Days at Laird Hot Spring

This is the hottest part of the pools.  You are a true heat lover if you can put a rock on top of the rock piles.  We didn't make it.  It is about 127 degrees.

We really enjoyed our three days at the hot springs.  We talked with several other people.  A couple from Arizona played cribbage with Mike and soaked with us.  We were camped next to several men and one woman who were picking mushrooms commercially.  They would daily go to places that had forest fires last year and collect morrels.  They said they were making $1000 to $3000 a day.  They will next go to the Yukon and then Alaska.  They travel a circuit with the weather, ending with collecting mushrooms in California in the late fall and winter.  When we first saw them, Mike thought they were the dirtiest, scruffiest group he had ever seen.  When you think about them digging in burned woods all day, you can understand why they were so grubby!  They soak in the hotsprings at the end of the day, but you can't use any soap there.  We also played cribbage and soaked with a couple from Minnesota that we very much enjoyed.  She is native american and has been a foster parent for over ten years.  She also goes to recovery/treatment centers and does healing circles with the people.  Her husband is a public health offical.  They both have a wonderful energy about them and I would love to see them again.  They were heading to a relatives gold mining claim north of Fairbanks for two weeks and then heading home.  

One night, about ten pm (still light) we were walking back to camp and saw two moose.  As we were enjoying watching them, two men passed us completely unimpressed that they were there and said, "probably someone's dinner, eh?"  I know it is because I seldom see them, but I cannot fathom being so nonchalont about moose.  We had time to ride our bikes, paint the hotsprings and read our books.  We left so relaxed we could hardly remember how to drive!