Day 26

Trail miles: 14.1

Total: 320.1

We made it to the hot springs! We tried to get there early but I guess 6:30am wasn’t early enough because the springs were already crowded with naked people. I wasn’t going to give up yet. I did some recon and a little bit of rock climbing and found the perfect empty hot springs. It had high walls for seclusion and two warm water falls. Perfect for the cold morning. We got in with our underwear on and people did not bother us the whole time. We were in there for three ours! We ate breakfast and Krista made coffee and Raechel made tea. Krista found the best cutout of rock wall for her mug to sit in. Some of the pool was even deep enough to swim around in. Definitely a great place to lose some mileage. We found out it was crowded because there was a nudist furry swingers community having a candlelight ceremony for a furry who was shot and killed a few days ago. The hiker that told us this was in his third zero at the springs. I think he ran out of food because it didn’t sound like he was planning to stay that long.

The days are starting to get hotter again. Good thing too because I don’t want to wear my rain pants anymore due to the fact that I ripped a gigantic hole in the butt of them. Hopefully I’ll get some frogg toggs in Wrightwood. We met some creepy men at our siesta spot who were excited to see some “boobies” at the hot springs. Raechel was able to resolidify her snickers by laying it in the creek while we were filtering water. Brad ran off again. We are hoping he will bring us chicken nuggets and fuel since both Krista’s and mine ran out today. Thank goodness that Raechel thought to buy a new one every town because she saved our butts! Tomorrow we plan to do a higher mileage day to get as close to the McDonald’s in Cajon as possible so we can get breakfast and lunch there.