Shame On DFG

October 30, 2007

The California Department of Fish and Game, using tactics akin to a John LeCarre spy novel, at one point assigned a warden to shadow Mammoth "Bear Man" Steve Searles, hoping that the department could somehow bust him and get him out of their hair. In a report in Tuesday's Los Angeles Times, Al Zamudio, a former Fish and Game warden, said his supervisors assigned him to watch Searles. "I spent a lot of nights following Steve," Zamudio said. "My lieutenant told me to keep an eye on him. If I caught him doing anything illegal, he said he'd buy me a steak dinner." This ain't right. It's not right in Mammoth, it's not right for our sense of right and wrong, and it's not right for our town's policy of cohabitation with wildlife. This stinks.

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Back In The Mam

October 26, 2007

Whew! Six weeks is a long time to be gone. Long enough for the aspens to turn, then fade. Long enough for the last bit of summer to get out of the way and make room for one of the best times of the year -- mid-autumn. In the high country, the colors are granite gray, flecked with the muted rusts and yellows in the meadows. On most mornings now, the lakes have little whiskers of ice around the edges. It's a perfect time for one of the best easy hikes and climbs around: The Mono Pass trail and Lembert Dome.

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