236 - Dope Lake
00:00When you're staying at an Airbnb you might be like me wondering could myplace be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? You could be sitting onan Airbnb and not even know it. That in-law sweet guest house where yourparents stay only part-time Airbnb it and make some money the rest of the yearwhether you could use a little extra money to cover some bills or forsomething a little more fun. Your home might be worth more than you think. Findout how much at airbnb.ca slash host.You're listening. Hey. Who does what part? I do this part. Okay. It's not funny. Okay.
00:45This is a professional operation. I'm ready. You're listening to the dollar.This is a bi-weekly American History podcast. Each week I Dave Anthony reada story from American history to my douchebag.Friend Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be about. Isn'tit great that you had no choice but to pick that up? Hey man I think I pickedit up great. Whatever. You accepted what you are. I yes and it strongly. Someonethe last people call me yes Anderson. Someone the last podcast is like man youguys are fighting a lot. Oh I saw something. What are you talking about. Yeah. Yeah. I
01:29mean I think like if we have beef in a hypothetical land of history and I don'tthink either one of us are like like that we hit stop and it's like hey dudeyou're pretty rude about that sheriff. Kind of. I was rude about the sheriff. Dude comeon now that guy was trying to clean up that town asshole. Yeah I know he was.That's what are you talking about. Get the fuck out of here. Get out of this house.I'll fucking see you next week. And I'm not gonna read the date. Oh my god. Thatsheriff was trying to clean up the town. Do you want to look who to do. I'll do onebottle. People say this is funny. Not Gary Gareth. Dave okay. Someone or something is
02:09tickling people. Is it for fun. And this is not gonna come to tickling podcast. Okay.You are queen fakie of made up town. All hell queen shit of Liesville. A bunch ofreligious virgins go to mingle. And do what? Fray. Hi Gary. No. Is he done my friend. No.August 31st 1948. Okay. John Gilski was born in Seattle. A friend from high school describedhim as an adrenaline junkie. He loved motorcycles, cars, airplanes, boats, anything that wouldgo fast. Hell yeah. Like you bro. Yeah. Fast is good. He was a risk taker. When he was16, he went to Long Beach riding motorcycles without telling his parents. Okay. So that'sthat's for 16. Oh, that's some fucking business. Yeah, that's good stuff. Yeah. John ended
03:07up as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam. Okay. And upon getting out of the war, he went towork flying planes. Okay. Nothing to see here folks as a drug runner. Okay, something tosee here gang. Okay. Okay. Yeah. So you made the smooth transition, smooth transition adrenalinepilot to like to fly, you know, cocaine drugs. It's marijuana. Oh, okay. I thought you saidit was a drug. This, this is the 70s, man. It was that is a class one. Yeah. It's like,you know, serious fucking by the way, class one's a great strain out now. That is, theyprobably have that. Anything they can rub in the face of government. You want to tryor do you want some internet anarchist cookbook? Try the screw screw Obama's real good strain
03:59purple.So on December 8 1976, Gilski was in Las Vegas between drug runs. Okay. With too muchtime on his hands, he'd get caught up in his thoughts. He called his wife Pam. Okay.From the hotel. She just had surgery on her feet. From the hotel and he told her he thoughtsomeone was trying to kill him. Okay.He and I can't get there my feet. I know I can help you. But again, I just had havinga wobbly. I'm having my I had my foot surgery. Yeah, you know my I could walk on my handsto a bus. So he had found a damaged oil fitting on the left engine of his plane and he did
04:45not believe it was some normal wear and tear. Okay. So so he expects some shenanigans. Yeah,he's like something's wrong here that, you know, he's I would trust a pilot on that one.Yeah, I would see a. Okay, so he's on edge. All right. Now the DA had been after John foryears now. He was like some kind of phantom in their surveillance reports. They thoughtthey'd have him one minute when they would see his plane from their planes and thenhe would just vanish and be gone and they couldn't forget where he went. The white whale. He isthe white whale. Did I mention he weighs 480 pounds? Oh my god. No, he doesn't. Oh, okay.He's we're going down. What do you think it is? Throw those potato chips out back. We
05:29have too much weight. John, it might be you. All right, gentlemen, you're gonna have to jumpout of here. No. All right, well, we got to lose weight somehow. You jump. What the hell areyou talking about? I'm the pilot. We're going down. After he hung up, he mailed Pam a package.They had a six year old daughter. Okay. Inside was a gift for her that night. He went to asteakhouse and he bumped into an old army buddy. Okay. Like that's what happens in Vegas. Yep. Theystayed together drinking late into the evening, drinking expensive scotch, talking about theirold war days. They had flown together. Okay. Back in the day had a few close ones. Sure. I'mtalking about a couple close calls. John had a good time, but he was still disturbed by what he
06:15had found earlier. All right. Next morning, John is flying partner. Jeff Nelson went to McCarranAirport and got into their twin engine Howard 500. Now he was up getting hammered all night. Yeah,this sounds like he partied till late in the evening and then and then went and got into anairplane. This is what this is what you all I this is a thing though. The pilots do this orthis is the thing that's bad. The thing that pilots do. I know there's a lot of drinkingand they don't pay pilots enough. I saw that I am pro pilot. Okay. No, I don't think nobody'staken this stand. Okay. All right. That's yeah. No, you're totally this is your cause. Thank you.I've seen the Denzel Washington movie and that's all you needed. That's documentary. I think that
06:58that's what may as well be a documentary. That's basically in my mind what all pilots are. That'sbingo. So again, in the plane, the plane carried 1500 gallons of aviation fuel for long hauls couldgo very very high speeds. They took off and they headed for Mexico. Okay. Crossed the border andlanded on an airstrip in Baja, California. Okay. That evening when it was dark, a crew loaded hisplane with 6000 pounds of Mexican red hair marijuana. Wow. Now this is 70s. So this is this is somegood pot. It's a good amount. Solid amount. Solid amount. Yeah. 6000 pounds. It's more than I'veever purchased at once. Well, it is at once. Yeah, cumulative. Cume. So he's he was flying for anAmerican drug syndicate known as a mota magic. Okay, sure. It's a cool name. Yeah, drug syndicate. Yeah,
07:57that's great. They're Washington based, right? So they're in Washington. And so this is premium,very potent weed. Okay. The weed was tightly packed in 40 pound burlap bales. Some of the baleswere marked free hole. Free hole beans, Spanish for beans. Battle throw them off. Yeah. Well,we've looked at all the crates and they say beans. So our work here is done. It smells veryskunky and none of you guys you guys get sprayed by a skunk or something. It's awful skunky skunk beans.What is that? Well, no, they look, these are just regular beans. These are pinto. So it just saysbeans just says beans. Looks like some weed in there, but says beans. All right, gentlemen. Goodto chat. Have a good day. Thanks. So they took off before dawn on December 9th and crossed back
08:50into US airspace where they flew just off the coast of California. Halfway to the nerves. Likewhenever I watched locked up abroad, yeah, like I you I feel the anxiety of the human like it'sit's a hard show to watch sometimes, especially because you know they're getting caught. But theanxiety level of a human mind when you are breaking the law always so extensively alwaysfucking freaked out. Yeah, always freaked out. But this guy wasn't this guy like ice in his veins,I think because he was in nom. Okay, sure. He had those nom ice fans. I guess that's a thing. He'slike the the Iceman from a couple of podcasts ago like the Iceman. Right. So halfway at the state,I turned off his running lights and turned very sharply inland and flew so low that he dropped
09:45off the radar. Okay, right. So it's below like, that's real low, right? Yeah, a thousand feet,pretty close to me. He flew across California Central Valley and was at the Sierra Nevadamountain range in minutes. So wait, so he he is flying low with no lights on right at night. Yeah.Okay, it near mountains. Yeah, what's so he has to go there's a there's a minor mountain range.And then you get into the valley. And then you hit the you hit the serious which are seriousmountains. Right. So I think they should be called the Sierra mountains. Yeah. Well,that's what they always I have a petition online for that. Yeah, no, it's a terrible name. Sothey stopped calling it that right. They are thinking about calling them Doug. Right. But I
10:30love it. Yeah. It's just easier. Yeah. The dogs. So he's flying up the mountains, right, veryclose to the ground. And then they crossed over into Yosemite National Park. And they did notmake it to their destination. So I hope you enjoy that story. I'm not sure. Is this an episodicone? So Pam had a dream that night that John's body was hanging upside down in thebody in the harness. Wait, okay, what was her dream that he his body is hanging upside down inthe cockpit of his plane, which is not like crashed plane, sure, and that he's hanging in theharness, still alive. Okay. So like, so she sees him upside down in a plane. If you've seen thefirst episode of Lost, right, I think it's like that situation. Yeah, playing in a tree. What's
11:30great about that show is the title was actually about the wrap up of the show and how the audiencefelt. Well, Anderson just got mad at you. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. When he did not check in that night,Pam went. So she gets up the next morning goes to the DA and tells them everything about thedream. No, about the Oh, everything. She tells them everything. Oh, geez, put the feelers outfirst before you blow the man up. Well, he would have if he got if he if if he got there, she'dknow if you disappear in a plane, you're down. Right. But you go, hey, he's given, you know,he was just talking about living this fantasy of transporting beans. He always said the beans,the be he always said the beans means a lot to me. He says I'm the bean man. I make the beans
12:20go please. I'm the bean man. I get the beans where they need to go. Who gets the beans wherethey need to go? The bean man. So anyway, the bean man's missing. At least give him like thebuffer. No, it wasn't beans at all. It was weed. Tell us the truth, lady. It was. Okay, he's the he'sthe free holy ombre free only for his fear for holy fiestas. Oh, that was terrible. Wow. So, Pam,Pam thought that she just felt like he was still alive. And she just wanted them to look for him,even if they were going to catch him and write him in jail for a while. A long while. Yeah. So,the listen to her and then said absolutely nothing to her and told her to leave. So,she chartered a plane and went to search for John herself. Okay. They flew low over his route and
13:16landed at every airstrip that was on the way. And at the airstrips, she would go and talk to theshadiest character she could find. Whoa. She's like, what? Because like, because it's a drug thing. So,she's going up to just the, but she's finds the creepiest guy. But isn't that isn't that a tacticif like he landed and you don't know where he is? Yeah, but she doesn't know she's trying to findout going on a premonition kind of right. No, she knows that he flew this route. So,she's thinking maybe he she I guess her dream is that he stopped and something happened and hegot you cannot let the character know why you approach. Sir, you look super shady. I'm prettyshady. Yeah. Oh, sorry. Actually, this gentleman over here is extremely shady. No, no, no, no. Get
14:05out of there. I saw cocaine and heroin and I've killed four people. This man has blood on him andan apron. I'm sorry. I have to put a pin in this. Can I help you up and butcher in humans? Hey,how's it going? So, my husband is he was so sorry. I'm gonna have to put a pin in this. Thisgentleman over here is super shady. What are you talking about? This guy was a dent in his headand is smoking a cigarette through his nose while eating spaghetti. Sir, my husband is missing.Have you seen him? Tell me have you seen him? Okay, good talk. Come on, guys, fuel her up. Wegot to move. I mean, that was some yes handing right there. So no one remembers seeing him atall, right? No one says anything. But he but he also like nobody's going to have. I mean,
14:56they also flew the route. Like, yeah, okay, I get I get you. So a lot of fun seeking teens andpeople in the early 20s worked at the famous Ahawani Hotel in Yosemite. A lot of what?Look, the young people teenagers and young people in their 20s. Sure. Join life. Waiterslived in 12 by 12 heated cannabis tents with other lower level park employees. They eat cheaply atthe cafeteria. They save their money, went on adventures in the off season. Come January,Ron Likens and another worker headed out. Right. So it's time to take a little bitJanuary. They're shutting down the park. Sure. Because of snow. It snows there. Right. So theirplan was to meet up with two other friends on a trail and snowshoe out into the Yosemite back
15:48country. Okay. Hmm. Feels like worlds might to be colliding, David. I just might just be tellinga different story now. Gear shift. It's a pivot. They so it's pretty much a guarantee that you'rejust gonna be fucking alone out there. That's that's what it's like in January. Right. Yes. Sonot fucking alone alone. Right. Right. And fucking snowfall. That's that's called masturbating.Okay. Unless you're with it. Like a buddy. Keep going with the story. The snowfall in 1977 hadbeen light due to a drought. So there wasn't as much snow as normal, right? There's a lightamount of snow. Sure. They drove up and parked their car at the point where the snow plows hadstopped removing snow from the roads, put on their snowshoes and set out. Okay. They made a
16:34straight path up the mountainside and were about eight miles along when they found themselveslooking down upon a lower Merced Pass Lake. It was a six acre lake up in the mountain.Ron saw something that didn't look right. Okay. It looked like a bridge between two trees.So he walked over to it and when he was underneath, he realized he was looking at an airplane wing.Hydraulic oil was still dripping down out of the wing. And there was no other debris or any othersign of wreckage in sight. Just the wing. How far after the this is a month later. Okay. Wow. Okay.So it's getting dark. So they set up a camp and then the next morning, their two friends weresupposed to meet them who followed their little snow tracks up. They came up and met them at the
17:24camp and those guys were on acid. Wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait,wait. Two dudes on acid just showed up to meet them and they're going to see a plane crash. Well,they've they've there's a wing. Okay, still this is not a great thing. This is not great news. Notgreat when you're away. What? Oh, man. So wait, wait, wait. The rest of the planes probablyright near here. Chad, settle down. Oh, man. We got to eat the snow, man. We got to eat allthis snow. Yeah, I didn't even think about that. Those two dudes say talk about two different pages.Those two dudes are like, Hey, man, I'm worried about I'm freaking freaking out too. Guys,it's going to be fine. Now they're talking about us weird. They probably crash the plane. Oh,
18:12my God, dude, this probably goes all the way to the top. So they so those guys climbed to a higherelevation and Ron went back down to the ranger station. He hiked back down his own. Okay,not on acid because they couldn't hike with the other guys. Yeah, Ron acid. Hey, we got to gotalk to authorities. We'll make the fire. So he got to the ranger station in the afternoon. Therangers were called Oh, so the rangers listen to the story and they call the the Yosemite searchand rescue whose head was Tom set Nica. Sure. Right. So nothing to see there. Tom is a kind ofnew kind of park ranger that came about at this time. Oh, really? They're like a mix of rockclimbing backcountry camping scuba diving and then like serious law enforcement. So they're kind of
19:07like an action figure. Yeah, kind of like an action figure. They're a little more fucking,you know, exploring. Yeah, they're called the danger rangers. Oh, nice. They were trained ineverything from reconnaissance and undercover work to coroner's duties. That's awesome. Yeah. No,it's how's that not a TV show? Yeah, we got so many fucking cop shows. What about the guy whoclimbs up El Capitan in a race? Also, how about this? How about a show about protesters? How abouta show about people hating the government or people like there's so many cops like there's Isaw preview for this cop show. There's a million cops. But I saw this preview for this one whereit was just like future cops. And they're just like they have great tasers. Oh, no, the Uber of
19:52cops. Yeah, the guy comes in and goes, I know he can catch this guy with my tiny weird robot. Yeah.And I was like, that's awesome. It's not futuristic and authoritarian and terrifying at all. Yeah,like the attitude of like, let's celebrate these like amazing innovations to hurt us. It's likethat's, that's playing pretty well into all this, isn't it? My favorite is when they do differentdoctor shows. And then one time they just did doctors, but at night night doctors. Holy shit.Also saving lives in the dark. Oh, man, there's lights on and stuff while we're talking crazythings that are on at night. I just don't understand the Harry Connick Jr. show. It's adaytime talk show that they put on at midnight. Like there's something's off. Yeah, something's not
20:39working. Something's not going well. But it's been happening for a while now. They made it. And hewas like, so we're putting this on the daytime, right? And they're like, no, we're gonna put onit. Well, Harry, we were gonna cancel it. But we put it on at midnight. Your ratings are great. Butstill dude morning stuff. It's crazy. All right. So the danger rangers, right? So in Yosemite,they're the law, right? They're a little off the law. Okay. Tim called the Air Force RescueCoordination Center and asked if anyone had reported a missing plane. Okay. He gave thenumber that Ron had seen on the wing and written down. And that number made everyone go bug fuck.Oh, boy. There's that term. Suddenly for federal agencies, we're trying to get access to the crash,
21:24the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration, the DEA and thecustoms were all in on it. Customs sent a Vietnam. Is that because of what his that's not because ofwhat his wife said, that's because they they already knew about him. It's but it is specificallycorrelated to him. It's the Yeah, they know this plane. They know that he's right. Okay. So they'reexcited to get the white one. Okay, right. Okay. Custom sent a Vietnam era Huey to bring agentsand rangers to the site. So they fly up there and the debris trail of John's plane was threequarters of a mile and ended right at Lower Merced Pass Lake. Okay, not great. No, the lake was nowcovered in ice and a bit of snow. The plane was missing one wing and most of its tail while the
22:16main body was in the lake. She'll still fly. She'll be all right. She'll play. No, we'll getwe just get her out of there and hose her off or whatever the keys to get her airborne and thenshe'll then she'll be fine. You get her up, you just go ahead and hit the engine right off.So when the plane crashed, the lake was not frozen, right? Because this winter started late thatyear. It's a drought year. Okay. But in the month since it had frozen over and the plane was nowentombed in ice. Okay. There were several burlap sacks along the shoreline. Some were ripped openand pop was spilling out these beans taste weird. Holy shit. These are some free Holy's my friend.Well, dude, these beans are making me rethink everything. You 70s office of law enforcement
23:00was in charge of the investigation. Custom agents worked with them gathering the bales of weed andpiling it near the Huey landing site. Some of the bales were frozen into ice. They used chainsawsto cut them out. Wow. They were heavy and the the bales broke apart. They also cut a holefor a dive team to go into the lake. Well, quote. The water was murky because of theaviation and hydraulic fluids visibility was pretty minimal. When the plane went into the water,all these bits and pieces of aluminum broke off and they floated to the surface.They got frozen in a place. So now you had a couple feet of metal hanging down because the ice isa couple feet thick. And then you had the stuff on the bottom as well. One diver said it was darker
23:51than the inside of a cow. Now what's that's who's he that's a guy who's don't quote him very specificallyhas a feeling about darkness from the time his dad put him in a cow. You gotta give a really weirdstatement for it to overshine what's happening. Well, this guy had something bad happen to himon a farm. No, this look he is confessing to having his head in a cow's ass or just someone cut opena cow crammed him in there and was like, you'll come out when you when you say you'll eat yourspinach. How do you like your Halloween costume, boy? Yeah, you're gonna win today, aren't you?So now anytime something happens, like, man, this is dark as a cow. Hey, Tom, stop doing that.Stop doing that. What? Stop saying the cows. Oh, God, this is dark as a cow. Dude, dude, dude.
24:35Oh, this is wet as a cow. Dude, dude, dude, dude, it's not even wet in here. Oh, it smells likeyou're inside of a cow. Oh my God. Dad. So the driver, the divers went down and they found morebales of weed and pulled it out. And then a commercial diver was brought in from Fresno.Because the these guys couldn't get at the bodies, the Rangers, they brought in like the most expertdiver around. Okay, this guy in, but he still was unable to get through the wreckage and get to thecockpit. Okay. So John and Jeff were left there. Overall, they found close to 2000 pounds of marijuanaand flew it out. Means there's a lot out there. Yep, there's still 4000 pounds kicking it. Everynow and then some dudes like what's going on? I know somebody who was on a boat once and found
25:26a tremendous amount of marijuana Florida. Yeah, yes, Florida. Yeah. So when I my uncle was a drugdealer and he moved to Florida and and we used to go swimming on the beach and those littlenight's light sticks crack and turn into light. Yeah, those were all over the fuck of beachbecause the drug dealers would drop their their drugs. And then a guy would go out and a littleboat and get it and they would see it by the little they drop a glow stick with it. Well,so. So they took all the weed, they took the 2000 pounds of weed and they put it in yoursemities jail. You're not going anywhere weed. We've got you now weed or should I say a free holywait until you meet Judge Anderson. It was packed into a cell on the second floor and closed and
26:19they closed down one side of the jail quote. They came in like giant ice cubes with all that vegetablematerial and green leafy substance frozen over over time. The bell started to thaw and becamerunny just like if you take a package of spinach out of the freezer. Well, yeah. Is this the samecow guy? Also, my home life's weird. Do you ever have runny spinach pie? It's like having your headin a rabbit. The so the cell started to fill up with leaky weed runoff. Okay. And the drain gotclogged. Okay. So the floor of the cell is just filling up with weed juice. Yeah. So down directlybelow that cell, the Yosemite fireman had an office and after a few days. Oh boy. The fire chiefstormed upstairs angry yelling that they had to do something about the pot. It was now dripping
27:23onto his dispatcher's desk. Oh my gosh. So the Rangers moved dozens of weed bales from thesecond story into a walk-in freezer in a nearby warehouse. Now open the leg. Why are they actinglike this is so hard to I think back then they don't have like their couldn't they just isn'tthere a way to eliminate couldn't they just throw it on a fire set on fire I think you need it forevidence. What you're you're fluid your honor we submit the smoothie. No but they need the potfor evidence. All right I get you but it sounds like it's a pretty complicated process. It's notgreat and they're not they're not they're not set up to deal with this. Yeah well they're nothandling it well. So up with well they're not set up to deal with it. Yeah but weeds dripping
28:10on a desk they're not yeah I understand. So look it was a bad idea to put the weeds. Yes thank you.Up at the lake the federal agencies searched the area for an entire week. They determined awinter operation to get the fuselage and bodies out was not going to work. Okay. And then a hugestorm was on its way so they pulled out. They figured the crash site would stay until springwhen the area began to thaw and then they could come back. Okay. Meanwhile Pam had not heardanything from the DEA and finally after weeks an agent called her and told her the news. Okay.Okay. She then called their lawyer Jeffrey Steinbornand Pam asked Jeffrey to find out for sure what had happened and if John was definitely dead.
28:58So Jeffrey headed to Yosemite and got a hotel room near the park. Okay. And started hangingaround in bars and restaurants nearby listening to people's conversations. Which did she findthe shadiest dude. An eavesdrop or get his contact info. So he's eavesdropping on a DEA pilotand he learned the fuselage was still in the lake under ice with bodies and weed in it.Wow. That is quite the conversation over here. Right. Yeah. Well some of it he heard and somebodypieced together. Still. I mean to be like oh that's a DEA pilot. This worked out.Well after three days he learned enough and he headed back. But as he was leaving after was helike just going to that same guy's conversation. Well I think that you know these guys usually
29:49hang out in a in a bar or whatever bar. Right. The same bars. Right. There was an old serial killerin Santa Cruz who was killing people and then he would just go to the cop bar cop bar and listenand talk to the cops and hang out with them and find out all about the case in which he wasmurdering people. That's pretty breaking bad right there. So he after three days he takes off.But as he's leaving he saw a campfire burning with about a dozen people around it at a campground.So he stopped and headed over with a plan. Geoffrey walked up and lit a joint and passed itaround and told. Good start. Good start. Told the campfire story. Okay. Campfire story about a planefull of pot that had crashed. He would later say he had a quote romantic notion that someone
30:40should smoke that beautiful weed. Those guys were trying to bring back from Mexico.Wait. He went. Sorry. He went to a fucking group of kids who were smoking pot. Right.And he told them about the plane crash and where it was. And then he left. Right. With the aboutthe weed. Yeah. So his. Okay. Right. So his plan is to you know just be like there's a billiondollars in that lake but I got to get moving. That's pretty much it. That's a pretty good plan.And it worked. Wow. Rumors of the pot plane spread across Yosemite. Soon many of Yosemite'scharacters were planning. A ball run with cannabis cannabis run. There were about 20climbers living in what was called camp four over the winter. A group named the stone masters were
31:30the Kings. They were the legends of big wall climbing guys like John. I'm going to fuck up thisname. You don't need to tell me the names. I know all the legends. Yeah. I mean I have my Mount Rushmore obviously it's controversial when you're talking about best climbers. Bridwell. Amazing climber.They were considered the best wall climbers in the world. Many of the core group of the stonemasters started their own version of climbing called free soloing which meant climbing with noropes. They spent years making ascents on walls like El Capitan and a half dome and for yearsclimbers lived in camp for both illegally and for free. And by the time the stone masters arrivedat camp four the park rangers were trying to push the climbers out of the valley so the climbers
32:11made their way deeper into the valley and started camping out in bear caves in places that wereout of bounds. So I'm out. They're bad ass. They're people who live on the fringe. Yeah. Yeah. Andprobably could use a little money. Yeah. Yeah. Well look when you're sharing a home with a bearthings might be better. You might have a snuggle in here. Yeah. You know what's I haven't beensleeping great. I think it's that there's bears where I'm sleeping. Hard to get that REM going.Oh there I am. I'm up. So occasionally rangers would ask ask these guys for help with verydifficult search and rescue operations. But for the most part they're on the you know oppositesides. Magazines wrote about these guys versus sense others in the campground like 17 year old
33:02Chuck Strater were just green kids who had just arrived in your 70 a few weeks earlier.Strater had left. Is it stater or straighter. I don't know. Straighter left high school rightwhen he passed the high school equivalency test. So here in in the states you can you if you wantto get out of high school early early you can take a test to get out early. Right. So this kid didthat and he went straight to Yosemite with the goal of climbing El Capitan. But to do that heneeded gear and gear was expensive. And if there was weed up on the mountain that meant there wasmoney up on the mountain. I mean could that sound more like one of those old country songs.Sweet up on the mountain. There's money up there. Quote everyone was going up.
33:51Everyone naturally a couple of stone masters were the first guys to get to the crash site.There's something great about stone masters seeking weed. Oh it's outstanding. Like they weredouble it's like a double entendre fucking beautiful with their conditioning and knowledgeof the area. The stone masters jogged up the dangerous trail with huge backpacks and camedown unloading huge amounts of pot. They made this trip over and over and over again.Young Chuck Strater's parents were visiting him but he told them he was going for a climb.Yeah with two friends real high climb to with two friends he got a ride up into the back countryand the roads were had open early due to a lack of snow. Quote I had a sleeping bag and a jacket.
34:36I was wearing tennis shoes. Well he'll be he'll be fine. This is out unprepared for climbing.This guy was like he was in high school and he's like man I want to climb mountains and then hejust went with fucking tennis shoes and jeans and shirt was like why do we do this. You everleave the house without a jacket like the worst. This guy's going to sleep on a mountain and nowhe's going to fucking go up into the snow with tennis shoes on. I mean I guess the snow is melting.All right so they didn't bring any food because they were going to get in and out fast. You meanthe burgers burger what hamburgers in and out. Yeah they're getting in and out fast. They'regoing to it's not fast food it's good food fast. Okay we're done talking. Thank you. As they got
35:23close to the lake they saw thrown away sleeping bags and old clothes along the shore becausepeople had tossed their belongings to make room for more weed in their backpacks. Wow. There weretools people had used to get through the ice sticks and poles different pieces of wreckage and anaxe. There were a lot of holes cut in the ice. Strader and his friends made a campfire then wentout onto the lake and started hacking away. The ice was about three feet thick. When they finallybroke through oh my god. Strader got some fuel line the rangers had left behind and bent it into anL shape and then he stuck his arm into the frigid water. He could smell the stench of fuel in thelake and he felt around until he felt something solid but very heavy. Oh dear. And so using that
36:17like he hooked it around the burlap sack. Oh my god oh it's okay. And they pulled uh oh youthought it was going to be a body. Yeah I thought it was going to be like you're really. Sorry.It's not my name. Do you know his name it is? The snail on SpongeBob. You've made that real clear.It's his pet dog. Can we. It's a snail. Look I got a heart out. The other day they went to get anew shell. Like five minutes and then I gotta go. They so they they get the fuel line aroundthe wet burlap sack and then uh and then they all have to pull it because it's so heavy and itpulls. They got a big score. It slides up onto the ice. A marijuana leaf was stenciled on the sideof the bag. What. That's insane. Yeah. They're beans. It says weed. It's weed. It's weed beans.
37:09Like yeah you make that pretty easy. It's half weed half beans. Yeah right on it right beans onthe weed just stick to it. So it was wrapped with layers of plastic but still wet with the fuelsoaked water. The three dudes. What good is that going to be? Well the three dudes right straighterand his two friends uh they divided up evenly. The amount they were each taking would be a felonyif they were caught. Okay. Quote we were pretty scared. We got the hell out of there. We justcarried it out wet. Uh another group was walking in. How was your hike? There's a lot of green fuelcoming out of your back. That's nothing. That's just a thing. It looks like spinach. Yeah there'soh my god it smells like skunky fuel spinach. But it's it's that's what it is. There's a lot of
37:58spinach. What is this? Is this marijuana? No it's spinach. Okay. There's a lot of spinach up there.He loves salads. He's a health nut. So as they were packing up and getting ready to leave anothergroup walked in and one of them one of the people that came in had a big breaker bar that he'dstolen so you know breaker bar is. No. Like it's just like a big rod kind of thing. Okay. And theywatched as the guy stabbed the ice over and over again trying to trying to break through and whenhe finally did the breaker bar just slid out of his hands and disappeared into the lake. Oh man.Which just left a very small useless hole. Boy that's not a story that guy tells his grandkids.I love that guy. Yeah he's like down. And as they hiked out the guy switched to the axe and was
38:45hacking away. Okay. I mean it would just be amazing if the axe dropped down. God damn it. Just catch abreak. As they hiked out wet weed water dripped down the back of their leg. It did. When night cameso did the cold and icicles formed on the backpacks. They hiked all the way down to the campgroundstraighter stashed the pot and then went to visit his parent. Hey mom. Now by April Yosemite wasflooded with weed. It was being called airplane weed or crash buds. Oh come on crash buds if wehave an election. Crash buds in a landslide. Because it was laced with traces of aviation fuel itsometimes sparked and crackled when smoked. Oh my god. What don't. So this is going to this isgoing to this is going to be surprising. But smoking it was very harsh. Yeah I bet I dude. They're
39:41smoking fuel fuel. Smoking fuel pot. Yeah fuel pot. Oh man. Well this really gets you hot.Some of that's not going down too good. Oh god. So straighter knew that to sell it at this pointbecause there's so much weed in the park to sell it they had to take it out of the park and sell itto someone. Okay. Because the park is flooded. Yeah but it's going to sell fuel weed. Fuel yeah.So he borrows a VW bug. Of course. And they load the trunk with pot. Okay. So in a bug the trunkis in the front. Yeah. The trunk filled up and then they put the rest in the backseat.Okay. There's nowhere else to put it in a bug. I know but I mean that's that's a flawed planning.Yeah. And they headed for LA where one of them knew a dealer but they just got past the Yosemite
40:34border when they got a flat. They drove slowly to a gas station where an attendant came up to helpthem. No no no no we're good sir. They said he literally walked up and jumped backwards when hesmelt the car. Oh geez. Oh my gosh. So they finally got to LA after midnight and waited for the dealerwho was supposed to meet him at a certain time and he never came. That's very unlike weed dealersin my experience. Yeah. So they just grabbed their sleeping bags and slept where they were in somebushes. At what point does somebody go this is not going well. I feel like the 70s were different.They are different. All right well let's sleep in that bush. So when Strater woke up there werechildren standing over him looking down because they had fallen asleep on the edge of a school
41:24playground. Oh my god. Is this train spotting? With a car full of pot. Yeah. Like like potlike it seems like the pot is like sticking out of the fucking edges. Yeah and everyone smellsits skunky weed and three idiots are sleeping near it. So they still it's still wet. So I lovethat they were going to sell wet fuel soaked to a drug dealer. Honestly. So they spent that daytrying to find the drug dealer and just ended up renting a motel room. It's going really well.There they put the soggy weed on a tarp and put it under heat lamps. Better. On the third dayhouse cleaning knocked on the door. Strater opened it with the chain on. Oh that'll keep all thesmell out. It's the chain. He told her to leave but when he turned around he discovered that one
42:12of his friends was holding a gun. It turned out that that guy was AWOL from the army. Oh boy.So at this point Strater just wanted out. He didn't care about the money but he's still stuckwith these guys because he doesn't have any cash. Right. Wow. So he talked them into leaving LAand they drove to the desert where they put the weed on some rocks to dry. After it was dry theywent to the same. They're like making jerky pot. After it was dry they went to the San FranciscoBay Area where they found someone to buy some of the pots. Strater used his portion to buya Greyhound ticket to Sacramento where he gave the rest of his pot to a high school friend.He just wanted it to be over with. But the friend said he would sell it and give him some.
42:56Okay. The cash. But that must have been a great Greyhound trip. I mean Greyhounds are like neverenjoyable. Yeah. But that one you're probably like as long as I'm away from the VW bush sleepingnear the school weed business. Okay. But the other. Oh no housekeeping. Thank you. We're trying to getthe hell out of here. You're like oh god. But the other people are having more success.By Easter weekend word of the weed bonanza in Yosemite had spread all over the state.People were coming packed in cars from all over to find their own bale of pot.Climbers started leaving huge tips for waiters at the Yosemite Park Hotel. Finally the guy whohad originally found the plane Ron Haskins decided it was his turn. Okay. Quote so after work one day
43:49I took a backpack with nothing but a little sleeping bag and a little food in it and iceaxe and some plastic bags. We hiked up there in the middle of the night. When we got there over20 people were mining the small lake for weed. They were getting more inventive because thebales were becoming harder to find. I'm not I hope I know I say this guy's name right VernClevenger who is today a known climber and a photographer said quote we had heard there wasn'ta lot of dope sitting on top of the lake anymore. My girlfriend's father was head of a road crew.So we stole his chainsaw and carried it up there. We took turns sawing through the ice. That's howwe got a lot of marijuana from the lake. So it wasn't just park people anymore who all sort of had
44:36the same ideals and lifestyle right. Things are getting a little bit tense. Clevenger said quoteby then there were a lot of shitty people up there. Drug dealers low life types from the CentralValley. Some guy came over and started to take our stuff. And one of my friends who was a realhard ass held his saw out about three inches from the guy's neck. And he was saying I'm gonna fuckI'm gonna fuck with you. Don't come any closer. So that was the end of that with that guy. Yeah.Yeah. I mean that it like you know that is such a that just shows you how we still are animalslike that is such a denatured documentary moment of like trying to become the dominant one andthen just getting like tossed. Here is a young predator. Hey man what you got over there. He is
45:27as you can see he's taking some of the stuff. Let me take some of that stuff. Get out of here manand out comes the saw. I'll fuck with you man. I will fuck with you man. There are the words. Getout of here. Off he goes into the. So but Clevenger said at that point they had too much pot tocarry out anyway. Okay. And the Rangers started to hear rumors about what was going on. Tim washearing stuff from Cliburners he was friends with. Park Road crews were reporting a very strangeamount of high traffic near Mono Lake Trail. Yeah. The commercial just hilarious just way up in theon this mountain road is a huge traffic jam. Yeah. What's going on up there. It's basically like whathappened with Waze. It's just like wait what. The commercial driver who had gone into the lake
46:19to look for the bodies way back when for the Rangers called and told the Rangers there had been arush on his rental equipment by kids looking to dive in Yosemite. Wow. This I mean this is thegreen rush. What I believe was called I believe they called it the weed the weed rush or somethinglike that. Well I've got I've already beaten it. Okay. Well. So now Cliburners who just weeks beforewho were known to dive in dumpsters for food were buying used cars and new climbing equipment.Oh the Catholic Lord. Suddenly everyone in Camp 4 had nice climbing equipment. Strader used hismoney to buy his first climbing rack which he used to climb El Capitan four times in 1977.That's pretty great. Yeah. On April 13th which would become known as Big Wednesday in the park
47:12six armed Rangers flew into Lower Merced Pass on a Huey helicopter.And when they came over. Right on time by the way. Yeah. Didn't take too long. When they cameover the ridge they said quote it was like seeing ants scattering.Quote the people up there had created this infrastructure. Oh my god. They become likea splinter town. They've now like become a village.It's a guy with a saloon. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.Quote the people up there had created this infrastructure kind of like the Viet Cong putin some areas of Vietnam makeshift housing intense fire pits and all sorts of tarps.
47:58Seriously. They picked up digging equipment wherever they could. It was really cavemantechnology. Oh man. The park service was embarrassed by what had occurred. Quote weunderestimated the entrepreneurial spirit of certain members of the community. Yeah that is.How I mean could you have it more diplomatic than that.We underestimated some of the we didn't know we had a bunch of businessmen out here. We didn'tknow everyone was insane. Rangers were posted along the trails leaning away from the laketo catch people who were escaping. Oh my gosh. But Vern Clevenger and one of his friends werethe only two people who were arrested. The arrest was later nullified due to a due process
48:44violations and no one was ever convicted. Great. In their involvement in what was now known as DopeLake. After that two rangers were given supplies and sent to guard the lake. They lived in a tentfor 17 days. Wow. They rigged tripwires to cans and kept pistols ready at all times.Jeez. So you can't even like you can't you play it off as like I'm lost on a hike.No. Okay. They call they caught around six parties who were headed up to the lake.They none of these parties were from Yosemite and word had leaked out all over the state aboutthe pot but not the bust at this point. So for two months Rangers rotated in to keep watch overDope Lake. People kept coming often not at all prepared for the conditions and hike at high
49:37altitudes. One group got lost for a week without enough food before they finally stumbled acrossa trail crew. Oh man. In mid June the lake thawed enough for the plane to be salvaged. Jeff Nelson'sbody just floated to the surface as they were working. John Gliskey's body was strapped to thecockpit just as Pam saw in her dream. Pam laid low for a long time because she had cooperatedwith the DEA. She never ID John's body when it was found because she thought it'd be too traumatic.So this left her with this small weird sense of hope that he was still alive.Sad. She was finally showed a photo of her husband's body from the lake salvage operation 30 yearslater and she broke down and cried. She still thinks the cause of the accident was not investigated.
50:28It was called an accident by the government but because of the strange circumstances ofthe wreck and John's suspicions she questions whether it was an accident.But the government told her that it wasn't. Right. Now you're right. Trust them. Right.Why would you ever not trust the government? Trust them. In the end because of the crashmany climbers got to push the limits of their sport. Some climbers saved their pot money. JohnBashar maybe who is now a famous solo climber was said to have used cash from his hallto help fund a successful climbing gear company. The first guy who stumbled upon the crash RonLikens paid for two years of college with the pot money. So great. Vern Clevenger bought his first
51:12Nikon camera and is now in a claimed nature photographer. Like listen to what came out ofthis. I know it's great. Listen to the what like. It's great. Yeah. Other climbers. It's sort of ina way tells you the mentality of like all those things. Look I'm sure some people like you knowyou know went to the strip club or something like that. But you know they use this to benefit.Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's because of the weed. Other climbers funded climbing trips toFrance and Asia. Some managed to grab enough pot that they sold it for over $20,000 in 1977.Well that's crazy. It's not fucking that's crazy. Yeah. Why are there things like that is justinsane. I can't believe it's it's one of those things where you think so you think that so there
52:07are people if you take a tour of your 70. Does anyone tell you that. I'm sure there's storiesabout it. Yeah. But if you it's one of the stories where if you think about so you think about thesepeople living on the fringe of society because they're not going to be businessmen and they'realways going to exist. But it turns out if you give them a means and a way to to be able to affordsomething that then they actually become successful. So people were living on the edge of criminalitywhen given a windfall of money became a famous photographer, famous mountain climbers, businessmenwith gear went to college like all these different things. So it's interesting when you give peopleopportunities instead of starving them. But you also maybe something good comes up. Yeah. And also
52:57like there are there's a lot of successful people who have sold weed. Oh my god. I'm kidding. Andyou think about and you think and you think about if you get caught for having weed to distributein America, it ruins your life. It completely ruins your life. You can get a life sentence.Yeah. You know, in a country where it's legal in some places, you could still get a life sentencefor having right not a crazy amount of it. Right. Ruin lives. Anyway, want to smoke a joint?You're screaming. Oh, yeah. We sell pot. We sign potplains. So do we sell pot? We sellwe don't sell pot. We don't sell pot. I don't think I'm going to be even. We don't sell pot.We sign we sign pot plants. Thank you. We sign cats. Yeah. Lessons and seals. Okay. God damn it.
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