What is to be done? Reaction to trip to springs 5-23-09

I am an infrequent but consistent visitor to DCHS, I normally visit a few times each spring--usually on the weekend. I have been reading this forum and wondering how seriously to take the complaints about mounting numbers of people using the springs who do not go nude. Perhaps I have been lucky, but each year in the last four or five that I have visited, the place was like paradise, even on the crowded weekends. Tons of people using the place in the nude, completely friendly and comfortable, from regulars and older folk to college age and even high school visitors who would join in the spirit of the place and perhaps have their first skinny dip.

But not this past weekend, and not the last time I was at the springs three weeks ago, Sunday May 3. People using the springs nude were really in the minority. To the point where at some points during the day on this past Saturday, I felt uncomfortable. When I arrived early in the morning, some teenagers were camped on the river bank, and a huge group on the beach across the creek. As was the case the last time I arrived, not a single nude person was apparent as one looked around. It can be a bit intimidating to strip down in such a scenario, but I said to hell with this, and thought one should lead by example and respect the tradition of this place. I undressed--didn't even bring a bathing suit of course--and made my way over to the springs. In the womb pool, there was a couple about my age. They were really nice, visiting the area from the mid-West, and originally from Northern California. They often visit hot springs and usually go nude, they told me--but were not today, as they didn't think they should when they arrived since everyone, all the young teenagers, were wearing bathing suits. This is not the Deep Creek that I know, or have known--nor that I want to know. So that is why I'm asking if there is anything that can be done.

As the day wore on, more people arrived who used the springs in the nude. Almost all of you, however, I recognized from previous trips, and I think from this forum--Rick, Wizard, etc. The regulars who care for the place and have been coming for years. It is of course the big holiday weekend, and so tons of people arrived over the course of the day. What made this day different from my previous visits however, was how few--almost none--of the visitors joined in and skinny dipped or used the hot springs in the nude. And for the first time I really did feel uncomfortable at various points. There was a huge group of somewhat hostile teenagers cursing and drinking all day, and early in the day at least, when I would walk by in the nude, they would yell out things like "JESUS CHRIST" or make snide comments. Even friendlier younger people would say things like, "Look at Nude Guy over there," as if I were the interloper, the strange nudist at a textile beach. What I spent the morning doing, however, with other regulars, was cleaning up the beach that had been trashed by the teenagers the night before. I must have picked up 30-40 cigarette butts out of one pool, there were bottles, and a Chef Boyardee can and the sharp opened lids in the crab cooker, etc., etc., etc.

Some regulars I talked to were pretty mellow about the situation: "It comes in cycles," one of you said to me, meaning years with more people using the springs nude or less. Another said, more depressingly, "We have lost this place...It's no longer a naturist spot." What can be done about this development? Aside from leading by example and visiting frequently with naturist friends, I had one idea (although I can immediately guess the objections or problems with it): I was wondering if it might be useful to post signage, or if this has ever been done, or is even allowed. Of course one would expect the signs to be torn down or whatever. But I'm thinking of, you know, a sign a la Lee Baxandall, "Beyond this point you may encounter nude sunbathers" up at the trail head where the rusted Deep Creek sign is, and at the beach at the springs upon arrival. It would name DCHS as a nude place (there were definitely people at the springs on Saturday who were freaked out, especially upon arrival, and while I don't think we need to care or accommodate them when they choose to visit a naturist place but seem not to have researched it or know that fact--it is not a good feeling nonetheless). Other ideas? We need to protect DCHS as a naturist place, there are far too few in this area, in this state, in this country.

Generations change, I and my friends always admired when I was young in the '80s/90s, the hippies and the counterculture, thus our attraction to places like Deep Creek. Perhaps time is against us, the new generation, the Bush-years generation, much more rigid and with all the trash thrown upon them associating the nude body with sex, porn, etc. Surely, from what I saw on Saturday, they still do a lot of drugs, but pretty stupidly.

Two memories upon closing:

One a photo or two I found online from before my time, the springs as I wished I had experienced them and would love to again.

http://www.pbase.com/mad_monte1/image/89477599
http://www.pbase.com/mad_monte1/image/66759183

The other is another photo I found online. The photographer is well-known in the art world and in fashion/journalistic photography (spreads for the New York Times). If you scroll through his website under "Photographs," you may be interested in many of them, but around 10 or 15 images in there is a beautiful shot of Deep Creek. The difference here is that when I found this photo, I realized I had been at the springs the day it was taken, and remembered all these kids. It was a beautiful day about 4 years ago. This is the DCHS I always want to remember, and to which I want to return.

http://www.ryanmcginley.com/photographs.php