Soaking in Nature

On Monday night I found myself in a warm sulfurous hot spring nestled into the side of a hill. I was surrounded by giant redwoods for miles and miles. Their silhouettes framed a patch of starry sky. The moon shone down. As it passed through the thick steam cloud from our pool it made a light tunnel.

When we were sufficiently well toasted, we got our of the hot spring. Shivering, hopping and trying not to slide down the muddy slope we got dressed.

We were at the Sykes hot springs in Big Sur. They are a 10 mile hike inland from the ocean. You hike up in the ridges along the Big Sur river. On my way back, I counted them. There are roughly 11 ridges, and 12 creeks. (This is extremely geologically accurate, of course . . . hmm.) At the end of the hike, you descend back down to the river, follow it downstream a bit, and get to the hot springs.

Following the river downstream is actually not as easy as it sounds. The path at water level is broken up by steep rocky parts.You either have to get around them by scampering up and down the steep, muddy hillsides, or you have to cross the river multiple times by jumping on rocks and balancing on fallen redwoods.

We camped on the opposite side of the river from the baths. There was a log you could cross on. It was quite big. I still didn't trust it, so I used my most basic, innate instinctual form of motion to get across: I crawled on all fours. I like to say that I'm learning this way. Maybe in a couple of years, I'll learn how to toddle, and then walk! Actually, the toddling part is what scares me, so maybe I'll skip that. In fact, there was another creak you could cross via log on this trip. And I managed that one on foot! Well, I managed it once, and without my pack. I was very proud of myself.

We hiked out Sunday night to a half-way point about 5 miles from the trailhead. Dinner that night was a delicious lentil and couscous thing. We had way to much fun hanging up the bear bag. Throwing a rope over a tree branch is not so easy! And securing the loose end of this rope around a tree trunk by running around in circles is a lot of fun!

Our camp site was near a creek. There were redwoods everywhere. The ground was covered in pine needles. That night, I slept better that I've slept in months.

The second night we slept near the hot springs, and the third day we went home.

Driving home at 6pm, we discovered that people still work on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Rush hour traffic was terrible! But in the end we found a delicious South Indian restaurant, and then home and bed.