With yesterday’s excitement behind us, today started off sunny and warm. Hooray! I wonder if the road will be dry enough to travel…
It was decided that the day would be spent exploring the property on which the cabin sits. Given that it’s about 1000 acres, we had our work cut out for us. Several trails were marked on the big map and we made plans to try and find the healing creek spring about a mile away from the cabin.
Before getting too crazy, we couldn’t help but notice the new cabin that is being built by the owner up on the hill. As a preview to a more major excursion, we headed up the short (but steep) hill. It was apparent immediately why this location was chosen. It was flat, it was the highest ground in the immediate area, and the view was breathtaking. Both Spanish peaks were in full view with the morning sun shining on their majestic facades. All 15 of us made it to their porch and took hundreds of photos and many minutes of video.
With the sun beating down on the vehicles all day, the mud from yesterday began caking nicely. I don’t envy the person(s) who will be cleaning that off. Oh, right, that will most likely be me.
A bit later a bunch of us took off to find the healing waters. Some were so confident that this would be a luxurious hot spring that they wore their suits on the excursion. Others were not as certain and just wore normal hiking gear. A few hikers were not up to the full trek, so they peeled off and headed back early. Clare and I didn’t quite make it to the end, so we were back ahead of the rest of the crew. I should mention that the entire trail is uphill and coming back down was MUCH easier than climbing it on the way up. The peculiar part is that the uphill portion is so subtle that you don’t realize how much vertical distance is covered.
According to reports, the group did come across the spring but it was quite small, quite cold, and quite gross. Obviously, nobody did any swimming.
A separate adventure later in the day took four of us in our mud-encrusted Escape on a more smooth and worn path. We followed the ATV trail that is often taken by hunters out to their stands. Of course, the tire tracks of the vehicle were wider than the ATV tracks, so we were blazing a trail most of the way. I figured I’d take us out as far as we could safely go. Never really sure if we were on the right trail, we were pleasantly surprised when we made it out to a parked camper trailer that is sometimes used by more adventurous campers/hikers/hunters for overnight stays. A few dead flies and many confused moths were the only inhabitants that we found. After locking it back up, we made it another couple hundred yards before having to call off our progress due to a steep, rocky incline. Back at camp we regaled the rest of the family with our adventure.