I've driven a ton over the past couple of days. Lots of music. Lots of thinking. One thing I realized about myself. My mind swirls around the planning process. Planning out days so the maximum amount of fun can be achieved. Evaluating it constantly. Where I'll sleep, when I'll eat, the sequence of activities are carefully coordinated. I came into this trip trying to eliminate the paradox of choice, but that same feeling creeps on -- even when the agenda was already set.
I believe that stems from how I do my job. My mind is always running hot -- trying to squeeze out every ounce of productivity throughout a day. How to optimize every minute. I think that makes me very good at work. I don't so much love it when out in nature, I wish I could turn that part of my brain off. Its just been heavily programmed.
I suppose half the battle is being aware of it.
Consciousness --> identify -> act. I'll keep that one in mind.
I'm sitting in the Alabama Hills after a very epic couple of days in Mammoth. It's a full moon tonight which is lighting up the entire vista where I'm parked, hiking with ease in the middle of the night in the middle of the desert is a treat. I believe my New Years Resolution will be to plan my desert adventures with the full moons. The moon hits a better different when full.
More importantly, it's not cold. I learned a tough lesson in cold this week.
After Death Valley, I was eager to return to Mammoth. I've lightly explored and done some cool hikes in the area, but this time I had a war chest of recommendations, a map full of pins, a scoping heaven -- and the source of the pins was very trusted. Guy has an energy about him -- and I was confident he would lead me to some gold mines -- and I was right.
But good adventure don't come easy.
Tee up Weekend Wars by MGMT. This one is for winners.
I set my first destination at Hilltop Hot Springs, just outside of Mammoth. After 6 hours of driving I was ready for a good soak. I arrived and it was very cold, but the hot tub was HOT, roughly 105 which is the very upper limit for me. I was happy about it, hot tubs are best in cold weather. My body heated up quick, and the entrance to the hot spring was ripe for camping. I was willing to take the risk and brave the cold night knowing that a morning soak was in store. Big mistake.
A tough lesson in elevation, learned the hard way. Just because it's in the middle of a huge plain on "flat" earth, does not mean that its not still at 8,000 feet. If you're at 8000 feet in the winter, it's going to be cold as shit.
That ended up being one of the most painful nights in recent memory. I shot up at 1 AM and thought "uh oh, it's really cold". I put on my ski mask, my biggest jacket, and both sleeping bags to fight the cold. I pulled out every bit of warm things in the truck and made a pile on top of Blu. We cuddled through the night, both shivering -- it sucked. In the morning we woke up to icycles on the inside truck windows, Blu's watter bowl had frozen, and we were in rough shape.
To make matters worse, the promised morning soak did not go as planned. I had forgotten to turn the hot water valve to return hot water to the hot tub. Over night the temperature dropped from 105 to 70. I'm there, alone, in the middle of nowhere, standing naked, with half my body in a cold hot spring and my largest winter jacket on. Literally freezing my dick off at 7 AM. I quickly turned on the hot water valve to full flow and patiently worked through the process of getting that tub back to 105, about 20 minutes.
The only thing I was thinking afterwards. Let's go get me some more hot tubs. And more hot tubs is what I got.
Tubs (A Tribute to 395)
I consider myself the leading expert when it comes to hot tubs. For the past 5 years I've had access to a hot tub and it's my favorite part of the day to day. I take work calls in the tub. I'll start many days in the tub. It's a part of the routine. It's an important part of my life.
I had the great pleasure of teasing out five hot tubs over the past 3 days. I went 5/5. All were awesome. Here are my notes:
There was a large cluster of hot springs 15 minutes east of Mammoth.
Hilltop Hot Springs was my first destination and it set a good baseline. A pleasant 3 minute walk took you to a huge open vista with a 360 view. A hot and cold valve made temperature control easy, which is a nice feature. It was single tub with a max capacity of 4 people to be comfortable which leaves you at some risk, but I had back to back solo soaks which was dope.
Willys Hot Spring was a cool spot. There was one big hot tub that could fit 6-8 people and that had a steady temperature at 102. Nearby was a seperate network of ~5 partitioned pools that could fit ~2 people, and a range of temperatures from ~102 at the top to ~98 at the bottom pool. More people, but more options on where to post up.
My personal favorite was Crab Cooker. It was a smaller solo tub that was really designed for 2 people. It had valves so you could control the temperature and hosted epic 360 views of the Mammoth Valley. I liked this the best because there were fire pits near the hot tub, and a ton of very cool camping spots on the route in. It was 2 miles offroad which made it more remote. When I go back to this area I plan on camping at Crab Cooker and doing an all night bonfire / hot tub sesh.
About an hour north was a small city called Bridgeport.
Travertine was another awesome hot spring, with small baths sprinkled across a very cool lookout. There were two baths that I crushed. One sat steady at 102 and the one next to it was a cozy 99. I made the cycle for a good 90 minutes until my body was tubbed out. Naked and unafraid.
Buckeye was super dope. 10 miles off 395, you really got back into the country. A steep mountain road gained elevation quickly, and dumped into a forest. Along the forest road was a ton of awesome free camping spots and fire pits. There was a very cool creek that ran through the valley, and the hot springs sat level with the creek. A network of 5 pools, sectioned off with rocks, with ranging temperatures in each pool. A cave, with a sprawled out waterfall pouring into each tub. This was the only soak I had to share but I found a great little spot, threw the headphones on, and vibed out pretty hard.
All in all, I got a lot of good soaks. This is another easy addition to anyones bucket list.