Found myself also on another adventure to Deep Creek this last Friday! Missed you by one day Paul :-) I did not go to DCHS, just other favorite spots along the creek. Regarding that Raft you mentioned Paul, my River Rat Raft is safely at home, so the raft you saw, is someone else's :-) While hiking into the canyon Friday morning, I saw a deer on the ridge in front of me, and after it looked at me and my faithful pooches for a bit, it ran off down the hill. Great swimming in the creek now, and the warm temps of the last few days will make it even better! Spent many quiet hours just watching the flow of life along the creek. Big red Dragonflies, like little magic birds, were in abundance. At one spot I go, swallows nest in a crack of granite, and I watched them for some time, swooping in to thier nest like little jets. At one point, mom and pop mallards came down the creek with thier ducklings. Watched some chubs in one pool, trying to work thier way up stream through some rapids, jumping like little Salmon :-) Found a pool full of Poliwogs, and caught some Tree Frogs too. While laying in the cool shade, on a wonderful slab of grey, smooth granite, I saw the big shadow of a bird across some stone in front of me, and it ended up being a big Buzzard, heading down the creek, only about 40 feet up. Near sunset, I always like to enjoy the late day sun, finding some fine smooth rock to stand or sit on. At that time of day, if you just block the bright sun with your hand, you will see an amazing display of the large variety of flying insect life, that becomes active near sunset, along the creek. Like little stars, they go about thier lives, invisible to our eyes, except for this little trick, that shows you thier world :-) It was a wonderful and inspiring day, like the many I have spent before, along that beautiful ribbon of Oasis that is Deep Creek :-) I put seven photos from my Friday hike at the Wizard's pictures link below. Photos 3-9 on page 44. Nothing like Deep Creek in the summer!
