Sykes Hot Spring

Rob told me long time ago there was a hot spring in Big Sur and you got to hike 10 miles up and down to get to it. At Lost Coast, both Dawn and he started to rave on it again on the trail and Diego took his note and decided to plan a birthday trip for me. He knows how much I love backpacking, and surely enough, he got more excited than I was before we took off on a weekend in late August.

Our series of accidents started on the very first night. At the campground Pfeiffer, we realized the tent was not ours and the poles did not seem to match. We thought our friend Mani could have mixed things up since he borrowed it a few weeks ago. But luckily Diego figured out how to set them up before we turned back to Carmel. Anyway, the campground seemed so civilized and well-equipped that we could not wait to get out. Once we hit the road the next morning, as the trail took the first steep climb and started to extend further into the woods, we quickly felt that we were finally in the wildness.

But the trail turned out to be a long and disappointing one. It went up and down with mostly gentle slopes for seven miles before a small branch led to our camp site. The view was not as spectacular as what I expected, and bugs tended to follow whenever we made a stop. But Terrace campsite was quite a good choice. It was nicely shaded next to a beautiful stream and the water was just warm enough for us to take a few skinny dips.

We set up our tent and went on to the Sykes. Thanks to lack of information, we could not figure out the exact location of the hot springs even after we got to the campsite. Diego suggested we climb further up but after half an hour so we seemed to get further and further away from the waters. We turned back and started to explore the downstream. As soon as we started to see the trail marks (piles of stones), we decided we must be heading to the right direction. After a few more turns and climbs up the cliffs above the stream, we finally saw a pool under a rock beside which some rubber pipes were gushing out hot water. It was a tiny pool, and it could barely fit two of us. That was it?

But it all seemed to worth the efforts after we relaxed in the pools and took turns to cool down in the creek. There was a second and slightly larger pool above the rock but we were so thankful that we got this one instead. For an hour it was just two of us, and the sound of woods and water was soothing and mesmerizing. We did not leave until it was getting late and more people started to show up and want to use the pool.

We slept soundly and went down the next day. This time Diego got his ankle all damaged and had a really hard time walking downhill. But it still took only 4 hours to get out. After all, this was not such a hard backpacking trip, and I am eagerly waiting for the season to start again next year!