Hiking Idaho’s Seven Devils

Idaho’s Seven Devils – Getting Ready

In truth, it seems, I’m a follower. My good friend Amanda hiked the Ruby Crest Trail several years ago, and it sounded like a great idea. My wife and I later planned and made that trip and it was so profoundly awesome for us. So imagine my thought process when Amanda shared her stories of Idaho’s Seven Devils hike? You guessed it…we started talking about it and that eventually led to planning. Thanks so much Amanda!!

My daughter Amanda (different Amanda) is an athlete and an outdoor enthusiast, so we figured maybe she’d be in for a multi-day hike in her new home state. She quickly accepted the invitation and suddenly this trip was far more real. For better or worse, it looked like it was on!

Idaho’s Seven Devils – What?

Idaho’s Seven Devils are the seven tallest peaks east of Hell’s Canyon in Idaho. He Devil Peak forms the tallest rim above the deepest gorge in North America. It’s six counterparts form the guts of the Seven Devils mountains and form the core of a scenic loop trail. The loop trail in its simplest form is advertised at about 26 miles and generally runs between 6,000 and 8,000 feet above sea level for most of its path.

In addition to the loop trail, there are about a half-dozen connecting trails that lead in various directions of the compass out away from the Devils. There are also a number of trails that lead internal to the loop, most notably the trail in to Sheep Lake. With so many trails available to a hiker, there are great day-trip adventures and the area could be milked into a week-long adventure if you so desired.

Where to Start?

In preparing for the Seven Devils hike, we had so many questions. The most important consideration was determining the days we had available and the best route to take. For instance, I wanted to see Dry Diggins Lookout, and my daughter wanted to see Sheep Lake. We agreed we wanted to do the loop instead of piecing together hikes on the north end, but the next task was to try to plan days.

It took us a number of attempts, but eventually we settled on a series of trails and camps that would use four days and range between 30 and 36 miles. No problem! Actually, big problem…my wife and I had zero interest in the 36-mile option, and my daughter didn’t want to extend her 36 miles to take in our desires. So, as with any family disagreement, we compromised.

Our Plan

We decided that our whole team, including Amanda and her friend Mark, would start together and hike until Iron Phone Junction. At that point, Tammy and I would turn west toward Dry Diggins and Amanda and Mark would head for Sheep Lake. Our loop was shorter and so we figured to reach Hibb’s Cow Camp a bit ahead of them. Then we would aim for camp at Echo Lake on day 1. From there, we hoped to make Haas Lake on a difficult day 2.

From Haas, the plan was to end day 3 at Cannon Lake and make for an “easy” day four back to the truck. Sounds so simple, and in reality it probably was a good plan to start with. We’d originally planned to get to the Windy Saddle campground on Thursday night and sleep in our trucks in the parking lot. I saw an opportunity to maybe get down the trail a little ways if we arrived early enough Thursday night, so I kept that as an option that sounded better than sleeping in the parking lot.

Gear

I hate packing crap on my back, so I am always all about lightening my load to the max. Our packs are the ultralight Osprey versions, Atmos and Aura. My Atmos 50 seems to bring everything I need for a three to five-day hike, and my wife’s Aura 50 likewise fits her needs. Together, those packs have supported us on three and four-day hikes and it is obvious they are enough for us for extended days. In summer we pack our light 30-degree down bags that weigh in at about two pounds each, and our light 2.5 inch thick Exped synmat UL7s round out the sleep systems.

We have a Big Agnes Seedhouse UL 3-man tent that doesn’t set us back even four pounds and has room for our packs and golden retriever. I get by in the summer for clothing with one Columbia button-up, a pair of Prana convertible shorts/pants, one or two pairs of Ex-Officio boxers and some super-light poly sleep wear. I splurge and bring two pairs of socks so I always have one clean and dry and one on my feet. Trekking poles, a washcloth, toothbrush, a water filter, and a few other doo-dads keep my pack light.

Food

This is controversial, but my wife and I don’t cook when we hike. We check the label on all kinds of ready-to-eat foods including: macadamias, walnuts, trail mix, paleo-snacks, nut-based granola bars, dark chocolate, nut-based snacks, and a few select candy bars. Jerky is the lone treat that isn’t calorie-dense. We’ve been targeting as close to 200 calories per ounce as we can get and we get pretty picky when the tally gets south of 150 calories per ounce.

We take a lot of crap from the Jet-Boil crowd, but we simply pack as light as possible. This isn’t about creature-comforts on the trail. We are all about keeping it light and getting the hike done with our bodies intact. Including about 2,500 calories per day of assorted trail food and the tent, my pack weighed in at a svelt 27 pounds with a full 2.5 liter water bladder. My wife opted to bring more comforts like insect repellents, and other stuff, bringing her tentless pack up to 26 pounds with a full 2.5 liter water bladder.

Getting Started

We started our preparation by reading web articles on the Seven Devils and then graduated to buying a few good hiking books. Finally, I bought the book Hiking Idaho’s Seven Devils, by Gary D. Jones at the Boise REI. This book had the appropriate level of detail for our hike. It made planning and decision-making so much easier and even added enough information to help out with camp sites. This is a big deal in the Seven Devils. Camp sites aren’t that easy to come by and can make or screw up the end of the day for you.

Key to us was figuring out how many miles we wanted to do per day and in aggregate. The minimum loop is around 26 miles, and we could smorgasbord up from there. My experience on the Ruby Crest Trail told me that hikes are like a smorgasbord in one way: Google Earth and maps let your eyes be bigger than your stomach (or boots in this case). My wife and I decided we would allow four days to do no more than 34 miles and we wanted to keep total elevation gain/loss to around 2,000 feet per day or less of each. As I said, my daughter wanted to see Sheep Lake and she generally is a huge fan of high mountain lakes. My wife and I are more about getting the damned trip done and enjoying the sites of the trail. Adding miles to take side jaunts just wasn’t much on our agenda.

Last-Minute Planning        

We reached a compromise. Amanda would go with the plan of us splitting up at the Iron Phone Junction. They’d do the 6.2 extra miles of Sheep Lake and we’d do the extra 3.5 miles of Dry Diggins lookout. Amanda agreed it would be good if we could leave Boise mid-afternoon on Thursday and shoot for the 4.1 miles to Sheep Creek on Thursday night to cheat and get a head start.

As it stood we would do the following legs of Idaho’s Seven Devils trails:

• Windy Saddle to Sheep Creek, Thursday.
• Split up at Iron Phone and reconnect at Hibbs Cow Camp before heading to camp at Echo Lake or Baldy, depending on our energy levels, Friday.
• Make it to Haas Lake on Saturday.
• Camp at Cannon Lake on Sunday night.
• Be at the truck in Windy Saddle before noon on Monday.

Check it out to see if our Idaho’s Seven Devils hike went according to plan! Part 2 Part 3