GICL: Of Hills, Hamburgers, & Hot Springs

 

 As we expected, it looks as though we’ll be making the drive into Silver every two weeks to grocery shop, make phone calls, explore, and treat ourselves to lunch out. This past week, we started with a walk around the Boston Hill Open Space trails.

We again parked at the Visitor Center because it’s so convenient to downtown with free parking, restrooms, and – usually – a water station outside to top off your bottles. It was out-of-order, though, and that meant I ran out of water towards the end of our hike since I arrived with them half-full (rookie mistake!) I’ll come back to that in a moment.

There are several access points to the Boston Hill trails, and we walked a short distance from the VC to the Spring Street trailhead. The pathways crisscross the open space and are popular with walkers, runners, and mountain bikers.

The tree cholla were showing off their fuchsia blooms, enhancing the views.

 

There are benches placed at different points along the way, although these were some of the only ones offering shade. Otherwise, all of the trails were entirely exposed, and even with a breeze were quite hot. They are also almost completely unmarked.

Inauspicious summit.

 We had no real plan as to how to traverse the trails, and when we felt finished (i.e. over-heated and nearly out of water) we found ourselves inconveniently positioned to come out where we had gone in. We made it to another of the trailheads, but it was a mile away from where our car was. TBG gallantly sat me under a shady tree and hoofed it back on the hot paved road to retrieve our chariot. My hero!

 

You have no idea how hard it was to get TBG to pause once food was in front of him.

We re-energized with a delicious lunch and cold drinks at Tapas Tree Grill.  “Hamburgers” is an understatement. The place specializes in crepes, and they made me a special gluten-free one for my burger ‘bun.’ Soooo delicious. After replenishing our energy stores, we went to the grocery store, then headed home to store our vittles.

It has been no secret to our coworkers that I am a complete sucker for the animals, and those with pets know that they can call upon me to look in on theirs when they are away.

Turn.On.The.Sink.

This week, while his human was away for a few days, I had the pleasure of visiting with my buddy, Mell(ow Yellow a.k.a. Pell-Mell) giving him scritches, sink drinks, and just sitting with him for company. Love my pet-sitter duties!

Just as when we are visitors in our travels who rely on park workers for advice about area hikes and features, we are inundated with similar visitor inquiries when we are on duty. We consider it part of our job to take in as many of the sites and trails as we can so that we can competently share with others. This past week, our goal was to get into the highly recommended Little Bear Canyon, with the option to continue out to Jordan Hot Springs, depending on how we felt after 5 miles. Let’s start from the start and see how it went.

As I seem to mention frequently, no matter where we hike, trail signs differ in their stated mileage. The map indicates it’s a 14-mile round trip trek. The sign at the beginning says it is 3 miles to the first junction, but the sign at that first junction says it is 2 miles back to the start. Given all of that and TBG’s GPS tracking, we determined it just topped 13 miles. Any way you look at it, it was a hella day hike!

An early speedy start.

Much of the hike had no real gain or loss, making it a “fast” trail.

 Then it dropped into Little Bear Canyon, and we were blown away.

 Little Bear becomes a slot canyon in a few places, which is another reason we wanted to get it done this month before monsoon season and the potential for flash floods.

The views just got better and better around each bend.

 

At roughly the five-mile point, the trail reaches the first (of fifteen!) river crossings, where we had to determine whether or not we wanted to don our water sandals and go two more miles to reach the hot springs. The answer was a resounding, yes! We were feeling good, were well-supplied, and knew it was now or never since it was highly unlikely we’d re-do this particular hike.

What boots? Where?

It was my idea to hide our boots in the rocks instead of carry their extra weight, and that was both a brilliant and sucky idea. You’ll see why in a few.

 The river crossings were not only refreshing, but afforded some of the best views of the hike.

We expected there to be a sign when we reached the hot springs, but there was not. TBG knew by the way the water was coming off the hillside (smartypants!) where they were.

Happy hot spring-finder.

Lucky us, we had the place to ourselves and were each able to enjoy a quick au naturel dip in the crystal-clear 94° water.

The trouble didn’t start until about 20 minutes into the return walk. Chatting happily as we retraced our way back through the river crossings and sandy trail sections, we almost simultaneously declared agony over our pinky toes that were being rubbed raw by the sand underneath our water sandal straps. We tried going barefoot, hurrying over the scorching sand between shady spots. We dug in our packs for extra socks, which mysteriously neither of us had. We shoved our feet all the way forward and/or backward in our sandals, over-tightening the straps to hold our feet in new positions, making them into sausages. We tried simply undoing the front straps to let our sandals flop while still offering a sole to walk on. Needless to say, having to stop every other minute to make some sort of adjustment was extremely unpleasant. Finally, with a combination of the above methods and a big dose of The-Hell-With-It, we just damn walked to get it over with. Each return river crossing was pure bliss, as the cool water soothed our poor tootsies. Once we decided to power through the pain, we were able to laugh and even joked that I should title this part of the post Nekkid & Afeared.

Never has putting on my socks and boots felt so good, and both of us were fortunate that it didn’t hurt us further to do so. The rest of the hike back was injury-free, and just as beautiful.

 Once home we treated ourselves to Epsom Salt foot soaks (yeowch!!!) and ice cream (yum!!!)

The very next night, TBG stayed home to do some leather working while I took another little hike. Once a month, during the late spring and summer, the park offers a ranger-led Full Moon Hike up to the dwellings. I joined the tour as a spectator for the first one of this year, and I am so glad I did! Even though the trail is becoming quite familiar to me, traveling by moonlight as it rose over the eastern mesa made it a whole different experience. We cast full shadows as we made our way up, our red flashlights completely unnecessary. Glowing lights were strategically placed among the dwelling rooms to simulate fire, and they created a warm welcoming destination as the caves came into view. Ranger Stephanie gave a wonderful talk about the plants and animals, passed around small bottles of different scents, told a great fireside story about how the moon and stars came to be, and really made the nighttime come alive the way it may have been for the Mogollon so long ago. My photos did not turn out at all, so I am borrowing one from the park’s Facebook page.

COMMENTS
 

Shannon Between running out of water in the New Mexico desert, and having too much moisture in the water shoes for comfort, I am wondering whether you will ever get things right. 🙂 Maybe you are just experimenting with a life of extremes. In any case, your hikes sound awesome (if one is properly supplied) and even the tiny hamlet of Silver seems to have something to offer. I am also in awe of the fact that you can go two weeks between grocery store visits. It seems when given the chance we visit Walmart or the local grocery store nearly every day, but it may be that we just like the company and/or the excitement.

Chasing Dirt Ha! We will probably never get things right, but goofing up keeps life exciting. It gets harder the older we get, doncha know? 😋

We are fortunate to have helpful co-workers, and we all pick up stuff in town for one another if we’re going, but I really can eke out two weeks of decent meals without resorting to complete crap. It also helps that there is extra fridge/freezer space for employees here, and that I am an obsessive list-maker 😄🤦

Laurel Oh, I want to be there with you!! That full-moon hike to the dwellings looks like pure magic. And Ranger Stephanie sounds like she is very cool.

Loved reading about your adventurous hike in Little Bear Canyon. I didn’t know about that trail, and now I want to do it (and I will remember to take socks!). Those red rock spires are gorgeous, and the hot springs sound wonderful. LOL at the little blue shorty-shorts that you so carefully painted on!

I’m making a note of the Tapas Tree Grill, too, for our next visit to Silver City. It’s such a great little foodie town, but two of our favorite spots have gone away, so I’m glad to have your recommendations. Keep on sharing your discoveries with us! 🙂

Chasing Dirt I wish you were here, too, and I promise I would have worn real blue shorty-shorts if you had been LOL!! I did agonize briefly (pun intended!) over that photo, but of course it was the best one showcasing the whole pool. That particular spring did not offer anyplace to sit on the perimeter and was too deep for wading-only, so it was wet pants or nothin’!

Literally the first thing I did when we got home was put a pair of socks in my backpack. Oh, how I suffer for my art!

Tapas Tree should definitely go on your list. I was sad when I learned that one of your favs, The Curious Kumquat, had closed. Tapas made us very happy, though!

Laurel I vote for “nothing” over wet pants any day. Eric and I have had plenty of skinny-dipping adventures in our travels when we find ourselves alone in beautiful secluded places. Well, actually, we’ve actually also been to hot springs where everyone was nekkid, so hey, when in Rome, right? 🙂 (Is this TMI??)

Lowe's Travels Wow, au natural 🙂 at least somebody knows how to paint their you know what 🙂 and I think I prefer the alternate title Nekkid & Afeared for it catches more attention.
Im impressed, you guys hike all kinds of terrain. We only hiked in water once where we have to remove boots and walked barefoot across a cold creek, and that was it! While you did 15 crossings, but it looked like you had the hot springs to yourselves, ahhh I can feel the warm water soothing your weary bodies.
Little Bear Canyon is a must see!
We took that same Boston Trail but access on the other side of the mountain and Steve was my model sitting on that bench!

I have not done a moonlight hike, it must be fun. And what an experience to see the dwellings lit at night.

TBG I know what you mean about stream crossings. Until we got here it was something to avoid when route/trail planning. The difference here is the water isn’t snow melt so no cold tootsies.

Chasing Dirt I considered titling the whole post Nekkid & Afeared, but I was *really* afraid of the sort of blog traffic that would attract. Good thing I have artistic skills, eh? 🤣

You two toughies would have had no trouble with those water crossings. At least it wasn’t freezing glacial water nor very deep or swift, any of which would have almost certainly changed our mileage! Little Bear Canyon is a beautiful destination on its own, for sure, and we have been telling folks that if they don’t want to mess with wet feet, they will not regret leaving off the extra trek to the springs.

The moonlight hike was so unique. I highly recommend it if you’re ever back here! There is plenty of room to park and stay over a night, too, although lots of folks make that twisty drive just for that hike.

chapter3travels My feet hurt just thinking of this walk. I’m glad you were able to get through it with little damage done. We’ve definitely had the experience of going from ‘happy go lucky hike in the woods’ to ‘holy shit, please make this stop’ a couple times. No fun at all.

Love the nighttime hike. So cool to get a different perspective and see a familiar sight in a whole new light.

A couple movies have ruined any chance of me ever going swimming sans bathing suit. Stand By Me. Deliverance. Jaws. Alligators in general… I just feel like if there is some murderous being in or near the water, I need to be able to leave quickly and no one needs to see my pasty butt. So… There ya go…. 😃

Chasing Dirt I did consider the option of simply sitting down and crying. I’m just glad the bad part was on a short leg, no permanent damage was done, and it didn’t ruin a spectacular outing.

See how I went out after dark?😄 It was doubly cool since we really don’t have occasion to be outside after dark too often, and it was such a wonderfully warm night.

I’m happy to report there were no leeches, sharks, or alligators in the hot springs, and since we kept our noses dry, we avoided any brain-eating amoeba. Pasty heinies be damned — you need to try a skinny at least once! As TBG says, we’re all just a buncha dirty hairy hippies out here. Be free!!!🤭