Backpacking to Sykes!
We followed the Pine Ridge Trail to the hotsprings. Here’s the link: Trail map
We used the Every trail app, it tells you how far away you are from landmarks that whoever made the trail put on the map. The only thing is that the distances didn’t really seem that accurate. I suspect that it’s measuring distance between you and the landmark in a straight line instead of curvy like the trail.
The first few miles was mostly uphill with some switchbacks and lots of sun. We were drinking our water so fast! I was a little bit worried we would run out before we found a stream to pump more. The trail was one of the most beautiful that I’ve been on in California. The view was nice, but I think the best part was all the foliage on the sides of the trail. There were tons of wildflowers just growing along the path.
We were supposed to see a bunch of waterfalls on the way to Ventana camp, but they were pretty much just a trickle in late April. It turned out to be a good thing though, because it meant the river by the hotsprings was rather low. In order to get to the hotsprings and many campsites, you have to cross the river multiple times. Since the river was low, we were able just to walk across!
We arrived at the river Saturday night around 6 pm. There was just enough light for us to find a campsite- ok it probably wasn’t a real campsite. All of the decent campsites and the premium campsites had been taken already. The best campsites had giant logs arranged in a square around a fire pit with cooking grates! They also had a lot of level ground. The people with those campsites said they got there as early as Wednesday :o. I would say the river was very crowded. Definitely more crowded than I expected for having a 10 mile hike in front of the river.
We ended up camping directly across from the hot springs on a rocky bank. Here’s our campsite!
I made the fire ring out of rocks! There were plenty of good fire rocks around. What there was not a lot of was firewood 🙁 The large log in the photo was given to us by another camp that felt sorry that we had no wood. One of the guys had cut it and they had dropped it in the river getting it back to their campsite. It didn’t really end up burning very well, but I think it helped.
We saw 4 hot springs. There was one little two seater built right into the riverbank.
The other 3 were in a line a little farther down the bank. The top hot spring had hot water falling out of a log into the spring. There were a bunch of candles around and they would have been nice to light except we broke our lighter! That hot spring flowed into another one down the bank and then that one had a waterfall into a hot spring that was right in the river! You can see the ring of sandbags which keep the hot water contained.
We didn’t have any trouble getting into the hot springs. The first night we got the bottom hot spring all to ourselves and in the morning we woke up early to soak in the top hot spring. This is probably the hottest one, although I would say they are all pretty equal overall. Soaking in the early morning in the quiet was really nice and peaceful.
The hike back was pretty miserable. In the spirit of packing light I only brought one pair of socks. BIG MISTAKE. No matter how heavy my pack is next time, I will bring more socks. My socks and shoes got soaked before we even left the river. Walking in wet shoes with wet socks was horrible. I got blisters every where. I even thought about just walking barefoot.
I’d say it was a great trip! If I go back to Sykes, I think I would go on a Wednesday or Thursday and try to snag one of the premium campsites! It is a pretty long hike (with full backpacks) to go for just one night at the hotsprings so I would try to stay longer. I am also seriously thinking about getting a tent hammock for backpacking like this maybe:
Overall: 6
Location: 10 One of the most beautiful hikes I have been on in California.
Solitude: 4
Campsite: 3 We ended up camping on a bed of rocks, but there are some very very nice primitive campsites available if you get there early.
Activities: 8 hot springs!!!!
