Ides of March

Hey I thought I would see a post from Jobe on this - we shared the day Friday at the springs together with a lot of familiar faces. It was a great day, though still winter at the springs. Sun was shining, tho it was cool if not cold and the green and the bloom just starting to think about appearing, but not stepping out into the world just yet. The creek is super fast and high still, and the Arizona pool way under water - even Jobe realized he couldn't sandbag it yet to reclaim it from the creek. Anniversary and Womb pools saw most of the soaking this day. Serenity is not warm anymore as the flow from the Crab Cooker is not reaching it - needs to be sandbagged for this, I tried to work on it but didn't have the material to make that happen. To cross from the Bowen trail, the old sandbar is still pretty much where it used to be surprisingly, but the water now reaches up to above most people's waist as you wade across and the flow is considerable. Lots of folks turned back without crossing. I used the garbage bag method and it was just fine.

But the crazy event of the day is that a first time visitor to the springs wandered upstream for a short hike. To the beaches just upstream. And he found a human skull, perhaps exposed or washed up by the winter floods. It was propped against a tree, he said. And while I wouldn't have touched it myself, he took it to bring it to the authorities. Some regulars immediately began talking about The Mystery of Ronnie Bates. That is before my time, as is the discussion on this forum from a while back that was quite heated! But the skull found yesterday was without a jawbone of course, and that was what was found of Ronnie Bates. Some thought the skull looked too small to be a grown man, but I thought it looked plenty large and it still had many teeth. So. A human skull and human remains just right there, a little distance from the hot springs. Deep Creek always surprises you.

I could post a photograph but I don't really know how to do that like Paulespo has done here recently. Hmmm.