The drive up to Lake Arrowhead was breathtaking. It actually did steal my breath. The road climbs high into the mountains with great views, all the time. For anyone who has ever take the Kancamangus Highway through the White Mountains of New Hampshire, this road was equal if not better. Although, I do have a soft spot in my heart for the North East, the Kancamangus just doesn't quite make it. When the climb was all done we were over 5,000ft.
We were looking for a place to go hiking and ended up stumbling into town on Old Wooden Boat Convention Day! I love old wooden motor boats. I think they're so pretty. My family has one at our camp which needs some repairing but I still think that it is one the prettiest things I've ever seen. We then walked around a little ways and decided that maybe we should find somewhere to go hiking. Our plan was to go to Lake Arrowhead and find a place from there to go by asking some locals. We just walked up to someone and asked them about hiking spots. She gave us some muddy directions and sent us on our way. But she peaked our interest when she said something about 'natural hot springs'. We thought that maybe we might be able to find the place. As we were looking at free maps of the area a man inside said that he had been a local all his life and that he would be happy to help us with anything we needed. So we asked him if he knew of any hot springs in the area. He said 'Well sure! Deep Creek Hot Springs! I know a great trail to get out there, no parking fee necessary and here are the directions...' He did warn us that we would 'pay the toll on the way out' because it was so steep, he also warned us of snakes and that we needed to carry in a bunch of water. Snakes and water is not a worry to us, working as outdoor educators we pretty much deal with both these items on a daily basis. In fact, the two weeks I've worked in the 'field' I've taken groups of kids hiking. As each one of us is a leader, and have experience backpacking in Joshua Tree, this hike was nothing we couldn't handle. 3 miles in, 3 miles out, steep in parts. Good day hike. His information was great we thanked him and went on our merry way.
We arrived at the trail head without much trouble. The hike was fine. We met some college aged kids and they seemed completely out of breath, said that the hike was tough stuff. I also looked at their equipment, and took their advice was a grain of salt, as they were pretty unprepared for spending the night in the desert, even if they were right next to a source of running water. I still wasn't that worried. We then passed about 6 of his friends all having the same weary face, all carrying bookbags instead of hiking packs, and all had sneakers on instead of boots, granted we were all wearing sneakers but we at least had water and were wearing running shorts. Some of these kids were wearing jeans. I hate hiking in jeans, it's a good way to get really uncomfortable chaffing.
They all were coming out and I thought to myself that they probably had a good party out there at the hot springs. Not a bad place to kick back a few beers. We continued. I then almost stepped on a snake, which was small and had dark and white stripes. Cool stuff. We couldn't identify it, we continued on. Then in the distance we see someone is coming. A friend of mine says 'that man is wearing a lot of tan clothing'. That didn't looked right. My other friend goes 'Yea, that man is completely naked.' The man was hiking nude. We all didn't say anything. This was an unexpected turn of events. I've never seen a nude hiker before, but I also have heard that they are out there. We passed each other on the trail I really didn't know what to do so I said Hello and he said Hi back and then added 'don't mind me.' OK nude hiking man, we won't. We had a couple of a giggles about it. Said things along the lines of 'wasn't expecting to see a nude hiker today.' and 'hiking nude would be uncomfortable.' we then wondered about him why was he hiking nude, did he want to be hiking nude? The questions kept piling up.
We continued down the trail to find that it became steep just as the man had told us the last mile. It was also sandy and we slid most of the way down. We could see where the springs were and we wanted to get to them. Finally the trail evened out and we walked along a river. We saw from a distance that there were numerous people hanging out over in the springs. A popular spot. The river was deep in places and people jumped in and swam around. Lots of nooks for people to lounge out in the sun. Then I saw it, a a naked bottom. It stuck out like...well... a ghost white ass. Then I saw it, there were others who were nude. Apparently this was a popular spot for nudists and skinny dippers. My friend joked that we might be a bit over dressed. The hot springs were pretty awesome. Water coming out of the ground at 150 degrees. People had rigged up a hot shower and also had pools of different temperatures. The river was nice and cool. We chit chatted with some nice people, a nude man offered to take a group photo of us. Of course we accepted. Overall a good day. I wasn't bothered at all by the nudity but it was definitely not what I expected when I got in the car today. Keep in mind anyone who wants to go to Deep Creek Hot Springs in Southern California, don't be surprised if you meet nude hikers and skinny dippers.
