the campground sits on a narrow hilltop above the lake with three campsites. This is a pleasant place but not great. The next day we backpacked up the trail to devil's Junction, where there are hiker camps and one boat camp. This stretch of trail is quite scenic as it skirts the rock cliffs above the lake. There is a beautiful gorge as you cross a suspension bridge before Devil's Junction. The next day we headed up toward Lightning Creek. This stretch of trail is wooded with more creeklets and water then the stretch between Rainbow and Devil's Junction. There is a footlog over Dry creek that is a little narrow with no rail. It is about 25 ft long, 6 to 8 ft above the raging creek and about 10 inches wide with the top roughly planed sort of flat not particularly slippery. Over all this is a great early season hike. The boat Taxi was fun, a little spendy. $40 dollars for Rainbow and $60 dollars for Devils and $70 dollars for Lightning Creek. This is one way fare. You can rent kayaks for 40 dollars a day or hike the whole way. Roland creek is a difficult crossing. We talked to two young hikers who found it challenging. Find your own log or whatever. Roland and Dry creeks are too dangerous to ford at this time. After the water taxi dropped us off near Ross Dam we headed one mile up and up to the parking lot. Very pleasant trip. Off to the Buffalo Run Restaurant for lunch!