Date: 5/22/21 – 5/23/21
Training Day: 120 & 121
Miles: 2.75
New Friends: 1
Weather: Partly cloudy, high 50s to low 60s and windy on Saturday

How It Felt: The hike was fun, and the hot spring was quite relaxing.

Commentary: Our backpacking trip to last weekend’s hot spring was canceled due to weather. So, my friend and I came up with a new plan.

There was a canyon I’d been wanting to hike, and there was a hot spring not far from it. On the way to the canyon we stopped at a different hot spring to check the temperature. It’s there that we met a chick living in her truck camper with three dogs.

She seemed a wee starved for human interaction, so we sat and chatted with her for a bit. As we were about to drive off we decided to invite her on our adventure.

The road to the canyon was rough. I splashed through giant puddles and kept my speed up to keep from sinking in the soft, wet dirt that deceivingly looked dry and hard packed.

The canyon itself was way more amazing than any of us anticipated. There were several times when we thought it ended, only to keep walking down a wash and end up back in the canyon. Water carved the rock into fascinating shapes, and rock jumbles formed fun hidey holes to explore.

While truck camper chick went to town to resupply, my friend and I hit up an ice cave and did a guided tour. The place was a tourist trap, but it was pretty cool (pun intended?) to see the thick ice in the cave.

We met back up with chick and went to the hot spring for the night. Thankfully we had the hot spring to ourselves. The water was perfectly warm, and the tub was big enough to comfortably fit all three of us.

We all slept in our respective vehicles for the night and soaked in the hot spring again before hitting the road.

I needed a relaxing weekend. But I still felt bad for not getting in my long run. And for the first time ever I skipped leg day! It was an odd and horrible feeling, but I think it was for the best.

Yet again, I’m taking a week off of weight training because I’m feeling a wee under the weather. I still plan to get my runs in, but it depends on how I feel.

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