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HOBO HOT SPRINGS
The locals of Harrison Hot Springs have found a place alongside Harrison Lake, where hot water comes out of the ground near to the main hot spring source. Local soaking enthusiasts have dug holes in the ground and built up rocks around it, and have named it the Harrison Hobo Hot Springs. One of the Hobo holes is under lake water during the spring and early summer during spring highwater. The other soaking hole is above the hot spring source trail beside the historic hot spring source building. The Harrison Hobo Hot Springs can get hot, so bring a bucket and you can add some cold water from the lake or the nearby creek.
They are actually called Potash and Sulphur, which have temperatures of 40ºC, and 65ºC, respectively.
Information about it even though my soaking friends wish I would have just kept it to myself originally. I share information about hot springs knowing that it can attract people who come and abuse them, but I am hoping that through this, we can build a hot springs community in our province, and together we can increase the awareness and amount of care put into keeping the springs clean and soakable. I also would like some community cooperation on how the rocks are set up and hopefully some more help keeping it built up and maintained.
Harrison Hobo Hot Springs has two pools (upper and lower Hobo); the soaking is not ideal for many reasons.
The water flow is not strong enough to assist with keeping the pools clean
The water levels around the pools fluctuate, making it impossible to make a pool that is good for soaking year-round.
Optimal soaking (if you can call it that) is rare because people mess up the rocks and do not help clean the lower pool.
I have been one of the main people who work on Hobo, there is another volunteer that I have yet to meet, and he also does good work, but between the two of us, we do not have much support. If the place gets trashed like many people, treat other hot springs, then (DFO) fisheries, the village of Harrison, and the resort will rip out the rocks, and it has been done before. Also, some people try and mess with the stones to make them better, or the rock formation needs to change between winter and spring. I will post
information about spring and summer soaking and how to form the rocks, but the rocks only need to change once a year for Upper Hobo. Lower Hobo only is open when the lake levels lower in the winter months. NO PERMANENT STRUCTURES ARE ALLOWED… If people do anything wild, the whole thing may get shut down. Besides just moving some rocks, any funny business will get the whole thing shut down, public drinking, wild parties, anything like that happens, and they will shut it down. It’s a tiny soaking spot for a few people at a time. It is right on a public path, and you need to be chill here.
The lower pool is only cleanable if you use a bucket, drain it out, and refill it. I would love to work with others to put in a drain pipe at the bottom of the pool so it would be easier to drain and rinse with lake water. The pool gets a lot of mud, debris, dead leaves, etc and it becomes nasty. This is why I rarely soak at lower. If some of us got together, we could probably fix it up and make it decent. I have had some solid soaks in there over the years.
The attached graphic shows the optimal winter setup for Upper Hobo. Anyone working on the rocks should try their best to build it this way, or the hot flashes are unbearable, or it’s too cold. If made right, pool #3 should be nice and hot and fit three people, or five people snug. That is what the water flow supports.
The water source overflow doesn’t always push water out, so sometimes it is not hot at the upper Hobo. Lower Hobo is natural ground seepage and is always hot when it is not underwater.
To get there, park on Esplanade in Harrison, then walk down the lakeside trail past the resort for about 15 minutes. Walk past the water pump park and down to the end of the main walking trail until you reach the hot springs source building. Please bring home your garbage or bring it to a can in town. The garbage can there doesn’t get changed as often, so if it is full, please use the next one, so it doesn’t make a mess.
I did my best now; it is up to the hot springs community to take care of it, and I hope it doesn’t get shut down. Always remember that technically speaking, we are not even allowed to be soaking there.
… (sorry AW & JB)
@bchotspringer
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