April Come She Will...: Always Be Prepared

Ever have a time in your life when you were excited to do something that you've always wanted to do, but when you actually did it you kept asking yourself "WHAT WAS I THINKING"?

Well I most definitely had that experience on Memorial Day! Josh knew I have always wanted to go on a hike over by the dam to some warm springs. I have heard of people going on the hike and having a good time...

Well let's just say...

We didn't follow the proper Boy Scout code (always be prepared)

This is the thing, Josh just told us to get ready to go...OKAY, a little more detail woulda been nice. I grabbed my tennis shoes, put them in my backpack along with my camera, phone & lip gloss! But I was wearing my flip flop and I could change once we got to where we were going. (See he didn't exactly tell us where we were going until we got there!)

We're still in the parking lot...

So Josh, Nicole, our two little dogs and I get to the hike around noon. It was nice weather, not too hot (I'll just leave it at that) and we start walking down the trail. Josh always takes off and leaves everyone behind so he always has to stop and wait. He stopped at a shady spot under the highway bridge...No big deal for him, he sits down and gives the dogs some water while Nicole and I are left behind with no water! So we finally reach him and I begin to climb up the hill to where he was....WHAM!!! I fall flat on my face!!! And Josh just sits there and stares at me like I'm an idiot and asks me what I'm doing!!?? Ahhh...hello! I like falling on rocks and hurting myself! So I sat and drank some water.

Highway Bridge

This is my knee after I fell...doesn't look too bad, but looks are deceiving!!

Well unbeknownst to me, while I was falling some older lady was climbing up the mountain in the same area, she was out of breath and could hardly function. The people she was with went ahead without her. She said that this hike was NOT for a person from New England and couldn't believe she was having such a hard time because she is usually a first responder. We gave her a water bottle to see if it would help her any. It did!

So on we went. Trudging through a gravely trail that was difficult to walk in. No shade! The sun blaring down on the rocks and our little dogs walking along with us. Then comes these crazy rocks we have to get down. Someone was smart somewhere in time and tied ropes where these rock were. If those ropes weren't there I would have said Screw It! But get this...we should have listened to our dog!!! They wanted NOTHING to do with going near those ropes. So Josh climbed down, then Nicole part way...I would hand the dogs to Nicole then she handed them down to Josh. Finally once everyone was down, we continued on.

Rocks & Ropes!

Then again, more ropes and rocks!!!

We got to where we found the hot springs, but just a trickle. The water was most definitely HOT! In fact too hot! I walked through it while on the trail, but figured it was too hot to do much more. In NO WAY would I want to swim in that nasty stuff!!! What am I talking about, I wasn't going to swim anyway!!! But it was really gross! I kept thinking "I wonder how many people have take a pee or poop here?" Yes, that's how gross it was. And this place was a LONG, LONG way from any toilets!!!

Start of the hot spring "Waterfall"

So we didn't finish the hike, we stopped at the last rope because we were having to carry one of our dogs because his paw got hurt. It isn't fun having to carry a dog. But we were tired as well. We sat and rested for a little bit then started back toward the car. By this time, we were pretty much out of water! We only had about half a bottle of water left to use between us three and the dogs. Josh put Sampson across his shoulders and we each took turns carrying Lulu. She would walk when there was a lot of shade, but most of the time she was carried because the rocks were too hot and sharp for her. There was a couple that was going back that we spoke with most of the time. In fact, we ended up catching up to them because they left before we did. They ran out of water too, so they were struggling just as much as we were!

We look happy, but we were actually exhausted. We still had to go back!

At one point Josh said, "I'm just going to go on ahead and take the dogs. I'll get them to the car and bring back some water." Since he went ahead the couple kinda stayed close by. We just went back and forth talking on off to keep ourselves going. The last time as Nicole and I past them, the lady was trying to cool off, well she ended up lifting up her shirt...Nicole says "EWWW....I didn't need to see that! You didn't see that mom? Her BOOBS were down to her knees!" Oh poor woman!

We walked along the best we could and do our best. I kept talking to myself as I walked along. I thought about what the pioneers did and how difficult their circumstances were. Would I have been able to do what they did? (That's an entirely different subject in itself) Finally Josh came back with 6 bottles of water! It was the best water I ever had. He even poured some on me, it was so cold because my body temperature was so whacked out! The couple was still a ways behind us, so I yelled to them asking if they wanted some water. I already knew they did, so Josh and Nicole took the water to them. I was so thankful when I finally got back to the car.