Jammin' with Jameson

20 miles. Incredible day with a streak of bad luck. Started hiking around 6:30 and felt pretty good in the morning. Today was another lucky day where we got to follow a creek (Deep Creek) for almost the entire filled with good siesta spots, lush vegetation, and many vortexes to suck in tired hikers. First lunch was under a bridge with a beautiful swimming hole but we were headed for the hot springs 17 miles in so there were more important watering holes on our mind. I tried the 50 cent pies that I was dubious about from the grocery store and then ended up being AMAZING. I gladly ate two in quick succession. From there, I hiked with Josh for a few more miles and heard the groups hooting and hollering after passing another river hangout spot where we found Flo the Rocket. I dunked my entire body in the freezing water and explored a bit up-creek to find a beautiful series of waterfalls. It was hard for any of us to leave and attempt the remaining 6 miles to the springs at the height of mid day heat. I finally mustered up the courage only to step my entire shoe in water after carefully drying my feet and then immediately after breaking my sunglasses. I pushed on for the final stretch. After 4 miles, we passed a perfect shady spot on the creek right on the trail that I couldn’t pass up. I rewarded myself with my brownie which tasted oh so good but probably caused the early onset tiredness I felt soon after. People started building up there to escape the heat and prepare for the final stretch and I fell asleep.straddling a pointy boulder. I joked that I was now pink blazing for this boulder and was no longer moving. We all got up and started the last two miles. Out of nowhere, I felt something on my leg, and then a sharp stinging sensation and started sprinting. I felt things flying around my head as I was running and felt another one land on my leg which I swatted and killed. It turned out to be a hive of angry yellow jackets that also stung Baby Cow on the jaw and most people saw and ran from. My leg was still ringing with pain so I ran a little bit and hiked quickly to get into cold water as soon as I could. Getting the springs did not disappoint. It was a wonderful large section of the creek that had different pools built into the rocks surrounding the creek with varying levels of heat. There was even an area where the sand got hot as you dug your feet in that felt great on my ankles. We moved back and forth from the cold to water and hung up our food after hearing of the pesky hole making squirrels. We left the water at 6 to dry off before it got too cold and walked a little over 2 more miles to a sandy campsite under a bridge. A large group of us ate dinner, did nightly yoga, and went to sleep to.the sound of bullfrogs.