We arrived a natural hot springs around 8 in the morning. The 3 guys we met yesterday--Mike, Tony and Ronnie--were still asleep in their bags on a sandy beach area. This place could rival any resort. In this beutifull wilderness canyon, someome has used river stones to pool the warmest water in a large outdoor hot tub. This cascades to a lower pool with walls made out of sand bags. Water in this pool is a combination of the hot springs and the cooler canyon stream. This pool ajoins the pooled water of the canyon's creek. Cottonwood and willow trees shade the bank.
There seems to be an unwritten protocal here--which we witnessed after our visits to the pools: you strip down naked and get in the hotest of pools, then you move to the the lower pool and then the cool canyon water. People seem to limit themselves to a reasonable amount of time (~10 minutes). When one party is finished, robed and out of the way, the next party will take their turn. The willow trees provide both shade and privacy to the pools.
I met a couple of interesting folks here: a late middle aged Asian American named Kwan, and a native american whose name I didn't get. Neither were PCT hikers. When D and I first went down to the pools, there was a necklace of sorts hanging from the nearby willow tree. It consisted of a string of seeds or dried berries from which hung a small leather bag that had a large crystal tied to it. I watched a guy with a Mexican poncho pick it up and put it around his neck. He was wearing some type of woven cap that had feathers hanging from it. Kwan told me this fellow was Native American and had previously lived in the canyon for 2 years and was an animal vet in a nearby village. I spoke with the native american guy and he confirmed what Kwan said. "I had stuff stashed all over this canyon", he told me, "my tent...you name it. But after a while, living this way gets tiring". He had a couple of dingos with him--both abandoned dogs he'd adopted.
Kwan said he'd quit his job as a pool maintenance guy 6 years earlier and had been treking, fishing and the like since. He said, for the first time in 6 years his wife had asked him "when you gonna come home". He laughed and repeated it and said it made him happy. "First time she asked me that in 6 years!"
I wondered, does a whole subculture exist around this oasis in the desert? We were only there a few hours and met such unique folks. I think in al my years of backpacking, it may be the coolest areas I've come across.
Before we left, the native american guy had taken his turn in the pools. While he was in, he played a flute-like instrument--mostly native american sounding tunes. But he ended with Amazing Grace.
We headed out around 9 or so and started making a progressively hot walk on a trail that continued north along the wall of the canyon. Ever since seeing the prayer flags for the guy that fell to his death up here last year, I'm walking more cautiously--doing less gauking around--or at least am stopping before gauking around.
We arrived at a huge dam around 11:30 am. This must be one of the biggest govt boondoggles ever! There is hardly any water in site--and yet there is a big monolyth here in the beyond unlikely chance it is ever needed. Dwight commented: "Too bad they can't move it to New Orleans".
From 11:30-2:30 we hung out under the shade of a downed cottonwood tree near the dam. I wished we had stayed at the hot springs--it was pretty hot and unpleasant there. We made it about another mile down the trail, found some more shady trees, and took another nap. It was just too hot for hiking.
When we got going again around 4:30, the hiking and trail was much more pleasant. The trail got progressively greener and less desert like. We stopped to make dinner around 7--then hiked til well after dark. We got a bit lost ina road walk section as the guide book had an east/west direction inversed. This would have been obvious during daylight.
We ran into some trail magic around 9:45--a cooler of fruit left by "Team Turtle". We heard they are a 70+ yr old couple who have been doing this for years.
At 10pm we stopped for the night at Arrowhead Lake-threw down at a flatish spot on a small side trail off the PCT.
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