Cougar Hot Springs

Cougar hot springs is one of our favorite places and we'd been planning on going while Aaron was visiting. We headed up today and weren't sure what the roads would be like. They were clear until 3 miles from the trailhead. We stopped to talk to a family that had pulled over, and they told us that the road wasn't passable ahead. We parked and started to walk. We walked maybe half a mile and decided the roads weren't that bad. So we walked back, told the family and we headed down the road. Then the snow got kind of deep. The Corolla was making it, but scraping badly on the undercarriage. We were getting ready to find a place to pull over when we hit a road block. A twenty something guy in a newer Passat wagon had gotten stuck. Several cars were behind them and we all got out to help. Aaron asked him, don't you have 4 wheel drive? "Um, I'm not sure". He had gotten high centered, but finally got going again with some help. I don't think he made it 50 more feet, and finally he turned around. At this point several of us put chains on and decided it wasn't worth the 2 mile walk since it was already 2:30. So we caravanned back down the road. It wasn't long before we encountered this:


The girl outside the car quickly told us, "We're ok, we got it". Yeah, looks like it. Since we had 5 cars behind us a makeshift rescue effort ensued. I was so sure that someone was going to get pinned on that guard rail, everytime the car was worked loose it would slide. After watching this get nowhere I suggested someone else try driving. A very stoned girl emerged from the driver seat. Reason #5,792 not to drive stoned, especially on shitty roads. Welcome to Lane County. I noticed the non-driver smelled like alcohol too. Anyway, they finally got turned around and again, we all paraded down the road.


The first pile up:


We then encountered a car going up, but there was only one lane. We watched in horror as the stoned girls in front of us began to go out of the ruts again to let this car pass (even though they had 6 cars behind them). Thankfully they stopped, so they didn't need to be rescued again. But they just sat there. I got out to talk to the oncomer, a crazy old bat of a man. After hearing a condensed version of the story he decided they should back up and proceeded to direct the driver and throw nonsensical hand signals toward the rest of us.

There was one group that made it to the hot springs, the last blue truck in the line above. They said they had to hike a ways and that the water wasn't even that warm. It was nice to hear after all that, that at least it wouldn't have been worth it anyway.

We hit up some good antique stores on the way home in Springfield, but managed to resist buying any more Pyrex. We had some good finds in the last week. I'll take pictures later.

Tomorrow I drop Aaron off to go back home. I am sad. But happy to know the next time I see him, he will be living in Oregon again, woohoooo!