American Lake '08,  Pacific Crest Trail,  Jul 22, 2008 - Jul 23, 2008     page 7 / 21

We soon found the trail we wanted leading down the hill toward American lake. Clouds continued to fill the sky, obscuring our view of the landscape. We reached the lake in the late afternoon. It looked as though we had the whole place to ourselves. Or did we? No sooner did we begin scouting the area for a good campsite and we saw a bald eagle soar across the lake. He perched atop an old, dead tree. He sat there for a few minutes, watching us.