Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Big Pine vandalism FYI

<<music mode on>> Oh the cowboys and the farmers should be friends... <<music mode off>>

You should hear some of the theories I was offered as to why CA had so many wildfires this year... (something about the 9th Circuit and burning in hell)

What it boils down to is a lot of strong people with strong opinions, and not always the most productive means of expressing them.

and I thought it boiled down to more attempted road closures under the guise of "wilderness protection" - area that were already protected from development

Oh, it isn't limited to Owens Valley.

We had a neighborhood meeting in my town in Orange County about instituting a "preservation district". Would cover just a small area of homes in a distinct neighboorhood of homes mostly built in the 30's through 50's. No distinct particular style, but mostly < 2000 sq. ft. and so on.

Reason was to try to discourage building of McMansions which would completely overwhelm the surrounding houses. (Unfortunately the first one, which may have triggered this interest was built by my next door neighbor over a period of nearly 3 years!! Ugh. What a nightmare!)

The city has a defined plan and well defined documentation on the implementation and ramifications of doing this. Other distinct neighboorhoods in the city have done this with little ill effect.

Oh my gosh, you'd have thought it was the end of the world. Some folks in particular just don't want anyone "telling them what they may or may not do", or even the remote possibility of such. Fortunately, it didn't get "ugly" but it definitely got a little "heated".

Someone should covertly put one of these "Trail-Cams" in the area and find out who these dirt-bags are. They are not too expensive.
Jdub
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templa...&id=0046609

OK, so the article on the front page of the local paper isn't showing up on the website, so I'm just going to transcribe. Bear with me here:

From The Inyo Register, front page, 9-4-08

Vandals sought for rash of mountain crimes

--Windows smashed at trailheads, White Mountain lab ravaged, investigator doesn't think hikers being targeted.

By Mike Bodine, REgister Staff

Petty criminals have apparently targeted the local mountains, destroying property and the mountain community's sense of security.

Over the Labor Day weekend, vehicle and cabin windows were destroyed at points in the Sierra from Bishop to Big Pine, while in early August, a high=altitude laboratory was ravaged in the White Mountains, all for no apparent reason.

In the White Mountains incident, unknown individuals travelled all the way to the top of the third highest peak in California just to bust windows and vandalize a historic scientific center.

White Mountain Research Station's Summit Lab, located at the top of White Mountain Peak, 14,250ft above sea level, was ransacked sometime between August 3-7, John Smiley, associate director for WMRS, said Wednesday.

The Summit Lab was built in the 1950s and is the fourth highest elevation research facility in the world.

THe popular hike to the summit is usually an all day event, starting at the locked gate 1.5 miles below the Barcroft Station and then another seven miles of trail, one way from the station, at an average of more than 13,000ft.

Reports of the damage first came in from a group of students led by Joe and Lynn Mederios of Sierra College in Truckee, according to Barcroft Station manager Dori Cann. The group arrived at the peak and discovered the Summit Lab's easy windows broken out. The windows are usually shuttered up, but a broken shutter had been taken down for repairs. The exposed window was carefully busted clean to allow scratch-free entry.

"They seemed to break everything you could break in five minutes," Smiley said.

Once inside, the Sierra College group discovered the vandals had busted out the rest of the 18 windows, smashed light bulbs, tipped over mouse-proof lockers containing survival provisions, and destroyed several wood cabinets as well as an oven door. An antique pair of snow shoes were also broken in two.

Perhaps the most scary, Smiley said, were the two bunkbeds and batteries doused with 10 gallons of gasoline.

Because of its remoteness, a fire would totally destroy the lab and rebuilding would be nearly impossible, Smiley explained. There are more construction regulations and bureaucratic hurdles to jump through now than when the lab was originally constructed.

Smiley estimated the damage at about $1000 including labor and the gasoline to travel the nearly 80 miles round trip from Bishop to the lab.

Vandals did not disrupt any of the really expensive equipment such as the weather instruments and the related Internet connection systems.

"Maybe they (the vandals) were cagey enough not to pull the Internet stuff because then we'd know when they did it," Smiley said. The disconnecting of the Internet would have been recorded along with the other data from the weather stations.

Smiley said he was unsure who, or why, someone would do something like this. He said that a group with a message or protest would make itself known, but this has not been the case so far.

INF rangers worked with the Mono County Sherriff's Dept to take fingerprints and gather evidence.

There are also unconfirmed reports of damage to the Ancient Bristlecone Pin Forest Visitor Center at Schulman Grove around the same time. INF was unavailable for comment at the time of this article.

The wave of mischief continued on the other side of the Owens Valley with vandalized vehicles near popular hiker destinations.

ALthough details are still coming into the Inyo County Sherriff's Dept, initial reports indicate approximately 24 vehicles were damaged in the South Lake/Bishop Creek area and Big Pine Creek areas between Saturday, Aug 30, and Tuesday Sept 2. There was also one reported residential burglary in the Big Pine Creek area, Investigator Dennis Gray said Wednesday morning.

At 0830 Sat morning, the Sherriff's Dept received a call that a cabin with a busted window in Big Pine Canyon had possibly been broken into. The cabin, owned by Jack Killian of LA, is conveniently located next ot the road about 1.5 miles down from the Big Pine Creek hiker parking lot.

Killian said Wed that this was the first time he had ever had any of these sorts of problems with the cabin. Killian said he doesn't understand what went on inside his cabin, but his TV, VCR, closet full of guns and basket full of change were not disturbed.

"We had just celebrated our 20th anniversary (of owning the cabin) and we feel so bad that something like this happened," Killian said. Killian said he later gathered up the items in the cabin for safekeeping.

At 0830 Sunday, the Sherriff's dept reported that the windows of 16 vehicles were destroyed at the Big Pine Creek parking lot.

Kathy Huffman of Glacier Lodge in Big Pine Canyon said she got a call Sat night from a party looking for a campsite when they saw the windows busted out of cars. She said she went out there later the next morning to find the windshield of almost every car in the hiker parking lot destroyed.

At 1030 Tues, sherriff's personnel were called out on a different matter to the South Lake trailhead when officers were flagged down en route by two motorists reporting broken windshields to their cars. Officers located a total of eight cars with damaged windshields between Parcher's Resort, where overflow hiker parking is available, and the trailhead parking lot.

Greg Allen of Rainbow Pack Station near South Lake said he saw four damaged cars along the side of SR 168. He said some cars belonged to overnight hikers, but two cars belonged to summer cabin residents.

Allen said he wasn't sure if the two cars with flat tires in the South Lake parking lot were related. He did say one Volvo in the parking lot had its windshield and four other windows smashed. He wasn't aware of any related theft with the vandalism.

Gray said some "large instrument" was used to bust out windshields and side windows near South Lake and the hiker parking lot at Big Pine Creek was ravaged.

Gray also confirmed that the incidents were related but he said he didn't think the incidents were intentionally targeting hikers because some of the vehicles damaged near South Lake were on the side of the road and not necessarily belonging to hikers.

Speculation from mountaineering Web site forums is citing the recent controversial legislation to rename North Palisade as a possible motivation for the vandalism. Some are calling the Big Pine Creek hiker parking lot, the most popular route to approach the Palisades, as "ground zero" for the debate. The other reasonable approach to N Pal is from the South Lake trailhead.

Other speculation centers around opposition to new wilderness designation, one group doing damage to another group it perceives as doing something wrong. Some say it's the ghost of legendary Sierra mountaineer, Norman Clyde, "seeking revenge for changing the name of one of his most beloved mountains."

The public is encouraged to report any information about there, or any crimes to the Inyo County Sherriff's Dept at 878-0383 or 873-7887...

Wow! Thanks for the update.

It continues. Maybe...the same perps...maybe not. This morning the Bristlecone Pines visitor's center burnt to the ground.

Details are sketchy at this time, but it’s been confirmed that the Schulman Grove Visitors Center in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest was destroyed this morning by fire.

According to Interagency Dispatch, the blaze was reported about 8 a.m., approximately a half hour before the center is scheduled to open. No one was inside the building when the fire is thought to have broken out.

Firefighters and personnel with the Inyo County Sheriff’s Department were still on scene as of noon, awaiting the arrival of an investigator to determine the cause of the fire, which was contained to the building.

Though there is speculation about the nature of the blaze, it is still too soon to tell for certain whether any foul play was involved. That, according to Interagency Dispatch, will up to the investigator to determine.

More information will be forthcoming as it becomes available.

We're not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy.

well this thread certainly has taken on a new set of twists and turns - vandalism is vandalism - and regardless of who is responsible they should be caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the laws allowable.

I couldn't agree more. And it looks as if there is plenty of prosecuting to do!

I was at the summit bldg on Saturday. The staff had put a small note on the door re: the vandalism. About the only thing I noticed was some bits of broken glass. Didn't stay on the summit long as it was a very windy day.

Let's hope this wave of vandalism doesn't spread to other locations and trailheads in the eastern Sierra.

I just finished reading The Monkey Wrench Gang......maybe it's a new wave of eco-terrorism.....if it is, that sucks that it sounds like these hooligans were targeting innocent hikers parked in the lots. what a crappy way to finish a hike--come back to your car vandalized.

I am fairly confident these people will be caught if indeed these deeds were conducted by locals. I believe some of these are federal offenses, thus prison time will probably not be in the Owens Valley.

Sooner or later someone will talk (again if it is a local problem). Why take all that risk if you cannot get some "short lived" publicity.

I am starting to feel sorry for the poor souls. I suspect they are having some regrets right about now. They are very fortunate nobody has been hurt - yet.

My boss seemed to think that she heard about some arrests on the local news today. I'll listen in tomorrow morning and let you all know if I find anything out.

-L

I too was one of the unfortunates. 1. busted windshield,2. cut anti-lock brake hose, 3. WATER IN MY GAS TANK, 4. took my hide a key (only one I had) spent a lot of time just getting my vehicle out of the mountains and then out of Bishop. But it's not stopping me from going back this weekend.

I would hardly feel sorry for the 'poor souls' behind this - they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

I personally do not think this was locals. Too organized. Hell most locals are too broke to spend that amount of money on the gas it would have taken to do all that driving all over to hit all those cars and campsites anyhow. And a key element is missing: no empty Keystone Light cans scattered all over the scene (that's a very local inside joke).

On that note, if anyone sees five guys on some beat up looking "crotch rocket" type motorcycles zipping around, one with a missing front fender, they should let the sheriff know. They were seen heading up to the Bristlecone center minutes after it closed.

With the wilderness bills in the works, the controversy over the peak name change, etc., I think it's all connected and this type of crime wave is NOT the norm for this valley.

If a radical organization like ELF is behind it the FBI would be all over it in a heartbeat. Maybe they need to be prodded to come out there and snoop around if the local agencies aren't going to really try to put the pieces together.

I was told the CDF is trying to write off the Bristlecone center fire as being from the generator. I know some people are doing their own investigation because they're not buying what the San Berndardino CDF guy said....

It makes me sad to hear about this happening. In 30+ years of traveling the Sierra I've never heard of this kind of vandalism. If it turns out that the same folks are responsible for burning down the visitor center, that takes it to a whole new level. I usually sleep in my car the night before a hike. It's kind of scary to think I might be woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of my windows being smashed.

It's not going to keep me away, but I'd feel a lot more comfortable leaving the trailhead if I knew that law enforcement had a handle on who was behind this and why, maybe even had some suspects in custody.

Geez, I just became aware of these incidents after being away from a computer for a while. This is a shame and sad, and makes me very annoyed that people would go out of their way to do something like this. For all of you who were personally impacted by these people, I can feel your anger sitting here writing this.

we were just up White Mountain last fall - I mean this is not a five minute drive or hike from anywhere-there had to be a lot of hate (and stupidity) in anyone who would do this.

What is wrong with people: Something similar happened at another trailhead elsewhere where I was hiking over Labor Day weekend, where some punks stole all the food and water from this guy's truck at 3AM while he was sleeping. People in the tentground awoke to shots being fired after someone else got their provisions stolen and started chasing the vandals away on foot firing at him-before really awakening, we thought it was thunder at first, as it had been thundering before then.