[GeoTom]

Article in last Sunday's Seattle Times Pacific Northwest Magazine supplement on Kennedy Hot Springs. Apologies if this was already posted, but I did not see that it had been.

[Quark]

Wow, GeoTom, thanks for the link. I didn't know all the history of the cabin; I thought it started out as a FS guard station. I stayed there one evening - I was doing work directly with the FS for 3 days in the cold rain and we were camped at the lower campground (now a pile of boulders). In the evening we gathered around the woodburning stove in the cabin and one FS trailcrew read stories aloud and we generally hung out and goofed off in the warmth. What an interesting story. Here's a pic of the cabin site and the site of the bridge that used to span the White Chuck river:

Bridge and cabin site

Here's a pic of the hot springs now, a seep out of the bank high above the river.

2 labels

The is the site of the hot springs. Note minderal seep on right slope

Here's a pic of the lower campground (it's the pile of rocks on the right, across the river. When I took the photo, I was standing near the site of the bridge at the White Chuck). I don't recall being able to stand on the banks of the river before, but there's a bank now. Some upper sites are still present, and the pit toilet - but they sites are mostly under logs that have fallen over the last few years.

Ex-Campground on right

[jenjen]

Wow. Seeing those pics is still so heartbreaking... GeoTom, that really was a great article. Thanks for the link.

[Quark]

Yah, heartbreaking; as the article says, Kennedy had been a destination for Boy Scouts, families, etc. for decades. The whole area had been; Meadow Mountain - I saw an old trip report in Signpost Magazine where a person wrote, "you can push a baby buggy up there!" This was after it had received extensive maintenance. I don't think it has received anything since; certainly won't any more, since there's no access to the TH and none in sight. Thanks, Congress (this isn't politics, it's a general statement that any citizen could make about any government at any time in any country about any subject). It'll be freaky for some lucky bushwhacker a generation from now (or a few years) to happen upon a mystery near Kennedy - the pit toilet and remains of the upper campground, in the middle of nowhere. They'll wonder, WTF is all this this doing here? What was the destination? What was the draw...?

[Riverside Laker]

that meadow mtn trail is superb. Flowers galore!

[peltoms]

Excellent article thanks for the find Geotom. It is a fascinating history indeed. I will fondly remember the rejuvenating powers of the Hot spriing, between a morning backpack to it, and the evening hike up to the glacier from there. In my experience it was never crowded at all. i did notice it attracted some interesting characters.

[Quark]

There's more to the love of the place than just the hot springs; it's everything around them and just being there; the boyscout and family trips, passing through on your way somewhere else and poking around the cabin and getting water from the spring there. It's the memories, not the hot springs. All those memories are under a huge pile of boulders now, and that's the heart-tugging part. On weekends I would think the hot springs was crowded an icky, but on a weekday when it's sleeting out, or icy-cold rain and snow all around, those hot springs felt good.

[reststep]

Thanks for the link. That is an interesting article. I think hot springs is a misnomer however. I think warm springs would have been a more appropriate name.

[jenjen]

For me, it was the perfect early overnight destination. It was an awesome snowshoe in. The campsites were obvious and comfy. The warm spring was really nice when it was surrounded by snow. It was quiet and peaceful. Some folks made it in on the weekends but not the hordes you'd find in the summer. It also made the perfect bail point on the Glacier Peak part of the PCT. There was always someone camped at Kennedy Hot Springs if you needed a lift out. I took advantage of this once, when the couple's talking about Mexican food overwhelmed my desire to stay out another 4 days after already being out for 8 days. (They asked if I minded riding in the back of their pickup. Heck no! They ferried me into Arlington where Chubbyhubby met us at the Mexican restaurant and picked up the tab for huge plates of awesome food and margaritas.)

[Quark]

Yah, when I fell in Kennedy Creek and was crying in the rain like a Waylon & Willie song, I stood at the intersection of the Kennedy HS trail and the PCT, looking toward the camp and a blue tarp hanging in a tree, smoke rising from a campfire. I figured I could camp there with those folks and they'd give me a ride to town the next day, or whenever they were leaving. I felt good standing there, knowing someone was camped there, and it was like being home. I wanted very much to stay, but something told me to keep going, it was a personal best issue, to keep going. It was my first multi-day solo adventure, and that was important. I felt pretty lonely the moment I turned my back and walked uphill away from Kennedy. The last time I saw Kennedy HS intact, I didn't pay too much attention to it - it was hot as hell that day, I already had blisters on my feet and I had 11 miles to go, so just ascended the hill and didn't look back. I wish I had known.... Anyway, when I think of Kennedy HS, I don't think of the springs - I think of that one time; standing there in the rain looking toward the camp and feeling comfy and safe. Plus that's about where I lost my Moonstone Profusion jacket. Don't get me started on that again. I'll bet it's buried under all those boulders.

[Tim and Angel]

Thanks for reposting the photos. When they were posted the first time, I sent a link to a friend of mine in Germany. This was our last hike together back in the early/mid 90's. We camped right about where that photo was taken (campground picture). We all (my wife, old school friend, and I, hiked in and was amazed by the beauty of the trail to get there. The springs were sort of secondary...and as I recall, sort of uninviting. Maybe because there were a few people there, it looked murky...just sort of awkward. I was not sure what the etiquette was. I thought "do we take a ticket and stand in line to enjoy the springs, first come first serve, everyone all aboard, or what...?!" We just sort of hung out in the woods until they cleared, but other people would just jump on in regardless. I remember wanting to camp on the river just a little distance from the cabin. The resident forest employee explained to us the river was acting strange and recommended us to camp up in the established campground area near the pit toilet, south of anyway. I remember later that night lots of people walking near our camp looking for a place to set up. It really was not annoying, we were just a little surprised how popular the hike had become...after all, we were hikers too. We laughed a little amongst ourselves how it seemed the friendly forest employee talked as if he had not talked to anyone for weeks. I got a real bad headache that night and passed out early. What a memory, I too, wonder what future generations will think when they bushwhack their way to a pit toilet seemingly in the middle of the wilderness. In a way, it's cool this generation got to experience something that's now in the history books, archived under "There used to be...." Sort of like the Monte Cristo area, the Big Four resort, etc.....

[Kirt]

Hey thanks for the article. I've been up there many times. I used at as a great hike to introduce friends and family to hiking. I enjoyed Byrne Lake as much as the Kennedy Hot Springs camp. Both places were really enjoyable. Great pictures too. K

[Quark]

It's wierd to see "Kennedy Hot Springs" in the History section.

[Allison]

If it's already seeping, it may be back...

[Kirt]