Miles today: 14.1

Trail miles: 318

Elevation: 3280

Spinning on the turntable: Keane: Hopes and fears

Today was a busy day!

We headed to Deep creek hot springs (clothing optional) and made it in time for a few hours of early morning soaking before it was too crowded. It’s a popular location from both hikers and locals.

There were four or five different hot springs available. We selected this one and jumped in. (One of us was buck naked and one of us was clothed. We’ll leave it up to you to figure out who was who!)

We chatted with a section hiking couple from Chicago and another thru-hiker from Virginia. The thru hiker from Virginia had been at the hot springs for five days and brought enough food for fourteen days! Whoa!

We soaked for a few hours and then headed on our way up the trail.

The flowers are still magnificent!

Later in the afternoon we realized we needed to cross the river again. Earlier in the day and we’ll just plow through it, but later in the day we don’t want wet shoes and socks.

After crossing the water we took a break in the shade and filtered a bit more water. We hiked for another few hours and then called it a night.

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