We awoke from our wonderful sleep in a bed. Tom drove to the grocery store and I cooked up a delicious Dutch Baby (aka German Pancake) with raspberries, lemon zest, and blackberries. That fed Naomi, Tom, Dave, and I and was great. We ate some cheese bagels with butter and avocado (soooo good) and then headed out for our hike to the Pioneer Cabin.
It was a beautiful day. Not very hot (maybe 70 degrees), and we started the walk with the dogs (Harper and Leroy). The dogs found some water immediately and drank and hung out in it. We hiked up slow switchbacks. Then it got a little steeper, but nothing awful. We got to the top around 1:15pm and checked out the little cabin. It was a little creepy with mouse poop, but people signed the walls and that was cool. We got some pictures of us all and then proceeded onto what we thought was the Long Gulch trail. This would take us about 4-5 more miles down and back to the parking lot. Unfortunately for us we took the wrong trail down and we started going STRAIGHT down and in what seemed to us to be the wrong direction. Naomi was definitely second guessing, but we just sort of went with it. We ran into a dude walking up who seemed clueless as to what trail we were talking about. He also said, with hesitation that he was NOT hiking with anyone. We noticed the hesitation and wondered.
We kept going until we got to a point with some logs over a separate trail. Tom's interpretation was that we should NOT go this way, however it was going to the left which is the way we wanted to go. We started and soon saw a woman and two dogs coming toward us. This excited us. Then as we met up with her we realized she was lost and basically on the verge of tears. We stupidly told her we had just seen a guy, but he had said he was not with anyone. She told us he was her fiance and they were supposed to get married in three weeks. It did not look too good. We went a little bit more and then the trail basically ended.
We realized that we would have to backtrack and then go BACK UP the mountain/hill whatever the hell it was. This side was MUCH steeper than the other side and we were feeling it at this point, having already gone up 2400 feet. We made it, but close to the top Naomi (who had a meeting at 4pm) decided to start running. I don't know how the heck she did it, but she did. We walked somewhat slowly and finally reached the top. The walk down was a piece of cake and we finally made it to Naomi's car. She had meanwhile hitchhiked back into town and had left us a message of "sorry" spelled out with white rocks on a piece of wood. We drove home and began the relaxation process.
After briefly relaxing we decided to head to some local hot springs. Brad joined us (thank god, without him we would have turned right at the first sign that said Hot Springs. Stupid tourists we are!). We got there and there were 4 people already in the springs. They are these little pools that people have made with rocks that have a fast moving stream/creek/river on the other side. Steam was rising from them and it looked and smelled (sulfur) slightly intimidating. I kept thinking of the hot springs in Yellowstone that I had read about with my students the past few years.
Brad got right in and so did Tom. I gingerly put my toes in and it was HOT HOT HOT. I tip toed over the rocks and slowly got in, but it was hotter than a hot tub in there. Eventually I got myself able to sit in them, but when the steam started moving toward you the water got scalding hot. Brad and Tom braved the rapids of the stream (they weren't that bad, but they were cold and rocky so I gave up) and walked across the stream and into a teeny other pool people had made on the other side. I stayed put and learned that the three guys to my left were from Indonesia - Jakarta to be exact. The guy in front of me was originally from England but had lived in Tasmania the past 10 years. He was a semi-professional fly fisher who had guided in Bamff and was planning on opening a lodge in New Zealand in the next few years.
Finally we realized we were hungry from hiking nine thousand miles, so we headed home. We passed some amazing houses and eventually returned to the condo. We headed out immediately (well after Harper did some howling. Not sure how he was even MOVING after the hike.) to a Mexican placed called Despo's with Altitude. Not attitude, altitude. It used to be called Desperado's - funny name change right? We got a pitcher of delicious margaritas (seriously delicious, unless they are blended with fruit I usually hate them, but this one was great) and sat down with some chips and salsa. Tom got the guacamole he had been moaning about all day and we got some tacos. The food was awesome and hit the spot. We gossipped and about this and that and then headed home.
At home we made a fire and drank white russians (yummy) and then got lost looking at each other's wedding pictures and telling stories.
