Well, they asked me to go on a hike with the 11 year old scout group. It was a 2.5 mile hike each way, and since I'd already done my long run for the week, I figured I might as well go. It sounded like fun, and it was an excuse to buy a new hydration pack!
We were to hike into the hot pots up Diamond Fork canyon. I'd never heard of this, so I did some google research. I found several pages about the hot pots. Most of them cautioned to make sure you went early in the day, as the evenings and nights are a time when the nudists tend to frequent the natural springs. We were leaving at 9:00 am, so we were well within the safe zone.
The hike was nice. The trail was wide for the most part, and did not have any difficult inclines. It pretty much followed Diamond Fork as it gently climbed deeper into the canyon. When we were nearing the pots, we passed a group leaving. They cautioned us that there was a "nude dude" ahead.
The scout leader went ahead to see what was going on. He later summarized his conversation with the nude dude. It was something like "Hey, we have a group of scouts coming up". Nude dude "I don't care". Scout leader - "That shows. I care!". Nude dude "So what?".
As I round the corner with the scouts, there he is. Ugly naked guy isn't even in the hot pools of water. He is sitting on a rock, legs spread wide open, reading a book. His feet are in the water, but that's it. The rest of his 50 - 60 year old body is in full view. Gross! The scouts are pretty good about it. They make several jokes as we pass him, but don't spend any time staring. We head up to the next set of pools. Personally, if we had to run into naked people, I guess an old man was probably the way to go. It's something the boys will run into in the locker room as they go on in life. A pool full of beautiful young women might have made their heads explode!
All in all, the hike was a lot of fun. I was surprised by how tired it made me. A 5 mile hike was harder on me than a 5 mile run would be!
