Some interesting thoughts and a good read I found on the net:
**Inside the struggles to save Bagby Hot Springs from ruin**
By Ian McCluskey, March 19, 2026
An Oregon couple is once again restoring one of the state’s most beloved hot springs, but will visitors stop breaking it?
The trail to Bagby Hot Springs weaves through towering old-growth trees alongside a rushing river, crosses a log bridge, then crests at a weathered cabin and a cluster of cedar soaking tubs.
In this small pocket of the Mount Hood National Forest, mineral water burbles from the earth as it has since time immemorial. Steam rises, mixing with forest mist, and mingles with the musky scent of damp soil, moss and mushrooms. The early rays of sunrise filter through the towering Douglas firs, illuminating hemlock saplings sprouting from soggy nurse logs. Birdsong warbles just above the distant rush of the river below.
In these moments, the place feels almost untouched — like it exists outside of time.
Then the voices begin to carry through the trees. A group appears, towels slung over their shoulders, phones already out, playing music. By midday there may be a hundred people here, or more. The line to soak can stretch for hours.
“Depending on the moment, it’s either sacred or profane,” wrote Eric Mortenson in a 2011 story for The Oregonian about the Bagby experience. “It’s fair to say Bagby is valued for what people wish it was, and the reality is a bit rougher.”
All around the springs are the signs of use that have hit hard: the main bathhouse is boarded up, log tubs are broken and empty, the wooden walls are layered with graffiti, and strewn about are food scraps, beer cans, discarded underwear and wads of toilet paper.
For Mike Rysavy, watching the crowds arrive is both encouraging and unsettling.
More than 30 years ago, he first hiked this same trail as a teenager and discovered what felt like a hidden sanctuary deep in the forest. Now he and his wife Tamarah, who first met at Bagby, hold the permit from the U.S. Forest Service to manage the hot springs.
With the help of new staff and volunteers, they are rolling up their sleeves to bring the facilities back from the brink of ruin.
Their job is simple in theory and nearly impossible in practice: repair Bagby Hot Springs and keep it from being loved to death....
Continue to the source:
https://www.opb.org/article/2026/03/19/inside-the-struggles-to-save-bagby-hot-springs-from-ruin
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Terry Dactil
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