National Park After Dark - Dirtbags of Dope Lake: Yosemite National Park

Episode Date: March 13, 2023

When treasure in the form of 6,000 pounds of high-grade Mexican marijuana fell from the California sky during a plane crash in the winter of 1976, lives were changed and lives were lost – and legend was carved into the soul of Yosemite National Park. For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code NPAD for $20 off your first purchase.Zocdoc: Use our link to download the Zocdoc app for free.Hello Fresh: Use our link and code npad60 for 60% off plus free shipping.For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Close your eyes. Listen to Monday.com. Feel the sensation of an AI work platform. So flexible and intuitive, it feels like it was built just for you. Now open your eyes, go to Monday.com. Start for free and finally, breathe. Girl, winter is so last season. And now Springs got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders. That perfect hang on the patio sundress. Those sandals you can wear all day and all night And you've had enough of shopping from your couch Done hoping it looks anything like the picture When you tear open that envelope It's time for a little in-person spring treat It's time for a trip to Ross

Work your magic There's something special about a good old-fashioned treasure hunt That never grows old No matter when the story took place Or who was involved Whether the tale involves cryptic clues Or happenstance findings The excitement remains the same.

From finding veins of gold in Alaska to buried loot in the desert, striking it rich in this way is a pipe dream, a fantasy. But sometimes, fantasy becomes reality and it changes everything. When treasure fell from the California sky in the winter of 1976, lives were changed and lives were lost, and legend was carved into the soul of the land. Welcome to National Park After Dark. Hold on. We're doing a treasure hunt episode.

Yeah, kind of. All right. I'm here for it. Did you not, did I not tell you? I kind of, forget. You told me, like, small things and nothing had anything to do with the treasure. All I know is that there's a plane. That's all the else. And it was carrying what some would consider a treasure. So, yeah. A drug plane. That's right. I am. I didn't really. I realize it was a treasure.

For me, that wouldn't be a treasure. But I get, I mean, maybe if I became a, I could be a drug dealer and make millions. So maybe. Maybe that's a treasure to me. Well, you'll see. You'll see how it became a treasure for a lot of people. And I almost said it's like a lighter-hearted episode, but I don't know if there's really, it is kind of sad in some ways. But it's definitely not as heavy as others.

There's some kind of fun moments in this one. Cool. Where are we going for it? Yosemite. Oh, yes. I love going to Yosemite. We've done a couple episodes here, but I just feel like Yosemite is just filled with so much. Did you see they just shut it down? No. Right now. Well, we're recording this in early March. They just shut it down until at least I think for the next 10 days or so because of the unprecedented amount of snowfall. They've had more snow there than they have in the last 50 years. I mean, honestly, it's pretty, California has been in such a drought. I feel like California. It's like, thank you.

We needed this, even though, like, it's crazy amounts of snow. Because I saw Tahoe has gotten, which isn't far from Yosemite, has gotten insane amounts of snow, too. Yeah, I don't know what's going on over there, but, I mean, it better be melted by the time we get there this summer. You know what? It might. I mean, usually things open, like, last week of May, like, beginning of June.

And I bet because there's so much snow that there will still be some closure or something when we're there. Well, fingers crossed. But we are going to Yosemite back in the 70s kind of during what a lot of people view as Yosemite's heyday. And I'm super excited. And of course it is a fucking plane crash. Like, of course. I mean, you're overdue.

You haven't done a plane crash in a while and they are your thing. I know. Okay. And I just also think this is really funny because the coincidence, because we just recorded Cassie's outsider only story for the month. And it also happened to do with drugs falling from the sky. Hint, hint, hint. We talk about the cocaine bear. Pablo Escobar, the cocaine bear.

So it's just funny because we didn't plan that. And here we are. We always seem to be on like a similar wavelength with things though, even though we don't plan it. Well, honestly, I was, I had this story in kind of like my manifest for a while. And when cocaine bear came out and everyone was talking about it, I'm like, wait a second, I have something like that, but slightly different. And so I felt like now was the appropriate time to do it. And then you're like, hey, guess what? I'm doing the cocaine fair. So anyway, all right, on to our story. On December 7th, 1976, 31 year old John Gilski made a call to his wife. He was away on a work trip and was

calling to catch up. After a brief discussion, he hung up and made sure to get a package home. Christmas was around the corner and he wanted to make sure that the T-Sat gift for his six-year-old daughter got to her on time. he went off to dinner. On his way, he ran into an old friend from the army, and they spent the night drinking whiskey over a big steak dinner, reminiscing back on their time and their service in Vietnam. John was a skilled and daring pilot, and the two of the guys got a really big kick out of reminiscing on all the antics and different shit that they pulled together while they were in the military. They laughed and drank all night, but underneath the jokes, John was a little bit worried. Earlier in that day, he had found a damaged oil fitting on the left engine of his Howard 500 twin engine plane.

But either through a lack of serious concern or a lack of time to really address it, he had not repaired it, but it was on his mind. He shook it off, enjoyed the rest of his dinner with his friend, and rested for the day to come. He had an early morning the next day. He and his colleague, John Nelson, the only other passenger that was going to be on his flight that day, took off from the airstrip in Nevada and headed south towards Mexico. They flew for hours until they were over the Baja Peninsula, and John touched down on a small dirt airstrip and the pair waited. They needed the bright, sunny weather to fold into darkness for what was to come next.

That night, a group of men emerged from the shadows to load John's plane with its cargo. They were hauling tightly packed bales, some of which were marked with the word Friol, meaning bean in Spanish. They worked quickly and efficiently until every last bail was secured. And just before daybreak on December 9th, John took off again, this time headed back north, bound for Carson City, Nevada. Flying was pretty smooth as the pair soared just off the coast of California. About halfway up the state nearing Santa Barbara, John cut the lights, took a sharp turn inland, and dropped quickly off the radar. Within minutes, his plane was amongst the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Range and at times was flying just 60 feet above the ground.

John was very bold. Again, he was a really skilled pilot. He had hundreds of flight missions under his belt and he was very confident in his abilities. He climbed over the mountain range and the ridgelines with the bright moon illuminating the way. It must have been quite the sight. But unfortunately, for these two, it would be their last. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more.

Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. later, on January 24th, Ron Likens was ready for a break. He and his co-worker had just finished up a really long stretch of busy holiday rush shifts at the Awani Hotel and were ready for some backcountry adventure. That winter, California was in a severe drought amongst the worst in the last century, which resulted in a lighter than usual snowfall for Yosemite National Park. And for Ron, this was great news because it meant that the backcountry was easier to access and he could go further

into it than ever before. Ron and his co-worker were amongst a young, wild crowd of seasonal employees drawn to the park for the opportunity that employment there provided. They weren't raking it in by any stretch of the imagination or living lavishly. On the contrary, waiters lived most of the year in large canvas tents. They were fitted with plank flooring, bunks, and heaters, and they got hot showers in a big communal bathroom, and they had meals in the mess hall. But what they gained was well worth the trade-off. They had access to the splendor of Yosemite Valley anytime they weren't working. And as we kind of mentioned, I think this is our, is this our fourth episode here? Third or fourth? It's like third or fourth. It's up there. So obviously we've talked at length about Yosemite,

so I'm not going to go super in depth to it. But if you are unfamiliar with this park, Yosemite is located in California, Sierra Nevada Mountains. Yosemite was established as a national park in Ocemany. October of 1890. It was America's third national park, and it encompasses nearly 1,200 square miles of some of the most pristine and beautiful landscapes in the country. There's giant sequoias and old-growth forests, water tumbling over some of North America's tallest waterfalls, and giant red paint brushes that bloom in the high elevation meadows of the park, and they're so beautiful, splashes them with all this crimson color. Millions of years ago, Yosemite was a vast ice field covered with glaciers and as time passed, the ice melted, the glaciers receded, and sculpted

the park as we see it today. Much of the underlying granite resisted the erosion and as a result, the large sheer faces such as Al Capitan and Halfdome were left standing. So a lot of the rock formations that we see in Yosemite today are because of the glacial ice. And although the park is now void of species that once roamed there in plenty, such as wolves and grizzlies, it is currently home to hundreds and hundreds of species of flora and fauna that millions of people travel to see each and every year. And while millions are drawn here for a variety of reasons, rafting or fishing them or said river, horseback riding or hiking, there's over 750 miles worth of trails in this park, which is amazing. Biking or driving Tiago Road, which wind to the park, or staying up

to see the sunsets and the moon rises to gaze at all the stars. People come here in a huge quantity to climb to Free Solo, Boulder, etc. We've all seen Free Solo. Yeah. Oh my God, my hands are sweating, just thinking about that movie. They spend their days in the sun with the tips of their fingers on precarious ledges and night suspended thousands of feet in the air, bivocing overnight. They view these giant rock monoliths as more than just something to be framed in a photo, but rather something to be experienced. And that experience is what brought hundreds of people, climbers lovingly referred to as dirt bags to the park in the 1960s and 70s to not only climb but to live because to them climbing was living. Ron and his friend, now on break from their shift at the hotel, loaded up into

his car and drove as far as they could pulling off the road and parking where the snowplows had given up near the Ostrander Lake Trail. Strapping on their snow shoes, they set out. It was really tough work. They were breaking trail for eight miles, even though there wasn't as much snowfall. It's still pretty hefty. At which point they lost the diamond blazes, marking the trail. So they pushed forward until the trees thinned out, and they came up into this, kind of onto this rim of this giant gentle slope, which led down to the lower Merced Pass Lake, which is a six-acre mountain lake, nestled below a boulder field, and hugged on three sides by trees.

Ron scanned the area attempting to get his bearings or some sort of indication of the direction they were going or supposed to go when he spotted something in the distance. It looked like a bridge suspended between the snow-dusted trees. But once the pair approached it, it clearly was no bridge and why would it be?

It was a plane wing. Odd, there was no other sign of any other wreckage or debris or indication that the rest of the plane was even nearby. At this point, the sun was setting and the pair decided to make camp where they were before continuing on to the next day.

And it's important to note they weren't at the shore of the lake. They could see it in the distance, but they weren't right next to the lake. Okay. The next morning they woke up and two of their friends met them, which they were supposed they were planning on. And they had followed their tracks out to where they were, met up. These two, that their friends were already tripping on acid and they were like, hey,

what's up? Having the time of my life in Yosemite. Yep. And so the four of them kind of congregated together and continued on their journey. away from the lake. Shortly after their excursion, one of them made their way back to the ranger station to report what they saw, a downed plane, or at least part of one. Ranger Tim Setnika, who led the so-called Danger Rangers, a group of trained search and rescue park rangers, pulled out a map and scanned it for the location that the man described. The waiter had also brought

another piece of crucial information, a number from off of the plane's wing. And while he was scanning this map, which was a map of previous known plane crashes within the park, Setnika contacted the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center to ask if there had been a missing plane reported and forwarded along the plane's wing number. So he doesn't see any indication on this map that he already has that there is a plane in that area. So it's new. That's ever been found. Yeah. Right. That's ever been located. So it's new to him. So he passes the information along and it kind of cues this big domino effect. Before the Park Service could even rally together a team of their own, the National Transportation Safety Board, the FAA, the DEA, and Customs were all set into action.

So they were able to identify whose plane it was? Kind of. You'll see. Okay. Because the DEA coming out for a plane crash is like, that raises some high-dress. Yeah. Cruise were assembled from the customs agency and sent into the valley on Vietnam-aged helicopters, and it wasn't long until the sounds of those choppers landing in El Cap Meadow before then taking off for the back country attracted the attention of literally everyone in the park. Can't imagine. They're like, what is going on right now? Hello? With a bird's eye view, it was clear that the plane created a path of destruction for about three quarters of a mile straight in the direction of the lake. The single wing that Ron had spotted

was hanging in the trees, but the debris trail went on from there until it stopped and disappeared in the lake. Long since frozen over and had snowfall on. The plane was entombed under the lake along with its passengers, presumably. Some of the sacks that the plane was carrying were half sticking out of the ice while others were kind of thrown about on the shore, with several of them ripped open exposing their contents. And there, in the middle of Lower Merced Pass Lake were thousands and thousands of. of pounds worth of Mexican red-haired marijuana, 6,000 pounds to be exact, and it's some of the best weed around at the time.

Wow. The people who walked by it and didn't notice it must have been kicking themselves later. They're like, we should have like got our bags full and then reported it. And that's what Ron does comment on that later. He's like, I literally was right there. It's like I should have seen it. Like, it was right there. As the crash was on park service land, Yosemite's Office of Law Enforcement, Courtsman

coordinated the investigation. Ranger Lee Shackleton took the lead and organized his team of Rangers and accompanying customs agents to fan out around the crash site. Because remember, customs are already on it. But because of logistically, who it's on federal land, so the Rangers kind of coordinated everything. But there was a lot of moving parts in this. And this team from different agencies started collecting bags and the loose marijuana as they went. Ranger set up. recalled how difficult this process was. The men had to use chainsaws to cut out the half-frozen bales while they collected sopping wet handfuls off of the shore. And after hours and hours of work, a total of 2,000 pounds were collected and cataloged by the DEA and flown out of the backcountry.

Wow. And they can't get to the plane yet because it's covered in ice. Correct. So they're doing this over days. I mean long hour days going through doing. And obviously it's, a plane crash so the area of wreckage is large it's not contained to one small area it's the six acre lake so they're fanning out they're spending a lot of time doing this there was five investigation agencies involved and it had been almost a week and they did all they could to comb through the surrounding area but there was a huge winter storm rolling in and they decided to call it bringing in heavy excavation equipment to complete the recovery at that time of year especially with the conditions expected to come, which is kind of out of the question. But the team wasn't just there to recover

marijuana. Although they didn't know how many people were under the ice, they knew that there had to have been at least one. So the park's lead diver, his name was Butch Farabee, was taken aback by the conditions and commented that it was actually one of the worst dives he had ever been on. They still did the dive with? Yeah. So they kind of cut out, before the storm rolled in, they cut out kind of like this area chunk of ice sent a diver down and there was no almost no visibility at all the water was super murky not only just as it is but there was all this hydraulic fuel in it and fluid in it and it was full of twisted pieces of metal and just it was a mess he's like i couldn't see anything it was dangerous it was just not worth it at that point in time yeah to go forward with body recovery so

they decided to postpone it until conditions got better, the ice melted a little more. Yeah. And the seasons changed. Such a shout out to rescue people because my first thought when you said it was under the ice would be, well, clearly whoever's under there is not alive anymore. This is a recovery mission. It's too dangerous. We'll wait for it to thaw out and be warmer conditions.

And it's like, no, we know there's people under there. We need to check it out. Send the diver down despite all of this stuff. And you said there's debris everywhere, you're swimming in fuel, and just to send someone down. And it's the middle of winter. Yeah, in the middle of winter. Like, if freezing cold water, dangerous, it's just, I think it's just a really good example of how dangerous it is for rescue people. Anyone on rescue teams to go out because they do go out into conditions like that, which is insane.

Yeah. And they risk their own lives. So this big hall about 2,000 pounds worth of marijuana was brought back to Yosemite's jailhouse to be cataloged and stored. It's like one for you. One for me. Do you think that someone like took a little nut? Yes. You know, it's like there's no way.

I just imagine it's like inventory time and it's like one for you. One for me. One for you. Like picking flowers off a daisy. He loves me. He loves me now. Yeah. So the bales were placed in an empty jail cell, and when they finally stack them up in the cell,

they reached halfway to the ceiling. Oh, my God. There was just so, you have to imagine just so much weed. The smell. And the other thing is the thawing, because they were soaked in snow, ice, obviously exposed the elements. So as soon as they get packaged set up in this jail cell, they start thawing. And all this like melt that it created was obviously snow and ice melt, but it was mixed in with all this weed. And it started running through the jail and seeping into the lower floor levels, causing the park service to have to find another alternative because it was dripping onto the offices of people right underneath that.

Oh, no. You're like, all right, let's get this out of here. So they ended up finding a big walk in freezer at a different facility to store it and they moved it out of the jailhouse. With the worsening winter conditions, Shackleton figured, hey, no one is going to approach this lake, let alone be able to reach it, especially through this waste deep snow now. It's already super far in the backcountry. The conditions are bad. It's obviously going to stay untouched until we pick this investigation back up in the spring. And spoiler alert that he was so fucking wrong.

I was going to say, but what? He was so wrong. Well, I guess if people get word that there's a shrewd that there's a shrewd. a ton of weed out in the middle of Yosemite, just hanging out there and it's the best weed in the world. It's going to trigger a gold rush for sure. People will be excited. Meanwhile, while this is all initially happening, Pam, who was John's wife, the pilot's wife, was really worried. She had a very ominous dream where her husband's lifeless body was hanging upside down in the cockpit of his plane. She was 28 years old with a young child and a missing husband.

Despite knowing her husband had been wanted by authorities for years now, she went to them pleading for help to find him. John was a talented drug runner. He had evaded capture for a very long time. But Pam gave whatever information she could to law enforcement. She's like putting all that aside, I will tell you whatever I know. Just please help me find him. But despite her cooperation, the DEA didn't give her any cooperation back initially.

Not willing to give up, though. She hired her own help. in the form of a chartered plane and a private pilot. They flew along John's route. She was there. Like she went along in the plane to all these places, which weren't always the safest out of the country and especially in his line of work.

She was landing at any airstrip they could spot along this route to inquire about John's whereabouts if anyone had any information. Weeks passed and with no information until Pam's phone rang with some bad news. She was informed that a plane had been found. But with little more information, she reached out to her family's lawyer and urged him to see if he could garner some new information or, you know, other than, okay, a plane was found. It may or may not be John's, may or may not have him involved. Like, it was just kind of too little for her to be okay with. So she reached out to their family lawyer because she needed to know if John was involved.

While Jeffrey Steinborn, the lawyer, didn't really like John that much. He had a really soft spot for Pam and he agreed. He ended up flying from Seattle to right outside of the park, rented a car and then went in kind of sniffing for information. He hung out at local bars and restaurants, kind of like his ear to the ground, trying to hear like the local gossip, see what the locals are saying about the crash because right now it's still a very, it's an ongoing investigation number one. and any authorities are going to be very tight-lipped, they're not going to just give up information. Hand out this information, especially because there's so much drugs involved. And it's still an open scene, technically, you know, unguarded at this point. Yeah, they've like left it there. They're like, no one will go out there. So he is just kind of doing some, like, I wouldn't say sleazy work, but he's just keeping his ears open. He's like, did you hear about all the weed that was found?

People are like, yeah, it's right over. over at the lake over there, like Merset and head on it. Head on up. So at this point, the crash is the talk of the town. Like everyone's talking about it because word is starting to leak out slowly. And he was eavesdropping on anyone he could to get the story. And the story did confirm Pam's worst fear. Rumors spread like crazy throughout the US to have any community because no one got on a megaphone

and said, yes, there's 6,000 pounds worth of red-haired Mexican marijuana out there. blah, blah, blah. Like, it's coming in piecemeal, all this information. And it's obviously kind of going through a game of telephone, which obviously warps the information. So number one, we already said the whirling of those helicopter blades going to and from the backcountry, because they're not loading 2,000 pounds up at once. Like there are multiple trips going back and forth, back and forth.

So people are like, what the fuck is going on out there? So that got everyone's attention. And it wasn't long until the story or different versions of the story. of the story got leaked. Everything from the plane was filled with Coke. It was owned and run by the mafia to it actually didn't exist at all and it wasn't a plane crash. Like there was literally all of these different versions of the story. All the theories coming out. But no matter, regardless of what it was, the possibility was way too tempting to the residents of Camp 4 to just merely pass up. So you can't talk about Yosemite's climbing community or really Yosemite at all without mentioning

Camp 4. And I'm really excited to start talking about them in this episode because there is more to their story. But we have never talked about Camp 4 in any of our episodes before. And this place has a really wild history. I'm excited. It's known as the birthplace of Rock Climbing's modern age. The space, which started as no more than just a rough collection of campsites, a cinder block bathroom, very rugged, rudimentary, has now become legend in the park. The walk-in campground served as a home starting in the 1950s and 60s to some of the world's greatest climbing pioneers. But back in the Great Depression era, people started moving into the valley and sleeping in and living out of their cars, literally catching their food, like fish out of the river, and sleeping

in their cars and living out of the park. And after World War II, the first dirt bags came to Yosemite, realizing that this was the jackpot, baby. They could live in one of the most stunning places on earth for free, hike and climb, and play and swim, without a need for money. They would dumpster dive for food in the hotel's dumpsters and slip into restaurants and scavenge food scraps left on discarded plates. They lived in tents with their only possessions fitting into a single backpack.

No one had material wealth, but they felt rich in ways that had nothing to do with money. What a life. Like, it just, it gives me goosebumps thinking about it. Just like kind of, it's like, what's that place? Living by the seat of your pants. That, but I think of, it's like, the island of the Lost Boys? Is that Peter Pan? I think so. So islands of the lost children, I thought. Yeah, something like that. I don't know. But it's basically just like a fun place to be.

A lawless place of where you just have fun and do whatever you want. Right, exactly. Adulting isn't a thing. It was not a thing here. Right. Camp four quickly became a makeshift headquarters for these dirtbags. During the 60s and 70s, America's climbing renaissance was in full. swing and Yosemite was its center. This was a time for a new generation of climbers, a younger, wilder generation that were going wild in the park. Nicknamed the stone masters, this group of climbers pushed the limits in almost every way. They were going harder, faster, taking bigger risks for greater reward than any other climber before them. So there's the dirt bags in general who are just living in the park and climbing, doing their thing, doing their thing. But the

Stone Masters were a part of the dirtbag community that were just like the it people. Kind of the people that you looked at like, oh my God. Not only are you super talented, you're doing some crazy shit. You know what I mean? The adrenaline junkies and the like extremists of the group. For the Stone Masters and Dirtbags of Yosemite, the park was their playground and camp for was their home. But the park service caught on to them living full time there and worked to push them out.

At the time in now we're in the 70s, there was a. seven-day camping limit rule and a rule that there should be no more than six people to a single site. But at the time, those regulations were nearly impossible to enforce and everyone kind of just laughed at that. They're like, yeah, okay. And even when Rangers did come and try and enforce those rules, the climbers were resourceful. They would move temporarily and take up shelter and rock outcroppings and caves within the park when necessary. They're like, all right, we'll just move for a little bit and come right on back. I think you're not getting rid of us that easy.

Camp four persisted. And in a time where not many route maps were kept, like climbing route maps, pioneering within the sport happened in Camp four when people would literally just sit down and talk to each other and draw hand-drawn maps and exchange routes and ideas and techniques. Even Yvonne Schenard, founder of Patagonia and Warren Harding, one of the very first to ascend El Cap, spent ample time here. And it's so significant like how I said we're just starting to talk about it because there's so much we could discuss about Camp 4. In 2003, Camp 4 was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Oh, very cool.

Like this isn't just like a, oh yeah, like this happened here. There's a lot of history and significance within the sport and the history of the park that happened in this camp. That's cool because I've never heard of this before. Oh, there's a whole documentary, which I will recommend obviously later as well. but it's called Valley Uprising. Oh, I've seen that. Okay, then you've heard of Camp Four.

Maybe, you know what? I feel like I watched it a really long time ago, and maybe I'm just, I, my movie retention is like minimal. Zero. Yeah, it's very, I know I've seen it because of the name. Well, Camp Four residents swell during the summer. Only the most committed climbers stayed year round. Winter and Yosemite can be brutal, especially if you're living out of a tent on the

valley floor with minimal possessions. I mean, it's shut down right now because there's so much snow. Right. The wreck was 16 miles from the middle of the valley, but the journey didn't raise much concern for the climbers. They were in peak physical condition with intimate knowledge of the back country, the perfect combination for looting, and the 32-mile round-trip trek. This is not easygoing. Word spread and the climbers head out. By mid-April, it was close. clear climbers had started trickling up the trail. Sleeping bags and clothes dotted the shoreline along with tools for breaking the ice like axes. There were holes chopped through the ice and campfires flickering along the shores.

They're trying to actually get to the plane. They're just trying to mine the weed, essentially, is what they're doing. Yeah, I was picturing, like, I guess I was picturing trying to find more of it in the crash path. But they're like, we're getting down to the... They're trying to get into the... Damn, that is like extreme, but I mean, I get it. Treasure hunt. That's right.

The ice was feet thick, up to three in some places, but that did not stop anyone. Clearly. Breaking through the ice to expose the frigid water below, they would fish into the depths using whatever debris left behind that they could find as a makeshift fishing pole and a hook. The water was frigid and also coated in jet fuel. Again, not a deterrent. Probing within the dark depths, they would poke around, blindly, and if they were lucky, they'd hit something solid and semi-boyant, kind of just suspended

in the lake. When it was fished out, it would usually take a few people to haul it completely out of the water because it was so dense and waterlogged. Burlap sacks wrapped in layers of plastic, but still completely soaked through with water and fuel. But sopping wet and drenched in fuel or not, it was still weed and it was still a jackpot. Imagine I've smoked some really bad we in my life, but never weed covered in jet fuel. That's a different experience to be. I just like I can already picture the burning. But the thing is, like, yeah, that part was bad, but the actual weed was some of the best

in the entire world. You just have to get through the, like, that is going to burn. That's going to smell. Well, it got a new, it got a name. So I'll tell you that in a sense. second. Okay. 100 to 200 pounds sopping wet, dense bales of weed were lugged 16 miles out of the backcountry with minimal to no equipment. They literally just divided it up, strapped it on their backs,

and hauled it out. Determination. Yeah. They would return to Camp 4 to load their halls into their tents or hide smaller secret stashes throughout camp. And when the coast was clear, the climbers would take out the weed to break it apart to let it dry out in the sun amongst the boulder surrounding Camp 4. And it's easy to romanticize like this entire story looking back like, oh, what a time. And it was so amazing. But like, it was really hard work. It's the middle of winter. In really bad conditions. And at the time, marijuana was a schedule one drug, meaning getting caught with any amount of it meant really bad news, let alone hundreds of pounds worth of it. I just found. I just found. found it out in the woods. It just like fell from the sky into my lap. This is weed? I thought I had no idea.

And of course that didn't stop the climbers of Camp Four and the surrounding residents of Yosemite. The weed got different nicknames, crash bud or airplane. And it gave off a particular odor. And it could be smell as strong as the pines around the valley. It had a little quirk also because it was laced with fuel sometimes. Laced with fuel. Sometimes, depending on, because some of it was soaked in it, some just had some, some, you know, it depended. It's kind of like Russian roulette. Yeah. Sometimes when someone would go to light up a joint, it would spark and crackle or like explode in their face.

That's hilarious. It's like, this is exploding weed. That'll be an extra $10. Right. If you run out of gas, just throw it in your gas tank. You're good. Yeah, just squeeze, bring some of it out. and you'll get some fuel.

So this was not for the feign of heart, feign of lung. I would have died. I am so... Like, we kind of just talked about this. We just recorded the other, the cocaine bear episode. And I mentioned that I had never done coke before.

And Cassie was like, taken aback. Like, for some reason, she's like, really? Yeah, no. No, I haven't. But even weed, like, I'm such a little baby when it cut, like, I mean, I put in my time, like, trying. But smoking is literally. not for me. My lungs can't handle it. I just have never gotten the swing of it. You know what I mean?

Yeah, I'm more of a gummy person. For sure. Smoking, smoking jet fuel has never been my kink, but maybe for other people. Live and let live, baby, so. No judgment. I mean, do what you want to do. Of course, people kept a good amount for themselves, but we're talking about thousands of pounds worth. So climbers started making ventures outside of the park to sell off some of their stash to make some cash, they usually had none of. So when they started coming back into the park with brand new gear, nice clothes, new cars, leaving massive tips at restaurants, buying meals, not scavenging in dumpsters. It's like, weren't you just in the trash can last week?

What's going on? And now you have a Lambo? Like, what is happening? People started perking up, especially some of them would drop like a couple grand at the bar in a single night. Like between themselves and friends, literally buy everyone's drinks in the entire bar. people in Yosemite, the Yosemite community, were really catching on. Don't be suspicious.

Don't be suspicious. They had no idea how to just like fly into the radar. Yeah. Clearly, they're like, let me drop these loads of cash. Let me buy out the bar, actually. By Easter weekend, it was apparent word had spread far and wide about the plane and its precious cargo. People from surrounding areas like San Jose and Fresno came port. pouring into the park, hoping to be in time to strike it rich in the Yosemite gold rush.

Ron, like I said, was kicking himself, the first guy to spot it and just literally walked my ride. He did the right thing. He can sleep at night knowing he did the right thing by alerting authorities. Well, he still wanted his shot. So one day after work, he grabbed his own gear, a backpack, a sleeping bag, and some plastic bags, a little ice axe, and made the journey back up to the lake. He, along with many, many others, at this point, kind of like the height of this gold rush,

30 or more people were out on the lake at a time, chopping and sawing and working away and just trying to get their slice, essentially. And it wasn't just camp four members anymore. Like I said, word had spread because they're going off and selling it to people and people are like, where are you getting this? like it's just they didn't lay low. They fucked up. Okay?

It didn't lay low. Everyone knew. And so word had spread far and wide to the ears of all kinds of kinds, including some not so pleasant or kind people. Altercations, both verbal and sometimes physical were starting to break out. And the whole happy go lucky vibe that was initially kind of the vibe when people first started getting there. Like, oh my God, look at this.

It's so fun. Like that started to go away. started become really tense. While people who kind of jumped on the opportunity early did get the jump on Rangers, it didn't last long because Rangers ain't dumb. Road crews began noticing an unusually heavy amount of traffic near the Mono Lake Trail, which is a lake trail close to where the crash was. There was also an odd report from one of the commercial divers who assisted the Rangers in that initial February excavation of the lake. He owned a dive shop in nearby Fresno, and he had experienced a sudden spike in equipment rentals from climbers. He's like, I'm making a lot of money right now,

and I'm very confused. Like all of a sudden, people who had no interest in diving are all of a sudden renting all of my equipment in the middle of winter. What the hell is going on? So he tipped off the ranger. He's like, hey, like, just so you know. Someone's doing something. They know. Okay. They know. So at this point, Settnika was like, all right, we got to step in. So on April 13th, which would later become known as Big Wednesday, the DEA, customs and FBI now fully aware that their crime scene had become a gold rush, gave the park service helicopters. Rangers armed with shotguns boarded a helicopter and made their way to the lake.

Looking down, they couldn't believe what they saw. People had set up literal base camps complete with tents, tar, fire pits, makeshift housing, all around the perimeter of the lake, while the entirety of the frozen surface was just pockmarked with all of these holes from people trying to get to the weed. Everyone scattered like ants, recall Setnika, who was also later quoted saying, we underestimated the entrepreneurial spirit of certain members of our community. That's a great quote. It's such a good way to put it. Like, so nice, you know.

It's very nice. yes, they're doing something illegal, but also I feel like that quote kind of reflects maybe some shortcomings of law enforcement. Like maybe we shouldn't have just like left thousands of pounds worth of weed unguarded. Unattended. You know what I mean? It's kind of like, yeah, you got us. Like, you know, but also don't do that. Maybe we asked for this. It's not your fault. It's ours. But the park service was a little embarrassed at this point, and they immediately posted rangers along the trails leading from the lake in hopes of catching some stray runners. Because everyone's like, get out of here. Like, you know, like there's people, Rangers, armed rangers and helicopters, like they're running and scattering.

After the lake was cleared, the park service posted two armed rangers with prior military experience to guard the lake 24-7. They set up a camp and lived in a tent and rigged to the perimeter with trees. tripwire. Like this is like now a full blown operation. During their 17 day stay, that pair rangers caught six different parties attempting to gain access to the lake. Upon interrogation, it was discovered most were not climbers at all. They were outsiders who had heard through the grapevine. There was a potential to get rich there. So this is just like an uncontrolled. Like you can't post on social media, you know, or like whatever. Like hey, it's up. Like the gig is up. Don't come here. Like they had to wait it out until word finally spread around again. Yeah, because they're not going to be like, don't come to this

exact location where there's a lot of weed that you could steal. It's like we're not going to advertise that we're here, but you're going to figure it out soon. Word was out in full force, meaning a longer stay for the Rangers because they're like, shit. We can't just go to Camp Four or people within Yosemite and let them know we have a presence there now. They had to wait until people in surrounding cities and towns figured it out too. So they ended up posting rangers at the lake for two months. They rotated shifts by the lake, maintaining a 24-hour presence to keep things secure. And for all two months, they encountered hopeful, albeit late, arrivals to the party. The rangers were a bit taken aback by their determination and also some of their lack of preparedness. Many groups were severely underprepared for the spring weather when they were interrupted and intercepted by the rangers. and one group was even lost in the back country for over a week before they happened to stumble into a nearby

trail crew because they were, they had no knowledge of the area, they were underprepared, they were in trouble. So now it's like a safety concern because people who have no experience and no business really being that far out in the back country, they have no idea what they're doing. So now they're concerned for like the safety of people too. During the initial siege of the lake, only one person, his name was Vern Clevenger, was captured on the trail. hauling at least 60 pounds of weed on his back was formally arrested. So he was the only person to be formally arrested. It's a lot of weed. It's very ambitious. It is a lot. But no more than other people were taking. No one's going up there and being like, I will take one pound, please. Like, they're taking anything they can carry. Yeah. According to the law, he was facing some serious jail time,

because remember, this is the peak of the war on drugs era. But luckily for him, the judge and rangers involved didn't really want to see this young man mess up his life and the case was dismissed. Wow, that's very nice. The formal reason, because you can't just be like, oh yeah, whatever, get out of here. Get out of here. You didn't mean it. Yeah. There had to be a formal reason. And so they pinned it on a processing violation, like lack of reading him his Miranda rights. So the case was dismissed. So in other words, no one was ever convicted for their involvement in this raid on the lake. What a good story to have. Like, I did this, but I never got caught or convicted or anything. Yeah. And some people changed their lives. Some of the teams returned from the lake with 200 pounds of marijuana, which fetched almost $50,000 on the market.

Within the first week, $500,000 of weed was hauled out of the lake. While the vast majority of the money was spent very quickly, some of the climbers didn't blow all of their cash and used it as an investment, either in their sport or into their future. Many people paid off any debts they had or paid for college tuition, while other used their money to fund their passions, using the money to fund international climbing expeditions, buying new photography equipment, or newer and safer climbing gear. While all of this was unfolding, an investigation was underway. The plane was traced back to a shell company called Red River Ranch Incorporated. And again, it was a shell company, meaning there's no actual company behind the name, so law enforcement resorted to going after, one of the only people they could actually find with links to this plane. And that was the man that sold the plane to this shell company. And they charged him with drug charges. Because they're like, we can't find anybody else with solid links to this.

Like someone has to be involved. So they went after him. But it was becoming clear that this was a much larger operation than just the pilot and his co-worker acting on their own. One day, the dispatch office got an anonymous call that the pilot's wallet was located in the phone booth at Camp 4. Rangers were sent to investigate the claim and sure enough, the wallet was there. Any money that was inside it was long gone, but the ID and other personal effects were still inside. No one can confirm for sure who retrieved this wallet and how it wound up

there, but they had an idea in the form of John Yabo Iblinsky. Up until this point, everyone largely agrees on the details of the story. But this is kind of kind of the point where some people disagree on specifics of order of events, just for this little part, just as a disclaimer. And we're going back to before the ranger secured the lake. And Yabo and fellow climber Jack Dorn were at the lake when Yabo decided to cut a hole into the ice and dive in. No dive gear, no wetsuit, just dive in. And he was aiming for the cockpit and he made it.

He went into the cockpit and came up with a box. The box contained cocaine. and an address book. There is some disagreement between who actually dove down between Jack and Yabo, but between the two men, the kind of resounding opinion is that it was Yabo because he had an incredible amount of physical ability. And he had this like wild risk-taking attitude comparatively to Jacks. They're like, if it was going to be anyone, it would have been him.

Like, we think it's this one. And there's also, just to mention, a discrepancy between the Coke and the address book and the wallet and stuff being in a box. in one of the pilot's jackets. But either way, what's not up for debate was Jack's interest in the address book. So if we're going with the story that Yaba went down and grabbed it and the Coke and whatever money was there and whatever was kind of handed out, Jack was really interested in the address book. The book contained pages of dates, people's names, and amounts of money. It was essentially a detailed ledger. And wanting to know more, Jack called some of the numbers within the book, which turned out to be

some pretty high up Washington, D.C. contacts. So this is getting deep. It's going, it's getting complicated and deep and risky. Like, Mr. President, is that you? I found your weed. So this was starting to get really deep and knowing what potential important and valuable information that he now possessed in the form of this address book, he essentially blackmailed some people saying that if they didn't pay up, he would release all of the information within the book. This is essentially just a record of different drug deals. And if there are people in Washington in positions of power that can be linked to this drug plane, bad news bears. Bad news, lots of money bears.

So he's like, well, if you don't want the info put on blast, then cough it up. That's how you get murdered. Well, funny, you should say that. Oh, shit, really? This tactic didn't last long. As within days, officials in suits, they called them the suits, came to park headquarters and were asking around about these calls. and the book and people involved with the book and the whole shebang. So with big concern that these suits were either, it didn't really matter who they were,

if it was the DEA, the mafia, whoever hit men, like, whoever it was, the cartel. They were scary. They were scary. And Jack all of a sudden kind of like had no shit moment, allegedly ripped up the book and discarded it into a snowbank. Smart. Burned it or stashed it somewhere within Camp 4. Those details are also a little murky.

but he basically got rid of it. Jack worked part-time with search and rescue and was friends with some of the rangers and confided in them regarding his worries. He was like, I have made a mistake. S-O-S. And they immediately told him that the book served as crucial evidence for an ongoing investigation,

and they had him lead them to the exact place where it was dumped, and whatever was left of it was kind of pieced together and brought in as part of the investigation. Soon after, on May 20, 22nd, 1977, two climbers on Yosemite Point Butrus were in need of a rescue. It was a rainy morning when the search and rescue team, including Jack, was assembled to retrieve the two men. They trekked up Yosemite Falls Trail, which is one of the most popular tourist

trails in the entire park. It's a series of switchbacks leading up almost 3,000 feet to the top of the falls. And as the team stopped to assemble their rescue, they noted that Jack was not there. He was gone. Confused, some of the members looked around the trail for him. Like, where did he go? When they noted there was an area of disturbed rock alongside of the unprotected edge of the trail, accompanied with two scuff marks in the dirt. With him still nowhere in sight, now a second rescue mission was launched, this time for a search and rescue member, Jack. A couple hours later, Jack was found.

He was deceased at the base of the mountain under where the mark in the trail was noted. And the question immediately was presented in the minds of everyone. How did such a skilled climber fall from one of the widest, well-traveled trails in the whole park? Like, this is one of the most, one of the climbers that was pioneering the sport, taking risks and doing crazy things. He was obviously skilled enough to be on the Saur team, and he just fell off of like a trail literally like a six-year-old does. You know what I mean? People were like, it didn't make sense. People were like, what is this?

So immediately, rumors started swirling that he was intentionally pushed off because, of his knowledge of the contents of the book. And there were no witnesses to Jack's fall, which kind of added fuel to the fire, like to the conspiracy buyer. And for a time, Rangers were treating his death as a potential homicide. So they were going around questioning people, which also probably added some fuel to the fire and the rumors as well. Rumors and conspiracy theories ignited and soon talk of a potential government or cartel or mafia involvement in Jack's death were literally everywhere. But that is as far as they got, they were just rumors. And Alex Honnold actually put it best. He says of Jack's death, nobody wants to be boring. Everybody wants there to be a reason or a story or something legendary

when it comes to what happened to their friend. Nobody wants to be boring. But sadly, the boring answer is usually the more realistic one. Nobody wants to hear that the mundane killed their friend. So there is no evidence of a government cover up a conspiracy or like anything to do with that. That's because they cover their tracks. Yeah, I guess so. The government's not going to be like, yeah, we murdered him. He knew too much. Right.

Yeah. And like it was a rainy morning. The trail was slick. There are parts in it that have like a lot of granite on it and either from the rain or even kind of missed from the falls itself. It can get really slippery and where he did fall was kind of like a sharp switchback area. So if he just lost his footing or what. But just like the whole coincidence that he had that knowledge, it really fueled a lot. People just didn't want to accept that he just fell.

Werner Braun, who worked for the search and rescue in the park for decades and was revered as a pioneering climber himself in the valley, was actually the last person to spend the night with Jack. So he was with him the night before his death. And he has a view on what happened. He said that he and Jack had spent the previous night on a bender. They were drinking all night. And when they were both woken up to participate in the search and rescue operation,

he, Werner went stumbling around, looking for his gear, going into his tent, trying to find it. And he ended up passing out and missed the whole search and rescue, like, launch. But Jack got his shit together enough to go. So Werner thinks that Jack shouldn't have. been on that operation at all that morning. He was groggy and in an alcohol-induced stupor. And he says, quote, shit happens. As you know, in the business of outdoors, and it's far more dangerous than it ever seems. There is danger in every step. So he thinks that he was just, either whether he was still intoxicated slightly or really hung over and just like not in the right condition to be on a rescue

mission. And that's kind of contributed to an accident happening. That's his view on it. So he was impaired. He's extremely talented, but he thinks he was impaired. And that's what happened. Yeah, because it was also very early morning. It was before dawn. And I think we've all been there when you wake. You literally.

You wake up and you're still drunk. And you're still drunk. You're like, oh, my God. For me, at least, I'm like, wow, I've escaped. I'm not hung over. Same. I'm like, wow, I'm not hung over. And then an hour later, I would like start to die.

Like, throwing out. Yeah. It's like, oh, here it is. It's like, oh, actually, I was just still drunk. when I walk up. So yeah, so maybe it had something to do with that. Anyways, back to the main part of the story. What can seem like a happy story of money that literally fell from the sky during one of

Yosemite's most fondly remembered chapters, there is a darker side to it. And I listened to actually, this is a shout out recommendation for climbers or people who are even interested in this story. Alex Honnold has a podcast. It's called Climbing Gold. and they did a multi-part series. I think it was four or five episodes on this story itself. Oh, very cool.

And they have interviews with Rangers, with people who are there. That's awesome. That's really interesting. Yeah, it's a really, really cool series. In his podcast, they do explain that while they did have a ton of climbers and Rangers and people who are willing to come on and speak to them, some people didn't want to at all because they didn't remember it too fondly. Because this whole thing wasn't a victimless occurrence.

I mean, John Glinski and John Nelson lost their lives. Pam lost a husband and obviously John's daughter lost a father. One climber who bought a car with his money that he got from the plane crash, he ended up totaling it and killing his girlfriend. Another couple got caught up in the drug trade and were later murdered. Many of the climbers who struck it rich flew a little too close to the sun. But for others, the money was life-changing in a positive way. Like I kind of mentioned before, they did really positive things with their earnings.

They bought homes and campers, could afford climbing trips around the world. Some lived off of their money for years, investing in real estate, which brought them money in for the rest of their lives. And others didn't change their day-to-day life literally at all, but it allowed them to continue their passion for climbing full-time. Like they had an endless supply of money. They didn't have to ever worry about getting a job. It wasn't until June, a full six months after the plane initially crashed into the lake when the final official salvage operation began. When the salvage company began pulling the fuselage out of the water and divers were sent down to recover the bodies, one floated to the surface, and it was Nelson. John Gilski's body, however, was discovered later, still strapped into his seat upside down inside the cockpit, just like his wife had dreamt.

Fingers were removed with shears from the bodies and placed in formaldehyde preservative to be sent to the FBI lab to obtain fingerprints. And while they had an idea of who these people were, they obviously had to confirm it. Word came back pretty quickly with confirmation as far as their identity because both the men served in Vietnam. So their fingerprints were on record and their identities were finally officially confirmed. After the salvage operation was complete and the bodies were recovered, Pam actually chose to not personally go and identify her husband. her mom had advised her not to suggesting it may be too traumatic of an experience and while pam may have agreed with that reasoning she also was keeping a small sliver of hope alive no matter how outlandish it seemed she said quote when you love someone like that you aren't thinking in any kind of practical

way i had people we knew people who knew john telling me he was still alive and living in cancun and that's what I chose to believe, which just rips my heart out. That's, yeah, that's so sad. Three decades later, an old high school friend of Pam's was researching the crash for an upcoming book. He had come across a photo taken during the salvage, evidently, one with John's body in it, and he offered to show it to her for closure, this is now 30 years later, and she accepted. She broke down for obvious reasons, but also for another. Pam believed the cause of the plane crash had never really been.

been adequately investigated. Her feelings were that it was quickly just deemed an accident without thorough investigation due to the nature of what the plane was carrying. And remember John's initial kind of concern about that oil fitting, it could have just been a total random fluke, but like he was wrapped up with a lot of shady people and she had feelings that maybe someone had a hit out on him and knew that by tampering with his plane that it would ultimately result in a crash and kill him. So there was just a lot of feelings regarding that. And she just feels like there wasn't a lot of follow-up on the government's end because it was a

drug plane. Like if it was like a commercial airline, it would have been a different story. But they just didn't care as much. For a brief moment, I thought you were going to say that she looked at the photo and it wasn't him. No. For like a brief second. And then you're like, it's him. And I was like, yeah. Sorry. But her sorrow was. kind of followed with some chuckles. After her friend informed her of everything that happened following the crash, she couldn't hold back a smile saying it was her husband's kind of scene. She said, quote, the climbers got a chance to push the limits of their sport,

and John would have loved that. And that is the story of dope lake, the Yosemite. Doak. Wow, that's such an interesting story. I had never heard that before ever. It's a really, it is a cool one, obviously. there's like a lot of parts to it. As with everything, there's good and bad, happy and sad. But it is kind of just a legendary story within inside of the park within Yosemite. And like I said,

if you want to know more, it's obviously not, it's like kind of like a blip within the documentary, but Valley Uprising does discuss it a bit. And again, climbing gold, that Alex Honnold podcast, has the four-part series on the event. And I think I saw this like, I don't know, when I was a kid, I would have to really think hard on the details. But this story did inspire the premise for the Sylvester Stallone movie Cliffhanger. It came out in the early 90s, like 93 or 94. Yeah. Wow, that's interesting.

Yeah. So. But anyway, yeah, so I hope everyone enjoyed it. And next time you light up a joint, think of. Yes. Hope it's not laced with fuel. Yeah. But anyway, so yeah, that's that.

Well, thank you. That was an interesting one. Like you said, it was a combination of sad. And then also it was like funny and entertaining in its own way as well. So it was, you told it very well. Thank you. And also the other fun fact about this is like all these climbers and most of the people that were going up to get the weed were like late teens, early 20s. They're like kids going up there.

They knew what's up. They're like, I'm going to secure my future. or I'm going to have a lot of fun for like six months. And I think that really speaks to like, because we all know kids who are like, as soon as you get money, it burns a hole in your pocket. I mean, I was like that growing up like. Same. I got paid under the table at my first job.

So I would literally get like handed envelopes of cash. And I'm like, this has got to go. I can't hold on to this. Like I can easily spend this for sure. Yeah. And then there's other kids that are like, have you opened a savings account yet? I'm like, I am 19. No, I have not. Why would I ever need a savings account? So it really does. You know, obviously it speaks to the wide array of like how people handle money. And yeah, there are some climbers that went on to do international expeditions in like the Alps or out into Alaska. And they went on to like break records and set records, some of which have never been accomplished again with the money. So it really changed people's lives. Yeah, with the money that they.

got from this crash. Like, how are you affording this? Like, oh, um, we don't ask questions. I'm a justifarian, like, it's fine. Yeah. So anyway, if you want to look up more, there's a bunch of cool pictures, too, of like some people up at the lake, like actively taking out the weed and stuff. Yeah. So, yeah. All right. Well, that's it for us. Let's get out of here. All right. We'll see you all next time. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch your back. Bye, everyone. Bye. Thank you so much for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale or story suggestion, send us an email at Stories at npadpodcast.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast.

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