Loving Life on the Range

While Ryan is hiking the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) this summer, I am going to come out and visit him along the trail in California, Oregon and Washington. He is hiking from the Mexican Border to the Canadian Border, over 2,500 miles and he will be away from home for about 6 months.



He has a blog devoted to his adventures along the trail:

http://www.anotherlongwalk.com/

This month, I got to meet with Ryan at Warners Springs, CA.




http://www.warnersprings.com/





There is a resort there and not much else, but what a resort! You don't need anything else.


About an hour and a half drive outside of San Diego in rolling hills, the resort was once a stagecoach stop between New Mexico and Los Angeles. Because of the hot springs here, there have been settlements at this spot for hundreds of years. Kit Carson even lived here for a while.



Now there is a Spa, horseback riding, golf, tennis, hiking, cycling and sky sailing. We had our own cabana on the property and it had a fireplace! Especially nice when those temperatures drop at night here in the desert.

The cantina was super cute with these wonderful murals on the walls of cowboys and dance hall girls. One corner had an image from the folk song, The Preacher and the Bear!

The pools are fed with water from the hot springs. The "Hot" pool was around 104 degrees and the "cool" pool was 87 degrees. There is a bit of that sulfury rotten eggs smell, but the water feels so delightful, you can overlook that.




The first day I was here, I dropped Ryan off for a bit of hiking. We call it "slack-packing". This is when he hikes the trail with only a day pack and doesn't carry his fully loaded PCT pack. He hiked about 10 miles on this day, while I went to the Spa and generally enjoyed myself around the resort!


The next day, Ryan took a "zero day". A zero day is a day when a thru-hiker takes a break and doesn't hike at all. Zero miles are logged on a zero day. But what Ryan lost in hiking miles, he made up in air miles. We decided to go on a Glider Ride!

http://www.skysailing.com/



It was a perfect day, not a cloud in the sky and we had a terrific time in the air. Well, I had a terrific time. Ryan enjoyed the view, but the turbulence of riding the thermals was a bit much for his stomach. He started throwing up about 5 minutes into the flight and he didn't get any relief until his feet were back on the ground. What a trooper! Instead of going down early (we had already paid for a full flight), he stuck it out and we stayed in the air the full amount of time to enjoy the view of the PCT from the air!!

Ryan's appetite was better that evening. After a dip in the pools fed by hot springs water, we had a wonderful dinner at the lodge. I wish every time I came out to meet Ryan on the PCT, we could have adventures like these!