“We underestimated the entrepreneurial spirit of certain members of the community”
– Park Ranger Tim Setnicka
Westbay, Briwell and Long after the first one-day ascent of the Nose, El Cap, Yosemite, CA 1975
The Dirtbags of Dope Lake
An outlaw group of climbers living of the grid on the edge of society, couldn’t have wished for anything more spectacular then the sheer faced cliffs looming over camp.
That is until the day Cannabis fell from the sky…
John Glisky, right, pictured in Vietnam where he flew helicopters during the war
During the 1970’s a group out of DC calling themselves ‘Mota Magic’ had a plan to fly cannabis from Mexico to DC. This would need to be done skimming the ground under the cover of darkness to avoid detection…
A ballsy flight would take a crazy pilot, John Glisky was such a man. Having flown helicopters in the Vietnam war under fire, a midnight flight skimming the mountain cliffs of America seemed like a cakewalk.
In December 1976, Glisky flew his ‘Howard 500’ plane into Mexico landing in Baja California on a makeshift runway. A crew quickly refueled the plane while loading at least 6,000 pounds (some say 10,000) of the popular sticky ‘Mexican Redhair’ variety…
The Mexican Redhair was bundled in 40 pound burlap bales with a shrink wrap interior. As a joke, some of the obvious cannabis bales were labeled ‘frijol’, spanish for ‘bean’, written with a black marker. (Some of the dirtbags report the writing of ‘quaalude’ on some bales as well.)
Flying in the darkness, Glisky hugged the treeline or the Sierra range pulling up to miss the sharp cliffs of Yosemite.
On this pass in December 1976, the cliffs of Yosemite proved too much, ripping the plane from the sky around ‘Lower Merced Pass Lake’ deep in Yosemite backcountry…
Yosemite Ranger sign posted on Merced lake raid
“It became a recovery of drudgery because we used chainsaws to cut out these bales of marijuana, which were frozen,” remembers Setnicka. “They’re heavy, they’re broken apart, they’re wet. The chainsaws were cutting ice, you know, so the chainsaw blades don’t last long. The most obvious ones we cut out, and then we had to fly this marijuana back.”
-Yosemite Park Ranger Lee Shackelton
The Yosemite Park Rangers first responded with U.S Customs and the DEA to help recover the contents of the unknown plane.
For over a week, agents of multiple agencies wrestled wet weed from the ice to be airlifted out. The cannabis collected soon filled the Yosemite jail with over 2,000 pounds being salvaged in the initial cleanup effort…
A January winter storm shutdown the recovery operation until a spring salvage mission could be planed…
A friend of Ron Lykins’ the day they discovered the plane, in 1977
To get to the frozen cannabis bales left at the crash site seemed impossible to the Rangers… Impossible for all but those already living on the edge…
The climbers that inhibited the makeshift camp 4 in Yosemite valley was such a group…
The group of climbers that lived at Camp 4 were known as ‘Valley Rats’ or the ‘Dirtbags’. They lived outside of society, living in a camp city of tents and shelters always preparing for ascent up the sheer faces above…
When a girlfriend of one of the climbers told them of the crash heard over the ranger radio, the Dirtbags wasted no time…
The Dirtbags of Camp 4 digging out cannabis bales from Lower Merced Pass Lake 1977
With tales of cannabis raining from the sky, the Dirtbags suited up…
Packing light the group set off further into the white back country to find the crash site. Coming upon Lower Merced Pass Lake, they hit the jackpot!
Ron Lykins, shirtless, and friends holding bales of dope they hauled up from the lake. 1977
“We were pretty scared. We got the hell out of there, just carried it out wet… It was wrapped with, like, three layers of plastic, but the buds were soaking wet. Some parts were more exposed to the airplane fuel than others.”
-Chuck Strader
Dawning shovels, picks, axes and chainsaws, the Dirtbags dug through feet of ice to score cannabis from the sky…
The cannabis recovered had a added smell, airplane fuel had seeped into some of the bales.
The resulting herb would sometimes spark and pop when lit while smelling of fuel giving way to the nickname of ‘airplane’ or ‘crash buds’.
The trek out was nearly impassable. Weighed down now by backpacks full of wet herb. The water seeped from their backs forming icicles numbing the body…
“We didn’t have a headlamp, so I was feeling the trail with my feet.” -Chuck Strader
Dirtbag with pick sitting next to a pile of the ‘airplane’ cannabis 1977
“By all reports it was like ants scattering,… The people up there had created this infrastructure kind of like the Vietcong put in some areas of Vietnam — makeshift housing and tents, fire pits, all sorts of tarps. They picked up digging equipment wherever they could. It was really caveman technology.”
– Yosemite Ranger Tim Setnicka
With the arrival of spring, the Rangers again made there ascent to the lake. This time armed Rangers flying in a Huey helicopter lead the mission after reports of climbers mining the site for the remaining cannabis…
Only 2 of many ‘dirtbags’ on scene were arrested, but both later had the cased dropped in court over a due process violation…
No one was ever convicted for their involvement in Dope Lake…
Bale of Mexican Redhair at Lower Merced Pass Lake 1977
“Nobody knew how much money anyone made on the Lodestar crash, But I know a few world-famous climbers who supposedly lived for more than a decade off that money. Duffle bags full of good weed”
– Dirtbag Hoffmeister
The sales of this “airplane” herb went on to fund the Dirtbags party well into the 80’s.
Ron Lykins would fund his college education paying his college tutition with the ‘airplane’ loot…
Vern Clevenger bought his first Nikon camera with the lake take, later becoming a acclaimed nature photographer enjoyed by thousands…
Even the famous climber John Bachar is rumored to have started his climbing gear company with the stash from Merced Lake…
Bachar posted a challenge note to the world in 1981 promising a “$10,000 reward for anyone who can follow me for one full day” climbing…
No one ever took the challenge!
1970’s Yosemite t-shirt