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The Ranch to get public access?
- Thread starter bonzer5fin
- Start date
Hiking down from Glacier Point to valley floor via Four Mile Trail last summer, came across a gaggle of German hipsters (ironic mustaches and all) clogging the f*ck out of a switchback while flying their stupid drone (verboten in Yosemite).
Told them, "Du hast einen vogel" with a glare, pushed through them, and went on, reported them to ranger at bottom.
Next day, picnicking with wife and kids on the shore at Lake Tenaya, was there for a while, and some old German lady got really huffy that we wouldn't move for her photo. Told her to stow it and walk 30 feet down and take her photo. Only a mile or two of shoreline.
Doof, you should have told them that perhaps the problem with the National Parks in the USA is that there are too many Germans in them. Well, those kind of tourists are a pain. The ones you see that are more mountain-oriented and built like brick sh*thouses generally have their stuff together and no beefs with them whatsoever.
I like when I see hipsters on the trail dressed in circa 1940s boots and backpacks, canteens, rolled up tightpants, etc.
Nonfunctional fashion over function.
It's like they're playing a part in their imagination.
i once spent a day surfing R+L's with Jackson Browne. Super nice guy, and one of the most memorable days of my adolescence. Perfect mirror glass surf, maybe head high. cool down to earth music legend hosting a few of us (he was old friends with a friend of mine's dad.) After spedning the first several years of my surfing life in crappy closed out small cold Long Island beach break, a day at the Ranch was a revelation. Also, i tried Soy Milk for the first time. Talk about culture shock.
I've been rewatching the PBS/Ken Burns series on the National Parks.
You have three viewpoints -
John Muir- the sacred wilderness.
Steven Mather- the accessible wilderness.
Gifford Pinchot- F the wilderness, use it for whatever it can yield for man.
While In Yosemite this summer I went to a talk out at the Parsons Memorial Lodge. I forget her name but she was the former administrator of wilderness areas in Yosemite and she was talking about the future of pure wilderness. She painted a pretty dark picture and the irony was that the people who love the wilderness the most and are most attracted to getting off the beaten path, the trail blazers, are the one's doing the most damage.
She said the effect of the hordes of car campers and day tourists has been contained and stabilized and is not as great a threat to wilderness that the trailblazers are. The trail blazers are going into much more delicate systems.
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that's funny....have a close friend in SB who also lucked into a Ranch invite, which also included quality time with Jackson Brown. is he like a Ranch amenity?
Does anyone remember the case of the Germans dying in Death Valley.
What an insane story with a tragic ending
What an insane story with a tragic ending
Drove down to the ranch in 1970 or so from Humboldt...my buddy's dad was an auctioneer who sometimes auctioned at Santa Ynez Auction yard...he got us a pass and we camped on the bluff right where Chouinard has his house now...I think...It was in February way before any of the sophisticated forecasting we have now so we had no idea if we'd get any swell or not. Sure enough, one of the days we were there a swell just started coming up and it was so glassy and good! Some guys showed up in a little skiff with a giant speaker in it and went down to St. Augustines and we surfed with Dark Side of the Moon bouncing off the cliff. Forget the bouncer's name, drove a red jeep up and down the beach. Some guys from one of the boats were on the beach with their boards blocking the sun and the dude drove up and smashed their boards into their faces/cliff...what a dick. Fun times...
The usual- leave no trace, make camp in areas that have already been used, stay on trails and designated areas, limit access...
Limiting access is the most effective and the most problematic .Who gets access? First come first served, lotteries....but the demand is always increasing. She showed charts of how the number of wilderness permits has gone way down in relation to demand, but has gone way up as far as the total number granted. Then there is the possibility of no access. She said that was obviously the most beneficial for wilderness, but you have to be pretty altruistic to lobby for that and it is never popular and never really adopted. The most interested parties don't want that. Kind of like the Ranch. If you never go there anyways, the idea of limiting access is OK. It's nice idea, knowing there is such a place. But if you never go there you not likely to be vocal about the issue. But what if you frequently go to a place and then the state decides you can no longer go there? Or decides everyone can go there? No easy choices. Like I said, her conclusion was not optimistic...
What a disaster this would be.....at least limited access....controlled by the folks that own property there....helps keep the collateral damage to a minimum. I.e. They don't poop much in their own backyard. No longer able to drive on the beach or electric bike further west.....the place actually feels like it took a step back in time. It's a good thing....and nobody is keeping you from surfing there....you only need to be resourceful and expend a bit of energy.
If this goes thru.....I can think of other nearby private land with good surf out front that should fall under the same scrutiny....but will it? Seems someone has a bone to pick with the lucky few....
If this goes thru.....I can think of other nearby private land with good surf out front that should fall under the same scrutiny....but will it? Seems someone has a bone to pick with the lucky few....
I was an east coaster with dreams of surfing the Ranch from the articles I read in magazines. This was the sixties. I have been there numerous times after moving to CA in '76. It is as good as advertised, but needs to stay that way. It's not easy to get on, but can be done.
Gov. Newsom Signs Bill to Give Public Access to Pristine Stretch of Santa Barbara County Coast
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Wednesday a bill designed to open the elusive beaches at Hollister Ranch — a significant move forward under his administration on an issue that has stalled for dec…
ktla.com
let the fun begin.....
first time I clicked on this thread and saw this.
I want to be a German Hipster Hikirr for Halloween this year. Ein Pils!
Beach access at the Ranch is, and has always been, open to the public.Gov. Newsom Signs Bill to Give Public Access to Pristine Stretch of Santa Barbara County Coast
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Wednesday a bill designed to open the elusive beaches at Hollister Ranch — a significant move forward under his administration on an issue that has stalled for dec…
let the fun begin.....
What the ruin everything whiners want is car access to the Ranch.
And let’s not forget. You Have to drive by 20 miles of undeveloped coastline to get to the Ranch.
Maybe Newsome will open up his yard to the public...
Buddy of mine and I were surfing LD one afternoon and saw a large group of folks on the grass area.
Fun 2-3', just us out. After about 1/2 hour we see someone suiting up and they paddled out on a longboard.
I look at my friend and he noticed who it was as I did.
It was JB, we talked a bit and he said he'd been watching us, we asked what was going on on the beach, he said he'd just married Daryl Hannah.
Such a shame, the possibility of God's land being opened to the public.
Exactly.
20 miles of private property with waves out front......one place even has an existing parking lot right on the beach.
And how about the old Bixby Ranch....is the Nature Conservancy going to open it's doors as well?
Why not spend some $$ fixing the Gaviota State Park boat hoist....that would improve public access eh?
You think you've seen grumpy Ranch locals before?
Just wait...
Pretty soon they'll have lifeguards at RBs telling you it's not safe to paddle out.
