My faithful pooches and I did a hike today up in the BLM lands in the Bowen Ranch vicinity. It was a beautiful clear, cold and windy fall day. On this hike, I was in an area of cliffs and rocks and suddenly I saw a Bobcat, about 40 feet away. I had apparently wandered too near its spot of retreat in the rocks. I found a little cave where I think it had been laying in to stay warm. Just a few minutes later, above me, I saw a very large bird. I got out my binoculars and got a close look at the big bird and would say, most likely, because of its size and markings, that it was an Eagle. The hills, rocks and mountains looked fantastic in the low golden sun of late fall. I also noticed ( ain't binoculars great! ) that 4 vehicles ended up being parked at the Bowen Ranch lower parking lot. I saw two of these vehicles drive up to the Bowen Building, the occupants got out and went up by the front door and apparently talked with someone through the screen left of the door, for a few minutes. Both these vehicles then continued on down to the place where people park to go to the hotsprings. The spot about a half mile south of the Bowen Ranch. The occupants then got out, and with packs on, they headed south down the trail toward the hotsprings. I know there are a bunch of us folks, respecting this USFS closure that would love to go to the springs, like the apparently privilaged Bowen Ranch visitors get to do. Looks like Bowen Ranch visitors are still exempt from the DCHS closure. The word is, Brad Burns will be getting the Bowen Ranch crew informed, real soon. After that, I'm sure Mike Castro will be wanting to keep his visitors safe, and up to speed on this current DCHS closure. Since me, my family, and my pooches can't presently go to DCHS, we will be going on some more walks, to have a look around :-)
