sept 15 at the springs

Cooler temperature brought me out for a late summer visit. But not many others: I found myself one of two cars at the old Bowen parking (new campsite owners). Saw no one on the trail but some critters. I knew the rain would effect the creek, but thought it would be settled down by now; was not the case. The creek is running chocolate milk brown, which I have not even really seen during winter rains. It is a sight to see, really. The water is opaque - you cannot see anything, even your own body, below the surface. So watch your step and your toes, muscle memory of where there are rocks in the water took over for me when I swam in the murk. (And the water is pretty cold for summer too.) Creek is still shallow at the crossing, taken over by massive groves of reeds on both shores. It has gone quite deep just below the Womb and Serenity pools, where there was the sandbag pool most summers in recent years. No longer.

I'm posting on here mainly because "Sky" asked me to - he wanted to see if Jobe would see this. He seems to have done a lot down there, to my eyes (haven't been in a while). The piles of trash are all gone. There are a lot of "plantings" - some cactus up high on the beach area, some manzanita bushes, things like that. Even where there is not planting, has the creek been this lush in a while? Anniversary Pool almost has full shade cover with the reeds and trees and berry plants growing alongside, right up to the walls - like it used to have when a willow tree shaded the spot 20 years back. But Sky wanted me to let Jobe know the pool is leaking in at least three spots (though the pool was full to its level). And he is trying to fix a dam someone built up toward the source pools, diverting the flow with effects on the Womb pool mostly. So I am reporting that in to Tallahassee ...

Morning hours - just me and this guy Sky, a woman on her own floating on a raft, that's it. In the afternoon, maybe 10 people at most. I dismantled some fire rings, they are the obvious problem with most of the trash gone. Found a little bit of glass and bottle caps to hike out. The most evident issue is the rabid spread of graffiti on the trail from the desert side. There is stupid graffiti on half the rocks on the trail at this point. Its everywhere.

Otherwise, beautiful day, quietest day I've had out there since the pandemic. Really beautiful, the springs are right now.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/2022 10:28AM by neogeo.