I really appreciated the cleaning of the Contemplation Pool. It was beautiful by end of day. I'm sure Jobe had more of a role in that then he admits! Thursday was a beautiful day all round. Especially liked that moment toward its end when Jobe, Wizard, and I were pretty much the only ones left down there. Well, actually, I think we really were the only ones there by then.

By contrast: There were a lot of campers hiking out thursday morning when I arrived early - passed 8 on the trail heading back to Bowen Ranch, including one woman sitting on the trail, I asked her if she was OK and she said she was. And there were many at the springs when I arrived - so Wednesday night was a big night for campers. Thursday night was quiet. I was there again on Friday - also quiet, at least until I left.

The Bowen Ranch road was very smooth and not so full of sand, because of the rain (my car is not so dirty with desert dust).

The drive from the ranch house to the parking below is TERRIBLE now. Really needs to be fixed. When I arrived there were at least 3 cars that gave up hope and just parked anywhere they could at the top of the hill that leads down to the parking. About 8 more cars were in the lot at 8am.

I saw critters - some roadrunners along the Bowen Ranch road were the nicest. Spiders all around, on the walls of every pool ...
On Friday morning, soaking in the Womb early, no one at the springs but me, no one around at all, I was visited by the Blue Heron flying overhead through the canyon. So beautiful.
By Friday lunch tho, the accursed ground squirrels had been chirping their high pitched chirps all around me. I should have been warned. I skinny dipped in the creek and came back to two squirrels running out of my Igloo Playmate, they had chewed a hole through the side and ate two of my ice packs and one apple and some tofu spinach thing I had as a salad in there. That was the end of my travel cooler. (Don't worry, I packed it out - so much trash on the beach. Two guys I shared beers with said they would pack some of it out….tents, sleeping bags, big wheeled coolers, towels (one was taken by a young guy to use who had none), you name it.)
There were a lot of insects around the springs on this visit - beetles in the sand, and bees and wasps, looking for food. Lots of ants in the sand. Maybe the rain woke them, brought them out.

The nicest thing on my hike down on Thursday was to see that someone, someone had worked their *&$^ off removing the proliferating graffiti from all the rocks. There are still scars. But no more "NOCOMP62" or "TO DEATH-->" or the 420 stoopid smiley faces or the big horrible teeth and maw painted on the giant split boulder.

To whomever did this work: You are forever blessed!

Naturist report: Thursday was a great day for naturists down at the creek. Many were skinny-dipping; many were not. The typical Deep Creek fun.
Friday morning I was alone. So it was 100% naturist at the springs, from around 7am until 10 am. But when people started showing up - I was the lone skinny-dipper. Never enjoy that. So maybe it would have changed later in the day, but I hiked out after the crazed squirrels destroyed my cooler, after lunch.

Some young folk I hiked out at the same time as drove off just before me. When I left, car after car was arriving at the Ranch. Some were driving too fast along the Bowen Ranch Road. The young folks in their car had been driven off the road into the bushes when I left, about 2 miles from the Ranch. Two pickup trucks were there, one helping to pull them back onto the road. I hope they and their car are OK.
People need to drive more carefully and slowly - the creek ain't going anywhere….



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2014 01:22AM by neogeo.