Kenton Lawson of Ojai, California gives a short, third person account of his experience in the Willet Hot Springs, Los Padres National Forest.
The overpowering smell of sage brush filled his nostrils, causing his exhale to cough and sputter in white, vapory wisps. A thin layer of clouds obscured the sky, constantly misting the lavender filled meadows surrounding him. On his right hand side the meadow ended abruptly in a steep cliff that leaps down to the roar of the Sespe River below as it leaps across the rocky bed. Breathing deeply of the sage filled air, he looked above the meadows and over a gently sloping razor backed ridge. There a plume of clouds spiraled skyward from within the folds of the canyon, rising past leaf filled sycamores to join the blanketed sky above. There, he knew, his destination waited, a solitary spring bubbling form the slate rock face of the canyon wall. There the smell of sage would be replaced by the tell tale smell of sulfur as the steaming water pooled and eddied, just waiting to receive his tired bones into its warm embrace.
Kenton Lawson Ojai, CA