The end of this month is drawing nigh. I have been so scattered from week to week between school and work, work and school, there hasn't been much time to go out and get grubby. When there are precious "booties" of time to be stolen from those lofty pursuits, I found since I got back from my big, wonderful, transformative Sierra trip this summer that I would rather stay home, be lazy, warm, and replete than push myself to go play outside. I haven't even wanted to be driven or organized for indoor things either. It is a strange phenomenon for me that returns about once a year, finding myself at a loss for belly-fire and motivation. I guess it is my protective mechanism against burnout. Or, in TCM parlance, my absolute yang from the summer transforming to predominant yin for the winter.
Still, I managed to drag myself out for a couple of nights in Big Sur with my friend Ricardo. It was his first camping trip since he was a boy scout in Peru! I had always wanted to go back and visit the Sykes Hot Springs, even though supposed outdoor adventure snobs snivel on them because they are such a popular haunt. I had also heard that if you visit during winter you vastly reduce the chances of encountering a 3-ring circus when you finally trudge the 10 miles up the Big Sur River valley to get there. I figured hiking in on Thanksgiving day would further reduce those odds, and so we went.
We arrived at sunset on Wednesday, picked out a nice site in Pfeiffer for the night and set up the tent, then into town to forage for firewood. We headed south for a drink or two and a light supper at Nepenthe, one of my favorite places on earth and lingered for a few hours on the back deck long after the sun went down. Then back to camp to relax and get organized for the next day, which popped up clear, cold, and hard as diamonds. Our trek in was uneventful, although I admit for the last mile I was on autopilot just-get-me-there mode. We even saw some real live banana slugs!
Once camp was established, we set out to find the hot spring which turned out to be more challenging than anticipated, even asking directions twice from other campers (who turned out to be somewhat plentiful, but not so much as on Friday when we went out!) We even gave up and started heading back upstream to camp as the sun started going down before we made one last attempt at asking some folks for one last tip. Happily, it turned out to be a good one--we found a tiny little sitz pool at the bottom and a larger pool up above the river. The large pool was already full of people who looked like they had been there a while and had no intention of leaving any time soon, so we scrambled down and crammed ourselves into the little one until the sun was almost down. Crossing the river in the dark was super fun! But it was worth it all the same, as was the smoked salmon quiche and pinot noir we had for dinner.
The next morning was sufficiently cold to get us up and out early, on a mission to reach the cars. We gained the halfway point in just over 2 hours, which turned out to be an exquisite (albeit cold) camp called Terrace Creek. Maybe next time? We hurried on, refusing even to stop and eat gorp. The closer we got to the trailhead, the more groups we passed on their way in. We thought it was crowded last night! 1:15 we reached the cars, so happy to put the packs down and take off our shoes, sneak back into Pfeiffer to use the showers, steal a last couple of photo ops from the back deck of Nepenthe on our way out of town. We climbed up San Marcos Pass to find Cold Springs Tavern in Santa Barbara (another of my favorite places) at dinner time, and were lucky enough to snag a little table in the corner for dinner (who knew the day after Thanksgiving. everyone goes...everywhere?) It was a nicely incongruous conclusion to the trip. To see the rest of the pics, click on the "Photo Gallery" link in the sidebar, or go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/adventuregrrl.
Now it is back to being boring again. 2 weeks of intense prep for finals. Next true grime adventure? Gigantic batches of holiday tamales from my teensy, weensy kitchen!
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