On the car ride home my dad asked what my plans were for the night. I told him that my  two friends, Bree and Janae, and I had planned to go to Cougar hotsprings.  My Dads paternal instinct kicked in quickly and warned me about the dangers of hotsprings. I told him that I go all the time and never had a problem.  He smiled and told me to have fun. He couldn’t say much more. My parents in their younger years, as my dad calls it, visited hotsprings regularly. The benefits of the healing water and cold winter night  out weighed the danger.

Janae, Bree and I hopped in the car around 8:45pm and started our adventure. We passed  through the industrial land of Springfield. The sky was a deep navy blue and the steam from the industrial plant’s plumes rose high then streaked across the highway.  Our hearts broke silently in unison as the quite ode to industrialization filled the car with poisonous fumes.  The haste for wild increased. Bree slightly sped up.

We anxiously grabbed our bags, mounting our headlamps firmly on our heads. We where off.  The hike was brisk. The cold winter air was filled with the soft chatter and excitement.

We arrived at the shelter. Stripping quickly we then carefully walked down to the first Pool and descended into the hot water. Another group arrived shortly after and carried out the same procedure.  Little did we know that this group had terrible hotspring etiquette.

The top pool quickly felt like a crowded house party. Janae, Bree and I retreated to the cave, the source of the spring, with a head lamp and a bottle of water. The scorching hot water bubbled out of the spring filling a small pool just big enough for three small butts.  Ground water was permeating the rock and cold drips of clean water dripped down cooling us.  Finally serenity. The tiny cave grew warm with body heat and friendly admiration.  We suddenly were brought back to society with a flash.

Literally a flash from a camera. The other group had started taking fake lesbian photos.  Janae looked at me and gave me the go ahead to school them in Proper Hotspring etiquette. All three of us descended from the warm gave into first pool . I asked them not to take pictures. Told them that it was not proper hotspring etiquette.  They apologized and reformed to a pleasant hotspring participants. Shortly after they left. Finally the hotspring was ours.

The chatter amongst us died out. I started up at the now black overcast sky. The silhouette of the tall fir trees stood out. It was as if they were imparting their 200+ years wisdom upon me.  We dialogued silently about how improvements to the hotspring led to degradation the magic they hold.  Bree brought me back to reality with her sweet voice asking if we were ready to go.  I felt my fingertips. They were tiny raisins.

Just as we where getting out of the hotsping we started hearing the hoot and hollering of a group of people. We couldn’t move fast enough across the slippery stones to avoid nude contact with this rowdy group. As we were swinging our towels around-they arrived.  With their noise, they brought the smell of hard liquor. We dressed quickly only putting on the essentials while being berated us with drunken questions.  Bree and I answered in quick quiet sentences as Janae remained silent.  The shit-faced finally noticed that we were naked and announced it to his drunken brethren. We were getting ready as fast as possible but it wasn’t fast enough.

Bree did a quick check for possible left items and we where out of there.  Was our hour of bliss and intense connection with nature worth it? My answer-always.