I recall a rainy, windy, snowy, chill-to-the-bone July day on the Middle Fork of the Salmon. I was probably 10 or 11 years old and too young to row a boat but worked hard as a camp monkey. Skinny as a rail. Not good gear like we have today. So cold I was having a hard time mumbling words. My Dad knew I was prehypothermic and I’m sure he knew some of the guests were too. What else he knew was that help was just around the corner! Sunflower Hotsprings was a Godsend that day as we tied up the boats and everyone piled into that hot water. I remember Dad giving everyone the “pep talk” that cold days were sometimes part of a wilderness experience and that a good attitude would get us through, that tomorrow would likely bring sunshine, and we would all have a story to tell about how we got snowed on in July. He was right. It was sunny and hot the next day and all the adversity of the “cold day” was forgotten for the rest of the trip. Funny thing is, that day is most likely the more talked about day of that trip and as I got older, and piloted my own boats, I have given that same “buck up” speech a few dozen times. And I still LOVE the sulphurous smell of a hot spring. Razorock Saturnia is the smell of sunflower springs. Sure it’s brushed up a bit ant it’s hair is combed but under that surface are the plants and sulphur of a hot spring and I adore it. Right now my hands have that piquant aroma of sulphur from washing out my brush.