July 16, 2016 0 Miles Lindsey, Suzy, and Brian are all still sleeping. I have been awake for an hour, staring at the canvas ceiling and thinking about an ever-shifting nothing. I can stay still no longer. I grab my book and my sweater and try to exit with as little noise as possible. It’s useless. The zippered door slices the quiet morning like a scalpel. I can hear all three shifting in their beds as I slash through their dreams a second time to seal out the light, the mosquitoes, and myself. Lindsey follows about twenty minutes later. We have a good read, an hour or longer, and try to ignore our growing hunger while we wait for Brian and Suzy to wake. Finally they’re up and we trudge down to the restaurant to break our fast. The restaurant bustles. Roadside diners don't have this much traffic. Most of it is hotshot crews, but there are also a couple families. We are seated and warned that breakfast will take a while. We are hungry and a little testy, mostly toward each other, but we’re grateful for all of these volunteer firefighters. Our food arrives, and our spirits pick up. Once again, I polish off two breakfasts with ease. Brian tells me I’m a pig, but I’m proud of my appetite. I’ve earned it. We head back up to the tent patio and play our favorite card game Spades. Brian and I have been playing since high school. We’ve perfected our team strategies over the years, which mostly include cheating by showing each other cards while the other team isn't looking. Getting caught is part of the fun. Lindsey and Suzy are wise to our trickery, so they force us to play on separate teams. The fresh air, the camaraderie, my full belly, and a good coffee buzz put me in a great mood. Lindsey and I win the game because we are naturally better at everything than Brian is. Brian wants to go explore for a while, and we head into the forest just south of us. We wander and play like boys, challenging each other to feats of balance and speed, throwing rocks, and climbing on high things. It's great fun, even though the girls are rolling their eyes at us the entire time. After lunch we drive down to Mono Hot Springs again. It is even busier than yesterday. The four of us try out all the different springs. We start with a grassy amoeba-shaped pond that we hadn’t seen before called Little Eden. It’s lukewarm, but it's a hot day anyway. Next we go to Old Pedro, the cement tubs on the other end of the springs. We get through them all, but we have to skip around a lot because many are stocked full of people. Unlike most hot springs, everyone here is clothed. Eventually we end up in a little pool next to the river where hot water falls over a muddy overhang. It’s a great combination of hot mineral water and cold river water.
We stay for a couple hours, talking and laughing, then ride back to the resort for a nap. The evening ends with dinner over the campfire (where Brian repeatedly drops the corn and potatoes into the fire and we all laugh), another day crammed full of fun and peace. I love hiking, but I sure love zero days too.
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Nick is a teacher, writer, and amateur adventurer. Archives
June 2020
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