A Witness' Account of Hardline Enforcement of Camping Ban

This is what happened according to Gary Roe:

A couple of hikes back 5 or 6 weeks ago the Monday after Labor Day, I was hanging out in the Beach Pool with a couple of people and Donny from Alaska. Donny is the person who is "branded" as the "scofflaw camper".

I was packed up and just started to get some water when Mike Castro jumped on top of a rock overlooking the pool. I said, "Well there's Mr. Castro". Mike Castro said, "You shouldn't let people sneak up on you like that."

I just turned around, got my stuff and headed to the main pools to the crab cooker get some water. I could hear Mike Castro haranguing on Donny that he was pushing the envelope by illegally camping at the hotsprings. He kept ragging at Donny.

Then Mike Castro called out after me, "Where are you going Roe I'm not done with you". I didn't respond I didn't look back I just continued on my way to the main pools to get some water. I could hear Mike Castro in the background nagging on Donny about his camping at the springs. Continuing on with my hotsprings experience I stopped to look back towards the pool I had just left. I saw Castro coming my way I ducked down and saw him looking around trying to find me.

I don't know what he intended to do when he found me, harass or who knows what. There were other people around so I thought that he probably wouldn't get physically violent in front of witnesses. I decided to leave the hotsprings.

Because of the healing properties of the hotsprings, I went to the hotsprings the next morning. I looked for Donny and couldn't find him. I saw Donny a couple of weeks later in a hotspringer's truck driving on the dirt roads of my neighborhood. I did not get to talk to Donny after the incident and so was not aware of the reasons for his rapid departure.

In my opinion, Donny was a regular guy hanging out at the hotsprings. Donny camped out in Family Canyon. He did leave some trash. At the time I didn't realize that this was because of Donny's sudden departure due to health reasons of a different kind.