Jackita Ridge, Devil's Ridge & East Bank Ross Lake — Sunday, Aug. 1, 2010

North Cascades > North Cascades Highway - Hwy 20

In search of a challenging “couples” hike for my wife and I, we scoured the trip reports and decided on a counterclockwise trip of the Devil’s Dome Loop. It is 43 miles of ridge lines, sentinel-like mountains, and plenty of elevation gain: over 7,300 feet total. We did it in four hardy days, but a strong hiker could do it in three if they had to (but I don’t know why you would want to hurry it). Day 1: (7 miles) Day one began with a quick stop at the USFS ranger station in Winthrop. We obtained a free backcountry permit required for all overnight stays along Ross Lake (for the last night of the trip). After obtaining our permit, we headed down Highway 20 to the Canyon Creek TH (1900 feet) and hit the trail around 10 a.m. After bridging Granite Creek and Canyon Creek, take the trail to the right. The trail gains a grueling 3400 feet in just 4 miles. We had to stop multiple times for breaks and to take cover from rain and thunder storms that greeted us along the way. At the top, McMillan Park lives up to its name. It’s tempting to stop and enjoy the lush grounds that almost appear manicured, but you’ll get eaten alive by clouds of happy fat mosquitoes. After McMillan Pass, head down into a valley and up again. It’s a little bit of a roller-coaster ride. We finally arrived at the Devil Park Shelter, 7 miles, 5800 feet. With it still raining, we decided to call it a day. We dried out under the shelter and even had a visit from a very friendly deer. Day 2: (14.5 miles) We woke up to blue skies and a beautiful day. We headed up Jackita Ridge and followed it as it meandered up and down. The views are impressive and the wildflowers were gorgeous. Eventually, the trail heads across a large rock slide. Although the official trail is missing, an easy to navigate trail is clearly visible heading down into and eventually out of this watershed. As you drop into the next watershed, obvious avalanche damage has obscured the trail a bit, but a few cairns mark the way as you start to climb once again, arriving at Devil’s Pass. A large youth group was camping at the trail crossing, so we didn’t linger and pushed on for Devils’ Dome. We turned left onto Devil’s Ridge trail no. 752. Note: there is no water between Devils Dome and Devils Pass. By mid-afternoon, we had arrived at the highest spot on the trail, Devil’s Dome, elevation 6982. All day long, the views of Jack Mountain are stunning as your traverse around its east and north side. Descending the other side of Devil’s Dome, a stream emerges and eventually opens out into a little shelf about a mile from the summit – here there are plenty of campsites and we picked the best of the lot and had the place to ourselves. Day 3: (5.5 miles) Day three began the long, long descent down to Ross Lake. It is 5.5 miles and 4500 feet down. This part of the trail is the least well maintained. Lots of foliage had overgrown the trail. The day was spent hacking at branches, sweating along the south facing trail, and slowly making our way down the trail. Our knees thanked us when we arrived at the East Bank Trail in the afternoon and spent the night at Devil’s Creek Campground. The campground was one of the larger campgrounds, but others a little further down the trail are nicer and closer to the water. This campground is actually about 500 feet above the lake and had limited views, but it does come equipped with a pit toilet. There is a trail down to the water and we spent some time cooling off and washing out sweaty garments. The camp spot reservation proved a necessity here as the camp was FULL. Take this to heart if you think you can just waltz into a Ross Lake spot – even on a Monday night! Day 4: (16 miles) Day four saw 16 miles of steady, flat, and soft trail between us and the car. Though still creaky a bit from the previous days’ descent, the East Ross Bank Trail is lazy and easy, with only one 500 ft ascent. With the thunderstorms resurgent and threatening, we actually decided to dump our packs at the Panther Cr, TH and hustled the last three miles sans-gear as the clouds opened up and gave us (probably necessary) shower. A quick 3-min drive back to get out packs and it was done.