I love driving and oh, how I missed it. Going for long
drives is one of my favorite ways to spend free time, especially when you’re the
driver and you’re heading towards an exciting destination. Our drive was over 3
hours, and I loved every minute of it. Not long into it, Leaf and Handerson
told me to take a turn for a more scenic descent down this one steep hill. I
was apprehensive because they said I would have to lower gears and I wanted to
be as safe as I could with the car. Nevertheless, we took the scenic route and
I’m so glad we did. It was called the Old Spiral Highway and spiral it did.
Slowly, turned and glided every which way down the side of this country hill.
As we went down, my riders discovered the double sunroof in the car, which Leaf
thought would be fun to partially climb out and throw food at our friends
behind us. It was quite funny, although I wish I had been able to climb out as
well and enjoy the fresh air.
By and by our drive continued. Everyone fell asleep for most
of the time, but that was okay. I enjoyed singing along to the music and
looking around at the beautiful tall trees and hills. It only got more picturesque
as we got closer to the hot springs. About halfway through the drive, I had to
pee. I was freaking out just a little bit inside because we were on back roads
and I hadn’t seen a gas station or anything of the sort for a long time. Every
so often I’d see an outhouse on the side of the road, but always too late to
stop. Finally, I quickly hit the brakes, turned around, and went back to the
shoulder with the porta potty. There were some semis behind Christy that were
not too pleased with my sudden braking and voiced it with their horns. When I
came out of the bathroom, everyone was gathered on the side of the road
shouting and laughing. Apparently, Leaf had climbed down into a pipe and was
going to the other side of the road. We all decided to climb down the side of
the hill and wandered around the rocks along the water, some of us trying to
find rocks to skip. Before long, we were back on the road, oohing and aweing at
God’s creation once again. I think there was a solid hour where all we said was
“Oh, guys look over there!”
As we approached the hot springs, we noticed an increasing
amount of snow on the sides of the road. When we reached the parking lot, there
was at least two feet of snow around us. Although I love the snow, I was slightly
alarmed when I saw this. I was wearing boots with literally no traction. I’m
talking 100% smooth on the bottoms. The worst boots that were ever made. On the
bright side, I wasn’t the only one unprepared for a snowy hike. Handerson was
wearing moccasin slippers and John was wearing open-toed sandals. Yep, we were
screwed.
We hopped out and began the treacherous hike. And
treacherous it was. It wasn’t the fact that there was a lot of snow, it was
that the path was so packed down that individuals (heh) with poor traction on
their shoes were often walking in place rather than forward. To make matters
worse, on the righthand side of us was a steep drop-off into the woods. There
were many occasions where we slipped and almost went over the side. The trek
was slow and cautious. At one point I was trying to go up a slope and could not
get farther than two feet. Leaf and Christy (bless their souls) had to
literally push me up this slope because I was running in place.
Thereafter brought the challenge of going downslope. By this
point, I had caught up to the group in front of me, who decided it was best to
just slide down. I crouched onto my feet and quickly flew down the grade.
However, I caught too much speed and started veering to the right, towards the
edge. Luckily Bobby was at the bottom and he quickly jumped to the side,
reached out, and stopped me from falling to my death. As we went along, we
passed a group of people coming back from the springs, all of which were decked
out in full-on hiking gear. I’m pretty sure they were chuckling at this group
of stupid college students (that was fair).
By and by, we finally made it to the hot spring. My heart
skipped a beat when I saw it. It was incredibly beautiful, a small pool made of
glistening rocks hanging along the side of the hill. At the bottom of the hill
ran a shallow creek, with a few other small hot spring pools scattered about. Tall
trees towered around the clearing, making the space feel secluded and special
in a way. We all quickly stripped down to our bathing suits and hopped in.
Well, everyone except Leaf, who decided to go swimming in the cold creek first.
Bobby and John followed his lead not long after. The water was so warm. Almost
too warm at times.
After a while, Handerson, Charli, and I decided to go down
and cool off in the creek. The rocks going down were slippery with wet moss, so
we had to crab crawl, trying our best not to scratch ourselves on the rough
edges. Handerson and I didn’t even make it to the main creek before our feet
were numb and our bodies shivering. Charli, of course, went all the way in,
because she’s Charli. We weren’t sure how to get back up, as it was too smooth
and steep to go the way we came down. Charli decided to lead us up the front
side of the hill, where we basically rock climbed up, carefully finding niches
and handholds as we went.
It was truly amazing, words can’t do it justice. Relaxing in
the warm water, surrounded by friends, talking and laughing. I’m not sure how
long we stayed there, time didn’t seem to exist or matter. At least, until we
realized it was just about dark and we were going to be hiking the awful trail
in the pitch black. Oops.
We finally decided to head out when the sun was just about
gone. Most of the group wanted to change before they went back, but Handerson and
I decided to just go in our suits and jackets. Froh (bless his soul too) came
with us. He had a flash light, and walked along the edge of the path, trying
his best to stay between us. I lost count of how many times he caught both us
from slipping and falling down the side of the hill. I don’t think we would
have made it back in one piece without him.
We made it back safely, with the others not far behind us.
We changed into dry clothes, then gathered together to eat banana bread and
cookies. Before ya know it, we were packed in the cars again and headin’ home. Venimus,
Vidimus, Vicimus - we came, we saw, we conquered. The adventure was finished,
the surprises over. Or so we thought…
To be continued…
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