I thought this article contained a good deal of misinformation and also was missing information that would describe the springs environment in a more accurate way. The statement " Some popular pastimes arn't even legal ", what was the point of writting something like that? What is he talking about? He does not indicate what these " popular pastimes " are. As Sycamore points out, this article makes alot of innuendos. Things like " Benign anarchy ", " Outlaw Oasis ", " Lookout for Scofflaws ", well at least those of us that frequent the springs alot know the " real " story. As Sycomore says, this article may very well scare some visitors away and hopefully it does not attract more people who induldge in and seek an atmosphere of " Anarchy ". Concerning the open public routes, yesterday I was hiking back to my truck with my two daughters and as I normally do in good weather, I was hiking without cloths on. I always put my shorts back on for the ride home when I reach my vehicle. I had just arrived at my truck when two sherriff suburban type vehicles pulled up. Since I had just got there I hadn't pulled my shorts out of my pack yet. The man in the first vehicle inquired what I was doing out there naked with two little girls. I explained that these were my daughters and that because of the clothing optional situation at DCHS that its not uncommon for people to hike to thier vehicles without clothes on at times. It is my understanding that it is ok to hike naked in Forestry lands as long as its out in the open and not near homes or other structures. This man asked me to put my cloths on and I did without argument since I've heard that the nudity is not strictly legal but " tolerated " in certain areas as far as the law is concerned. This man then asked me what I was doing on a closed road. I explained to him that the road I was parked next to was an open route. He kept trying to tell me that it was closed and asked how I was going to get out of there. I was on 3N59A near the Forestry parking lot on the Bowen Ranch trail. This man appeared to become a bit miffed that I was not agreeing with him about the status of the road I was on. This man then asked for my ID and I gave him my Drivers license. While he was looking at it I discovered that I knew one of the people in the second sherriff vehicle behind the first one. I asked the guy I knew to tell the other guy who I was and that there was no problem here. He did thankfully and these people went on thier way. The one man I know is a volunteer for search and rescue. I will ask him the next time I see him what they were up to in the area. That is the first time I've ever been confronted by any officials while hiking in the Deep Creek area. I also had a ticket for not having the adventure pass on my window yesterday. The paper hook that holds the adventure pass to the mirror got ripped off and I had been attaching the pass to my drivers seat. Aparently the ranger did not see it. I will try putting it on the dash next time. The rest of the day at DCHS was real nice with the weather being just perfect and the creek waters were perfect too. There were alot of people there yesterday with the numbers of people being increased by the Tortise bus travelers. While sitting in the creek by the Arizona pool I noticed a man sitting in the grass nearby was acting strangly in the way he was taking some pictures. I looked to my side to see what he was taking pictures of and it was a young woman who was just upstream from the Arizona Pool. I watched this man for a bit and noticed that he would act like he was reading a book and then he would pick up his camera and take a quick photo of the woman and then put his camera down quickly and act like he was reading again. I then looked directly at the man for a time and he became aware the I was watching him. He then acted real figity and a bit irritated and you could tell he really wanted to continue taking his photos but would not pick up the camera while I was looking at him. I then swam over to the woman and her male companion and told them that this man was taking pictures of the woman. They thanked me and swam away from that area down the creek to around the hotpools. Later the man of that couple told me that he was about to go over a take that mans camera and throw it in the creek if he continued to take more pictures. I will try and post this part of what I've written since it is becoming pretty long and will finish my story in the next post.
