Miles and Minerals

One of the coolest things we saw all day...a turtle nest!

Today was a good day for slackpacking, since we'd just finished a 3 day hike and there was a great parking area just 6 miles away. So we got to take our time getting going and trek above the river that runs through Hot Springs. The first mile of hiking up out of town was very steep, but with a great view of the river and town at the top. There's an overlook near the summit called "Lover's Leap" that is apparently a popular day hike for locals and visitors. I hope it didn't get it's name in too literal a fashion, because man, that would be quite a leap...

The view from Lover's Leap.

The rest of the hike was ridge hiking, so not too difficult. We came across a grove of pine trees that some Boy Scouts had treated with pesticides to protect them from the parasitic bugs that are destroying the forests (there were signs posted about it). Just goes to show you how serious of a problem it is for these areas. We ate our little lunch by a really beautiful pond in the middle of the woods. It wasn't a naturally occurring pond, since it was being contained by a 30 foot concrete wall. So either there was some ecological reason for the forest service to dam up a minor mountain stream, or the local beavers have seriously evolved.

Nice little contained pond.

Very pretty place to have lunch. There were even fish jumping around in it and white flowers floating on the top of it. Like a postcard or a Monet painting.

Made it out of the woods a little after 4pm. One of the major benefits of slackpacking is that you can move so much faster with less to carry, so these shorter days fly by. We've really upped our pace in the last week or so too, which is a great sign. Dare I say the trail is doing some serious good for my physical fitness? Trail Sister and I continued to further our physical fitness with a trip to the namesake of this little town, the Hot Springs, where we had a nice soak in the magical healing mineral water. Maybe not magical or healing, but it did make my bug bites itch less, and you'll never, ever hear me complain about getting to spend an hour in a fancy hot tub. But since I have no pictures of the Mineral Spa, I'll just end with this nice picture of a different sort of water...

A nice walk by the rapids.

Quote of the Day: "I wonder what would've happened in the Civil War if Robert E. Lee had UZIs." - Random man at the table next to us in one of the two restaurants in town...