Wednesday, July 18, 2018 – 16.20 miles

Mosquitoes quickly materialized as I ventured further into the Three Sisters Wilderness, which in this area contains a myriad of tiny lakes/ponds. The pair of men in Maiden Peak Shelter had warned me that the mosquitoes were terrible here, but also confirmed that Insane Mosquito Hell ends near Elk Lake as specified in Yogi’s book. (Yogi’s book says Highway 242 while the men were more ambiguous, but IT WILL END.)

I got water just past Brahama Lake, where the trail crossed a well-flowing inlet stream. There was also a stream in a meadow later on, where I drew enough water to get to Elk Lake Resort. I shudder whenever eTrails mentions that a lake both has campsites and is ‘good for a dip’ or that it’s ‘warm’ (translation: good for a dip). Do people camp and swim at lakes and drink the water they’ve been swimming in? I don’t know. I may be unusually squeamish about water.

I camped in the Dumbbell Lake area.