Well those folks back east are freezing thier ......... off, but down at DCHS today, we were soakin up the sun in our Birthday Suits! Can't complain about that :-) It was a fine winters day to be hiking into the canyon. When I arrived, I walked out onto the high point across the creek from the pools to check out the situation. Below me I saw one person, walking around watering the various new trees with a bucket. Nice, quiet start to the morning at the springs. I crossed the creek at the rock crossing upstream, unload my pack and then proceeded to rake all the walking paths from the Arizona Pool, to the Aniversary pool, to Infinity and Beyond. While working, I scored 4 more Vodoo Heads, spirits of the springs, real cool! After that, I new for sure it was going to be a good day :-) I found a partial bag of cement under one of the trees above the Aniversary Pool and was told later that Jobe had brought it down for repairs. Mr Ed, a staunch regular to the springs said he would store it with other " fix it " supplies in his stash in the bushes. There is currently a new small island in the Lagoon out in front of the Womb. The Xmas floods moved the sands and mud around to form it. I don't know if any of you remember the glory days of the Big Sandbag pools. In thier time, the biggest hotpools in the land of OZ! The way the sediment is piling up in the creek in front of the pool, it reminds of that wonderful couple of years with those huge warms pools, enjoyed by all. However, now there is alot of mud mixed in with the sand. I walked out to the island to retreive an orange stuck on it, and found I was sinking in to the muddy sand, quite a ways. The guy I saw watering the trees name is Robert. I had met him before and he started coming to DCHS last summer. He has been a real trooper in helping with clean up down there. He and Jobe vacumed out the Aniversary pool, the Womb and the Serenity pool to maximum cleanliness! The Xmas day storm flooding, as I'm told, went about a foot above the Womb, filling the Serenity Pool almost full of mud and sand, and filling the Womb about half full of the same. All the pools are lookin primo now :-) The Crab Cooker has a bit of sediment in the bottom but not enough to be a problem. All the rocks out in front of the Crab Cooker had a good amount of mud on them after the flooding but alot has since been washed off. Robert did a fine job of picking up trash around the whole area. I thanked him for his efforts prodigiously! The recent flooding has scoured the creek to the high level it reached, but as it goes, things wash out, and things wash in, from upstream. There is the usual storm debris around in the bushes close to the creek. The creek is running pretty clear and it looks like for the most part, old mud from the Willow Fire Flash Flood just got moved around. There were some signs of fresh, small charcol pieces that floated down from the new burn areas. The Big summer thunderstorms produce the downpours that may bring more of a mess, down the creek from the burn areas. Pretty good crowd down there today. A few parties hiked up from the Mohave Dam area. One group of two men, and three women, took about a million pictures. I gathered that there was more going on than your average snapshot to remember the day by. There was another guy who had just come from the Hopi Indian lands, spendin time with the natives. He was soakin at a real hot pool up by the Source at the PCT. I soaked in the Womb for a good while, chatting with visitors, then I gathered my things up and made my way over to the Arizona pool for a final soak before the hike out. Mr Ed and Andrea were in the pool talking with 3 other visitors. I showed Mr Ed my Arrowhead, and my Vodoo Head that I take with me on my hikes to OZ. Ed made them. :-) Ed would say, they are presents he has left in thier special perch, for those, who have the patience to notice nature more intimately, well, I think thats what he would say :-) I said my good byes and hit the trail out in the last light of the day, with another fine adventure to OZland, tucked away in my memories :-)
