Survivor - Provo

Monica was one of my first friends when I moved to Utah and we have remained good friends in the past 7 years. In that 1st year where we did almost everything together... she really loved going to hot pots (aka hot springs). I am always up for just about anything, so I would always go. Not sure why I would continue to go because out of the 4 hot pots experiences we adventured on, only one of them was good. The first time, we went to these hot pots in Spanish Fork Canyon. We had a big group of people and took 2 or 3 cars. I think we tried to go in early April... the sun was starting to come out and people were ready to play outside. We forgot that even though the snow was melted in the city... up in the mountains it is not. So we didn't make it to the hot pots, all of the cars made it only so far up into the mountain, we got stuck in the snow and had to turn back. The 2nd time, Mo and I just went by ourselves because we couldn't get anyone to come with us... we made it there that time. The 3rd time we went to hot pots in Midvale which is up Provo canyon kind of in the middle of nowhere. We got there, had a good time... although it was a little crowded. As we were getting ready to leave, the keys got locked in the trunk of Mo's car. This would not be a big deal if you could have gotten to her trunk without the keys... but you could not. It was cold and we had fit 6 or 7 people in that car. We waited in the car (all of us) until 3 or so in the morning until someone could bring us a spare key to get to the keys in the trunk so we could drive home. It took them a while to drive there and then to find the random hot pots in the middle of nowhere.

So after all of this, you wouldn't think I would go again when Monica tells me she found out about another hot pot we could go to. But... I agree after she tells me it is just by Utah Lake and it is easy to get there. So I gather a group and get them excited and off we go to the random hot pot somewhere along the edge of Utah Lake...

Here is the group of us that went. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into at this point. Look how happy we all are. We thought we would wonder down a little path to the hot pots... so most of us left our shoes behind.

The path turned into this... long weeds, taller than us. We are still pretty happy. On our merry little way to the hot pots. It is starting to get darker, but we are almost there right? No big deal. P.S. those weeds are NOT fun to walk on.
Then all the sudden the path ends... and it is just water. We then learn that we need to swim there. So... we all get in the water and start swimming. We swam in nasty Utah Lake for 30-40 minutes before we got there. As it got darker.... the mosquito's started to come out.
We FINALLY reached the hot pots, but the mosquito's were even worse there! We were getting eaten alive. We didn't know what else to do except to cover ourselves in the nasty smelly mud! It worked for the most part. The hot pots were not that great, so I don't remember staying too long. Thinking about swimming back was a sad thought. It had taken us SO long to get there. There had to be an easier way back. Someone suggested going through the weeds as a shortcut back. We all agreed and started on our way, not quite as merry as we were on the way there.

This is pretty much what you heard for the next half hour *Slap* OWW!! "Are we close yet?". The slapping was for the mosquito's and the ow's were stepping on twigs while we were barefoot. After a long slow walk through the weeds we finally heard cars! We were close to a road. We saw the road, and then we saw a HUGE wire fence in front of it. I don't think I had the strength to climb and lift myself over a big fence. Thankfully we had plenty of guys there, so we had them on both sides of the fence helping those that didn't have anything left in them to do it themselves.
When we got to the other side of the fence we ran to nearby grass just to walk on something soft before the trek back to our cars... wherever they were. We had no idea how far away we were. We did eventually get home, but it was no short easy trip to some nice hot pots. We seriously felt like we were in survivor. We were dirty, we smelled BAD, we were barefoot and after this I am pretty sure my feet were bleeding and we had bites all over from the mosquito attack. I think all my friends that I invited also told me they were never coming to anything I invited them to again. Don't worry, they were still willing to be my friend though. It was intense, and I retired from going to hot pots after this trip. I can look back on the pictures now and laugh though right?

Speaking of pictures, I had a disposable camera on this trip. When I went to WalMart to pick up my pictures I told the guy that the pictures were under Mills. He grabbed the envelope of pictures and as he handed them over to me paused and gave me a strange look and said "Tracy? Where in the world did you go?" I just kind of embarrassingly laughed and said "oh, uh, you looked at the pictures?" he says "Ya, well, we have to make sure they are all there". Anyway... I told him and he looked at me like I was crazy. Ha ha Never a dull moment with Monica. Probably one of the reasons why I love hanging out with her. We did a lot of crazy things in the years we have known each other.