Sunday night and Monday of this Labor day weekend, I went to a secluded spot in Colusa county called Wilbur Hot Springs. It's a geothermal deal that naturally puts forth waters containing many helpful, soothing minerals at a temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit and then cooled with spring water to 100, 105, and 110 degrees.
I've only done this hot springs thing once before at the
Esalen Institute in Big Sur. That place is like a spiritual retreat or something with all these classes about how to realize all your things you know spiritually and shit. They don't even let people who aren't staying there use the hot springs except for 20 people from 1am to 3am on weekends. So we went and it was amazingly awesome. The hot springs make you feel good. And at Esalen the pools where the springs are are set into a cliff overlooking the ocean. It was a cold night in December and so many stars were visible. It was sort of stupefying in its splendor.
Wilbur Hot springs in September was hot and sunny and down a long gravel road from the highway. Set between some high hills, there was no cell phone service at all. No tv, no phone, no radio. The place is running partially on solar panels, so they don't want you to plug anything in. It seemed really old west/new age to me - if that's a way that things can seem, and, in this case, it seems to be. Beautiful surroundings, beautiful buildings and baths. Sure, not perched above the ocean, but still really really nice and set along a river. The contrast from cold to hot was achieved by diving into a regular swimming pool from the baths. My only complaints were the excessive action of flies all around, especially by the pool, and the fact that no matter how fat a room you reserve, none of them have private bathrooms. I realize that this results from the age of the place: it was established in 1865. But still. Communal bathrooms or "commodiums" as they were called do not appeal to me.
So one thing with these hot springs is that most people soak in them without any clothes on. Without even a bathing suit on. It feels a little weird at first to be naked among strangers who are also naked, but then, after a while, it just seems like anything else. You try to be polite and not look, then you look, then you grow tired of looking, then you close your eyes and just relax in the sulphurous wonder of this relaxing soak that makes you feel like you are floating in space. If space were a lot hotter. and had more gravity.
