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Jordyn and I had the makings of a plan in place when she came down to Corvallis to visit this week. That plan involved doing something on Wednesday. And that's it.
So when Tuesday night rolled around and we started talking about what we were actually going to do with our day off, the idea of visiting a new hot springs neither of us had been to came up and we decided to go with it. The only issue was the spot we wanted to go to was over 3 hours away - meaning we either left that night or risked it being overcrowded the next day, if we could even find it.
So we packed up her car after I got off work, picked up our friends Athena and Tyler, who had no idea what they were signing up for but were troopers anyway, and set off for the North fork of the Umpqua River.
Several hours and an exorbitant amount of caffeine later, we arrived at what our GPS claimed to be the forest road to the hot springs. We hadn't encountered any heavy snow on the highway there, but once we pulled off onto the less traveled back roads, there was about a foot of snow and ice for us to contend with. And even worse - the gate to the trailhead, approximately 2 miles from the actual hot springs, was closed - Leaving us to try and find our way there for the first time in about a foot of snow.
The main goal of the trip was to be the only group of people at the hot springs, which meant trying to be there as the sun was coming up. Our plan was to sleep in the car for a couple hours, wake up and start hiking by 6:30, and hopefully be at the hot springs by 8. So with the drive out of the way, we put down the back seats in Jordyn's car, got as comfortable as we could, and finally drifted off to sleep at 3 a.m.
I snoozed my alarm until about 6:30 and we were up and moving by 7. It was cold and wet, with a light rain breaking up the snow and turning it into slush under our feet. I realized I had left my boots in my car at home, leaving me to make the trek ahead in white vans. I think being completely unprepared for this sort of thing has slowly become my calling card. I've touched on it before, but researching where you're going and paying close consideration to the weather especially is something that I need to improve on. I did a little bit of research prior to setting out, but definitely didn't realize just how much snow there was, or how long and difficult the hike would be. And I somehow still haven't bought myself some damn gloves.
The hike wasn't all bad. Yes, it was cold and wet, and it was very early in the morning and none of us had gotten much sleep. But all around us were incredible snow-covered creeks, trees and rocks that wound along the road and led us deeper into the forest. I grew up camping every summer in the area, and seeing it in the winter was both nostalgic and completely foreign to me. I was practically raised swimming in the Umpqua and diving off of these rocks, but walking along the side of the river with rain pouring down on us and snow in my socks was an entirely new experience.
The last quarter mile of the trail was some of the most difficult hiking I think any of us have ever done. This photo doesn't really do it justice, but we were faced with about 300 feet of near-vertical climb, and a solid sheet of ice under our feet. Not the worst thing in the world with the right shoes, and good visibility, but we were all stuck in street shoes and it was still raining on us the whole way up. A few minor slips and scares later we crested the last hill, with the trees breaking open into an amazing secluded cliff face where a chain of hot spring pools trickled down into each other and then emptied out at the base of the cliff into the Umpqua below.
Tyler and I hung back for a moment to give the girls some time to get changed and settled in the pool underneath the little wood shelter that overlooked the river. Once they were situated, I ran around the hill above them and snapped a few shots of the scene before climbing down to get a few more of them and then join them in the pool.
The springs got progressively warmer the farther up the hill we went, ranging from probably 105f down to 75f at the bottom of the cliff. We mainly stayed in the middle ones, sampling the warmest for a short time just to warm our bones up completely after the frigid hike. We had the entire place to ourselves, and it was incredibly relaxing to sit in the pools and watch the rain fall into the river flowing below us. I snapped a few shots of Jordyn after a while with my iPhone, testing out portrait mode and just how waterproof this thing really is. I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least, but using Touch ID with wet fingers is downright impossible.
The four shots above are all shot on the iPhone 7+, edited with the Polarr app. Give it a try if you haven't already. It's fantastic. The only difficult part was keeping my lens clear of steam. I had the same issue with my 5D though, and was kind of bummed going through these photos because some of my favorite ones from the trip are really blurry where the fog distorts them. One more thing to keep in mind for next time I guess, always remember extra towels and microfibers.
Eventually, after trying all of the different pools, eating some snacks and drinking all of the extra coffee we had brought, it was time to start packing up to head home. Putting our clothes back on was a challenge to say the least, mainly because it was still raining and no amount of toweling off helped our situation. We also knew that we had a treacherous hike back down to the trailhead, and that wasn't a great motivator to leave quickly. So we lingered for a bit, taking in the view for a few more moments before setting off.
Going back down the trail posed a few new challenges but was overall quicker and easier than climbing up the slope had been. We opted to bushwhack a few feet off the main trail to avoid the packed ice that had made it so difficult to get up in the first place. A few scary moments, a few minor detours, and we were back at the trailhead.
Once we were back on the road, it was just under two miles back to the car. We encountered a couple groups of people on the way out and warned them about the trail to the springs being icy, and were glad that we had decided to hike in so early to have the spot to ourselves. We resolved to come back again when the trail isn't so bad, now that we know where it is and how great of a spot it is to spend some time when you have it to yourself.
I didn't really take many more pictures at this point, I was exhausted and we still had about four hours of driving ahead to get back to Corvallis. All in all we hiked around five miles in the snow, spent a couple hours in the hot springs and climbed half a mountain in roughly four hours. I still need to buy gloves, I need to do better research, and I want to buy a car that can make it through these conditions a lot easier soon. The Volvo just isn't cutting it anymore, and I'd love to have something that's roomy enough to camp in comfortably. We got bagels from a little breakfast place in Roseburg on the way back (10/10) and as soon as we were back home we passed out immediately and slept until later that evening. I'm only now really recovering from the lack of sleep, but it was totally worth the experience and I'm pumped to get out and do more trips like these every week.
If you're still here, thanks for reading. I've been blown away by the response to these blog posts, and it just makes me want to keep doing more. I chose VSCO as a platform because there aren't any ways to quantify the popularity of each post - no likes, comments or shares to compare to those of other people. When someone reads something here, it's up to them to reach out if they really connected with something, and I like that. It's gotten me to make things and tell stories and share my experiences without worrying about how many people will see it, or like it, or whatever. And it's always amazing to hear that people are actually tuning in and appreciate what I'm writing. So if you're one of those people, thank you again. You have my sincerest gratitude.
Okay that's it I'm done here's a picture of a super cute dog we saw on the way home bye ✌🏼
