Hiking Idaho’s Seven Devils – Trail Begins

We Start

With our Seven Devils plans solidified, we piled together in one truck and set out from Boise. A 1:00 pm departure got us to the trailhead at 5:00. We passed through McCall and New Meadows on our way with light traffic. Another 45 minutes on a combined paved and gravel road had us at Windy Saddle shortly before 5:00 pm. Be darned careful on the road from Riggins to Windy Saddle. There are dogs and cats and deer and people’s homes on the lower section. The upper section is narrow and you will meet people coming around blind corners!

We geared up and donned our packs at Windy Saddle and set out to the west behind the outhouse. No metaphor here, I hope. No matter which way you leave the Windy Saddle parking lot, you will start out going downhill, and our goal was to reach the West Fork of Sheep Creek before dark. We figured if we could get the first few miles in on Thursday evening, we’d give ourselves some comfort in finishing the trek in 4.x days. It turns out the 3.8 or so miles to Sheep Creek was an easy down-up-down hike and before we knew it we were in our “day zero” (we couldn’t count it as day one really) camp.

Sheep Creek to Iron Phone Junction (and beyond)

The camp at Sheep Creek was very flat and easy to set up on just barely north of the stream crossing. There was room for several tents, allowing us to pick two nice flat sites. Many mosquitoes buzzed us, but none really attacked…at least until the morning when Amanda got zapped while breaking camp. The camp here is lovely, and wildflowers abounded. We started off in the morning and the first mile or so was easy and cool. A final warm climb to Iron Phone Junction had us exposed and wishing for more shade.

We started to really notice the Seven Devils wildflowers. Not only were they everywhere, they were so varied and spectacular. This theme continued every day. At Iron Phone, Tammy and I decided to change plans. We’d planned to head to Dry Diggins Lookout from there, but realized by only adding a mile to our hike, we could do most of that part of the loop without packs! We hiked to the Lily Pad Lake turnoff where Amanda and Mark dropped their packs for the 6.2 mile round trip to Sheep Lake and back. Tammy and I continued on to the Hibbs/Dry Diggins junction and dropped our own packs under a shady evergreen.

Dry Diggins Lookout and Hibbs Cow Camp

We made our way quickly to the high point a mile or so short of Dry Diggins Lookout. As we descended the zig-zags down through trees toward the saddle, I started to be a bit concerned about our timing. Nevertheless, we finished our climb in the warm sun and a little thirsty up to the Dry Diggins Lookout. The view was worth every step, as we enjoyed the 360-degree views of the Snake River in Hells Canyon and the many peaks of the Seven Devils. I wished we had more time to stop and smell the roses here, but we (as usual) were on a schedule.

We startled what could only have been a herd of elk as we neared our packs. Dust and hoofbeats in the trees gave us our only clues, but I’ve been around deer, elk, sheep, horses, and cows enough to know this was an elk event! We found some tracks in the trail that weren’t deer, so may have been bighorn sheep or mountain goat. We were very thirsty getting back to our packs but made it into Hibbs Cow Camp ahead of Amanda to find a dusty dry clearing with remains of a chimney. Not too appealing at first glance, but crossing the clearing to the west yielded what has to be the coldest spring water I’ve ever slurped! The icy cold water was so sweet and our wetter shirts made us shiver briefly. The other half of our team joined us about 20 minutes behind and took their turn at the spring.

Night One Camp : Echo Lake

We hiked off from Hibbs well refreshed; however, we had already hiked about 7 and 10 miles respectively for the day and it was beginning to look like our hope of getting to Baldy Lake might be in jeopardy. While new wildflowers kept us company, the late afternoon sun spoke to us and we all heard “Echo Lake” loud and clear. Now, one thing you need to know about Idaho’s Seven Devils is camping spots always add extra miles at the end of long days. We found this out on our trudge up to Echo Lake.

As we neared the halfway point of switchbacks up to Echo, we heard hikers coming fast behind us. Knowing that getting a good camping spot might depend on the race up to the lake, Tammy and I fell back and let the other half of the team race to the top. We did get one of the few nice spots at Echo, and we enjoyed watching Amanda fly fish that evening before bed. The fished jumped all around her fly, but no takers. This was a beautiful camp and the lake made for some epic scenery with He Devil and Mount Belial looming over us. For those who want more adventure, there are four more named lakes above Echo…I have no idea how good the trails might be, but the USGS map shows one to He Devil Lake. Good luck!

Full Day Two : Echo Lake to Haas Lake

Day two, Tammy and I set out early to take advantage of the predawn and early morning shade. We ate breakfast on the trail. The trip up to Baldy Lake was warmer than we anticipated, and so we kept a slow pace and waited for the team to join us at that trail head. We slogged on all day in some beautiful country that was (every day) so full of wildflowers. We trudged up and begrudgingly hiked down. Overall, the day was mostly up, and as we neared the scree/cliff saddle at the southernmost point of the trip, again here came our hiking friends behind us.

Same battle plan and we divided to make sure we’d keep a good pace and get a good camping spot. This time, however, Tammy and I put the pedal down a bit and were able to relink our team at the summit. The last bit was hot and rocky and we had to climb around two extra-steep snow drifts to make the saddle. We were truly starting feel the effort and figured we had very little work left to make it to Haas Lake. Wrong. The rocky hot trail to Haas kept us frustrated. When we finally got to the Haas “trailhead” we found out it was more of a mapping effort than anything we could see.

Haas Lake Camp

We boondocked our way into Haas Lake, climbing over deadfall trees, which had us doubting the existence of the lake. This was a secluded and beautiful little lake with minimal signs of camping. We camped on the west end of the lake on the dry portion of a muddy beach. We were able to do some wading out to waist-deep cold mountain water and do some much needed laundry chores. Taking a bath and doing laundry made for an awesome end to a long day, and we settled in to munch some food.

The night proved eventful, with a serious lightning display accompanied by wind and rain. It was only stormy twice in the night for about 20 minutes each, but we were thankful we installed the rainflies on the first sign of storms. Packing up the next morning, Tammy noticed a huge canine track in the mud above our camp. The cobwebs in it told us it was weeks old, but the size of it was nearly as big as my hand. A little googling showed me that it was almost certainly a wolf track, which made the trip a little more intriguing.

Setting off on Seven Devils Full Day Three

I realized I’d blown out some heel seams on my Kenetreks. I was some preoccupied by this, but just kept on. As usual, we just ate a snack after packing up camp in the predawn light. We always hit the trail well before sunup to take advantage of the cool time of day when we hike. We had time to take in the many additional brands of wildflowers on this section of trail. Curious ground squirrels in the grassy burns of this part of the hike kept us smiling.

Amanda and I had “discussed” our plans for Seven Devils Day 3 while at Haas Lake camp. Camping at Cannon Lake would add about 1.5 or up to 2.0 miles to our overall trip. I proposed maybe we finish the whole trip from Haas Lake to Windy Saddle in one day. She was looking forward to another lakeside camp. We agreed we’d make a game-day decision at the time we reached the Cannon Lake trail head. Pizza in McCall might be the final enticing piece of the puzzle. We’ll let you in on the outcome in Part 3!

Part 1 Part 3