June i, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
689 
On a Steaming Idaho Creek 
By MRS. E. H. PLOWHEAD 
Photographs by the Author. 
T he cool babbling brook and the icy spring 
have become so closely associated with the 
ideal mountain camping ground that it 
seems almost incongruous to tell of a vacation 
spent in the heart of the pines camping on the 
banks of a steaming hot creek. It was delight¬ 
ful—that summer spent in the outskirts of the 
Seven Devils’ Mountains of Idaho, at the Starkey 
Hot Springs—and the women of the party voted 
our camping grounds almost ideal. 
To only the favored few has it yet been re¬ 
vealed that Idaho has vast possibilities as a pleas¬ 
ure and health resort, and these chosen few are 
more than enthusiastic. To the bracing moun¬ 
tain air and the majestic mountain grandeur are 
often added healing hot mineral waters, for Idaho 
abounds in hot creeks, hot springs, hot lakes and 
hot artesian wells, the homes of her capital, 
Boise, being piped with natural hot water and 
her streets so sprinkled. 
Where there are women and several children 
in a mountain camping party, even the most 
I scientific of “scientific shirking” will not wash 
the greasy frying-pans, bathe the babies, cleanse 
the necessary clothes, nor prevent the ordinary 
camp stove from smoking and acting bewitched 
when one endeavors to heat a boiler of water, 
or hasten the fire for the belated fisherman’s 
dinner. But here w'ere gallons of steaming hot 
water—thousands upon thousands of them rush¬ 
ing by our tent door every minute, and as if 
nature was trying to see how accommodating 
she really could be, she placed a pure little bub¬ 
bling hot spring at the foot of our camp stove. 
The water was hot enough for an extemporan¬ 
eous cup of cocoa, for drinking, or provided a 
warming oven where the tardy arrival's dinner 
was always warm. 
Oh! how the mother of the camp reveled in 
the inexhaustible supply of hot water. She had 
lived for some time upon a dry homestead where 
water was more precious than rubies, and we 
now accused her of being very extravagant in the 
matter of clean clothes and enjoying the sensa¬ 
tion of wasting any amount of perfectly good 
water, 
These hot waters were supposed to possess 
many virtues and medicinal qualities—beauty, 
youth and happiness would follow her who faith¬ 
fully drank "two glasses before each meal, two 
between meals and two upon retiring,” but if the 
too fastidious camper scorned our offering of 
sulphur and iron nectar, flavored with such glori¬ 
ous promises, he had but to take a short climb 
up the hill to find plenty of cold water at the 
junction of the cold and hot creeks. Here a cold 
stream wa s fed by 
twin springs, gushing 
forth side by side 
from underneath 
huge rocks—one a 
sulphur, the other an 
iron spring. The 
creek thus formed 
was perhaps thirty- 
five or forty feet in 
width — a typical 
mountain stream in 
every thing except 
temperature, as it 
dashed over huge 
black boulders, tum¬ 
bled over fallen logs, 
rippled on the sands 
and foamed in danc¬ 
ing waterfalls. 
Mornings and eve¬ 
nings it presented an 
interesting appearance when the condensing steam 
arose in clouds above the banks. We had been 
camping in the higher mountains, and had been 
driven down to the hot springs partly by too 
closely approaching forest fires. The first morn¬ 
ing after our arrival, when we gazed from the 
windows of the small hotel where we temporarily 
stopped, it seemed as if we had jumped from the 
frying-pan into the fire, literally as well as figur¬ 
atively, for the underbrush, which skirted the 
creek, seemed to be a fog of dense smoke. It 
took us but a minute to discover that it was only 
the condensing steam which arose in immense 
clouds, espec'ally if the nights were cold, but the 
sight was one which we never tired of watching 
each morning until the sun dispelled the vapors. 
The picture of the hot creek was taken just be¬ 
fore the sun peeped over the hills one morning, 
and gives but a faint idea of the real appearance 
of the steaming creek. 
1 he same springs which fed the creek, fur¬ 
nished hot and cold mineral water which was 
piped to a small sanitarium and mountain resort 
near our camp. There was in connection a splen¬ 
did little plunge, where one might rent bathing 
suits and enjoy the early morning or evening 
hours in swimming, diving and enjoying the 
warm plunge generally. The plunge, being piped 
with hot and cold water, was usually of a tepid 
temperature. Sometimes, however, a mischievous 
youngster woidd turn on the hot water full force 
about an hour before the general bathing time, 
then it was comical to see the bathers, especially 
newcomers, endure the water for a few minutes 
and emerge in great discomfiture, looking like 
the proverbial lobster. 
Being one of those unfortunates lacking a 
statistical memory, I cannot give the exact tem¬ 
perature of the water. The creek which rushed 
by our camp was too hot for one to bear her 
hands in. Remembering that this creek was 
originally a cold creek, reinforced by hot springs, 
one can well realize that the original springs, 
while many degrees below the boiling point, were 
still very warm. 
Other sports and amusements were not lacking. 
Many mountain creeks furnished excellent trout 
fishing, some of the women of the camp prov¬ 
ing themselves almost record-breaking anglers. 
Larger fish were often caught in the Weiser 
River, which flowed nearby, our party being sev¬ 
eral times treated to large salmon roasts which 
came from salmon weighing from twenty to 
twenty-five pounds. 
There were diversions for those of even milder 
tastes—the hillsides, white with syringa, or mock- 
orange bushes (Idaho’s State flower), long deli¬ 
cate sprays of clematis and spirea, tempted the 
girls forth on many an exploring expedition. 
Some of the booty thus secured in the shape of 
tiny plants, is now being successfully naturalized 
in home gardens. 
Our regrets at leaving so delightful a spot 
were tempered by the fact that with the ap¬ 
proach of fall, the very cold nights made our 
outdoor sleeping rooms rather chilly proposi¬ 
tions. in spite of hot water bottles reinforced 
by the creek water, but we all hope to again 
some time spend a summer camping in so allur¬ 
ing a spot. 
SOMETIMES WE DIDN'T FISH. 
