Dash Creek Hot Spring

For our May outing the Scouts requested a backpacking trip (first of the season). We decided to try a new trail and traveled north of Crouch to the Middle Fork Trailhead on the Payette River. The weather forecast called for rain so we made sure we had ponchos and solid tents and hit the trail.

It soon became evident that this particular trail had not been cleared by trail crews yet this year as we clamored over tree after tree. But for whatever reason we really only encountered this problem during the first mile. After that the trail was clear and easy to follow. There were some steep sections of the trail. One misstep in these areas and you would find yourself rolling all the way to the river below. The area was beautiful and green though, with everything slightly damp from recent rain.

The Scouts came to a quick realization that they had overpacked for this trip. Their backpacks were heavy and cumbersome and once in camp we saw that much of what they had brought was excess (six pack of soda, lots of candy, two or three pairs of clothes, etc). Nothing like lugging a pack that is over half your body weight to teach you to pack lighter! More stringent bag checks next month...

About three miles in we arrived at our camp site. Dash Creek enters the river here and there is a natural hot spring just up the creek. We pitched tents and settled in for some dehydrated meals. A couple of the boys tried out the hot spring but had trouble balancing the piping hot water from the spring and the cool water from the creek. It was late in the day so we were in our tents sleeping in no time.

The night was clear and cool but early in the morning the clouds rolled in and a steady rain started to fall. We waited out the rain in our tents and had a late start to the day around 9:00 when the rain broke. The rest of the day was clear and we had blue skies for the hike out. Boiling springs is very close to the parking area so we took an hour for a final soak then hit the road for home.