Nice day at the springs yesterday with light rain for a couple of hours and thunder occuring late in the afternoon. Couldn't see any lightning. The morning started out sunny then the clouds built up and then finally cleared late in the day. There was quite a large crowd at the springs and one group had some music going from thier portable boom box. Fortunatly it wasn't to loud but I would rather not have to listen to it at all. I like the natural sounds like the water, birds and wind in the trees etc :-) One large group was sitting on the rocks by the middle pool and when they all left late in the day there were glass beer bottles left in the spot they were sitting and I got pissed off and confront some of the people that I thought left this trash. Another visitor to the springs who I've met before informed me that I had blamed the wrong people and I ended up apologizing to them for my mistake. I no I should just stick to picking up trash when I find it and keep things cool and non confrontational. I've found that even if you are talking to the right people it usually makes little differance since the people who leave the stuff don't really care in the first place so all you may gain is a fight or some other kind of trouble. Some times we have to relearn old lessons again. Another tree has been planted by the Aniversary pool which makes a total of three new ones this year. Its my understanding from talking to differant people down there that they have all been planted by the same person. I hope the trees do well. Some one yesterday also told me that this person has also planted as many as ten more trees just upstream from the springs along the creek in differant places. I didn't get a chance to check this story out since I was with my kids and had to keep an eye on them. Next time I'm up on my own I'll go look for these other trees. Driving in on open routes 3 and 4 there are still an amazing amount of flowers blooming in the area. Now there are lots of orange flowers close to the ground. They look similiar to poppies but I think they are a differant species. There are many types of flowers up there now and its definitly a highlight of a visit to the springs. Still lots of mud in the creek and I really miss those clear green tinted waters and the nice sandy bottom of normal years. All that mud and soot I know is a real boost for the plant life along the the stream bed. The stream temperature is warming up real nice now and many people are swimming in it. Yesterday alot of people were jumping off the top of the cliff on the north side of the womb into the hotpool. Thats quite a jump and could potentialy be very dangerous if you didn't hit the deep spot. A broken leg or worse could easily result but fortunatly this didn't happen yesterday. I've seen many people flown out in helicopters from the springs with things as bad as a broken neck from slipping and diving off the rocks. Doing rescues to the springs is a real irritation for the authorities concerning the springs. I know one of the search and rescue personel for the springs area and he has told me that this is one of thier biggest complaints since it is costly and ties up resources that could be used elsewere. It will continue to be a problem since people will do what they do which includes being unsafe around the rocks :-( I cracked my shin real hard one day just slipping getting out of the middle pool and had a hard time walking on it for a few weeks. Those darn rocks are so slippery! Well thats enough info for now eh! Happy Soakin :-)
