Also, I think its a possibility that the relatively recent appearance ( last few years ) of this rash syptom at DCHS could be due to reasons not associated with humans or dogs. There was up until this season, drought conditions in the Deep Creek area which caused striking changes along the creek. Around the time I first noticed this problem with the rashes, there came along a new problem with the small biting bugs commonly referred to as No See Ems that were suddenly prevelant around the springs at certain times of the year. I had not experienced these biting insects around the springs before, just the occasional Mosquito bite. During this drought the forest in the mountains have become plagued with the Bark Beetles. I noticed this rash problem only after the big flood from a thunderstorm in August of 2000 which brought immense amounts of soot from the Willow Fire into the Deep Creek canyon. This soot has acted as a nutrient which supercharged the growth of all kinds of plants and trees along the creek. Perhaps this nutrient also provided a rich growth medium for organisms in the creek, and even indirectly for organisms in the hotpools. The hot water that feeds these pools always increases in flow after significant rains, which implies that the source is somehow affected by the water supply in the hills, or nearby streams. The water percolates down through the faults to where it becomes hot then returns to the surface. Perhaps the water percolating down picked up substances from the Willow Fire refuse, which then may have caused a change in the community of organism's in the hotpools. Meaning an agent that was present before in numbers, to low to cause syptoms, may be proliferating to the level that now causes rashes when people do lengthy soaks. So that might be another possibility for the rash. Regardless of what the cause is, its clear that the hotpools are not places for people, or dogs to be doing there business. We all agree on that. As much as is possible, the many volunteers who help DCHS can be watchful to help see that the DCHS pools are not affected by such things.
