Maidu Lake

Day 2! Today would be our first 10 mile plus hike. After yesterday's 1400 ft ascent, today would have less elevation gain but take us to the highest point on the PCT in OR and WA at 7560 ft (Pic 1 and 2) Certainly not the highest point in OR and WA but the highest point on the trail. Did I mention mosquitoes? That's Mark reapplying the 98% DEET Repellent (Pic 3). In the background was a typical volcanic cone I would run into on the trip, this one called Red Cone (Pic 4 and 5).

The next water source on the PCT was 16 miles out. This fact required we leave the PCT by 3/4 of a mile and stay at Maidu Lake. We had no idea what Maidu would be like but we knew it had water. As you can see below, Maidu turned out to be a beautiful lake (Pic 6 and 7). Have you ever swam with a school of a couple hundred bullfrog pollywogs? We have never seen anything like it and it meant the lake probably did not have much of a fish population.

We also began to run into and meet some PCT thru hikers and experience trail names. Ironman (a former police captain and private investigator) and The Boston Straggler, or Rambler, (long red and grey beard, wore a kilt every day, originally from Boston but is now a shuttle driver in Fairbanks Alaska) stayed in our camp site at Maidu. We also ran into an older couple. What was she thinking wearing a long blue denim style skirt? I would run into these two later in the trip and have a long conversation with them. We heard this was being called the year of the elder hiker on the PCT. Haha, I think Mark and I might qualify for the group.

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