6/17 Trip Report

Friday was an extraordinary day at the springs. I woke up real early and was reminded why I love to go to DCHS so much in June: down in LA, the gloom fog has the city locked in its clutches and when I got on the road around 6:15 am it was actually raining. And it kept raining as I drove east, a light but steady rain, and didn’t stop until around Rancho Cucamonga. The cloud layer did not break either of course, and as I climbed the El Cajon pass, there was just one moment of sunshine and then back into the thick pea soup. I thought I would climb out of it, but I was wrong, as I crested the pass and entered the high desert, the fog had climbed up out of the basin too. By the time I got off the road in Hesperia, though, the sun was with me and as I looked back west later in the drive, I could see this incredible finger of fog that had snaked its way--it looked like a snake--up the pass and into the high desert.

The drive to Bowen was non-eventful. The road has really deteriorated since May, although the two spots where water was flowing across the road are gone. When I arrived at the ranch around 8:15 am, I was surprised to see another car in front of me at the house; it was two women with their two daughters in the car, trying to find their money to pay the Bowen fee. I talked to them a little as I waited, and realized that I knew one of the women from a day at the springs last summer; she is a lovely hippie, I guess you would have to say, and a regular at the springs. When they started to make their way to the parking lot, I followed, and the first thing I see is an RV parked at the first camping spot, the one at the first bend on the left before you descend to the parking, with a young guy in the nude sitting on top of the picnic table enjoying his morning coffee and the desert vista. I waved -- it was a sign.

At 8:15, there were already about six cars in the lot, and two more at a camping spot. I was surprised. I wanted to free hike today, so I got my stuff together quickly and hit the trail just as quick, as the 4 women were parked right next to me and I wasn’t sure what they would think. I shouldn’t have worried, it turns out. But they were obviously chatting and laughing and taking their time. Hiked down the first steep descent, crossed the road and started free hiking by the DCHS iron sign at the start of the lower trail. It was a beautiful hike, saw no one until I got to the creek vista when I noticed two people on the trail up ahead up me about to descend the right-hand path to the creek level. I slowed down, but both of my worries were silly as the people in front of me turned out to be two older men who are regulars and nudists, and when the four women arrived creekside, I hung out with or near them all day, for they were nudists as well.

I thus arrived creekside sometime close to 9 am. Still early I thought, and on a weekday I usually proceed right to the Womb for a while: not today. The area was already super crowded! On the hike down, it didn’t look too bad, and I only noticed one tent, set up directly on the beach. It turns out there were others in the woods up creek, and a fire on the beach near the sign. But the campers or whomever was at the springs early in the morning were all skinnydipping. There were some people who you see at the springs all the time, like Roland and some of his buddies, and then there were a group of men and women and their children -- teenage boys, maybe 15 and 17 -- all nudists and having a great time. There were women walking around with vibes, playing music. There were a few young textile campers. But it was so packed at 9 am I couldn’t even get in the Womb, just swam for a while then had the Anniversary pool to myself for a short soak.

But this was not annoying to me. It was a sign of an extraordinary day. I would say there were around 15 people at the springs at 9 am; 10 nudes, 5 textiles. Be prepared: I’m bringing some Jobe measuring skills here. This ratio diminished to 50/50 or so around 11 am to 12 noon, when some large groups of young people hiked down -- but didn’t stay long. What kept happening all day is that new people would arrive, and they would strip down on the beach and cavort and play in the nude. I am known to be an optimist, so you can doubt my numbers, but at around 2:30 or so I did an informal count, and including folks who were just topless or had been nude part of the day (putting their suits on sometimes), I counted at that point 20 nudes, and only 6 or 7 textiles.

From that point until around 4:30, when things started to quiet down, new people kept arriving on the beach. I felt like there were a lot of first timers, and when they would see everyone skinnydipping, they would contemplate and stand around on the beach for a few minutes, and then....poof...off came the clothes and the skinnydippers’ numbers kept growing. I was just skinnydipping in the waters in front of the main pools when the two young women who came down with their mothers approached me and started laughing incredulously--they said they had never seen so many people at the hot springs ever (they only come on weekdays), and never so many people frolicking naked. They kept laughing at the young 15 year old boy, to my eyes he embodied the true spirit of naturism, this kid was having a ball, he was looking for fish with his goggles, he was catching snakes (three water snakes were caught during the day), he showed us all that you can swim under the big rock near the Arizona pool (!). (Did you all know that?) He was running nekkid here and he was running nekkid there, jumping off rocks, hanging with his dad and brother -- the girls were amused. A group of four textile teenager boys approached at that moment and seemed to marvel at the way things were at the springs - they had been told, they said, “only old fat people came and got nude at the springs.” The young girls seemed not be amused at this comment and gave the boys a talking to -- both about the age-ism and their not joining in -- eventually convincing some of them to join in the skinny dipping. I love children raised by hippies, these girls were totally cool, and wished that I had been raised in this way, had gone to beaches and clothing-optional places with my family.

And so it went down there. At the most crowded, maybe 30 nudes (!) and still just a handful of textiles here and there. I met some German mathematicians finishing a postdoc at UCLA, there were some Brazilian model-types, there were a bunch of young couples from the LA area, some through hikers, Roland and his peeps, etc. I witnessed one older nudist man trying to ogle the Brazilian model-types, standing on a rock above them and peeking down, thinking he was not being seen. They saw him, and took out their camera and stood up and started photographing him until he walked away. This is a good tactic, in my opinion. There was also one younger man laying out who kept having erection "issues." Well, it happens, he didn’t seem to mean any harm and was rather nice actually when I talked to him during the day.

Like I said earlier, there were a lot of water snakes found throughout the day, but I saw or heard of no rattlers. The Arizona pool is indeed fixed, and I have to say, it was fixed monumentally, it looks fantastic. The creek has really gotten much gentler and much shallower, and the water is close to 70 degrees now I’d say. Perfect for swimming. I love the new sandbars near the main pools. There are now two showers coming down out of the Anniversary Pool. A perfect day there: beautiful weather, no yahoos/gangs and very few textiles. I hiked out around 5:30, free hiked all the way to the car. Saw no one, almost, until I passed one couple hiking down at about the ½ way mark. There was not much trash at the beach considering all the people and campers, but I did fill one bag with cigarette butts, some cans and other debris - like Johnny said, there is one pile of stuff on the beach as you come down from Bowen but I couldn’t take any of that stuff this time.

I hope this Friday is indicative of a trend back toward the clothing-optional use of DCHS. A generational switch, perhaps? Trend or no trend, I wish a day like this on all of you.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/2011 01:12PM by neogeo.