Another rescue on Thursday

I was able to run out to the springs again Thursday morning. It was a beautiful - amazing day. Got a very early start, from LA I was at Bowen by around 7:45am - down to the springs before 9am. To find that I was the only one there. There was a tent, but it was abandoned. There was local/regular T., I learned later in the day, but he was not in evidence yet that morning. The whole place to myself. I stripped down and eased into the creek first, to cool off, and swam quietly from the beach (I arrived on the main beach by crossing north of the springs), over to the lagoon, to find _the_ Great Blue Heron standing there, I often see him in the morning if it is early and quiet enough, just downstream from the springs, fishing for breakfast. The heron was as big as I've ever seen, like 4 feet tall? It watched me swim around and over to the pools, by the time I got into the shaded Womb pool, it took off, and flew over head, upstream through the canyon. I took it as a good omen.

Folks started showing up around 10:30 or so, so I had about 90 minutes of bliss, though I used some of it to clean up the things laying around the pools I was soaking in during the coolness of the morning: used up candles, glass containers by the Womb, beer cans and unfortunately toilet paper by the Anniversary pool. Bagged that stuff up. The trash is kinda bad again - kinda not surprising. There was some kind of burning of the trash earlier in the week by some who I will not name - that took care of some stuff but left a big fire ring and ashes on the beach. Trash had already piled up there again though, only days later. I saw many folks bag things and hike out at least one trash bag at the end of their day.

Many friends were there - always happy to run into folks I've run into there before. Most were skinny dipping, it was a super mellow day, and quiet - like 15-20 people at most. There was good cheer, and good food shared around a lot - I was handed a freshly made BLT with Avocado to eat while I floated in the creek with a beer, just like that ...

But Hippie D. and I started noticing a lot of folks hiking out midday. Suddenly around 1 or 2 pm, a lot of people leaving - like what is the sense of that? It wasn't an especially hot summer day, but at least 100. And sure enough, someone seemed to have collapsed on the trail, just past the top of MoFo Hill. I heard from some later, that he was an older man, hiking out in the heat of the day without any water - and collapsed where they found him. They carried him to some shade, and climbed to a place for cell service and called search and rescue. The helicopter buzzed the springs and trail for a while, and finally found the hiker and then landed on the trail itself. It was pretty dramatic to watch, and unfortunate there have been so many of these situations this summer it seems.

I could go on - it was an epic visit. Watch out on the beach for the velvet ants - the hornets - the wasps - the bees . They are legion! Everything is still lush and green, and so many critters. I hiked out around sunset following a gaggle of quail on the Bowen Ranch trail. I would approach, and they would make little noises and rush up the trail. We kept doing this as they lead me on the trail for at least 10 minutes. Full circle in my day down there....



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2017 12:54AM by neogeo.