Nice day down at DCHS on Saturday. I went with Ralph who maintains the DCV website. Also with us were my wife and two daugters. Once we reached the springs, Ralph and I cleaned up the beach across from the hotpools, then proceeded to work on a project of removing 1 area of graffiti, and two green painted arrows around the beach area. We then crossed the creek and went up to DCHS Del Mar and continued to pick up some more trash. A little later Ron Mercer showed up. We all chatted in the sun for a while, and Mr Nude Hiker came over and joined the conversation for a bit. A little later we came across Naked Man, who we hadn't see for a good while. Also had the pleasure of meeting up with Nicole, who we had not seen since last year. We all went down for a soak and conversation in the Arizon Pool, which still has leaks. We spent some time trying to place bags with sand in them in the cracks we could find, to try and seal the pool. Made some progress but the pool was still about 4 inches below being full to the top. Not too much longer and the cottonwoods will be leafing out along with everything else. In the early afternoon a large group of hikers ( maybe 15 or so ) came hiking up the PCT, and continued on up the canyon, passing the hotsprings by. Late in the day, while sitting in the Arizona pool we heard some ruckuss going on over by the rock crossing. This knuckle head young guy had climbed up the cliff there, and left his girlfriend at the bottom to cross on her own, and she slipped and fell in the creek. Nicole was over trying to help her when we heard some thing falling down the cliff by the rock crossing. Then Ralph, Ron, and I went over to check it out. The young man was drunk or high on something, yelling at his girlfriend from the top of the cliff, and he threw a pack down the cliff in a fit of anger. My wife also came over to help, and while the others were helping the girl dry off, and get across, I went up the cliff to see what was the problem with this dude. When I got close to him, I asked him if he was ok. He didn't say any thing, hittting the road back up Mo Fo hill. Maybe us three naked guys spooked him off :-) Naked Man ended up hiking out with the girl for some security, and Ron Mercer left a bit later and caught up with the girl near the Bowen Parking area. When they got to the parking, the angry dude had apparently hot wired the girls car and was driving off with it as they arrived. Ron Mercer ended up driving the girl to her home in Apple Valley. Other than that it was a real nice, mellow day down at the springs. There was an ice chest with glass beer bottles, along with a decent amount of other trash left in a pile by some rocks on DCHS Del Mar. When we left we split up this trash and hiked it out, along with the other trash we picked up. There was nice weather, it was pretty warm when the sun was out. In the afternoon more clouds started coming in but by then we were soaking in the Arizona Pool. The creek level is down and easily crossed, rock crossing can be done rather easily. Of course that will most likely change with the coming storms this week. There were about 20 to 25 people visiting throughout the day. It was a real fun day soaking and visiting with everyone :-)
