25.10.11

clear creek hotsprings

as october continues to give us nice weather, kylie and i have been outdoors every chance we get. our trip to clear creek hotsprings was planned for the only rainy day in the forecast, but as we drove out of the rainy fraser valley and out along harrison lake, the clouds parted and the sun appeared!
the drive out took us less than 2 hours. east harrison forest service road was beautiful in the sunshine with the fall colours coming on. the last 30 min was pretty bumpy and a bit technical. i had a wonderful time driving, and ty enjoyed the ride, however, kylie wasnt buying the whole "but the journey IS the destination!" thing.

these springs arent quite as natural as sloquet creek. there are two nice homemade wooden tubs and 3 old hottubs in various states of repair. the view is wonderful though, and the setting is perfect.
the wooden platform was great for changing, but ty found it pretty slippery! the top tub was piping hot, while the middle one containing kylie and ty was just slightly cooler than your average public pool hottub. each tub in the line is slightly cooler than the one before. all with a simple system of siphoning pipes. impressive backcountry engineering.

after a good long soak it was time to throw some rocks in the water. i love this picture's clear portrayal of ty's determination. he had just decided to abandon rock throwing and go find mommy, who we had left soaking in the tub. as i hefted the camera to capture a throw, he dropped his rock, executed a neat about face and began marching toward the springs muttering "mama... maMMa"

after one more soak, we threw everything and everyone back into the 4runner and drove down the valley and back to harrison lake.
the road descended to a couple logging camps and then led to a beautiful beach where we sat down for a snack. kylie had purchased a selection of scones from our favourite bakery. moist pumpkin spice scones are delicious on a beach in the evening sun.


the beach also offered numerous gnarled rock formations to jump around on. we stayed until sunset and then drove home in the dusk.
on the way home we saw a black bear crossing the road. no picture, but i did take a picture of these tracks on the beach at jespersen dyke, one of our favourite running spots.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this post. I love to get around the country vicariously with you folks! Aunt Cheryl

Haley said...

What a great adventure - Clear creek, so close who knew? But since airlifting me is not an option I am reluctant to share this post with Mike.. he is also shares Marc's view: 'the journey is the adventure,' As our family grows I get increasingly less easy to persuade :)

Anonymous said...

Hi! You're not afraid that you could meet the bear and atack you?