Seven Devils

Day 1

With Allan and Amanda’s drive from Colorado taking longer than expected we were behind schedule right from the start. We made it to the trailhead around 4:30 pm on Wednesday July 4^th.

We started the hike by walking through a well maintained trail even though in recent years most of the trees had been burned by a wildfire. We even stopped at a nice rock over hang to have a rock climbing lesson from Allan. The final mile or so we were hiking in the dark, but we were able to find the campsite with only minor problems 8.6 miles from the trailhead. The only problem we had was finding the lake we were supposed to be camping beside. But after we set up the tents and hung the bear bags we realized we were about 10 feet from the lake edge. Doh.

Day 2

The next morning we were slow moving, but we filled up on breakfast, checked out the lake, and plotted out our hike for the day. Our first destination was Sheep Lake, which meant climbing about 1,000 feet in elevation in a few miles. As we climbed we were able to have incredible views of Gem Lake and Shelf Lake (Lake behind the group in the picture below).

But once we finally made it, Amanda, Allan, Brian and the dogs enjoyed the cold lake water and went for a quick swim.

Afterwards, we ate lunch and decided Allan would go check out the Lookout Point a few miles off course. Allan got an early start and headed back up the mountain, while Amanda, Brian and I slowly recovered and prepared for our long day still ahead of us.

We did realize the further we went on the main trail, the less maintained it became. Therefore, we were taking a lot of time climbing over the many fallen trees that were blocking the trail. After struggling through the blazing temperatures, intense sun, and shadeless terrain, we finally reached a nice wooden section. We realized the trail split so we decided to sit and wait for Allan to ensure he didn’t get lost. About 15 minutes after we stopped, Allan met up with us. Instead of climbing all the way up to the lookout point, he turned around early to meet us. As a group, we headed down to a stream about 100 yards off the trail, filled up our water bottles and ate some dinner.

After dinner, we headed to the He Devil Trail which climbed another 500 feet in elevation. With a long day behind us, our legs were feeling every step we took. Thankfully, we made it to He Devil Lake just in time for the sunset and were able to set up the tents and start a fire before it got dark. In total, we hiked about 13 miles on day two.

Day 3

We woke up sore and tired, but we knew we had another long day ahead of us. We ate breakfast, packed up, and headed down the mountain. Our first resting spot was Baldy Lake. I don’t remember it being too hard to get to Baldy, but that may be because I was delirious from the heat and have blocked it out of my memory. Regardless, we made it to the Lake, we ate lunch, and rested our tired bodies. I do know I was too lazy to try to get a good picture of the entire Lake so I only have a fraction of it, but trust me…it was beautiful.

After lunch, we headed to Hibbs Cow Camp, which would be our campsite for the night. The trail was much like the days before, and we were walking in extreme heat, limited shade, and many fallen logs were blocking our way. With my legs getting more and more tired, I became sloppy with my footsteps. As I climbed over one of the logs my left ankle rolled completely over and started to swell immediately. Amanda did a great job wrapping it and the boys took some of the weight out of my pack. A few miles later we finally made it to a tree section and sat down for dinner. During dinner, we heard the rumble of thunder and knew a storm was fast approaching. The boys took some more weight out of my pack and we headed to the camp site as fast as possible. The next few miles involved a lot of climbing in open meadows and we watched the storm inch closer and closer to us. In record time we made it to the campsite, worked as teams and set up the tents before the rain started. We all sat in our tents for about 30 minutes and waited for the storm to pass. After the storm passed, we gathered some dry wood and sat around the fire and relaxed.

Day 4

I woke up on the final day feeling great. Actually, I felt better than all the other mornings. I kept my ankle wrap on and put all the gear back in my pack. With the motivation of getting home in the back of our heads we got a somewhat early start and headed back to the car. We knew we had a tough climb out, but somehow none of us remembered the 1,200 foot drop we made on the first day. But looking at the climb from the bottom, I knew it would be a long and tough climb.

As we climbed our way out, several times I told Brian I didn’t think I could do it, but he would hear none of that. So I pressed on. Slowly….very slowly…I climbed one step at a time up the mountain. You would think that at the top I would feel a sense of relief and a sense of accomplishment, but on the contrary. I felt tired, angry, and just wanted it to be over. My legs felt like they weighed 50 lbs each, my ankles were swelling, my knees were throbbing, and my whole body was done. Even worse, I knew we still had several miles to go and several hundred more feet to climb. We pressed on and continued our hike. Again, my memory is a little foggy. I know the final 400 feet climb was tough, but Allan stayed with me, sang to me as we hiked, and encouraged me until we reached the TOP.

Finally, we were DONE. What an incredible hike, experience, and overall adventure. The pain of hiking more than 40 miles and climbing more than 13,000 feet is actually less than I anticipated. My ankles and feet are still throbbing and I have giant blisters on my left foot, but other than that I am doing relatively well.

Below is a picture of the route we took and the elevation profile of our hike

More pictures of our hike can be found here.