Though the lake is not really mysterious you make an interesting point. In early spring 2019 I was driving a rough back road looking for the snow line and encountered a county sheriff coming towards me. We chatted awhile and he said he was doing the same thing as me--checking on road conditions.

He mentioned that he is always on the look out for "camps" or "settlements" in the mountains inhabited by homeless folks or people who want to stay hidden. They occasionally raid these camps and find that 8 out of 10 people they question have warrants out against them ranging from non-payment of child support to drug dealing to attempted murder. There are not too many of these groups of people but they are usually near large towns.

Coincidently, I just finished reading a book by C J Box called "Nowhere to Run" that addresses that issue--- of people hiding from the law and society deep in the mountains. Based on the authors you mentioned you might like Box's books. This one is horribly edited and some of the scenes are outlandish but the overall story is pretty good. He is not shy about describing government and politicians corruption contributing to the problem. I found the book on line at Barnes and Noble and they delivered it outside the store.

At the end of a four wheel drive road and downstream from a high mountain meadow there is a pretty little lake that has no roads nor trails leading to it. It is less than half a mile from the road but usually takes over an hour to hike to because of numerous stream crossings, thick forest, excessive deadfall, sporadic marshes and some ridge crossings. As a result very, very few people ever go there and we have never found any trash, debris nor fire rings at or near the lake.

Even using a map and GPS it takes a long time to get to it because of the obstacles and circuitous route. The stream in the picture of the meadow does not lead to the lake and the two are actually separated by a ridge or two. I think people trying to access the lake can't find it because they follow this stream and give up.

It seems that every time my son in law and I go there we end up crossing a sparsely gladded ridge that has an abandoned cabin that appears to be periodically lived in. Fearing disease, booby traps, contaminated needles etc., we've never entered it but have taken some pix from the small doorway. Downloading improves detail and color especially for cabin and meadow.

On the last trip we did some searching and luckily found an overgrown and abandoned trail that we figured had to be there somewhere---because of evidence of mining in the immediate area. There still is an active gold mine upstream several miles above the lake on private property and several abandoned mine sites near by. By following the faint and almost completely overgrown road for most of the way we returned to the truck in about 20 minutes. The lake has now become easily accessible and we will visit it more often---assuming we can re-find the overgrown road which does not intersect the 4X4 road and is pretty well hidden. Here are some pix of the area taken over the years. Downloading is recommended, especially for cabin, meadow and trail shots.