Ice Slides For Me!

I'm a bit behind on posting as I have spent the better part of this past week being sick.
Last weekend, my coworker Andy tagged along on my hot springs adventure. There are a few hot springs not too far from the hatchery, and I wanted to spend my day off relaxing in one. We chose to visit Weir Creek Hot Spring as Andy had been before and said it was the better of the other options we had. It is about a 0.7 mile hike from the parking lot to the hot spring- not bad at all. WRONG!
There was a beautiful coat of snow all around, but the trail was almost entirely ice the whole way! I managed the first half just fine while Andy struggled and complained. The real struggle came when the trail started going downhill. It is damn near impossible to walk downhill on ice- in case you thought otherwise. We determined that the best way to handle the situation would be to sit down and scootch along on our butts. This plan worked perfectly for Andy. Unfortunately for me, I had a much different experience. The momentum of me trying to sit down caused me to start sliding, and I ended up flying down the hill and off trail, plowing through a baby pine tree in the process. It was quite a sight, I'm sure. I only wish it had been captured on video!
After a bit more struggle on the ice, we finally made it to the hot spring! The water was PERFECT and there were only two other people there, so we had some time to relax without a crowd for a bit.

After a little while, a large group showed up, beers in hand, followed by two separate couples. It ended up being too crowded for my liking (we were all sitting shoulder to shoulder) and I decided I had had enough time in the hot water anyways, so we dried of and started the trek back out.
The people who were in the hot spring when we arrived told us there was a makeshift trail up the snowbank that we should use to avoid the ice hill of death. We gladly took their advice and it made the hike out SO much easier. We did have to scooch along for a large portion of the trail, but nobody ended up sliding of trail this time- thankfully. I did end up post holing on the side of the trail and twisting my knee a bit, but it wasn't too terrible. Overall, it was a successful adventure. Definitely looking forward to visiting the other nearby hotsprings soon!