I love wandering around California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. Many, many adventures happen when you are open to the history and land and the living things unique to this area.

© by Russell Frank Imrie 2002

One of my favorite activities is finding hot springs. Not the developed ones with proprietors and fees, but geological spots where the breathing and blood of Mother Earth can surround you with sulphur. (although Wilbur Hot Springs in California is insanely great!) Many are too hot, or too small, or too shallow for soaking. But many are, shall I say, perfect. Each with its own perfection. Please do not trash these places. Directions, when given, are a little vague.

| Double Hot Springs - Black Rock desert, Nevada | |Buckeye Hot Spring | Three Forks
| Crabtree | Paulina Crater | email lprieta@garlic.com|

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STORIES AND PICTURES (under construction)

1. Double Hot Spring - Nevada (YAY found some photos) BLM Managed area north of Reno/Sparks past Pyramid Lake Paiute Reserved Lands - Aho!

After arriving early in the morning after a long overnight run (blizzard in Nevada) up from the Bay Area, The car was filled with gas in Empire and the route passed through Gerlach which basked in the morning sun.(don't forget water, ice, etc. in these two adjacent communities - this is IT!, end of stores and shopping) The season was early spring when snow and thunderstorms topped all the mountains surrounding the desert playa (dry lake bed - flat as a lake). Fly Geyser in the sunrise. This spews, spurts, roars and steams all day every day. This is near where you turn off the paved highway and "step" onto the playa. Truro hot spring was nice, albeit fenced in. (watch out crossing the railroad - trains roar through here at 70 mph+ - see wrecked truck) West again to the main N-S track, turning North at high speed. Weird but there was an umbrella's skeleton out in nowhere, the only object breaking the horizon. The golf course... was nowhere to be seen... GOLF COURSE!!!???

Taking a beeline toward Black Rock Peak watch out where you can be forced to swing a humongous U-turn if you encounter unexpected mud. You could get stuck, with no one to help for 30 miles, at least. You should be alert for this, especially in the spring or after rain. Anyway, after a stupendous, mind-blowingly wide, sliding, U-turn - like, a 5 mile radius at 75 mph in a 4wd Suburu spewing mud, further north and venture across a dryer area, following dim tracks, toward the peak . (I think it is best not to stop - a natural panic reaction - if you start to encounter mud - just swing a nice easy u-turn and steer outta there applying steady gas) The more-than-human scale of everything in the Black Rock is something I found amazing. Black Rock Peak is 'way off there in the distance about what, 15 miles away? A very special place. This can mess up perceptions of distance and I think, psychologically, can affect depth perception, especially when driving. Or dreaming. It is easy to feel like you are in the middle of an ocean.

Off the playa, bump along the foothills until you find to a BLM sign at the springs. From the white alkali that the spring has deposited over the ages, you can see about where it is was well before arriving. Strong gusts and the biggest dust devils I have ever seen move across the playa below as if in slow motion. These were miles away yet it seems that you can reach out and touch them. Sheets of rain poured in curtains below distant squalls. I photographed the huge upwelling pools of aquamarine water Flowers adapted to the heat and salt framed the serenity.

The overflow ran off in a small creek and some was piped into a circular water trough. This is below the springs themselves. The springs themselves are WAY TOO HOT to enter. DO NOT FALL IN! Camping is fine near the trough, which was perfect for soaking. There is an an outhouse near thanks to the BLM.

A little ingenuity is always useful when camping "out there". When the stove turned out to have no gas, I had an idea. I took some Swiss Chard (yeah, yeah, I know but some people do camp with stuff like that) and put it in a steel bowl with hot spring water. Floated it in the hottest area of the main spring for about twenty minutes and it was cooked! Voila! Chard a la thermal. The BLM sign tells of the Applegate wagon train who watered and fed there. It reads, in part "we cooked our beans" - and so did I.

This worked for 4 days . Eggs could be cooked to soft boiled so the water was in the 140 deg. F range. Filling a thermos and adding tea bags gave nice hot stuff to drink. This WAS winter and WARM drinks were nice. Traveling around, several other springs were visited and wild mustangs were seen on the slopes. warily watching the humans.

NOW THIS IS ALL STUPID! (minuses...)

NO ONE KNEW WHERE I WAS! I BROUGHT NO TWO WAY COMMUNICATION RADIO OF ANY SORT (not even "family" walkie-talkies)! DRINKING THE WATER COULD HAVE BEEN DANGEROUS ("...but there were no skeletons around so it wasn't deadly to mammals." - meaningless rationalizations can be lethal )

NO IT ISN'T (pluses :)

IT WAS BEAUTIFUL OUT THERE - soaking in the hot tub/water trough was great! DAYTIME TEMPS WERE COOLER AT THIS TIME OF YEAR! THE BURNING QUESTION WAS ANSWERED ONCE AND FOR ALL... "IS DOUBLE SPRING WATER POTABLE (at least short-term)?", NO TRASH/LITTER WAS LEFT and I PACKED OUT ALL THE TRASH FOUND THERE

So enjoy the Black Rock, tote your/all trash, and be careful. See Ian Kluft's pages on the Black Rock for all kinds of info and links to other folks' Black Rock adventures. the Friends of the Black Rock/Volunteers is a good place to visit, also at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Black_Rock_Friends/

2. Three Forks -SE Oregon

This is a view of Three Forks hot spring - after at least 40 miles of dirt desert road. And about 55 miles from the nearest town/store/gas etc. The falls you can see are about 20-30 feet high, pouring out of a bubbly pool which is fed by springs in the gully. The water is about 90-95 F. This may not seem very hot but in this high desert land of Oregon, a really hot spring would dehydrate the human body. And as I said, it's at least 50 miles to a cold root beer:) You can sit in this spring all day and night in absolute bliss. The rapids from the water tumbling into the pool give a Jacuzzi bubble effect. The pic below is of my son Sam wallowing in that neat, bubbly water before it pours into another deeper pool in solid rock before overflowing in that waterfall seen as a tiny white thing in the above photo. This gives some idea of the incredible scale and space there. In the background behind Sammy is a bit of the 4wd track down to the riverside (and basically the end of the road).

There are other springs on the access side of the canyon (along and below the "road") which may take some repairing. One was OK last time I was there. A fun project to help humanity!

The river is not drinkable and the range hosts cattle herds, so the spring water itself is not advisable for drinking. BRING LOTS OF WATER. Watch out for rattlers. In the late summer, heavy thunderstorms with driving rain, extreme wind gusts and hail can happen at any time. I had to evacuate to my car one night and watch my tent, which I had bungied to a small tree, fly like a balloon tied to a car antenna. This is a giant canyon and 4wd is almost absolutely necessary for the last few miles which is past the primitive BLM campground where river kayakers embark on a thirty mile journey rated experts only. The BLM sign warns "DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CLIMB THE CANYON WALLS AND HEAD CROSS COUNTRY FOR ANY REASON". They mean it. Here is a pic of the view downriver.

Giant sucker fish (fun to catch but not really good eating) swarm in the warm waters of the river in late summer. There is unreal hiking (RATTLERS!), geodes can be found and the next time I go I will be taking some rock climbing gear. The cliffs are incredible. antelope are around but skittish. Bones from cattle that have perished litter the desert plain.

3. Paulina Crater - S of Bend, Oregon

4. Crabtree Hot Springs - Mendocino National Forest Area, California

This spring is currently shrouded in a muddle of county issues, jurisdiction, paranoia, etcetera so I have therefore chosen to withhold information on reaching this spring. Too bad : )

There ARE hazards when you choose to exit the busy world and go off somewhere remote. Here's my tire (or I should say, WAS my tire) In the Mendo. Forest on Bartlett Springs Road. I used a band saw to save this artifact...

This used to be a decent steel belted radial. No match for a sharp piece of basalt with an attitude.Nice rock.

5. Buckeye Hot Spring - Eastern Sierra Nevada, California

Three pics here. 1st is one of the small springs uphill from the main spring along Buckeye Creek, near Bridgeport. This was late at night. 2nd is the same spot a few years earlier, at mid day. The hot [main] waterfall into the edge of Buckeye Creek is down by the distant trees. This small pool is a nice spot for two people with a fantastic view of the Southern Sky. Water warm but not too hot. About 1-2 feet deep. Soft bottom.The pool under the hot waterfall (waterfall very hot but mixed with cool creek water) rebuilt each year in the creek - large - can hold maybe 12-15 friendly people if the pool is in good shape. I watched some people plaster their bodies with some mud next to the pool once - so I guess I can recommend the mud... Then the two small ones up the hill. 1 of these is kind of funky and this one (pictured) which is neat, under a small tree and private. Not too isolated, with a campground within walking distance. LOTS of sage. There is a trail head a few miles away that leads to the summit of the Sierra Nevada. Fishing in Buckeye Creek and around Bridgeport (Walker Lake?) Good food, friendly people and a great Indian Store, to boot. Bodie is about 20 miles away.

3rdpic is of Travertine Spring, sort of Bridgeport's local town hot spring.(also at night) Locals take care of this spot and deserve your respect. The pic is of the main one near the parking area (BLM). There is some cement work, a picnic table and carpet, etc. There are at least three other pools with milky, warm water down at the end of the long deposit ridge. Water is perfecto. This is like almost a city park (redneck, high desert, Eastern Sierra version:). No camping, people in and out on the"hot springs trek". This area is very cut off from the urban monstrosity of California all winter. Fishing nearby. Bodie about 15 miles away. Nearby is Mono Lake. Views of the backside of the Sierra's perennially snow capped peaks will drop your jaw:)