Our destination was Kern Hot Springs. Just the thought of soaking in a hot springs was enough to spur us on. We walked through forests and shade with wide open meadows paralleling the timber.
Soon we started descending the switchbacks that lead into the Kern Canyon. What a torture! My feet were throbbing! The switchbacks had step-downs half the length of my leg. What a hip burner!
Funston Creek crossed over many of these switchbacks as it thundered down the mountain into the Kern Valley. It was so amazing and beautiful.
Once we made it to the bottom, we sat and ate lunch. We saw three dudes finish the switchbacks and give high-fives all around. They waved to us and continued on.
We "only" had maybe one more mile to go but it had to have been the slowest mile I've ever done (I take that back, Mt. Whitney was still to come) . The trail was so rocky and dense with chunks of granite that normal walking was impossible. It was brutal. Then a long slow slog through a hot, never ending meadow. Nancy pulled her app out and said "only" 1500 more feet! How far is 1500 feet anyway? It seemed really, really far.
Finally! We saw the hot springs. The three dudes were there but it looked like they were just finishing up. We walked a little further to spock out a campsite and set up our stuff. By the time we made it back to the hot springs, the dudes were almost done packing up. They said they were continuing on to some far distant location that I can't remember. They showed us how to plug and unplug the hot spring and told us if it's unplugged, the water goes into a pool below. Well, the hot springs feed into an algae filled cement tub that didn't look appealing at all so we uncorked that sucker and let the warm water flow into the below pool. Heaven! We soaked and it felt so good on our burned out muscles and feet. We were able to wash our hair too! Leave No Trace dictates no soap in the river, so we used two ziplock bags and carried water away from the river, doused our heads with it, soaped up, and rinsed. YEEHAW! Man, that was the best feeling ever. We used the same method for washing some socks and underwear.
We saw another dude limping by while we were soaking but he just waved and continued on.
We finished up at the hot springs as the sun set behind the granite and made our way back to our campsite. Ahhhhhhhh- it was a good day. One of my favorites.
We slept at 6880 feet.
This is the kind of crap we were walking on!
Flat Stanley fell in the river and had to be rescued. He's looking a little peaked.
Hot springs pool below the algae filled cement tub.
Ew.
Nancy is performing emergency surgery on Flat Stanley.
Flat Stanley is recuperating with some honey bourbon.
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