ARCOTEL WIMBERGER HOTEL VIENNA

Deep Creek Hot Springs - One of my favorite collections of pools. They're off the Pacific Crest Trail (Southern California). This particular pool is south-east of the main pools, but is my favorite because it's more private than the popular ones. This privacy is key, because there are usually a lot of nude people, but not in a good way, like in the movies or something. The way that I usually go in is just shy of 20 miles, round trip, including the pavement I also walk. I prefer to go alone, for two reasons: first being that I like to take photos of everything, and sometimes I'll see something way off the path and end up taking a detour of an hour or more exploring, and the second is that it is kinda fun doing the whole nude thing! When I shot these photos, it was the dead of winter. The snow at higher elevations was melting, and Deep Creek was a healthy torrent of ice cold water. To get into this pool, you have to cross the creek. There are two ways of doing this. Either hike WAY out of the way and stay dry, or ford the water. I chose the latter. I think it's more rewarding this way. Even though it's winter, you end up sweating after almost ten miles, then you brave the frigid 32° raging waters (see blue thermometer), and finally get into a pool that I measured at 92°. The water coming out of the rocks was around 102° that day, but seems really consistent (red thermometer). Feels great! (See orange rectangle.)

This particular day, I left around 9:00am, and arrived in the afternoon. I always end up spending WAY too much time down there. Well, it's hard not to. So most of the trip back was in the dark. It's a little creepy being out there along the trail, alone after dusk, but I had my headlamp and an MP3 player. By the time I got back to pavement, my legs and knees were killing me, and I was hungry and exhausted. My headlamp batteries were almost dead and I could only see a few feet in front of me. All of a sudden I heard claws rapidly clicking along the pavement, coming up on me quick. I turned around, and the dying headlamp would only illuminate the animal's eyes gaining on me. It scared the hell out of me! I grabbed my pocket knife. I thought my heart was going to explode. I found out seconds later it was only a local dog. He was one of those independent hounds that aren't mean, but won't get close enough to pet. For some reason, he walked the rest of the way with me, although not closer than 20 feet.

Deep Creek runs all way along Deep Creek Trail, the easy 1.6 mile roundtrip in length. This pleasant little trail offers a variety of sights, from waterfalls to wildflowers to relative solitude in a forested setting. This creek is very clean and well kept, as far as wild creeks go. Its the best place for vacationers to visit. Tubing is one of the favorite activities there.

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