David and I went to Hidden Pond the day after Christmas for three days. This was David's first backpacking trip, so we just hiked the 3.5 miles from Forest Road 10. The weather was mild and except for night and early morning, it was warm enough to hike and camp naturist style (David chose not to do either).
It was surprisingly uncrowded. We met only one hiker on Tuesday, though we saw a couple camping near our campsite at the pond. We camped on the North side of the Prairie (a.k.a. lakebed) that night. We decided to move to the South side of the Prairie the next day to be nearer accessible water. (We didn't want to use the main campsite next to Hidden Pond itself, because we figured there might be other campers there - that's where the couple was camped Tuesday night.)
Here I am getting ready to hike to the next campsite.
This part of the Prairie has easily accessible water and is well away from the main campsite at Hidden Pond. We set up camp and I placed my "nudist area" signs on the trail in case anyone wandered through.
You can't see the water in this shot, but it's just to the left. (You can see David zonked out in the hammock, though.)
We had to wade out from shore to get water in order to get past the mud. The water was so cold it hurt (there have been a couple of light freezes so far this month). No skinny-dipping this trip!
We had a bit of excitement this trip in the form of a fire-fighting helicopter.
They were drawing water from the pond right in front of us to fight a nearby fire. It was fascinating at first, but after an hour or so we just wanted the fire to be out so we could have our quietness back. Them critters are noisy!
After the copter went away (the first time - it came back later), we hiked around the side of the prairie opposite the other campsites, and met "the mystery hiker". (I didn't realize until after he was gone that I never asked his name.) He had gotten "a might bewildered" as to his location and was looking for a campsite with water when he saw our tent in the distance and began calling out. We gave him directions to the main campsite, but he was unsure of the trail around the edge of the prairie. When we returned to our site, he was waiting nearby for us to come back. We chatted about the trail, water purification, time remaining before dark, fasting, hiking nude, etc.
He decided he needed to get to Hopkins Prairie that night, so I escorted him to the trail, told him to follow the orange markers, and headed back to camp. (I hope he did well. He was doing a 4 day hike while fasting - only drinking liquids.)
One of the unusual sights at our first campsite was this totem pole. I have no idea who made it, but it was not there in August. This shot was taken while it was still cold early Wednesday morning.
After the mystery hiker left Wednesday afternoon, the rest of the day was uneventful - cooking dinner, that kind of thing. The sky was severely clear and we took a twilight hike to a sinkhole just South on the trail from Hidden Pond. While we were out looking up at the sky, we saw a very bright satellite go over. (It was too fast and silent to be a jet, and had no blinking or red/green lights). After returning home and consulting the NASA website, I determined the time and location of the pass indicated that the satellite was the MIR space station. Cool.
Imagine our surprise when around midnight it started raining and rained the rest of the night. In the morning it stopped raining for a short time, but started up again. The weather radio I brought said there were severe thunderstorms predicted for afternoon, so we decided to skip breakfast and just get out of there. We packed hurredly (in the rain) and hiked out (also in the rain).
As we were packing, not one, but two helicopters returned and started hauling water to the fire again. (We thought it was out, and were surprised the rain had not prevented it from restarting!)
As we hiked out, we met a skunk on the trail. We were now downwind from the site of the fire, and the smoke was possibly confusing or annoying the skunk. We gave him a wide (upwind) berth, and continued hiking. A short while later, we met a couple hiking in. I mentioned to them that they were hiking TOWARD the fire, but they seemed unconcerned.
We arrived at the truck without further incident. I had done all the hiking and most of the time in camp nude (dressing only when it got cold).
David was hiking in the lead so as to set the pace. He was clothed, and each time we met someone, he greeted them verbally. As they walked past David, I also greeted them verbally. Each of them seemed surprised by my nudity, but no one made any negative comments at all. (The hiking couple were silent after exchanging greetings, but the lack of negative comments was encouraging.)
All in all, it was an enjoyable three days - even if the weather did turn yucky on Thursday. I'm pretty sure I will be back when it's a bit warmer. It is encouraging to note, however that Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were between Christmas and New Years (when a lot of people are off work), yet the area was not crowded as I feared it might be. This suggests that even in the Winter time, weekdays in the Juniper Prairie Wilderness area are still a good time to enjoy naturist activities. Judging from the relative "wear and tear" of each campsite, even on weekends, the sites farther from the main site are probably ok for naturist camping. (I would make some kind of sign, though, to give advance warning to other campers.)
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