I spoke with Ranger Brad this morning and he apologized for not having had time to respond to my emails. As we all expected they have all been very busy as result of the recent fires.

He confirmed that DCHS is officially closed, however he recognized that Mike Castro had not been informed and they had not got around to posting any closure signs. He said that they were going to get out to the Bowen Ranch to notify Mike and post signs real soon.

The current plan is for the closure to last till March, however he said that they are fine tuning the plan regularly so things keep changing. I expressed that DCV members have vowed to respect the closure and to the best of my knowledge all of them are doing so. However, I pointed out that as other visitor are going to the springs, as the closure is not posted at the trail head, there is no one to educate new visitors. The place could be trashed as far as we know. I told him that I had recieved a report that the Anniversary pool had been vandalized. He agreed to check it out as soon as he could and give me some feedback.

I pointed out that if DCV members were respecting the closure, if the policy was changed to allow us access to the springs but not to hike up PCT beyond a designated point, we would respect that as well. He pointed out that he does not establish the policy but would pass our concerns on. I will be writing a letter from DCV to the recreaction officer for this area asking the USFS to consider opening unburnt sections of Deep Creek sooner.

Ranger Brad took the opportunity to thank DCV's members for the effort we have made in looking after the hot springs, educating people and keeping the place clean. He also mentioned that on his recent visit to this forum he was pleased to see the more positive atmosphere that has been created here over the last few months. Keep up the good work DCV and non-DCV members!