Cascadian Wilderness Endurance Series - Devil's Dome Loop

The Cascadian Wilderness Endurance Series events present an exciting opportunity for outdoor enthusiasts to participate in a multimedia adventure blogging contest. These self-supported/unsupported events are open to trail runners, backpackers, fastpackers, and hikers, and each event features a unique and defined route which participants must complete on foot and in one push.

Unlike traditional endurance races, there are no course markings or aid stations along the way, providing participants with the freedom to create their own adventure. It’s all up to you! Participants can choose to tackle the route solo or with a couple friends. There are no cutoffs, so participants can take as much time as they need to complete the route without pressure.

This unique event is not just about the physical challenge or exploring wild and beautiful places, but also about the opportunity to capture and share the beauty of the wilderness through captivating multimedia content.

After finishing your route, share your trip report about your experience. You can do this by posting in the Facebook group, tagging us in an Instagram post, making a YouTube video, creating a photo album, or any other artistic endeavor you can imagine.

Submit your time via the event page on Ultrasignup. If you have a GPS track, please include it. If you happened to get the FKT for the year, you must provide GPS proof.

Each year a meetup will be held in Seattle to wrap up the previous year, kick off the next year, make any big announcements about new routes or changes, and hand out patches, awards, and prizes for the previous year’s participants. If you are unable to attend the event, arrangements can be made to mail your patches to you.

We strongly encourage all entrants to join the CWES Facebook Group and/or follow the @CascadianWildernessEndurance Instagram to ask questions about the routes, gather and share trail beta, connect with other participants, scope out the competition, and keep up to date on the most recent news, information, and general goings on.

Devil's Dome Loop

The course is the Devil's Dome Loop: a 45 mile loop linking the Jackita Ridge Trail, Devil's Dome Trail, and East Bank Trail, which offers runners and hikers a small taste of the Pasayten Wilderness, some of the wildest country left in the continental United States. By our reckoning, it's about 10,000 feet of climbing. But be forewarned, the 12 miles along the East Bank Trail and the 3 miles along Ruby Creek have very little elevation gain. So the vast majority of that 10,000 feet of climbing takes place over only 30 miles of the route. The Devil's Dome Loop is accessed from the North Cascades Highway (Washington State Route 20) via the East Bank Trailhead (milepost 138.2) or the Canyon Creek Trailhead (milepost 141.2). Route can be completed in either direction, and you may start/finish at either East Bank or Canyon Creek Trailheads, although at the time of this writing, the bridge was still out at Canyon Creek. Trailheads are on a paved road.

Rationale

Why should you pay $20 to complete one of the endurance challenges? A small part of the fee will go to cover website maintenance and domain registration, as well as getting patches made and other small goodies/swag. The majority of this fee will be donated to trail maintenance organizations. Why are we even doing this? To get people out into the wonderful wilderness areas that we have here in the Northwest and to build the community of adventurous people! The trip report is just as important as actually finishing the route, and we love it when people come up with creative ways to share their experience. Information isn't always readily available for these areas, and maps can be scarce and not always reliable (especially the Pasayten and Frank Church/Selway Wildernesses.) That can intimidate some that aren't as experienced outdoors-people. The goal is to empower people to get out into these wilderness areas and hopefully to protect them into the future.