First time through Bowen since July. First thing I noticed was the fee is now $10 per person for day use. No camping at bowen anymore, Mike said he tried to shut down his place for a couple days but too many people kept coming. Parked around 8:45am and got down to springs at 9:15am. Was excited to be there after neogeo’s cleanup the day before but alas, there was a fresh mess. At least 8 small plastic containers of Fireball, beer cans, cigarette butts, melted tea lights, and rose petals scattered around anniversary, womb and serenity. A couple cans of monster energy, more beer, etc on the beach and near phoenix. An empty gallon container in the creek and another up on the rocks by anniversary. Nothing super heavy, nothing piled on the beach, but there was a blue cooler by the rope swing that was full of more garbage. We took the garbage but left the cooler because it was very wet. I brought a new plug for the anniversary pool, an Oatey like the ones in Phoenix and Womb. We’ll see how long it lasts.

Had the place to ourselves for a couple hours. Then it almost immediately got crowded by noon, all textiles, probably 40 at the peak, we left at 1ish and on our hike out we saw a group of four also hiking back had stopped a mile up the ridge. An older women was seated on the ground and they seemed to be tending her though she seemed ok but tired. As we kept hiking out people started flooding in from bowen and 3 helicopters began circling over head, one eventually hovering over where the hikers stopped. By the time we got back to our car the helicopter had dropped off the older woman and she was on a stretcher with an ice pack around her ankle. There were two ambulances and one fire truck at the ranch. As we were trying to exit this Mercedes van full of fancy hippies was blocking the way and having a heated discussion with the woman who runs Mike’s gate. It seemed clear they didn’t want to pay $10 each and arriving at 2pm they wouldn’t have much time at the springs. While we were waiting for that to end I could hear the older woman who had been rescued(She got off the stretcher and was sitting at a picnic table at this point) saying on the phone “i just couldn’t walk on my foot suddenly” So sounds like it was really just her ankle. The fancy hippies eventually ponied up the cash and we went on our way. I have to say, with all the rescues and the death in August, my friend and I think the forest service or BLM may be putting pressure on Mike to deter people from coming, that or he really is fed up with it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/21/2018 10:03AM by paulespo.