Bagby Hot Springs

On the second day we were at Umpqua Hot Springs, the naked teacher told us about some great hot springs in Northern Oregon; "The hot springs 're in tubs that they're carved outta Redwood trees" he said, "they're called Bagby Hot Springs".

While waiting for money to come through in Oregon we remembered these springs, "Why don't we go there tomorrow? That'll take a day" Alex says to me. Excited to go to a new place I say, "That sounds awesome!"

In the morning we leave our tent and its contents behind us and head southwest of Mt. Hood to Bagby. Alex is a the wheel, which means we're going pretty fast and I'm freaking out when we get close to the edge of the road which drops 200 feet down. Somewhere we make a wrong turn and the blue dot on our iPhone GPS starts wandering south into a vast green area. We decide to keep going figuring we'll meet up with a road that goes the direction we want to go.

We hear gunshots. We see hunters standing next to a truck with a map. The road winds down a mountain and we see spelunkers wearing harnesses and hardhats with lights. They're eating sandwiches. "I bet these mountains are full of caves," I say.

"Yeah," says Alex, "I'd love to live here and explore these mountains. There's gotta be so much out here."

We come to a road that goes the right direction. After a few miles we see a sign for Bagby and turn left onto the road. It goes through the bottom of a canyon along a clear river. A guy in a red pickup points us up a road to the springs.

At the parking lot we park, pack some beer, sandwiches and water and start the hike to the springs. We go through a Redwood Forest, the small trees are covered in moss so that they look like little haunting christmas trees. The path links up to a river, "We've gotta go down there on the way back" Alex says.

We cross over the river on a one-person-wide bridge. Then we go over a hill and see the hot springs buildings. They're all made of redwood. One building has little private rooms with a tub and bench in each. There's also an open area where a naked middle-aged man is relaxing and reading a book. We decide to go back to the private room.

The tub is already full. We pop two beers and sit in the tub reading the things people've carved and written on the walls:
- If the balance of dharma is disturbed, the world will loose its peace.
- We had a treesome.
- Dave and Hannah did drugs here. (in other writing) So did Bob and Sue.
- This is a bad day.
- Everything is changing, nothing stays the same, we keep moving, where do we go?

After soaking for awhile I start to clean myself. I remember that I stole a stone from the Pumice Desert in Southern Oregon; I get it out of my bag and use it to slough off dead skin and dirt from me and Alex.

After we're clean, the tub is disgusting so we pull out the huge redwood stopper and drain the tub. Then we let in the hot spring water which is steaming hot. I go outside naked and fill a bucket with cool water from the stream. I lug back 4 bucketfuls, Alex does 3 and I rinse my hair in the last one before we put it in.

After another hour of relaxation the sun is getting low and we need to be going back. I jump in the river for a minute on the hike back and Alex explores its banks. We leave the hot springs clean, relaxed and ready to move on from Mt. Hood.