Night Hiking and Hot Springs- Aaron Johnson

I had trouble coming up with something I was really afraid to do that didn't run into any legal boundaries. Had we done the assignment a week earlier, it would have worked great because I had finally asked out a girl I had been wanting to ask out for a whole year but was too scared to (my fears were founded, of course, she said no). So I settled for something I've always wanted to do but never thought it was really feasible or reasonable.
So I went to the Fifth Water Hot Springs. I've been there before, but during the summer when it is kinda stupid to hike to hot springs. I have always wanted to do the hike in the winter, but I never had because they close the road off and add an extra three miles to the hike both ways. With all the extra hiking time, and being so busy with school over the winter, I never took the time to do it.
So, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I got it done. To add a little more suspense and adventure, I also did it very late in the day. So the hike in was in daylight, and absolutely beautiful. The pools were also fantastic, they ranged from a crystal clear emerald to a soft turquoise color that you just don't see elsewhere, and it was great to just soak in them for a good hour and a half.
The hike out is where it got fun though. I started back out around sunset, and for a while I was treated to a gorgeous purple sky that glowed around the canyon walls, but about one mile in of the five mile hike all the sunlight was gone. It started getting really cold, really fast. The temperatures were fairly easy to ignore though, because the stars were so bright. There wasn't any moon visible, so for most of the hike the only thing I could see was the white snow on the trail and the stars dancing in the sky.
So that was my adventure. Like I said, it wasn't something I had been scared to do, but it was something I had always wanted to do despite the inconvenience. I'm very glad the assignment gave me the last push I needed to get it done, though, because it was great to get out somewhere that was so full of natural beauty.
It's very humbling to see how the random formations of nature can be so much more incredible than my finest endeavors to make art.