Day 28- May 17th

Today was SO AWESOME!!! So many exciting and awesome things happened! 

We woke up today, "slept in" of course because of our 21 mile day yesterday. We still broke camp before 8:30am, and even did some extra stretching/yoga on a nearby rock.

We felt great, and we even had a morning balance test with a couple creek crossings:

The trail went gradually down for a long time. There's a whole new wave of people that we are hiking with. Because of the fire closure, most people got dropped off at Big Bear, so now instead of people being at different areas and camping at different areas, it's like the trail reset, and everyone started fresh in Big Bear, and are stopping to camp every night at the very scarce water sources.

Today we met "Silty" and hiked with her for a bit. She gets her name from the love of getting sandy and dirty. She loves the dirt and she loves bugs. We also met "Memento". This is his third thru-hike, he did the Appalachian trail in 2012 and the Continental Divide Trail in 2014! Upon competing the PCT this year, he will be a triple-crowner!

About 10 miles into our day, we passed the 300 mile mark! Woo-hoo! Now we're flying! The distance between 100 and 200 felt so looooong because of the extended stay in Idyllwild, but even with the fire closure, this 100 flew by!

Let's see what else? Well today we saw 4 snakes, and 3 of them were within a 2-3 minute time-span! Up until now our snake sighting average has been only 1 every 3.37 days! Maybe this means we won't see any for 2 weeks? Claire was walking in front and was so glad she got to see so many! (Not! :p) 

Fortunately no rattlers

We spent most of the day up high on a cliff, traversing the left side of a canyon which in the bottom lay Deep Creek. Many times we were hundreds of feet up, with dramatic rock walls far below, and loose sand slipping out beneath our feet under the weight of hundreds of hikers. 

There were many beautiful swimming holes along the creek that we saw from way up above. It was pretty tempting to run down to them and take a dip in the hot sun, but we were on a mission to hit Deep Creek Springs by sundown!

And man oh man did we meet our goal! 15.58 miles today with a few long breaks throughout, we are really getting in the grove! Claire's knees haven't been hurting as much as the period after our Jacinto decent, and we have some trekking poles hopefully arriving in Wrightwood, a little over 60 miles from here.

Alright, so if all of that above wasn't exciting enough for you, here's where it gets good! 

We were zeroing in on the hot springs, and since it was only 5pm, we decided to secure a camp-site before checking out the springs, figuring that it is a popular place to camp. We went down a little side trail to set up camp near the river just before the springs. 

We filtered water and cooked some food, waiting for it to cool off. Our tent is squeezed in between a big rock and a big bush, so that neither of us can quite easily get out. 

It was there we ran into a couple that we hadn't seen since Mount Laguna! Ruth-Anne and Mark. 

They are moving at a slightly slower pace than us but they caught up because of the fire alternate that we took. They told us there was a slack line at the springs, so we ran over after we ate!

The first thing we see: Orion! We had been hoping to run into him as we last saw him coming down Jacinto. We thought he might've skipped the closure and he would've been far ahead like everyone else. But there he was chillin' in the hot spring!

(Picture taken next morning)

Guys, this place is amazing! I don't have any pictures because most people at the springs are nude, and I didn't want to cause a riot by snapping pictures, but maybe Google "Deep Creek Hotsprings" to kind of get an idea. (EDIT: woke up early next morning to take pictures while no one was in the pools. All the following photos taken the next morning)

We dressed down into our birthday suits to match with everyone else, and attempted to walk the tightrope across the cold river to get the the side of the hot springs where you enter. The slack line was only 2 feet off the water, and the water was about 3 feet deep, with a nice sandy bottom. We both fell in before crossing to the other side, as we're kind of rusty on the line!

50 ft of awesome!

The hotsprings themselves are a progression over the years from one awesome springs source at the top of the hill on the side of the river. The spring flows down between boulders and different walls have been made with rocks and concrete to create 4 different pools with different temperatures. 

Source pool very top right. Three other pools, all of which were hot! And then one more spring and pool in top left near the people. This pic was taken from a 30 ft rock above the place.

Panorama of the place

Second, third, and fourth pools 

It's so amazing! We met a caretaker named Van who's been going to the springs for over 30 years! He gave us some history and told us how the rerouting of the hot water works and how it's changed and manipulated throughout different seasons to keep the pools temps at a nice soaking level.

We got in at about 7:30, and didn't get out until 9:45! Like I said I didn't take many pictures, but I DID catch this awesome sunset from the main pool..

I may wake up early tomorrow and snap some so you guys can see. The day was awesome and the night was magical! Hiking over 15 miles AND enjoying some R&R in a beautiful area  in the middle of the desert, I love it!

Well, it's almost 11:30, waaaaaaay past my bedtime! Have a good night everyone, 

-Thanks for reading!