Trip Report Oct 31

This was our first visit to DCHS and I tell ya, we had a blast! We had originally planned to arrive Saturday mid-morning, but since I had Friday off in observance of Nevada Day, and the Mrs was able to take the afternoon off, we arrived Friday evening. This worked out a lot better for a variety of reasons. When we arrived at Bowen, we were greeted by Mike. He took the time to chat with us, showed us where some good camping sites were, and explained the in's and out's of the springs. Very helpful, and just an overall good guy! We set up camp, fixed dinner, and chilled (quite literally) for the rest of the night.

The next morning, after breakfast and some hot cofffee, I got nude and we headed down to the springs. By now, the sun was up and it was actually quite pleasant along the trail. Absolutely gorgous scenery on the way down. Since my wife is not much of a hiker, we took our time, and reached the springs about an hour later. There were about 2 or 3 dozen people there, some nude, some (ladies) topless, and a bunch of Asians in bathing suits. We waded across the creek and climbed in the lowest pool. The creek was cold, but not unreasonably so. We chatted with a few people in the pool, and I decided I wanted to check out the upper pools. My wife stayed in the lower pool as she isn't much of a climber and the pools were slick. Everybody we met were very friendly and fun to chat with. Even the group from CalTec were (rather) interesting.

After lunch, I actually got my wife to climb around the back side of the pools to the upper area. We sat in the upper most pool for a while, then kinda explored the beach area and such. I was suprised thet the area was actually pretty clean. I guess I had expected lots of trash laying around, as it is a public area and not too many appreciate and respect the land, but hardly found any. Maybe I wasn't looking in the right spots? (Dunno). I was also somewhat suprised that the area is very barefoot-able. Even when climbing the rocks. In fact from the time we got to the beach till it was time to leave, I never put my crocks on. Just thoroughly enjoyed being nude and being able to be barefoot the whole time.

The pools, as nice as they were are in need of some cleaning to get the algea off the rocks and the leaves and stuff off the bottom, but I see there is another thread running about this. I would love to be able to assist in the clean-up, but doubt we'll be able to make it. Thanks in advance for all who will for keeping the area nice for us occassional visitors (yes, we'll be back).

The hike out was slow going, as the initial climb out took its toll on the Mrs. She's not the athletic type. But she was a sport about it and did her best. It did take almost 2.5 hours to get back to Bowen. I guess the initial steep hill is called MoFo hill!? for a reason. When we got back to the campsite, I nursed Audreys blisters, had dinner and a couple of brews, and we settled in for the night. The next day was pretty uneventful as we just kinda mozzied around, broke camp, and headed for home.

Again, we both thoroughly enjoyed the weekend, and thanks to Mike for the campsite, and everybody else for all the help...

John