Hiking to Ten Mile Hot Springs!


We were acosted at the trailhead by a family that, as always, were interested in the goats and wanting their kids to interact with them. They are in back of the line as we head towards the bridge over this roaring creek.
They were going no further than the bridge, so we are bidding goodbye.

The creek was roaring, Bogdan considered that extremely threatening, and so was having none of this 'crossing the bridge' stuff. I had to go back and lead (encourage) him across.

On the trail in earnest, and the goats are doing what goats do.

Hiking partner is lagging again... :-)
This trail was initially good, clearly recently maintained, right up to the point where there was a 'Y', and the 'maintained' trail headed up the hill and over a ridge. The trail to the hot springs, you know, the one for hikers, was left wanting. And quite akward in some places.

George. As you can see, a couple of my boys were named after the late George Bogdan.


At the 'Y', we, noting that the trail up the hill was the 'better maintained' trail, assumed it was the way to go, and followed it for a time. It eventually became obvious that the hot spring, which was on the creek, was not going to be accessed by this continually climing route.
And the climb continued. At about this point I said, "Wait a minute!" And we returned down the way we had come to the trail to the hot spring which was following the creek, and which was beginning to be obvious well below us.


The piles of detritus that the creek had assembled was a clear indication of how out-of-control the creek had been a bit earlier in the snowmelt cycle.





It isn't clear from the picture which lacks perspective, but this old boy was somewhere between 5 and 6 feet through, and a clear indication of what the forest had been long before when it was healthy and not subject to our 'management'.
The trail follows what had been a road to a mine at the hot spring. Very little left of the mine except a few sticks of what were the building's supporting elements.




This one was incredible. I would have liked to have seen it when the water was at its peak.

Although the creek is still quite wild, it must have been much higher previously as it had created the mess that is the hot spring to the right.
Believe it or not, this area is the source for the spring. The two actual sources flow from the ground at the very left in the pile of debris. Not only are they having to filter through the creek's high-water deposits, the springs which were once hotter than blue blazes, are now quite tepid. Ground water issues maybe?


The actual hot spring soaking pools were right here. The small piece of blue tarp visible is all that is left of what were once some very nice hot soaks.


I was sitting in my chair and took this picture as I contemplated the loss of this spring. It was disappointing to have hiked all the way in to find the springs unavailable.