Sykes!

So, Mackensie and I decided to take another trip in the spring of 2010, my senior year of high school. I had heard a lot from my neighbor J!M about Sykes Hot Springs, at the Big Sur Station. We were dropped off by my Dad at the trailhead and began hiking. The weather was clear and dandy on that Friday morning. The hike is 10 miles in, with rolling hills and a thin trail. This time I had a little less gear after weeding out the unnecessary. Mackensie still was ill-outfitted, this time using my daypack, still lacking a frame and adequate space. The trail spits you out by the river and leaves you confused if you've never been there before. J!M, luckily, had told us the right way to go. We traversed along the riverside to the left and eventually discovered many campsites. Settling on one across the river, we set up our gear and headed over to the springs. After trying out all three, we decided on our favorite and spent the rest of the evening posted up there. In the morning we returned to the lowest spring which was right on the river. Being the clumsy person I am, I leaned on the sand bags that held all the hot water in and soon enough ended up in the river...



Here's a shot of the Redwood bridge we crossed to get from the springs to our campsite.

After thoroughly enjoying our stay, we decided to hike halfway back and camp for one more night. At Ventana camp we both tried out the "wilderness toilet", in other words, the box full of poop at the top of a tiny hill. It was all in good spirits though. We cooked up some dinner and turned in early, only to be awoken at 4:00AM by what seemed to be an enormous puddle. It had rained and all of our gear was drenched. At this point we could not get back to sleep so we decided to pack everything up, including the water weight, and hike out with headlamps. We arrived quite early and hiked up the road to the River Inn for some breakfast.

Good Times!



Stay Tuned!

I'm not sure what I'll post next time, but I have another Half Dome climb, Sykes, and some junk here and there to talk about!