For Josh's birthday this year, I gifted him two gifts: money to help him buy a new canvas top for his Jeep, and a weekend getaway trip.
The Jeep topper arrived before his birthday and he put it on his Jeep the day before his birthday. The old cover was cracked and the zipper was broken on part of it. The new one looked SO good! It will also be a lot nicer to have this new cover through the winter months too, because it's a tighter fit and will keep the cold air out better.
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| I collect animal products for my science collection, and we drove right by a dead squirrel. I told Josh I wanted it for its tail, and he was brave enough to stop and retrieve it! And then I changed my mind... |
When we got to Elkhorn, we checked into our cabin. They have rustic cabins without running water or bathrooms in them. There's showers at the hot springs building, bathrooms at both the Lodge and the hot springs building, and an outhouse about 20 yards from our cabin that's shared with 2 other nearby cabins. Last year, our cabin had electric heat, but the room was drafty and the space heaters weren't enough to keep the room comfortably warm, so this year, we got a cabin with a wood stove.
We changed into our swimming clothes, and walked over to the hot springs building. The hot pools were about 150 yards from our cabin--we walked downhill, crossed the bridge over the creek, walked uphill to the gravel road, and then continued up the road to the hot springs. There was only us and one other couple in the hot pools at that time, which was so nice! Something I love about Elkhorn is the fact that they have a sauna in the hot springs building, so after we soak, we go sit in the sauna for just a few minutes to heat us to the core before walking back to our cabin.
When we got back to our cabin, we changed out of our wet swimsuits, got dressed, and walked over to the Lodge for dinner. They had a Prime Rib special, which was a fun surprise, because it's Josh's favorite, so of course that's what he got!
The wood stove was hard to regulate, and we got super hot in the middle of the night, so we opened the front door, slept on top of our blankets in bed, and even took our clothes off in order to be more comfortable. Unbeknownst to me, it snowed hardcore over night. When we went to bed, it was still fall, but when we woke up, we were in the thick of winter! It had snowed over a foot where we were staying, and the snow was still coming down!
We both needed to pee at about 6am, when there was just a hint of first light in the sky. I was going to head down to the outhouse to pee, but upon seeing the foot of snow, I decided against it. Instead, I put on my flip flops and stepped just off the porch to pee like a wild animal. That's where Josh was peeing, too. It was SO cold outside, so I decided to shut the door behind me, in order to keep the cool out.
Did I mention it was a self-locking door? Yeah...I forgot about it at that moment, too.
So, yeah, the door self-locks. Josh reminded me of that fact as soon as we were both standing outside peeing. Naked. In the foot of freshly-fallen snow. In 10 degree weather. It definitely wasn't a good scenario.
Our door was locked, and we had nothing: the keys to our car were inside our room, and so were our phones, clothes, and blankets. The only solution I could think of was to go get help. Since I was the only one wearing shoes (albeit flip flops), that task was on me. Thankfully, our car was unlocked, and I leave a small, thin fleece blanket in there for Kanyon to use on the 2-hour drive between Salmon and Mud Lake on Monday mornings. So, I trudged through the thick snow to the car, got out the blanket to wrap around my privates (barely covering them), and began the 100-yard hike to the Lodge.
Once again, I walked down the hill, across the bridge over the creek, and up the hill to the road. Since I knew they had a breakfast they serve to the guests, I figured somebody who works at the resort would be in there getting things ready for the day. However, when I walked inside, nobody was in there yet--but thankfully, the front door was unlocked! I was in shock at this point. I couldn't feel my feet or lower legs, I was crying and shaking, and I stood by the giant heater in the room trying to warm up. I was trying to figure out what my next move would be when a man came to the front door. I hysterically approached him, started talking to him in between shivering sobs, asking him if he had a key to the cabins, because I got locked out. He responded, "Yes, but let me get my mask on first".
You know you're living through a pandemic when an employee sees a nearly-naked woman who is in shock, frozen to the core, and says he has to put on a mask before he can talk to her any further.
He puts his backpack down, pulls out his mask, puts it on, and then heads back outside to start his truck. I follow him, thinking that he'll give me the key to my room any minute. I follow him down the road to his truck (slower, shaking, and still crying). I walk in his footsteps, since my feet are frozen still. He starts the truck, but realizes that he can't drive it anywhere just yet because the wipers are frozen to the windshield and he can't see. He tells me it'll be about 15 minutes before he can drive me back to my cabin. I once again ask him if he has an extra key for my cabin, because I'll just walk back the same way I came. He then responds "Sure," and FINALLY hands me the key!
I walk back UP the road to the lodge in the foot tracks I'd already stepped in, but then coming towards us was a truck. I kept thinking "Please STOP", because I didn't want to have to walk around him and step out of my tracks, but of course, the truck kept approaching me. He didn't stop until he got right in front of me, so I DID have to make new tracks around the truck in the thick snow. He was another employee, and he rolled down his window and asked me, "Are you okay?" I told him I was; I just got locked out of my cabin. He seemed to accept that answer, but didn't offer any other assistance. SO...I continued up the road some more, past his truck, and back into my prior tracks. Then I walked back down the hill, across the bridge, and back up the hill to our cabin. Josh was still there on the porch waiting for me. By the time I returned, I had been gone 25 minutes!!!
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| The snow-covered railing on the footbridge |
I was in so much pain. My legs from my calves down were hurting, and I couldn't even feel my feet--they felt like big blocks of steel. I laid on the floor in front of the wood stove, and as my legs started thawing, they were prickling in pain. I laid there and cried. I couldn't seem to warm up, so after I dried out, I laid in bed with Josh and the blankets covering me, but my feet weren't warming up at all, and my two toes next to the big toes had white spots on them. It had been a rough morning.
After two hours of laying in bed, recovering from the traumatic events, we got dressed and walked BACK to the lodge for breakfast. This time, Josh used the broom in our cabin to sweep a little path down the steepest part of the hill.
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| That's the outhouse in the center, as seen from our cabin. You can see our walk path after we walked to breakfast. |
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| That's the porch of our cabin where Josh waited outside for me to return. You can see the trail we made to get to the car. |
I love their breakfast there! It was yummy, of course. Unfortunately, the cook recognized me, and as he brought us our breakfast, he said to Josh and I: "I see you were able to get back into your cabin", which was a little embarrassing for Josh because the breakfast tables around us were full! Thankfully he didn't say anything about seeing me without clothes on! He did however say, "I was a little in shock this morning when I first saw you." Well...that makes two of us!
After breakfast, we walked up to the hot pools for a morning soak. We soaked as the snow fell around us, which was awesome!
By the time we were done soaking, and sitting in the sauna for a few minutes, I was able to feel my feet--except for the two toes next to my big toes. They were still numb, but the toes on either side of them were tingly.
We packed up, cleaned off the car, and tried to drive down the little road that leads from the cabin to the Lodge road. My car has terrible tires, and we slipped a bit, but there was other vehicles that were slipping worse. We finally made it out, though, and in one piece!!
I did some research on my toes, and discovered I had what's called "frostnip": basically, the first layer of skin died on my two second toes. The toe on the left foot had feeling about a day and a half after the incident, but it took 3 days for the toe on the right foot to get feeling back. Thankfully, though, it finally came!
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| You can see the white spot on the second toe |
It was definitely a memorable birthday for Josh, and not one he'll soon forget! It's not every birthday that you're stranded in your birthday suit, outside, in a foot of snow, and ten degree weather!
We were joking about it by the next day, though: Josh figured out that my experience was like the frontier experience of going to school: walking (nearly) barefoot, in a foot of snow, walking uphill both ways!!
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