I did a visit to DCHS yesterday with my wife and the weather was just about perfect. On our way in on route 4 when we got to the turn onto route 3 there were 4 large rocks spread across the road. I got out and removed them. Wonder who would do that and why? Anyway we continued on to park at one of the access points to DCHS. When we first started on our way I found a burnt piece of wood layed across the entrance to this trail. I kicked it off the trail. Also nearby there was an arrow scratched in the dirt pointing up the trail, in the direction of our parked car. We continued on down into the Deep Creek Canyon. The flowers up there right now are fantastic and probably at thier peak. They are everywhere and are showing many differant colors. After about 5 minutes of hiking we heard the sound of a motorcycle getting louder and I though it might be coming down the trail we were hiking but then it faded away. Was it Mike Castro or someone else, no way to know since we didn't see the rider. The spot where I parked had seen a spree of vandalism last year which causes me some concern when I park there at times. Anyway I put stuff like that out of my mind when I'm on an adventure to OZ so on we went. Walking along the trail the flowers were on each side and really wonderful to see. When we got to the creek I coaxed my wife across the cold stream waters and we hung out by the Crab Cooker for a time visiting with other regulars like Gary Roe, Bob and Pete. Got a chance to tell pete that I thought he was better off now being able to choose who will be his friends and how he will access the springs without outside influence. He thanked me for my thoughts on that matter. My wife did some soaking and I got out my handy dandy grabber tool for picking up trash and did some clean up around the main pools. We then went around to the grass area above the Aniversary pool and waited for our friend Ron to show up with his friends. I did some more trash pick up with my tool then did some raking on the trails around that area. I met a guy named Ed and we eventually got on the subject of the DCV group. I gave him a handout and he said he would be contacting Ron to join. Finally Ron showed up and we spent a long while just having good conversation with him and his friends. I showed Ron my new Naturist Society membership card which I received last week that says Deep Creek Volunteers on the front of it. I'm a bonifide Naturist now :-) The Arizona pool was under the creek waters, so we ended up using the Aniversary pool for soaking. The plants and trees all along the creek are growing fast and the various hues of green are a wonderful site. There was a good sized mellow crowd and you could see that everyone was enjoying that fine spring day. Finally it was time to leave. We hiked with Ron and his friens back up the Bowen Ranch trail and when my wife and I got back up near our car I found that the burnt stick I had kicked of the trail was back in the same spot on the trail again, odd, and the arrow scratched in the dirt had been errased. I had also noticed that the motorcycle we had heard earlier in the day had ridden an illegal bike trail down into the canyon south of where we had parked. We loaded up and got on our way and while we where driving along route 4 a motorcycle with passenger on back came down the road in our direction and passed us by at a fast clip. I recognized that it was Mike Castro and his facial demeanor was less than happy by my wifes and my assesment. This was the first time I had seen him in a long while and I noticed his hair is really getting grey these days. Where was he going, what was he up too, I wondered, but on we went to meet Ron and his friends for the final piece of our day, some good food at The Siam Village restaurant in Hesperia. It was another great visit to our favorite recreation oasis in the desert :-)
