Trip Report 4/12/04

Took my family - wife and two boys down to DCHS on Sunday. We went in via Bowen Ranch. Got there about 11am.

The Springs were pretty crowded, all textile except for about 4 regulars I have seen there before.

One group of young adults were annoying the whole time we were there. They announced their arrival at the Springs with whooping and hollering, as if the rest of us were just waiting for their signal that they had arrived. They then proceeded to be loud for the rest of the day, including their dog which didn't stop barking the whole time. They kept on mucking around with the organization of sandbags controlling the flow of water, in some cases, throwing the sandbags around. Pressure had to be put on them to leave them alone - I say pressure because all it took was a couple of guys watching them in close proximity for a while - no words needed.

There were quite a few campers at the Springs. Two large groups, one of guys from the Czech Republic and another large group of men and women who were probably local. They were pretty good campers, i.e. clean as far as I could tell, but it just shows that, in the absence of rangers, there is nothing stopping people from camping down there and no one pays attention to the signs.

The weather was probably what we can expect more of now until Fall - too hot for long in the Springs except early in the morning and after the sun goes down, but pleasant just cooling off in the creek.

We left at 2pm, ahead of the crowd. A few groups were still arriving as we left.

Took my wife, who has bad knees, 45 minutes to get down and an hour to get back.

We carried out two dirty sleeping bags that had been there when we were there on the previous Thursday.