Day two started out on Meadow Lake Road courtesy again of my lovely wife:
A mile and a half through forest led gently up to the top of a bald ridge at over 8,200 feet. On the way we saw an unusual juxtaposition; snow plant, which usually grows in deeper forest, growing among mules ear:
At the top of this ridge, two miles into the hike, we could literally see all of PCT section "L." We could see well south and north of it too, as well as seeing for tens and tens of miles to the east and the west:
I have to admit that, as I was taking the photo immediately above, I was humming the song "...the hills are alive with the sound of...." Oh never mind.
While up there we'd also taken an opportunity to play in the long thin strip of snow that graced the north side of this ridge. We didn't know then that this strip of snow would remain visible from most points of the trail north for the next eight or so miles:
The trail stayed high for most of this day's hike too. We had an early view of the now-much-closer Sierra Buttes:
We stayed high and in open terrain. Fields of mules ear and/or sage covered every ridge:
Here's an example shot looking back at that long bald ridge that had all the views (note the unmistakeable strip of snow):
Then, on one north-bound, bald ridge, while I was hiking with Steve, I looked at the various clouds scattered all through the sky. Puffy white balls everywhere just resting in the bright blue. Except for that one up north, the one right on the horizon. That's a weird looking cloud, all streaked, vertical and jagged:
And then it hit me: "That's no cloud. That's not a cloud at all. That's Mount Lassen!!!" And so it was (zoomed and pixilated, blown up shot):
Notice the three exclamation marks in the quoted portion of my thoughts above? They're justified (and I'm sure Steve would agree). I got pretty darned excited by seeing MOUNT LASSEN from this far south on the PCT. Later, back in camp, Steve used the GPS function on his iPhone to determine that, from the spot on the trail where we'd seen it, Mount Lassen was 91 miles to our north by air. Wow!
More gentle downhill continued now as we closed in on Jackson Meadows Campground (and our camp, and my wife):
The bald ridge with the snow strip way behind us stayed in view (and so did Sharon, cruising along as usual):
These Daddy/Tricia shots are becoming somewhat of a tradition:
Before long we caught our first view of the reservoir:
Closing in now, the last mile and a half was through the forest:
And then we saw Vicki, who'd hiked up to meet us (and, by the point shown in this photo, had hiked back toward camp with us):
A short walk led back to camp:
And that was it for our second day. We said our goodbyes to the Dawsons and Sharon. Our friends had only taken Monday off and our one day delay meant that they had to head home earlier than us. Camp was quiet that evening, and it was also slightly lonely. Campsites that have been filled with good friends become that way once a large portion of the people are gone.
We "remainders" got to bed early that night and slept well, anticipating one more day on this section, and then an end to it tomorrow on Highway 49.