July 16, 2009
More Melozi Hot Springs
Can there be a more intriguing map label than "Aban'd?"
Here's the main tub at Melozi, too hot to enter. It's lovely, but just half the story. Here's the rest:
Just past the tub, the hot water cascades down over this cliff into Hot Springs Creek. You stand in the cool creek and get hit with a hot shower from above. Once you get in, you don't want to get out.
In 1917, a government geologist named Gerry Waring took a dog sled over the Kokrines Trail to Melozi and wrote this description of the hot springs: "The hot water rises, practically all in one spring, in a shallow pool 6 feet in diameter on top of a cemented gravel mass that has been cut by Hot Springs Creek—a fair-sized river—into a remarkable bank. The overflow from the pool cascades 17 feet over this bank to the creek."
One of the coolest birds around, the dipper, kept flying back under the stream of hot water to the hot, wet, cliffside. This guy is here when it's 40 below, too, making his living flying under the water for his dinner.
And, as if all this wasn't enough, there were grayling. Big ones (I'm talking about the grayling).
And, I'm not sure, but this might be the first ever picture of "the Woodsman," a Bigfoot-type character rumored to play tricks on people in the Melozi country.
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Comments on More Melozi Hot Springs »
Why would you ever want to leave?????????
Hi, Ned -
I'm writing a book on Melozi Hot Springs and I would like to use some of the pictures that you have posted. May I have your permission to do so?
Sincerely,
Mike Travis
If I get a copy of the book and my photos are credited, you got a deal, Michael.
Nice pictures, very interesting, thanks. My friend and I visited Melozi Hot Springs exactly one month before you did, on June 16, 2009.
The mosquitos were just horrible — seeing "The Woodsman" running around outside naked in your picture has me awestruck… we couldn't even use "the shower" of the hot springs because as soon as you took off any clothing your skin would grow "mosquito hair"! It was like a horror flick! Worst mosquitos than I've seen anywhere in my Alaska explorations.
It's a real shame that the BLM has let Melozi fall to pieces like that. They should let it be fixed up and let it be a public use facility such as Serpentine Hot Springs - I'm sure that volunteers could be found to help do the work.
Cheers, Christina Young
Alaska Explorer
Hardwick Township, NJ
Woodsman Jim is running because of the mosquitoes, Christina. Did you fly in?
in 1984 my girfriend saw the woodsman looking at her. she
lost it..had a physcotic breakdown. melozi remains to me
a mystery, the only place in the wild wher i felt as an
intruder. still, the beauty there was world class,
Skip;
Thanks for leaving your journal at Melozi, and for revealing so much in it. You had us spellbound for the night with your honesty, and you gave the place a mood you probably felt many times out there.
Hope you are well.
Ned
….and there I was, alone, about 40 miles from the nearest human being and 130 miles from a road connecting to the
outside world, listening to a tape by Pink Floyd, "wish
you were here" and wandering how I got there..
Melozi is awesome.
A trip to Melozi Hotsprings – like the Shining, only with hot water « Go Play Outside! @ 10:11 pm
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