Backcountry Pilot

[Splashpilot offline]

Hey everybody,

I spent about 4 hours last night trying to co-locate strips in Idaho and hot springs within a short 2-3 mile hike. Idaho is supposed to have the highest concentration of natural hot springs, but I am having a difficult time finding ones that are secluded but near a strip. Its takes ALOT of time since the hotspring sites use a different GPS coordinate format than we do in aircraft, so converting then plotting the points on Google or AOPA Flight Planner is tedious at best.

There are several well developed ones near towns, many overrun and popular, but aside from Lower Loon and Johnson Creek, does anyone know of quiet natural springs close to a strip? It would be nice to camp at a strip and stumble back to camp after a soak.

If I get a good response I will put together a database of what I found and what you post here with distances for everyone. Zane do you think you might want to add it to the site?

There is some phenomenal springs out there. People have to drive HOURS on 4x4 roads then hike miles to get to some, particularly the ones in the Frank Church Wilderness. Its great to fly just a few minutes and enjoy something that others have to make an expedition to get to.

Does anyone have suggestions?

Take a look at some of these. http://www.soakersbible.com/Product.asp


Thanks

Rich

[CAVU offline]

Rich,

There are springs both up and down stream from the Thomas Creek airstrip on the Middle Fork. Sunflower is quite popular with the rafters. I'm sure there are others around as well, but I've been more focused on fishing than on soaking.

CAVU

[galen offline]

Hi Rich,

Try Warm Springs Creek airstrip. It's also accessible by road and attracts the nudies - not necessarily a bad thing.

Galen

[qmdv offline]

There is more to life than Idaho. Not a lot more. You will have to include in your list the hot spring at the edge of Alvord Desert and the one near the dry lake near Austin Nevada.

Tim

[Green Hornet offline]

Hi Galen,
Welcome to the Backcountrypilot.org . It is great to have a person of so much experience to input their knowledge. I just bought your DVD & book for Idaho on the QEI site since I am going to train at McCall and hopefully fly into Johnson Creek. This is an new adventure for me and I am looking forward to reading your book and meeting you at JC this summer.
In addition after reading Zane's review of your Utah package that will be next on my things to do list. One question do you intend to augment the Idaho series with a DVD/GPS?
Thanks again for joining the community

[Splashpilot offline]

Wow! I got a reply from Galen! Galen I want to thank you for all your hard work with the books. I own all of them and have read them cover to cover at least twice. Incredible dedication!

Thanks for your reply, your book has several ideas for springs, I intend on finding them soon.

qmdv,... I agree with you. I have done some searching in Nevada and have been a little leary because of so much private property or federal land near or surrounding the springs. So to land, hop out and walk a bit to a springs seems hard to do there. But of course, I will include your suggestions!!! I was not aware of the one in Austin Nevada. NV is ALOT closer for me and I would enjoy it!

I've been to the Chicken Strip in Death Valley and unless you go in the middle of summer at 120 OAT, its swarmed with people.

Thanks for the suggestions, keep them coming. Lat /Longs would help, if you have them.

[GroundLooper offline]

Hey everybody,

I spent about 4 hours last night trying to co-locate strips in Idaho and hot springs within a short 2-3 mile hike. Idaho is supposed to have the highest concentration of natural hot springs, but I am having a difficult time finding ones that are secluded but near a strip. Its takes ALOT of time since the hotspring sites use a different GPS coordinate format than we do in aircraft, so converting then plotting the points on Google or AOPA Flight Planner is tedious at best.

Fantastic idea! Being a bit of a hiker, I'm also interested in springs even a little further afield. An occasional 5-7 miler, if you find one may be worth including.

Not Idaho, as mentioned above, the Alvord hot springs are great.
There's another one in the area as well, Mickeys? or something like that. I can't find my reference. Its on the northern end of the
Alvord. Haven't been to that one yet.

[Savannah-Tom offline]

Hey everybody,

I spent about 4 hours last night trying to co-locate strips in Idaho and hot springs within a short 2-3 mile hike. Idaho is supposed to have the highest concentration of natural hot springs, but I am having a difficult time finding ones that are secluded but near a strip. Its takes ALOT of time since the hotspring sites use a different GPS coordinate format than we do in aircraft, so converting then plotting the points on Google or AOPA Flight Planner is tedious at best.

Fantastic idea! Being a bit of a hiker, I'm also interested in springs even a little further afield. An occasional 5-7 miler, if you find one may be worth including.

Not Idaho, as mentioned above, the Alvord hot springs are great.
There's another one in the area as well, Mickeys? or something like that. I can't find my reference. Its on the northern end of the
Alvord. Haven't been to that one yet.

I listed four hot springs a year or so ago on this forum that you could land next to and soak. I just tried to find my post, but couldn't. I had described each and given coordinates. They were Double Hot in the Black Rock Desert, Alvord on the edge of the playa, Mickey Hot Springs on the north end of the Alvord, and Willow Creek Hot Springs out near the White Horse Ranch. I'll see if I can find it and repost.
tom

[blackrock offline]

Thomas Creek was previously mentioned. We land there and hike about 1.5 to 2 miles upstream and swim across the river to Sunflower hot springs. It is small with a few bath tub sized depressions in solid rock. At rivers edge is a hot waterfall fed from the pools above. It is one of our favorites. Foot access may be possible by crossing the private bridge at the Middle Fork Lodge and proceeding upstream althogh the going would be tough. I wouldn't attempt swiming the river until levels drop ussually after mid July and only then with a life preserver or wet suit. The river is very cold even in August and is not an easy swim due to the cold and currents. Watch for Posion Ivy near the HS.

The HS above Lower Loon is one of the best ones around, too.

There is also a HS on the hill above Johnson Creek. It is a cast iron tub located on a scree slope. If memory serves me, it is about two miles upstream on the right side of the canyon. Just follow the trail on the opposite side of the runway from the campground. Be prepared to climb 500 to 1,000 feet.

[whee offline]

As Galen mentioned Bonneville HS near the Warm Springs strip is nice but it is near a campground so it's not really secluded. Atlanta has two springs near it and even though they are road accessible and near town I'd place them with the remote. A couple weeks ago my wife and I went to The HS upstream from Thomas creek, Sunflower Flats, the hike is easy but there is a spot where you wouldn't want to slip off the trail, still better than swimming the river. The HS downstream of Thomas aren't worth going to. There was a washout in 2001(?) that wiped them out. Some attempts have been made to rebuild them but they haven't been successful. You mentioned Lower Loon which has nice HS but they will be busy during the rafting season, as will Sunflower Flats.

[Zzz]

I split the posts regarding reporting points/pireps to a new thread.

[Coyote Ugly offline]

This is a great little hot springs to fly to on the southwest edge of Smith Creek dry lake...Nevada.. Next time I'm over there, I'll note the Lat Lon, and post it... It's BLM (public land), so it ours, yours and mine.....

If you land right next to the hot spring, as shown, be very careful of some big whoops... Look it over good, and I recommend big tires, otherwise, you can land on the dry lake bed when it's dry/white), and walk up the road to the springs..(maybe 1/4- 1/2 mile). There have been DC3 size aircraft on the dry lake in previous years, and the X-15, for those old enough to remember it...

If the dry lake bed is brown, or has standing water, it's probably muddy. When it's white, which means dry, it is very hard, and usually very smooth, and I normally wouldn't hesitate to land anything there. Hint, depth perception is bad on the dry lake bed, and hard to tell your elevation... use your shadow, or land close to the edge for a ground reference. Another thing is wind, if you pick a ground point, and circle in a constant rate turn starting at that point, for about three turns, then you will be directly into the wind as you fly back to that point. In other words you will drift downwind as you circle.... Make sense??

Right now, it's still wet on the side by the hot springs, but some of the lake is white/dry and hard (several miles from the hot spring). When looking for the hot spring, look for a blue horse trough, the metal one in the picture has been replaced by plastic.

How do you spell Troff, traugh, trough?????

[Bonanza Man offline]

A couple weeks ago my wife and I went to The HS upstream from Thomas creek, Sunflower Flats, the hike is easy but there is a spot where you wouldn't want to slip off the trail, still better than swimming the river.

Look at a Google Map picture of the Thomas Creek airport. Directly east of the runway there appears to be a small foot bridge across the river. Is this in fact the case? And just to be clear, what side of the river do you want to be on for Sunflower Flats hot spring? The airport side or the other side.

[blackrock offline]

These are links to sites listing hot springs in Idaho and Nevada. It might be fun to check these out with Google Earth and then scout the promising ones by air. If someone decides to do so, please keep us posted.

Idaho:
http://www.idahohotsprings.com/hot_spri ... inates.htm

Nevada
http://www.hotspringsenthusiast.com/Nevada.asp

[blackrock offline]

A couple weeks ago my wife and I went to The HS upstream from Thomas creek, Sunflower Flats, the hike is easy but there is a spot where you wouldn't want to slip off the trail, still better than swimming the river.

Look at a Google Map picture of the Thomas Creek airport. Directly east of the runway there appears to be a small foot bridge across the river. Is this in fact the case? And just to be clear, what side of the river do you want to be on for Sunflower Flats hot spring? The airport side or the other side.

Sunflower HS is on the other side of the river from Thomas airstrip. Google Earth has it located with a photograph of the shower.

[Splashpilot offline]

Blackrock,

Both sites you mentioned I have looked at extensively. There is alot of good hotsprings sites out there, but nothing references them with an airstrip within walking distance, or secluded. Thomas Creek is one on my list. Other than a few mentioned in Galen's Fly Idaho book, not much other information is out there. With over 250 HS in Idaho I bet there is many more we can easily fly and walk to.

Also, I don't know about you,... but if I just spent the effort to fly out to a remote strip the last thing I want is to share it with dozens of other people,.... unless its a bunch of Playboy models

Coyote Ugly, thanks for the info. It looked familiar.

Its not much of a secret jmtgt. After looking it up I got the lat/long in 2 minutes. Smith Creek Dry Lake is popular with the powerkite crowd when the the wind blows and other people have events there in the summer because its a nice spot that is not too hot. They know about the spring.

Thanks everyone for your contributions, keep them coming.


Rich

[iceman offline]

I've always walked to Sunflower flats by crossing the bridge and following the trail upstream. It is an easy hike and only the last 3-400 feet are over rock but not that hard to traverse. Swimming the middle fork never occured to me. Besides Galen's book describes the route pretty good too.

[Bonanza Man offline]

I've always walked to Sunflower flats by crossing the bridge and following the trail upstream. It is an easy hike and only the last 3-400 feet are over rock but not that hard to traverse. Swimming the middle fork never occured to me. Besides Galen's book describes the route pretty good too.

And when is the float season? I've seen it referenced that it gets busy there at that time. Here in Montana float season pretty well peters out by about July 15th. But I've seen an article that the float season near Thomas Creek doesn't really start until late July.

[whee offline]

Float season starts on the Middle Fork on May 15 and goes till Early September. 7 groups of 24 people are allowed to launch every day and each group will be on the water for about ~5 days...so there is a lot of people in that 100 mile stretch of river and almost all of them like to stop at Lower Loon and Sunflower Flats. In late August the river starts to get pretty rocky so there is not as many people.

Just for clarification, the HS above Thomas, across the river, and carved onto the rock are called Sunflower Flats. The HS below Thomas in the flat area are called Sunflower.

[Coyote Ugly offline]

Sorry, but I moved the hot spring at Smith Creek Dry lake, it's not there any more, so don't bother looking for it, as it is now in a secret spot that no one will ever find............