Well Sunday morning Russ and I woke up fairly early to get ready for our trip to the Hot Springs! Originally we were going to ski in but Russ had heard that the downhills were a little steep.. So we decided to hike and sled in! :-)

The total trip into the hot springs is over 11 miles. It would be great if you could sled the whole thing but at some point you have to walk back up...

In any event it started out with a nice gradual downhill. I had my backpack on the sled and I layed on top of it.. You know.. Face first.. Only way to go.

It was really fun to be sledding to a destination. The weather was great as well! I ended up taking off my jacket, gloves, hat, etc... I was loving it..

At this point we had been walking for a while because the slope wasn't enough for our sleds to slide on.. Actually the snowmachines (They call snowmobiles this.. or sometimes they call them sno-gos) made bumps the whole way which acted like speed bumps for us.. We were looking to the mountain ahead of us and saw the trail cut into the mountain side.. At first we thought no.. That can't be the trail its straight up! No zig zag at all. Well since it certainly wasn't going to be a powerline it was the trail!! Oh! BTW! I saw the pipeline!!! Very bizzare to see this big pipe off the ground. Some areas it goes underground and where there is permafrost it has special inductors to keep the warm oil (yes its heated.. how else would sluggy oil flow in -50 weather) doesn't heat the permafrost.. Pretty neat stuff..

Back to the hike though.. It was a fairly steep incline and it lasted for about 5 miles... I just kept thinking about the hot springs. We made it up to the white cap (I think thats what it was called). I had a 360 degree view of the world! Absoulutly beautiful! Very little wind was blowing as well. I decided to pull the video camera out of my back pack and see if it survived the sledding from the begining of the trip.. :-) Don't worry Vick, I packed it well. So I have a wonderful 360 shot on video. The trees were very sparse at this altitude with just lots of white snow... If you dared step off the trail of hard pack snow you would be up to your waste in snow. I did.. :-)

We had a little longer of hiking and then the steepest, fastest downhill bobsled run of your life! I attempted to go feet first because I was concerned about slamming my body down on the camcorder may destroy it. This was a big mistake because I let my foot drop and it through snow up in my face so I couldn't see! I swear I was traveling about 15 miles an hour, maybe faster. I finally ended up going face first and bracing myself so I didn't crush the camera.

One of Russ's friends Brian was already there and had a fire going in the cabin. So I unloaded all my stuff and headed straight for the hot springs.

Oh man.. All I can say is the hike in was worth it. Pure heaven all around me. The tub is made out of wood and has two pipes that feed water into it. Onw is warm/hot and the other is hot/boiling. You can take the pipes in and out to adjust the temp. I put both in. :-)

Of course the pee thing has to enter into things again... :-) I had to get out of the tub but I didn't want to get dressed all over again so I walked but naked up the hill to pee in the snow... Well going from extreme heat to snow under my bare feet almost made me pass out.. before I could do anything I was running back for the tub! After a quick warm up I put just my boots on.. That was much better.. But this gave Russ plenty of time to get a picture of my white ass!

We all headed back to the cabin and quickly fell asleep. Russ woke up in the night and we all ended up going back to the hot tub to watch the stars. I have never seen so many stars, even more than douglas. :-) But the best part was yet to come! There was a hint of the northern lights showing (I can't remember or even attempt to spell the proper name). It just ended up carving a spectacular river of light across the sky! The contract was so extreme. On one side it was pitch black and then pure green light! It was so bright that there were shadows on the ground! I tried to capture it with the video camera but it didn't even show up.

Next morining we ate breakfast and had one last dip in the tub. I taped up my heel that had blistered from the previous day. Of course that very fast hill we slid down on sleds we had to hike up. I did pretty well but it was still early in the hike. Back at the top the white capped dome was a little windier than the previous day. I had to put on my neck tube to protect my face. I also had to keep blowing the water back into the bag of my camel pack to keep it from freezing. So we didn't meander like before. The best part of the trip was next! A 5 mile sled ride down the hill. Not as fast as the steep hill but more mangable and fun. I went feet first again since I kept my feet inside the sled this time. :-) I got going pretty fast off those snowmachine bumps! I was slamming down on my ass every 4 feet. Absolutly crazy!

Back to the flat section.. I hiked along but I had forgot how long the stretch was and I was losing steam. I was releived at first when I hit the uphill because I knew this was the last section of the trail. but again its alot steeper climbing up than sledding down.

I was absolutly exhausted by the time I got to the car.. My blister was in good shape too! We had left the cabin at 12 noon and made it to the car by 4:30pm. Thats around 3 miles an hour which even with the sledding is great! We were figuring we wouldn't be to the car until 6:00pm.

I would like to thank Camel back, Alpine Lowe, One Sport (which is called something different now), and Columbia for my very warm gear!

I didn't do too much today.. :-) I'm resting.