9,000 feet and 14 miles round trip. I readily admit I needed to take breaks for oxygen.
After so many parks with so many well marked and groomed trails this was a refreshing, and intimidating, break. Every step of the West Fork Trail was up or down, not marked at all, and covered with lots of nice rocks.
Good friends Chris G. and Matt R. have been encouraging me to find the right hot mineral spring. I did. In San Juan National Forest west of the Wolf Creek Mountain Pass there is a 5 mile trail along the West Fork River. It is not well marked, and it is empty. Matt R. told me to park at the trailhead and go from there. I also picked up a description at a Chamber of Commerce in Pagosa CO (the people at these places are always friendly and helpful). The paper description said park, walk, look for some rough camping areas, and spring is between camp area and river. Fair enough. About 7 miles (due to some wrong turns that were dead end trails) I found the rough camping area ( some rocks organized into a fire pit) and I could see the river, about 100 feet below me, and I could see the spring way down there. What I could not see was any way to get to it. No trail, no route of any sort. But, after the trudge this far and judging by how cool (hot?) it looked from above I was determined to find a way down there. After deciding that I was willing to fall of the cliff climbing down instead of missing the spring, I made it down in about 45 minutes.
Then I soaked in the spring for hours and it, and the earth, and the river, swallowed me alive and held me there in total peace. Only the realization that I had a 2-3 hour hike back down the mountain, and the sun would go down eventually, got me out of the magic mineral water. This was, I am sure, the most quiet spot I have ever been in the United States. The only noise was the river. There was nothing else, anywhere, except water, rock, sky.
This is the source of the spring. A small hole in the rock face that feeds warm, very warm, nutrient loaded, moss feeding water into a small pool. Ahhhhhhh! cr
1 comment:
hot springs next to cold streams, yea.
you seem rejuvenated in your writings...
how will it be when you go home? will it still be the same home? is it possible to reawaken ourselves to a new perspective at our age? is it possible at our age to change so we can't go back to the same home again because we are not the same so our sense of it is not the same?
it felt that way once a little while ago when the trip was new and little had been set in my life. i do not know if i could reawaken that perspective now... have you?
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