Rae Lakes Loop day2

Day 2
Lower Paradise Valley to Wood's Creek
+3,000', +8.2 miles (14.2 miles total)

Today we started out at 6,600' elevation and hiked 8.2 miles to reach Wood's Creek at 8,492' elevation - a gain of 1,900 feet for the day. Total mileage is 14.2. the route took us past Middle Paradise Valley and Upper Paradise Valley. At Upper about 20 workers had set up camp and were building a bridge across the King's River. We crossed using the old piled in the river logs.

As usual in acclimating to the altitudes of the Sierra's, the second day was the toughest. It seemed like every up along the river was followed shortly thereafter by a down back to the river. We estimated that we really climbed about 3,000 feet of ups this day.

Clark in the midst of the "jungle" section of today's trail.	Doug	Chris crossing the King's River at Upper Paradise Valley	Saw quite a few deer. Finally got the camera out fast enough to get a picture of these two.
After several tough hours of ups, then downs along the river, we broke out into a large meadow expanse and some long easy downhill.	The view as we approached the end of the meadow. Another 1.5 miles of easy switch backs and we would be done with our toughest day.	The suspension bridge across Wood's Creek.	Chris comes across. You can see the creek below.
	Our campfire.	Doug's tent and his ever present American Flag.	Interesting rock with a natural flying seagull shaped crack.