Week after week slipped past, until finally, a Tuesday afternoon stepped out of the void and presented itself. It only took a second for me to realize just what exactly this meant. No time for dogs, but I needed an accomplice. Easy. I knew of a geothermal fiend that didn’t have BSU class on Tuesdays. So, I nabbed my soak-pack (a small sling-style backpack pre-loaded with day hiking and hot springing gear) and was out the door. Destination – Boise National Forest.
Afternoons like this are why Boise is such a great place to live. Forest to the north, high desert to the south. Open space. The great outdoors. Only 1 hour in either direction. Within 30 minutes I broke free of crowded roads and the vast expanse of the bustling valley. Another 30 minutes on highway 55 brought me into the thick of the forest, and Mile Marker 4 Hot Springs.
Skinnydipper was slammed, and I wasn’t in a mood to banter. A more subtle commune with nature was on my agenda. On down the highway. Thoughts of checking on Rocky Canyon and Little Anderson came and went. Then, I arrived at Hot Springs Campground. Took a look around, checked temps (100-101) and left. It looked good, but I needed more hiking.
Pine Flats was awesome. Not the soak, but everything else. All of the pools except one tiny soaker up top were too cool (upper 90s) for school. It was just nice to hike around and look for signs of spring. Oh, and no trash to pick up is always a treat. After all of that hiking, it was time to return to Hot Springs Campground.
The soak at HS CG was marginal. We cleared the area of trash and hopped right in. Well, turns out that 101 degrees during the day wasn’t too bad, but that 101 had turned into 99 after sunset and the ambient air temps had dropped right along with it. Add to that Red Spider Mites (RSMs), and the suck factor increased a bit. I’ve heard stories, but after many visits to HS CG with no RSM encounters I didn’t think much of it – until now. I have a theory that hot springers are inadvertently infecting the non-afflicted hot springs with RSMs. Ugh, another one to add to the list.
Went to Pine Flats a couple months ago but I think the water was to high to get to any good pool.. 🙁 We did though find Trail Creek Hot Springs and it was WONDERFUL!!!! The deer flies were nasty buggers but didn’t stop us… Thanks for all the updates