It was the first time my 25 year old niece had been to Deep Creek , though her Uncle Joe has told her about it for years. The tempurature was in the high 80's but the constant breeze made for excellant hiking conditions. I counted 3 cars in the Bowen ranch parking lot as I mossied toward the Freedom trail. As we got to the parking lot there were 4 trucks and a car at the Freedom trailhead. So that is 6 vehicles at the Freedom trail and 3 vehichles at Bowen Ranch. I wondered If Mikee would attack?
As we decinded the trail a very large hawk stopped into a nearby pine tree. My niece and me stopped and watched this magnificent creature groom himslf just 20 feet from us. I told her that this was a very good sign for us, she agreed. When we arrived at the springs @ 25 persons were all nude, I had warned her of this possiblity. She was unconcerned. At first it felt stange being the only ones there wearing clothes. After a little while I noticed a couple who had hiked the Bradford Ridge trail were also wearing clothes. Now, we fit in.
Or so I thought. As I took her to the pools 3 couples were ingaged in foreplay in the shallow waters just down stream from the pools. We pretended not to notice.
My niece loved the pools and I left her there telling her I needed a nap. Before long she was drinking beer with the nudist. I returned to the shade trees for @ a 1 hour nap. As I woke up my niece said she was ready to go home NOW ! So I took one more soak in the pools and we left. Much to my surprise we had spent 4 hours there. Before we made it to the last steep hill to the parking lot we saw a very large Mojave rattle snake. On the way to the springs my niece told me she loved snakes and wanted one for a pet. As we stopped to look at him he just stared at us, blocking our path for @10 minuets. Becoming inpatient I started stomping my feet. This caused him to move off to the side of the canyon. My niece said she did not like poisionous snakes.
All in all an excellant time to educate the next generation on the ways to be hip !