Rae Lakes Loop- Day 2

Day 2- Surprisingly, I wasn't very sore on Day 2. With breakfast out of the way, I was ready to get on the trail- we had time to make up.

After a mile and a half, we arrived around the area I had planned to stop the day before. Now it was ten miles to dollar lake, with a lot of uphill.

We arrived at a river's crossing (Woods Creek, I believe). Fortunately, all (most) of the rivers along the loop had bridges over them. 

 

While difficult to see, one of the rivers cascaded down from the mountaintop, ending in a waterfall that poured into Woods Creek.

We made decent progress from that point, but one of the girls was starting to fall behind. Against my advice, we decided to split up- three of us would go ahead, two would go at their own pace behind. We headed east at this point, along Woods Creek. It was a fairly uneventful day, as we wound our way up the trail.

Our lunch spot. It was here that our group split up.

When we reached Woods Creek Crossing, we tacked onto the Pacific Crest Trail, and suddenly our isolated trail became a busy one. The Wood Creek Crossing bridge itself was sketchy to say the least- it swayed more than a boat in a storm. 

We didn't see the sign until we looked at the pictures.

 Once we past the bridge, there were a few campsites there, but nothing looked appealing. The bridge creaked and irked in the background, and there wasn't very good water access. I wanted to press on, but the ranger had informed us there was little camping ahead. It was getting dark, and my hopes of reaching Dollar Lake died with the slowness of the two who separated from us. The three of us in the lead decided to press on, hoping to find a place. Unfortunately, the trail pulled us away from the river, and never brought us back. We found a PCT'er heading towards us and interrogated him about potential campsites ahead.

His lips dripped lies as he told us there was a campsite a 1/4 mile ahead. "Just around the corner."

Our first snake of the trip.

A mile and a half later, we were losing sunlight and there was no campsite to be seen. We met another PCT'er who said the nearest campsite was 2 miles further. I looked at the two girls with me and gave them the choice- 2 miles up, or 2 miles back. Either way it was a ways to the next campsite. We agreed it was best to move forward, though we had no way of letting our two lost friends know. The next PCT'er we found, we asked them to relay the message that we were pressing on.

A mile or so past that point, we passed a steady stream, and heard the roar of the river again. We didn't want to believe our ears, but sure enough, we had made it back to a flat piece of land and a water source.

 While I looked around to make sure it was a good spot, the girls I was with decided for me. We were camping there. There was a very strong breeze, but at least it kept the bugs away.

Daytime view.

I remember in the movie "The Bucket List", when Morgan Freeman mentions he wants to see "something majestic". I was able to witness one of those moments that night. Nightfall had descended, leaving us huddled around a fire. One by one we all went to bed, dreading the uphill climb tomorrow. We had fell four miles short of our goal, and those were long uphill miles. I was the last to bed, when I walked to the cliff's edge. I shut off my light and let my eyes adjust to the dark, left only with a majestic view. The river below was a beacon of white, contrasted by the dark void around it. The hillside above it was a pale gray, light only by the moonlight. The mountains in the background were striped bright with white from the snow that seemed to glow against the dark of the mountain. The sky was lit from the stars, the milky way cutting across the skyline.

I quickly returned to camp, beckoning everyone to join me. I showed them the spot, to their verbal exclamations of delight. Two quickly returned to bed, as the icy breeze cut through our clothes. The other two remained as we resisted the cold, soaking in the view for as long as we dared.

As I remained the last one on that cliff's edge, I can truly say I witnessed something majestic.

Continued in Part 3.