Third and final story worth sharing from my recent visit to Halfway Hot Springs is a two-parter. The nakedness and events that happened in the lesser known, and subsequently more private springs below the falls in my blog “Private Parts” and “First Time Skinny Dippers” show the empowerment, excitement and inspiration of being naked in nature. Now – might as well share the slightly more embarrassing situation that transpired on our final night. What’s great is it’s called accidental nudity – and I’ve got two stories.
Hopefully you are a long time reader and know that I love to be naked – but respect the “Time and Place” mentality and prefer to be a ‘follower’ rather than a ‘leader’ when it comes to getting naked in a situation that might not necessarily dictate nudity (aka – put me in a nude beach – I will be naked with the best of them, but put me at a hot springs full of swimmer in suits – I will also be in a bathing suit). Given the time of day – shortly after dinner – and about an hour before dusk – we knew it was going to be busy – and it was going to be busy with clothed bathers. But that was okay – we also know how to have fun clothed. You can’t always be naked – right? Well Jay – he still hasn’t actually used a bathing suit yet this visit despite the crowds – oh to have his confidence.
As we got to the covered shed that doubles as a change shelter and coat hook – I asked Jay for my bathing suit because as we expected – the three upper pools were all quite full with people in bathing suits. He smirked and said he didn’t bring one down. At first I thought he was joking because of his smirk – but he was dead serious. He was smirking because he didn’t know he was supposed to bring one – and I swear I asked him – but also this was not the time and place to argue. I do believe him because he did offer to hike back up to our campsite – about a kilometer and a half – to get it for me. I double checked he wasn’t joking – going through the bag – he was shocked he actually had a bathing suit for himself under everything else in his backpack – but his board shorts were not fitting around my hips.
If I had whiskey – I would have taken a shot – manned up. Wait, WOMANED up, shot my shot and just jumped in naked. But no Whiskey, just White Claws. And even without an extra ounce of White Claw – I made the executive decision to just “own it.” This was our last night – I will never see any of these people again – and I am proud of my body and my confidence was shooting through the roof – and decided to just deal with it. Luckily it wasn’t like I walk a mile naked in front of dozens of gazing eyes. One thing we learned on our first trip to Halfway – and take note for those who aren’t aware of this amazing piece of wisdom – always bring a bath robe. We’ve actually adopted this bathrobe trick to all camping trips. Makes all aspect of camping better. Why put clothes on to pee in the middle of the night when you just have to robe up? Why get dressed after a relaxing night of hot springing when you could just put on a robe? If you’ve ever tried to put leggings or Lulu’s on with wettish legs – that alone should help you understand the benefits of this. But surprise surprize, I digress.
I had a robe – and really it was a manner of just dropping the robe as I enter the water – and if timed right – only those near me would probably be aware – and dusk wasn’t far off – and also – so what – I am naked. Jay, even though he was surprised to find he had a bathing suit down at the springs still wasn’t going to wear one. Maybe anyone seeing me will just think I had the confidence to strip down naked in front of a bunch of strangers. Well – needless to say – as the title suggests – I was accidentally naked. I would like to think I was smooth dropping the robe on the rocks as I melted into the pool – and don’t have any evidence of the contrary – so lets just roll with that.
Not sure if I have ever described the three pools at Halfway, but there are two man made pools with rocks artistically shaped to make it look natural, in roundish circles and a tiered seat around the sides similar to what you’d see in a hotel hot tub. They are a healthy comprise of form and function. They are naturally sourced – and Bob the caretaker of the campsite / springs regulates the temperature so one is quite hot, and the other is warm. There is a third natural springs up there that is quite secluded, a “goldy locks medium” temperature and a silty bottom because of how ‘natural’ it is. This is also our favourite. In the moment described above however – and probably because of the crisp ‘it’s fall next week’ air coupled with the fact I was completely naked under my robe – we picked the closest / hottest pool.
It was ironic. It is a lot more comfortable being naked, but I was uncomfortable. Other than Jay, who is almost always naked, I was (to my knowledge) the only other one naked. This definitely changed as the night progressed – but with dusk only starting to show its face – it was still just me – completely naked – and uncomfortable emotionally and physically uncomfortable from sitting so long in the hot springs – but sticking with the uncomfortable theme – even more clothed bathers had joined our tub for a post dinner soak.
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