The drive to Chena Hot Springs was beautiful. We searched the entire way for signs of wildlife, but to no avail (it's hard to be that vigilant...). The river is pretty much frozen and so there are just these beautiful flat spaces full of ice and snow with trees and mountains in the distance. And so much sky.
We found the hiking spot and parked and it was cold. Now, we have no idea what to expect so we began to layer. Our trail was only 1.2 miles but we didn't know what type of trail it would be. So we prepared for the worst.
Hats, muffs, undershirts, sweaters, heavy jackets, gloves, leggings, ski pants, wool socks, snow boots.
We were ready for this.
At this point, I heard a scream behind me and turned to see Lonnie missing a leg. If you venture off the trail, the snow is deep and you sink. As you can see from these two pictures of Lonnie.
This was also about the time that we were starting to sweat.
Our Alabama/Seattle sensibilities did not prepare us for walking in snow. When we think snow, we think freezing, we think death. This day was 45 degrees...not cold... so, it didn't take long for us to start overheating. Slowly, we were losing layers.
Also, snow boots have no traction. The middle of the trail was so slippery and so we had to carefully walk as close to the edge as possible to use the loose snow to help us get up the hill or not fall and die going down.
Lonnie trying not to die as she comes down the tiniest hill.
At the 1 mile mark the trail started going uphill. We pushed on for the other .2 part and saw nothing, just more hill and more trees so we turned and started to head back. We were anxious to get to the hot springs, anyway.
I already said the snow was deep and so we decided to do a little test and just fall back in the snow to see how deep.
I sank like a brick guys... and still didn't find the bottom.
Then we headed to the hot springs. We had heard some stories about these hot springs. Multiple sources (ladies that work at Hertz, Eric, the park ranger...) had told us that Chinese lore/legend says that if they have sex in a hot spring it improves their chances of getting pregnant and getting pregnant with a boy... yeah. They said there were lots of hidey holes in the adult area of the springs.
So, with fear and trepidation, we headed there. Paid to enter, paid to rent a towel, and headed back to change. Now remember it's 45 degrees, the sun is out, and the hot springs is 105 degrees. Needless to say, we were sweating in the hot spring.
We would spend time in the water and then have to get out and sit on the rocks to cool off. It was just too cold out so then you want to get back in and it becomes a vicious cycle. I am sure that these pictures actually make the pool area much bigger than it is. I had my gopro with its waterproof case so that's how we were able to take some pictures. The water was really smooth and kinda greasy, had a stronger sulfur smell, which we were worried would stick with us the rest of the day. At this point, we saw no one having sex in the pool.
We decided to get out though, not being able to take the heat anymore and moved to the restaurant where we sat at the bar and found someone who works there that's also from Alabama. Birmingham specifically and worked with people that I went to high school with!!! Totally random but super neat.
We even got adopted into a group. One of the guys was from Auburn, WA.
Me, Lonnie and Andrew.
Luke added only because we told him that our goal was to get pictures with all our new friends.
At this point we have really bonded. Such a sense of camaraderie at that bar.
Kristie. She was with Andrew and Luke and her boyfriend. They drove 10 hours (or something like that) from Kenai because they heard the lights were going to be so great.
They invited us to play 4 Square and baseball with them and then watch the northern lights in the hot springs at midnight. It was really fun! The hot springs was not the best place to watch, though, too much steam.
The best news...I didn't see anyone having sex in that pool.
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