I'm blaming Obama. I'm just saying: the last few years almost all my visits to the springs were marred by feeling out of place as a skinnydipper there. The clothing-optional ethos seemed on the wane. Maybe I'm getting lucky, but today again, as on my previous visits this year, things have changed: nudes outnumbered prudes by a wide margin. It was a HOT day. Arrived around 9 am, already HOT. Hiked nude to the springs, only one car in the parking lot at Bowen, passed a couple on the way back up and also a guy pushing his bike uphill (regular bike, with pedals). Just a handful of people present when I arrived after 9:30 am, no real presence of campers but discovered later they were there: some 20-something-year-old guys from the area hiked down Thursday with a keg and were camping in the wooded area upstream. I guess that is called ambition folks. The water is still flowing pretty strong, it will push you downstream if you swim, but the level has gone down a lot since May. And it has warmed up, I'd say around 70 degrees: perfect for swimming. Set up in the shade of the trees by the Arizona pool, and met some hikers, a beautiful woman who is hiking California for 4 months if she can make it that long. She was not the only through-hiker there today, there were a bunch. It was too hot to hike, so they chilled and swam and ate all day at the springs. By the heat of the day, around 3 pm, the rocks were generally foot-burning hot, the pools only for madmen, the sand a field of pain. Super HOT. It had been really calm and quiet all day; by 3, at the height of things, I'd say there were around 20 people at the springs. I'd say about 14 or 15 of them were nude, or going back-and-forth between their clothes and getting nude to jump in the water. I just thought it was a great day. Saw no snakes, lots of lizards and other critters. On the hike out, the young couple in front of me were attacked by something, started screaming and running: realized it was horseflies. They were out in force the whole hike uphill, I've never experienced them at Deep Creek until now. They were constant companions on the way out.
