This is part 27 of the “Why We Hike” Series
Sunday, June 21st / 22.3 miles / 1,960’ gain
Holcomb Creek to Deep Creek Hot Springs
After a decent night’s sleep, the morning started out very brisk – 38 degrees. We spent the morning hiking out of the burn out at a very quick pace.
It wasn’t long before we topped over a ridge and got a view over to the San Gabriel Mountains. We would be there in a short couple of days.
For the first few miles we followed along the creek and enjoyed some really pretty spots where the creek cascaded down steep gorges and tall trees gave us lots of shade.
Even those views paled in comparison to Deep Creek Bridge. It offered a nice shady retreat and Kelly got a chance to run her toes under the cool water. It helped the swelling to go down. Then she inspected her feet and learned that she actually had large blisters under her right big toe nail and the one next to it. It looked like she was going to lose at least another 2 toenails on this hike.
The rest of the day we traveled north in Deep Creek Canyon, high above the creek. There had obviously been a fire many years before but at least the process of re-growth was well under way. This was the first hot day of the trip and Zach was feeling it, poor guy. We kept pushing on at a good pace regardless since we were going to try and make it to our resupply at Silverwood Lake by the next afternoon.
In the meantime, we were both looking forward to camping out at Deep Creek Hot Springs. We figured we would be able to wash up – but were really disappointed when we got there. The area was really big with quite a few hot pools and a couple of deep spots in the creek to swim but there were way too many people to around to do any bathing despite the fact that it was a “clothing optional” area. I guess most hot springs tend to be a little ‘skanky’ – and this was no exception.
As we weren’t supposed to camp overnight there, we waited until most of the people had gone home for the day to set up camp. We decided to cowboy camped that night tucked up under some trees. It was then that the afterhours games began; first we saw a fat girl leading a decent looking guy around by his ‘third leg’. She led him to a more private spot – but still in full view of us and then we got to witness her drop to her knees and service him. Yuck.
Continues here: Silverwood Lake Campground