Hot Springs and John Muir Ranch - My best day on the trail

We got up early and were hiking by 6am. By 7am we were at the John Muir Ranch and I got my resupply.

They keep a hiker box there of food and gear left by other hikers. We found some treats in there, Amtrak cooked soup and we ate fish and chicken and the ranch folks gave us a packet of fresh vegetables (I have been craving veggies for some time now). So, we had an awesome and huge Breakfast at a table in the Muir Ranch. When we could eat no more we waddled to the famous hot springs.

We had to ford across a quite tricky stream (next time I will keep my shoes on). This is a dry year but it was still a tricky 50ft of fast flowing water you wouldnt want to fall over into.

Over the other side we looked around for clues to the location of the hot springs and after a while followed a few vague cairns (stone ducks) to a meadow and found a wonderful and clear hotspring. It was blissful to get clean and sit around. Basil soon found the famed lake behind, complete with lilly pads and a log you could swim out to (a whole tree under water in fact). The whole scene was an odd seeming naturist thing in the middle of the wilderness, particularly amusing or fitting due to Basil's extreme hippy look and big old beard - the lake's lilly pads were an odd frill. An amazingly relaxing morning especially after not having had a wash for 9 days and having stretched out my last food resupply for the same duration too.

Mosquitoes were a complete bugger this evening even at high altitude.