Hot Cold Dip

Our family was on furlough in Vicksburg, Mississippi during the fall of 1984, and I was invited to speak at the inaugural session of the Wyoming Southern Baptist Convention. My good friend, Herschel Wells, was also going to the convention to give a report from the Brotherhood Commission, and he invited me to drive out west with him. I was also going to speak at the Utah-Idaho Baptist Convention’s 25th anniversary, and Herschel was going to set up an exhibit at that convention.

We left Memphis in Herschel’s car and drove through St. Louis and Omaha and cut up to Interstate 90 and drove across South Dakota. The drive to Wyoming was an adventure, but our escapades had only begun. As soon as we crossed the Wyoming-South Dakota state line it started to snow.

Our family was serving in Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) at this time, and while living in West Africa I did not even own a long sleeve shirt much less any kind of jacket. I had borrowed some warm clothes for this trip, but I wasn’t prepared for the snow. While I was acclimated to living at the edge of the largest beach in the world (the Sahara Desert), I was not prepared for this wintry weather. But it was beautiful.

Our speaking at the first convention in Casper was uneventful, but just before we left Casper to drive to Jackson Hole, a blizzard began. I had never dreamed of such a snowfall. By the time we arrived in Jackson, Wyoming three feet had accumulated. We had planned on spending a few days in Jackson Hole between the two conventions. Our mutual friend Randy Foster was hosting us. We had known Randy while we were students at Mississippi College, and Randy had provided summer outdoor adventures for high school boys planned and hosted by Herschel. A few years later, Jason and Jeremy were each able to participate in one of these three-week adventures in the wilderness.

The first adventure that Randy had planned for us was a snow mobile trip to a natural hot spring that was supposed to have some kind of healing power. That sounded exciting, but Herschel and I both started getting cold feet when we realized that Randy planned to drop us and the snow mobiles off at the intersection of a highway and a primitive “road” that ran about 5 miles to the hot spring.

Mind you, there was three feet of newly fallen snow on the ground, and when he dropped us off, there were no tracks in the new snow, so we would be blazing a new path. Fortunately, Randy loaned us some warm parkas from his outfitter’s business. The only instructions were that the spring was about 5 miles, but how were we supposed to measure five miles while plowing through three feet of snow?? And, he also added that there were some deep ravines along the path, so be careful. We set a rendezvous time to meet him back at the highway, and we were off.

After a perilous, but fun ride, we arrived and found a bubbling hot spring in a natural rock formation and the only building was a snowbound toilet. We had not prepared to take a dip in the spring, but the steam coming up from the bubbly water was too inviting. We pulled snow away from the door of the toilet and stripped down to our skivvies.  Then we realized that we had to wade through the snow to get to the spring.

 It was freezing, so we quickly ran over the snowy ground and jumped into the hot springs. I must admit that it was refreshing, but when I lifted my head out of the water, I felt like icicles were quickly forming on my head. Ducking my head underwater frequently helped me stay warm all over. 

 At some point in our hot springs dip, we realized that we had to go back over the snowy ground to get to our clothes—and we did not have anything to use to dry off. After dreading that short trip for 30 minutes, we finally got out of the water, and within a few seconds we felt like human icicles. I do not remember how we dried off, but it was done in a matter of seconds as we sought the warmth of our clothes. 

 I do not think that the hot springs had any healing qualities for me, but it was refreshing and invigorating, but I would definitely do it again.