Pine Burl HS, the last for 2013
This HS is about 2.5 miles from the trailhead. And two river crossings.
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For this day's entertainment we planned on hiking past this HS (the entire hillside in the center of this picture is weeping hot water), and eventually to Goat HS. However... back last fall when I did this, the water and the weather were not as cold. So by the time we got to this point, 10-12 river crossings later, neither of us were sure that we still had feet, and we both had had enough. Couple that with the fact that hiking partner, now 78, had fallen face first into the water and was wet up to the waist and beyond, and with hypothermia being a VERY REAL possibility (in the shade, the ground was still frozen!), I made her take off her clothes to dry them on the rocks, and we had lunch and sat in the sun so's she could put dry stuff back on. Back to the hot pool, posthaste! |
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Had nothing to do while hiking partner was drying out, so took pictures of the 'flora'.
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Appropriately named, Boiling Hot Springs, and it bloody well is! Water comes out of this one right around 200 degrees.
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This is the outflow of Boiling HS, quite a ways downstream of the actual HS, and the water, being much cooler here, has a type of algae growth that I have never seen before. It was long strings up to 3 or 4 feet long, that were waving in the waterflow like long hair. |