Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Alabama Hills Day

Hi on April 12, 9-3 we are holding the third Alabama Hills Day event. Big list of things to do and see , A climbing event with Kurt Wedberg and his guides, SMC, SP Parker and Connie will be here also and many climbers are invited, posted on Super Topo by Myles and Amy ,Myles and Amy will do a slideshow in the afternoon.

Gold mining show in the Hills on one of the old digs, great chance to see how dry panning was and (is) done.

Tour with Dave Kirk in the Hills, BLM workcrew for a project repairing water bars . We need help on this so please join in for a few hours a great way to see the area and help maintain the area , you will also see many of the past projects we have worked on and the process used to add projects.

Photo work shop also planned

As always a native plant walk and Birding This past week hills exploded with flowers so expect to see a great showing after the last rain and warm weather

Kathy Jefferson will lead a Cultural program , very interesting topics from current efforts on the Owens Lake to past history of the Alabama Hills.

Many more events during the day so please plan on joining in!

OK so at 3 PM as the day is slowing down we are doing a Grand Opening (Doug and crew leaving) the Hostel standard old days style food, beer, Jack if we can find Earlenes bottle.

The Alabama Hills days events in the Hills are with the BLM. all other actives are in town as always come as you are?


Help us make this a great day!!!!! It would be fun to see in passing Richard, GigaMike, Shin so we can have the final details of all the events on "that day" and everyone so we can have another what ever they are, just plain glad we can all get together time.


More details to follow save the date ! Davey and Tracy are doing final details on the Hostel . Thanks Doug Hope to see you on the 12 th. This will be about year 10 since we had the first Alabama Hills Climbing event so lets keep it going.

Wow!! Sounds like great fun, unfortunately Bets has to work. I could say I'm working all day on the roof and sneak up but I'm sure she would figure it out.

Maybe next year.

Have a wonderful day.

Crazy Jack

This sounds like a fun day. I'd like to try and make this, depending on work.

Thanks for presenting the line up Doug. One more thing to add to the list of activities, we will also be doing a guided bike ride through the Alabama hills for those of you who want to do some fun riding.. Our loop will take us through some fun areas and expect to see lots of wildflowers…

Hi Quick update on Alabama Hills Day , 9 AM-3 PM all events will start at the "building" This is the building with the waterwheel, across the street from the Dow Villa and next to the Car wash? for the Hills and the rest will be held at the Lone Pine Film building about 2 blocks south.

Full line up of events in both locations , Bike ride with Davey McCoy/Dave Kirk , BLM lead work project and a overview of how we got here.

Climbing with SMI and guides 9AM - 2PM looks like several other groups will be in the Hills that day

Lupine along the Portal road now and many others flowers starting to bloom.

Plan on a full day of fun things to do and see, also we have at least 30 different vendors/groups from the Eastern Sierra that will have information about projects they are doing in the area and great place to connect with all these groups in one place.

Myles and Amy will do a slideshow 2 Pm at the Film Museum.

3 PM We are having a Grand opening cook out at the Hostel so plan on a great afternoon with food and chance to see the changes.

We will also have a guest speaker at the Hostel.



So hope to see you on Saturday, word is Shin will make the drive up after a Baldy Hike ?or was that on the way home? or both!
Thanks Doug

Alabama Hills Day was great fun! It was good to climb with a bunch of enthusiastic folks and I even got to see a couple people I hadn't seen in a bit. Thanks Doug, Davey, Myles, Amy, and everybody else who helped make the event such a success!

My son Brian and I had a great time at Alabama Hills Day! So many fun activities were planned, we did the rock climbing clinic - THANK YOU SHIN, KURT AND AMY for helping Brian on his first climb He really enjoyed the day. Would have loved t[i][/i]o join Ranger Dave's geology tour as the flowers were just popping! Really a gorgeous day. Thank you for putting this on.

Davey, the hostel hotel really looks fabulous - wishing you and Tracy much success.

PS - Where was Richard???

Hi Long list to thank for making the Alabama Hills day a very fun day. First as I drove south yesterday, I thought what makes any event great it is not the enity or the people that work to put it together it is the cause and the people that support that cause or area and show support by coming and the true value is how they add to the day and continue support after the event.

We are on about year 10 or so of cleaning and working with all the user groups of the Hills. Formed the Alabama Hills Stewardship group and a Mou with the BLM, after 3 years or more it was decided by all the groups to move forward and seek a Federal designation , the group selected the BLM as the agency and the first NSA in the Country, this will protect all uses and access but add a level of protection that may provide funding and resource protection. Tuttle Creek Campground water system and upgrade are some of the first successes.

We have written the draft legislation and sits at the desk of Congressman's Cook office and Senator Fienstein's office , we had all groups review and make changes to this draft , the Boundary was establish by putting a blank paper on the table and letting everyone share their input on the area .

Through out this entire process I view our role as the AHSG only as scribes, if we fail to listen or respond then we have failed as true stewards to the land. We were awarded a National Stewardship award in 2008 , 1 of 20 for the Country, as we sat with the others it became very clear how it is the simple act of joining all the groups of any area that we all have a common goal of making our places special and wanting to pass this onto the future.

I recall the remarks from the Golden Gate National Park Director " I don't care how many dog meetings we have! at each meeting we gain supporters for the Park and together they will work it out".

Last year we formed a 501c3 and are in the final stages of creating a webpage ,this was a slow process since we are questioning the extent of the site, should it be the Alabama Hills Stewardship Group? or the Alabama Hills my thoughts we should remain behind the banner and let the Hills Shine. The only time we should come to the forefront is if we fail to meet our promise to represent you.


As all could see Saturday , Rock Climbing,Bird watching, Gold Mining, Motorcycle riders, 4X4 tour groups,Campers in and around the Hills, Flower walks and the list goes on of the many people that were in the Hills with or not knowing the Alabama Hills day was going on.

A special Thank you to all the tour leaders and the Bishop BLM Staff and State Director Jim Kenna for his kind words and support.

Becky,Tracy,and Maura for all the hard work for the after party,


On a final note a guy named Chris was able to do a first on Myles's new route how special is that!

Shin , GigaMike as always a special thanks for being you.

Thanks Doug

I was thinking how I missed a great day with great people. But I now realize it was so much more. If I lived in the area, I would get involved. If there is a way to get involved from a distance, please let us know...

I will be in SoCal & the Riviera Maya... leaving tomorrow. On our way home, I now plan to stop by the Alabama Hills. I want to understand and appreciate the land better. Will most likely be around the 3rd, 4th or 5th of May. And we will stay at Davey & Tracy's place.

Thanks for the pix, Kurt and for your informative words, Doug. You are the reason I will now be taking a side trip to the hills...

MC

Thanks Tracie, Doug, and MC for the kind words. It was a great day and I hope we'll see even more peeps out there next year! Here are two photo galleries from me and Shin. Shin's having trouble these days logging into the WPSMB so I'm posting both of our links. Mine are still uploading and should be done by tonight.

Shin's photos

Kurt's pictures

p.s. I'm not sure if anybody else is having log in trouble or not but I always need to log in twice before it lets me in.

Thanks Doug, Miles, Amy and Shin for a great time. Also thanks to everyone involved in the Alabama Hills Day.

Btw, Lots of wildflowers everywhere and the mosquitos are already out! (Lone Pine and Bishop)

Yeah... what Tracie said

Hi,
I had a super nice day on Alabama Hills Day in Lone Pine.
The exhibits at the community center had many interesting subjects such as geology, history of the area, Indian reservation, local farming information, photos of the area, bighorn sheep research,and local mountaineering and sports activities information. The mood of the event was very friendly. Everyone knows each other very well and knows about the community. We don't have any feel of community living in L.A. area. The day was very special to me.

The main reason to come to Alabama Hills day was to see Myles and Amy's slide presentation of Patagonia rock climbing trip. It was an amazing trip. I know that everyone already knows about it but I didn't see it last year. We have world class rock climbers in our community and they are our good friends. We should be proud of them. WPSMB raised a lot of money for "Climb for Heroes" project this year for sending disabled veterans for Mt. Everest. We should start to raise big funds for disadvantaged local heroes to Patagonia.

I spent my day with Kurt and Amy for rock climbing events.
Kurt and Amy were very nice to kids and seniors all day long.
Everyone had a super good time.

Thank you very much Tracy and Davey for very nice lunch for everyone after the event. Your commitment and vision to the hostel will bring many happy hikers and climbers in Lone Pine area.

I am looking forward to coming back next year for geological trip or walking through the desert.

Thank you Doug for inviting all of us to your community.

Hi Thanks Shin for your comments , you are in the local paper belaying with Kurt Wedberg .

HI Doug,
Please save the newspaper for me before you toss it into a recycling bin.

Shin