Here is a great Hike in Yosemite... to the Top of Yosemite Falls... In 1973 We Ate [Censored Three Letter Word] and Hiked to the Top of the Mountain... and I'm Sure Glad We Did... BIG FUN!

We Started at Sunnyside Campground and 

as We Got Higher and Higher in Elevation 

We Were Getting Higher and Higher on LSD... 

and when I was PEAKING ON ACID 

I was on Top of the World!

I wanted to Go Look over the Edge but

the Entire Mountain Seemed to Be Dancing...

So... I Crawled on My Belly to Avoid Falling!

 https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/yosemitefallstrail.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosemite_Falls

This is the Map of the Trail... 

That was my First Year at Chico State College and Four of Us wanted to be OUT OF TOWN during Pioneer Week... The Idea of Thousands of Drunken Frat Boys was NOT FUN... and So Many Strangers Coming to Raise Hell and then Leave...

So We went to Yosemite and Camped at the Overflow Campground. One Morning Bright and Early we Dropped Acid and Hiked to the Top of the Mountain... One Effect of LSD is it Gives You a LOT of Energy to Do Hiking or Dancing... It's a Powerful Stimulant so We Had NO TROUBLE Walking the 2700 Foot Change in Elevation... 

Then we Rode the Double Decker Bus Around the Park to the Mist Trail. We Sat on the Top Layer of the Bus... It Had No Ceiling... Truly one of the Most Fabulous Adventures POSSIBLE... Outdoors on a Magic Carpet Looking Up at Half Dome... 

Then We Hiked to Vernal Falls...

It appeared to Be a Living Multi Eyed Creature... and when I Looked Away, The Mountains Appeared to be Flowing UP... I'm Still Amused by this Visual Effect... For Example if I Read The Scrolling Letters on the Bottom of CNN TV News Show... and Then I Look Away... Whatever I see Appears to Be Moving Left to Right... Try IT!

https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/vernalnevadatrail.htm

The Next Night We were Sitting Around a Campfire Singing Songs and Smoking Marijuana and a Park Ranger Ran out of the Darkness and Arrested ME... He said I'm Gonna Charge You with "Disturbing the Peace" but You Have to Leave the Park Tomorrow... or I'll Change the Charge to "Possession of Marijuana" SO... We Left... and I Paid a $35 Dollar Fine... I'm Sure Glad the Ranger Didn't Attack Me When I was High on LSD... That Would Have Been a BUMMER! 

In Fact HE WAS DISTURBING THE PEACE... I was Playing the Harmonica and Smoking Marijuana... PRETTY DAMN PEACEFUL ACTIVITIES! But he was a Freaking PIG! Oink Oink!

~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~

Since We Had Such a Great Time In Yosemite...

The Next Year for Pioneer Week We Went Camping at Hetch Hetchy Reservoir... a MUCH More Private Campground since almost No One Goes There... and It's Just a Fabulous... with Giant Granite Rocks Everywhere... We Took a Marijuana, LSD and Peyote Trip and This time We Just Made Our Own Trail... Since we were above Treeline, Just Wandering Around in the Mountains was Easy... and Privacy WAS Important Because We Didn't Want to Meet any Rangers! 

On that Day We All Climbed up a "Chimney" in the Granite Rock... a Place where the Rock has Split apart and The Mountain Climber Puts one Foot on One Side and The Other Foot on the Other Side and Just Behaves Like Spiderman!

Later That Day I Accidentally Slipped into The River... I was Walking Along the Edge watching the Water Bubble UP in a Large Pool... Quite Pretty! That Swim Could Have been Fatal as I was Upstream from a Giant Waterfall... However, as Luck would Have It, I Was Washed to a Place where I Could Climb Out... 

A Total Gift From God... I Was Totally Out of Control and The Current of the River Made All Survival Choices For Me... When I Was At The Bottom of The Pool, I Relaxed and Accepted Death... and Then I Was Spared! 

Everything Since Then is a Blessing!

https://www.yosemitehikes.com/hetch-hetchy/wapama-falls/wapama-falls.htm

I also took a trip at an Anti-War protest march at the White House - I was interviewed on TV as one of those Man on the Street Shots - ranting and raving about the war... and then we Marched over to the Lincoln Memorial and were Faced with a CHOICE - stay in the Street and get arrested when the parade permit expired - and Make a BIG DEAL out of the Whole Thing or... stand on the Sidewalk and go about our business... I Chose to NOT Get Arrested with Daniel Ellsberg and a Hundred other people... who sat down in the street... That Trip was like an Abbie Hoffman Reenactment! Chicago 8 Riots 1968... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg

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Photos of a Real Jet Airplane Used as a Children's Climbing Toy in Oak Meadow Park, Los Gatos, California. and The Story of The Donation by Lockheed... Written by Justin Vanderlaan, Parks Commissioner...

Real Lockheed Airplane 

the Morton Family 

doing restoration of Airplane.

Coloring Book: 

"Los Gatos Our Parks" by Elaine McIntosh

Driving From San Jose Towards Santa Cruz
 on Highway #17...
Take the Right Hand Exit onto Highway #9
Towards Saratoga.
Turn Right on University Ave.
Turn Right on Blossom Hill Road.
Oak Meadow Park is On Your Left
at the Bottom Of The Hill...

The following information is from the City of Los Gatos...

The T-33 in Oak Meadow Park is on loan to the Town of Los Gatos by the United States Air Force, where it has been in the playground area since July, 1974. It was manufactured by Lockheed Aircraft, Burbank, California and delivered to the USAF in December, 1954.

The two-seat T-33 jet was designed for training pilots already qualifies to fly propeller-driven aircraft. As one of the best-known aircraft world-wide, it has served with the armed forces of more than 20 different countries for almost 40 years. Production of T-33’s was from March 1948 through August 1959. 5,691 T-33’s were built.

http://www.skytamer.com/Lockheed_T-33A.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_T-33_Shooting_Star

The Story of How the Airplane got to the Park. Told by my dad, Justin Vanderlaan.

Dear Greg:

     Nothing long lasting is told quickly.  A short time after I was appointed to the Park Commission the Park Superintendent, the Mayor (Ruth Cannon), and the Town Manager (Russ Cooney) decided that the town needed more parks.  We only had Oak Meadow.  So they and the Town Council decided to build some more.  This took a lot or money, because we had to buy most of the land also.  The smart manager, decided to go for a straight  property tax increase (which only needed 50.1 percent of the votes to pass), instead of a bond issue, (which took 66 2/3rds of the votes to pass).  Harder to pass because the voters start paying a lot more sooner; but easier to pass because it needs less votes.

     We ran a spirited election, and we won by 75 votes!  They then decided which parks to build and when, after we acquired the land.  Included in the plans was the upgrading of Oak Meadow.  I was on the Park Commission 12 or 16 years, and we were building these parks all the time I was serving.  A few years after we won the tax election, Ruth Cannon was again Mayor, and we were in the process of upgrading Oak Meadow.  At this time Ruth Cannon's husband, I forget his first name, was a big shot in the management of Lockheed in Sunnyvale.  Many of the airplanes from World War 2 were retired to a huge Airforce base in Arizona.  Lockheed either owned them, because they still had not been paid in full, or was hired to manage the property on the base.  Anyway, the Cannons had the proper connections to get one of the planes donated to the Town of Los Gatos.  However, the U.S. Government was not going to deliver the plane, and it could no longer fly

     The Town Council allocated some of the Park Tax funds to hiring some company that could transport it to Los Gatos, which was done.  They even installed it properly.  It was decided that to avoid any possible law suits;  because some kid got hurt fooling with the engine, that the engine would be removed and the front part filled with concrete to a level for kids to enjoy;  which was done.  The plane is still there, and I just went down and looked at, and there were kids sitting in it, and pretending to fly.   A series of happy coincidences.    Any more questions, e-mail me.   Dad

A different Jet In New Jersey

Fundamentally, a great idea... 

Photo by Eric Dumigan

http://www.airic.ca/index.html

Wall Township New Jersey "Airplane Park"

Youtube video of airplane fully restored

on Aircraft Carrier.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uIFiysZVgw

Newspaper Article:

http://wall.patch.com/articles/old-town-landmark-becomes-newest-national-exhibit

Lions Park Costa Mesa, California

http://www.donovanblatt.com/lions-park-costa-mesa/

Airplane Park in Monroe, New York

http://whtractor.15.forumer.com/a/dad-in-f86-figher-jets-195455_post25756.html

Palmview Park, West Covina California

http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=143112

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Great Documentary Movie: Climbing Redwood Giants - Life in the sky... National Geographic. About The Old Growth Redwood Forest in Northern California. The World's Tallest Trees! Featuring Steve Sillett HSU teacher... Humboldt State University...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-8OCecOmEQ
Clip of the Winner of the International Forest Film Festival They are living giants, one of Earth's largest and oldest trees. Some tower more than 350 feet high, taller than the Statue of Liberty; some may have been seedlings when Jesus was born. Yet, these natural legends still shroud centuries-old secrets. In a major National Geographic cross-platform event, which includes the October, 2009 cover story for the magazine, we reveal the little-explored environment of the redwoods using high-tech aerial laser surveys and breathtaking imagery.

United Nations Forum on Forests website: http://www.un.org/esa/forests/

The best-selling book The Wild Trees made Steve Sillett a legend among tall-tree climbers. Now, as National Geographic magazine features his work in a cover story and documentary, Humboldt State’s skywalking professor launches a groundbreaking study into the effects of climate change on redwoods.
http://magazine.humboldt.edu/fall09/tallest-trees-unveiled/

Steve Sillette's Teacher Page at School...
http://www2.humboldt.edu/redwoods/

Sequoia Park in Eureka, CA - Redwood Trees

READ MORE: 

Welcome to Freshwater, California USA. Location of a year long tree-sit Protesting Logging of the Redwood Forest. The people living in the trees were evicted by Eric Schatz... A Sub contractor working for MAXXAM Corporation.

 https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2019/07/welcome-to-freshwater-california-usa.html

This is a picture of the clearcut forest two years later when pampas grass has grown 

where redwood trees used to be.

Scenes before the trees were all cut down... very dark pictures in the forest... Protesters watch the eviction of the treesitters... 

Interesting Movie: Who Bombed Judi Bari? 
https://www.imdb.com/video/vi742497305?ref_=tt_pv_vi_aiv_1

Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney were falsely arrested for car-bombing themselves on May 24, 1990 while on an Earth First! musical organizing tour for Redwood Summer. They sued the FBI for violations of the First Amendment, claiming the FBI knew they were innocent but arrested them to try to silence them. Having survived the bomb but now stricken by cancer, Judi Bari, a leader of the movement to save California's old growth redwoods, gives her on-camera, deathbed testimony about the attempt on her life and her colorful organizing history with the radical environmental movement Earth First!

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Bombed_Judi_Bari

What I've been doing since 1972. by Greg Vanderlaan - the Chico Years

After high school I went to Chico, California to attend college. My major was biology and I found out that I had no interest in studying that subject or ANY subject... I spent a lot of time smoking marijuana, drinking and playing music with my friends. After two years I flunked out. However, I did get to experience swimming in Upper Bidwell Park where the Black Lava Flows from Mount Lassen are. I really enjoyed swimming at One Mile Pool, Day or Night. Not many Parks are open all night long but Bidwell is so long and thin that a fence is impractical. Plus, a fence is, like, totally rude! I remember riding my bicycle everywhere. I also got to go on a Bus Ride with a many other students to go hear The Grateful Dead in Reno. My friend Jimmy played his guitar and I played the Harmonica while everyone else sang along... Then we stayed at a cabin on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe and the next day I ate some LSD and went to hear the legendary "Wall of Sound" at the University of Nevada football field. The Dead had a lot of trouble making that absurdly large public address system work but... we all had fun anyway... Especially playing slot machines after the show and driving down that street where they have giant sculptures of Showgirls.

In the springtime Chico State has a week long celebration called "Pioneer Days". My friends and I decided that the last place we wanted to be was in town when it was invaded by drunken strangers. We went camping at Yosemite, took LSD and climbed the trail to the top of Yosemite Falls. The higher we got in elevation the Higher We Got... By the time we arrived on top of the mountain it appeared to be moving wildly... as if the granite was dancing. I lay down on my belly and crawled to the edge... That's a great view but really dangerous because it's a tall cliff with no guard rail. We walked down to the valley floor and rode the double-decker bus around... sitting on the top, with no roof... bliss... we also walked to the base of Vernal Falls on the mist trail. I looked at my arm and it looked like a bear, with claws... I went fishing in the river and slapped a fish out onto the shore... just like a bear would. That evening we were playing guitars and my harmonica around the campfire when a ranger ran out of the darkness and tackled me... We were passing around a joint and I was holding it. He gave me a ticket for "Disturbing the Peace" and told us that we had to leave the park the next day or he'd change the charge to possession... In my humble opinion, The Ranger was the one "disturbing the peace" by tackling me...

The next Year we took a camping trip to Hetch-Hetchy reservoir. Another beautiful granite mountain near Yosemite. We took LSD and went free-climbing up a chimney and then hiked around above the tree line. I went down to the edge of the river to admire the bubbling water and accidentally slipped in. Could have died as there was a large waterfall downstream. The water out powered me and took me to the bottom of the pool. I gave up, accepted death and bubbled up to a place on the far shore where I climbed out. A cosmic near death experience... Hey Kids, Don't Do This!

I lived in Chico in 1973 and 1974 and then for a few years in the late 1990s early 2000s. I Joined AA and quit drinking Alcohol. Chico has a big active AA community. Going to meetings at Campfire Council Ring behind Caper Acres, Bidwell Park is an experience I will always treasure.  I spent one summer "Rent Free" camping outdoors at Picnic Area 37 in the grove of 13 Redwood Trees.