What an awesome post. I did my first Saturday visit to the springs in a long time yesterday. In part to meet a group of young hikers who announced a plan to clean up the springs. The hiker who organized the clean up has only been coming to Deep Creek for the last four months, but he saw the trash problem and decided to do something about it. By the time I arrived at the springs around 9:30am, the group had already been there an hour, and cleaning away hard - They bagged a lot of the big stuff trashed by the sign on the beach, including abandoned sleeping bags and even tents. They gathered all the visible trash they could find. Then they donned their gloves and made their way up into the bushes - I mean that is what I arrived at the springs to see. Individuals with gloves and trash bags wandering the bushes and hillsides even away from the springs. By the end of the day, they had at least 12-15 large heavy duty sacks and some bags filled with the big trash. They hiked it all out by around 3pm.
3 or 4 groups of naturists descended on the springs. It was an insane day down there - like 80 people or more. But almost all of them skinny dipping and having a great time, including lots of kids jumping off all the low rocks into the freezing water. By around 5, the naturists pitched in too - and some big grills and bbqs left there were broken down and hiked out. At least for a little while -
the springs have been cleaned.