Clear Creek Hot Spring Aug 29-30

If you are trying to figure out how to get to the above, follow the excellent instructions in Hot Springs of Western Canada, 3rd Edition. This was my second trip to Clear Creek and you can read about my previous trip

https://www.ubc-voc.com/2017/05/19/clear-creek-hot-spring-may-17-18

There is always some uncertainty in everything we do; that’s what makes it interesting. Forest fire danger was high; they might not allow us up there. I wondered if there would be a locked gate, as there now is at Keyhole and at Meager hot springs. Or the road might have deteriorated. Or the hot spring might be full of unhappy drunks. Here’s what we found, and some general rules about trips to hot springs.

Don’t go on a weekend; especially don’t go on a long weekend because it’s a zoo up there on weekends. We went Wednesday – Thursday, which was far enough from a weekend.

Don’t go when the weather’s too hot because then you don’t appreciate the hot spring. For us we had some light drizzle and some fog. Perfect.

It seems to take a lot of driving to get to any hot spring. The road starts out as Highway #1, turns into a dirt road with potholes and logging trucks past Harrison, and last year the last 11 km was 4WDHC. This time the road had been freshly graded and two of the seasonal streams which we had to drive through last time, didn’t have any water in them. Still, the road is rough, and we destroyed a tire, maybe on a pointy rock. Watch for logging trucks!

JosiSafetyFirst

SAFETY FIRST

Trips to hot springs are not about doing your personal best, and not usually about scenery. They are about group dynamics. So, go with people who actually like hot springs. Hope to find interesting strangers in the pools, or else nobody besides yourselves. We did very well. We found one interesting and pleasant guy, Rob, no tattoos, ATV driver, boat owner, former alcoholic, has two teenage children, is no longer married, sells dubious chemistry to people doing agriculture, travels to Central America a lot, had many interesting stories to tell. He told us that the recent logging on the Clear Creek Road was related to a new molybdenum mine, beyond the hot spring. I hope the mine doesn’t cause them to stick a locked gate on the road. After a couple of hours Rob fired up his ATV and went back home to Chilliwack, leaving the whole place to Josi and myself. I think Josi likes me because I look like her dog. All pics are by Josi.

JosiRolDog

ROLAND the DOG

After Rob left, Josi and I enjoyed the water for a couple more hours, occasionally getting out to mess with the pipes, but mostly the temperature was very nice, and with just the two of us the pools were very un-crowded.

JosiTubs

UN-CROWDED

JosiCarCamping

CAR CAMPING

We cooked up our car-camping food, finding that canned Stag chili goes very well if mixed with canned clam chowder, which is mostly just potatoes and some white slime. We put up the tent and went to bed. Just before we retired for the night a couple from Surrey drove in. They invited us to dine at their East Indian restaurant, and we told them that their dog might enjoy the cooler of the three tubs. Just before dark they left in a blast of East Indian music to return to Surrey.

We awoke around 5 am to the sound of logging trucks driving past our tent. Several logging trucks.

JosiLogTruck

LOGGING TRUCK

I got up around 5:30 and found the Jeep had a flat tire. I got my headlamp and changed the tire, while Josi slept. Then we went back to the pools for another hour before starting the long drive home. When you are driving rough roads and you have already used up your spare tire, the driving is somewhat stressful, so we drove slower and tried harder to miss the potholes The highway was packed with traffic but they were all well-behaved and speeding, so we achieved Vancouver without incident and took the tire in to be repaired. Alas, they said it could not be repaired, the side wall was destroyed. Other than that, an excellent trip.

 

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3 Responses to Clear Creek Hot Spring Aug 29-30

  1. Ilia Capralov says:

    Why do you think you got a flat? Is it because of the rim damagimg the tyre on a rough road? That happens often when cycling. Usually putting more pressure in the tyres prevents this issue.
    Thanks for the report!

  2. Roland Burton says:

    >> Is it because of the rim damagimg the tyre on a rough road?

    Perhaps/probably.
    My tires say max pressure is 44 psi, and the Jeep says they should be at 33. If I inflate them to 44, the brakes don’t make the Jeep stop, so I use 33.

    Glad to see that somebody still reads this stuff.

  3. Mark Nikkel says:

    I had an interesting trip there too, about two weeks before yours. We did it on motorcycles and there was one creek with about 8 inches of water in it. I kept my feet up and dry but my less experienced passenger got her feet wet. There were about 4 people, and a dog, there when we arrived. They left after a while and another couple arrived just as we were leaving. Not very crowded for a Saturday afternoon but it was hot and smokey from the forest fires, so maybe that kept the crowds down. The “interesting” incident occurred on our return trip just past the log-on-car sculpture in your photo. I was just rounding a corner as a jeep was coming toward me with a young apparently daring very topless woman standing up in the back seat. I had pay attention to the road as to not spill with my future niece-in-law as passenger so I only got a glimpse, but as soon as she saw me she ducked down and by the time we passed she had lost her bravado and was cowering beside the seat.

    If you want my thoughts on tires. If tire pressure is too low, the side wall will flex and this can cause heat damage, especially at high speeds. If the pressure is very low the rim can impact the ground and mechanically damage the tire. For a radial tire this has to be quite low pressure though. I would be curious to know what type of puncture you had. I assume it was a rock penetrating through the tread. This is a common problem for “car” tires on rough gravel roads. A/T tires have a stronger tread and harder rubber which helps but this sacrifices a bit of performance on pavement. If a tire is too hard when you go over a sharp rock all of the load will be on one point. There is a school of thought that recommends low pressure (20 psi or less) so that the tire can roll gently over sharp rocks and not have all of the load on one point. I think this is probably true and ok for low speeds but be sure to pump them up again for highway speeds.

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