Really didn't want to go on a Sunday on a holiday weekend but my good friends wanted to go to celebrate a birthday. Saw a coyote cross Bowen ranch road as I was driving in. Got to Freedom trail lot at 7am, there were 4 trucks and 1 car, air temperature was 36 degrees. Got down to the springs around 7:30am. A nude couple already in the serenity pool, I could see about 6 clothed people in the Phoenix pool. I removed some stupid tea candles with red wax from the womb and serenity. Noticed that the contemplation pool had been left unplugged and looked like it was empty for a couple days. Got my hose and scrubbers and started working on the womb, couldn't do much suction of the bottom because the sun never came over the ridge so I didn't have much light to see into the depths. Was really just trying to get a quick scrub in and drain the womb and refill it before it got crowded.

As I was cleaning about 4 more people joined, 3 nude and 1 clothed and brought his dog in the womb pool. Had a nice talk with an older man from Napa who was visiting to reminisce on a good friend of his who brought him to the springs and had just passed away. He came in through the ranch and gave me the info on Mike's plans to end camping on the ranch. Moved on to draining the serenity pool via siphon, someone had thrown a bunch of artificial glitter in it and I tried to remove as much as I could. I also replaced a lot of the polypropylene sand bags used for redirecting the water flows with canvas ones that I made from some free canvas I got. The canvas is sturdier, looks more "natural" and doesn't leech microplastics into the water. It was really windy and chilly in the morning.

At this point, around 10am it started getting crowded, a lot of children, everyone clothed. I gave up on cleaning and moved on to garbage. The main source of garbage was the massive pp sandbags used in the creek to make the temporary warm pools. By the leave no trace sign there was only one broken bottle of liquor, several empty beers cans, and 5 old towels. There was also an empty cat litter container(i assume for squirrel proofing) inside was a huge jar of peanut butter, nuttella, franzia sack, pipe tobacco, a can opener and assorted drink mix powders. Removed a happy birthday sign that was hanging limply on a tree. A lot of cigarette butts around the pools. I ended up filling two garbage bags, didn't get a chance to go further into the beach to explore because too many people had their stuff/tents down and I couldn't tell what had been left behind for a while and was going to be left behind that day.

Someone had smashed the end off the pipe that drains anniversary pool, about 2 inches of pipe was crushed but no damage to the function of the drain, I thought it might be because instead of a plug someone had clogged the drainage pipe to the anniversary pool with a small sack filled with sand which had to be dislodged with a stick. There were probably 60-70 people at the height of the crowd, creek too cold for most although I think the creek is actually is still much warmer than the air temp. At some point I was able to drain the anniversary pool, fill it back up and plug the contemplation pool back up.

Around 4:30pm everyone cleared out, Mike was apparently out later in the day but the woman who helps him must have been pretty emphatic that people be out before dark. I took my time, as I wanted to enjoy a little solitude and see how many people were planning to camp. I ended up heading out around 5:15pm. Sheriff helicopter made a slow circle around the springs around that time. There were probably 20 people still there as I left. Hike out was ok, but chilly. As I approached freedom parking area 4 people were heading down to the springs with huge packs. Didn't count how many cars were in the parking area but as I was driving the road to freedom trail back to bowen ranch road there were so many cars parked along the road, like 6? and 3 or 4 more coming in as I was leaving.