Trip report 1/9/09

I was able to make it back to the springs on Friday, 1/9/09. The drive up was much better than when I came up on 12/27, no mud anywhere on Bowen Ranch road. It was pretty windy and cold though. I arrived at the Bowen Ranch at 730am. I was the first one there that morning and I had to wait a few minutes because the cable at the entrance was still up. Once I made it down to the parking area there were 3 or 4 vehicles already there. No one was camping up top so I assumed they were all down by the springs somewhere.

It was windy and cold on the first part of the hike down, I brought a shovel with me in case there were still some cow pies on the trail. I discovered someone else had cleared them off since my last visit, I did clear off a few coyote droppings though. When I got to the springs there was a couple just crossing over the creek via the rocks on their way to the springs. Also there was a group of about 3 guys and a girl already at the springs sitting in the womb. It appeared that this second group had camped a little ways up the creek, just past the new beach.

The area appeared pretty clean except over on the old beach, next to the cliff. Someone had smashed 3 or 4 beer bottles in a fire ring. There was broken glass in and around the fire ring. I picked up the biggest pieces and took them out with some other trash I found.

I had brought along some ropes and a River Rat tube. I strung the rope from the beach over to the other side by wading through the water, it was ice cold! I barely got the rope across and wrapped around a tree trunk on the other side before I had to seek refuge in the lower pool to warm up. I went back a little later and tied the rope tight, leaving it about a foot above the water level. I filled up the tube with air and attached it to the rope with a shackle. I used the shackle so it could slide back and forth from one side of the creek to the other, along the rope. I was just too cold to finish the project which would have been to add another smaller rope to the shackle so the tube could be pulled back and forth from either side of the creek. I left the smaller rope on the beach side, hoping someone else could stand the cold better than I could and finish to job.

Of the original group that was there, I would say everyone was textile but myself and 2 others. Later on, one other gentleman arrived and enjoyed a soak, sans clothing. I ended up departing at around 2pm. I had worked the night shift the previous night and I had hoped to get a nap laying in the sun on the new beach but that was not going to happen with the cold windy weather. I tried to nap in the pools but that did not work very well. The pools were in the shade all day, with the sun never making it to them.

On my way back up the trail I passed a group of 2 couples on their way down. They crossed via the rocks and when I got to the top of mo-fo hill I saw them in their bathing suits getting into the anniversary pool. I did not pass anyone else on my way back up the trail or on my drive back down Bowen Ranch road.