Scenic Hot Springs Conditions, April 5th, 2007

Conditions: Clear, sunny skies, 50F @ Pools; 68F on the Upper BPA Road. Snow is still 2-4 ft deep, wet & heavy. Melt is accelerating. Snowshoes are not required as snow will support boots. Some icy areas under shade.

Spring Source
East #1 (Lobster Upper): 96.1F, Flow: 15.35 gpm (measured)
East #2 (Lobster Lower): 68.8F, disconnected from feed tube
Feed was back in place supplying the pool.

West #1 (Bear): 106.6F
West #2 (Bear): 108.3F, Combined Flow: 5.8 gpm (measured)

Pool Temperatures:
Lobster Half: Inlet 95.2F, Pool 93F
Bear Den Half: Inlet 107.5F, Pool 95.9F
Could be hotter except for some mixing with the cooler water from the Lobster side.

With the snow melting and the recent rain, you would expect Lobster to remain flowing very cold and at high rates. That was not the case; both the Lobster Springs are at higher than expected temps and more normal flow rates. At the upper source, where two springs come together at the outlet, the westerly fracture that produces most of the cold spring melt is dry. All flow is coming from the easterly fracture and it is hot enough for a warm soaking pool. It is unknown why this spring has suddenly dried up. I see no modifications to the source.

Water Quality

Someone has been cleaning the Bear Den side and it was relatively clean. The Lobster side was algae-encrusted through lack of use and attention (and cooler temps). A layer of dark algae sedimentation three inches thick covered the bottom of the pool.

Pool was completely scrubbed, algae blanket siphoned out and then a siphon set to completely drain the pool and refill with fresh water. I left the feeds in place to refill the pools.

Site Conditions

The area around the sources and pool is snow free, although large cornices of heavy snow remain above the pool site. The trail above the pool also shows moderate movement of the supporting soil below with fracture lines on the trail. Stay to the inside. Site is drying out with the warm weather. Some litter but under control.

Note: As of Monday night we have a large series of showers running through the area. The snowline has dropped back down to 2,000 feet and forecasters are calling for two to three inches of fresh snow (the gate just inside FS850 is at 2,400 ft, the pools at 3,520 ft). The lowered snowline will firm up the existing snow and worsen the icy conditions from an overnight freeze.

A couple of sunny, warm days have accelerated the snowmelt dramatically. The berm across FS850 (and down along Hwy 2) is almost gone. However, FS850 is under shade and a full two to three feet of snow remains up to the gate.

Never let it be said that I pass up any opportunity to shed my clothes and hike nude . . . and the weather was perfect for it! Scenic is a real special place for me in the winter when I can get balmy skies and acres of mountainside all to myself. It's not that people don't come up to the springs . . . the tracks in the snow attest to the visitors (invited and uninvited, alike). For one, it's private property and I have permission to be there, but more importantly, there are few ways in, those ways present parking problems, and most people just don't want to go through the effort. So the upshot is that I usually have the entire mountainside to myself . . . and on those occasions I do run across others making the difficult hike up (or back down) . . . well, nudity at a hot spring is fait' accompli. I just have the darnedest time convincing people that I'm not in the least bit cold!

Adding to my nude time is that I take a not-so-well-known hiker's back trail that avoids the highway completely so that I can hike nude straight from my car the two and a half miles to the hot spring pools. It makes for close to eight hours au natural and some pretty impressive scenery along the way (including the torrentious water volume over Scenic Creek Falls).


But anyway, on with the condition report:

The upper BPA road remains snow-covered because of the north-facing alignment. Snow averages two feet, has become very wet and heavy . . . tricky to walk on. Snowshoes no a bad idea but you have to keep on removing them to traverse bare areas.

All of the snow bridges created by running creeks, have collapsed . . . however, melt from beneath is making some snow cover unstable.

BPA Springs Area on the BPA road short of the Meadows Creek crossing. The exposed hillside continues to show minor erosion.

A rather large boulder coming down from above the BPA Road (near Honeymoon) sits at rest atop some remaining snow.

On the trail, still quite a bit of snow in the lower section . . . here, the Honeymoon Creek crossing.

Looking back down on the almost clear area of Meadows Creek across the trail. I corrected some major melt erosion to redirect water into established channels.

Rock Alley is clear of snow and major running water. The headwall remains with deep snow above, most of it in shade and icy as I travelled over it.

Past the switchback there is still a lot of deep snow (3-4 ft) on the bench. It will take some time to melt this snow.

The approach trail above the Bear Den Bench shows earth slippage and crevassing of the soil . . . due in major part to the heavy weight of the snow that lingers on the bench.