Gathering wood in j-tree campgrounds

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I post these two photo's because I'm tired of seeing people gather wood from around the campgrounds and not bringing there own wood. It is sad when you have to damage the nature of the park to keep your lazy ass warm at night. A bundle of wood only cost 5 or so dollars. Save the park's plant's and tree's and bring your own wood!

Excellent post.

J-tree ain't the forest.

That sucks!

Humans f' up everything we touch.

any one taking bushes or wood should be put down.good job mike for taking the time to get this serious message out too all the stupid ass mother f....rs out there that have no common sense.i hate all you dumb asses.thanks mike.

Uh, gotta call bullshit. This doesn't look like the same tree in the photo at all. Good troll. But people really shouldn't gather wood - especially in an environment like Jtree's.

Even stripped the bark off, damn!!!For reals though, the convenience store at the corner of Hwy. 62 and Park Blvd. sells those bundles of wood.

You are right zeke about the trees not being the same but the campsites are right next to each other. Hidden valley dirt cul de sac #44 and #45. The cut tree did look like the full tree years ago until people started to cut it for wood! I've been going to j-tree for years and every campsite has signs of people cutting bushes and trees for wood. It is BS!

I completely agree. I think your presentation was a bit misleading, but your message is spot on.

Quit burning crates also.or pick the nails out of the fire pits.Fire pits should also not be used for burning bottles and cans,unless you bring your mom to clean up after you.

All right, story time:

I visited Jtree for the first time this winter, and on my 3rd or 4th night in my campsite, two guys moved in...and by moved in, I mean they commandeered my campsite. They arrived at night, while I was asleep, "didn't notice my tent," ignored my cooking setup on the table, and started drinking, playing guitar, and singing at the top of their lungs around their campfire. Like...singing opera (seriously, opera). Pretty much shouting.

Second night: 4 guys more guys show up (no relation to the original hijackers). The first dudes set up a grill and start making a beer chicken while the other dudes proceed to get outrageously smashed. First dudes convince one of the new dudes to light a piece of Joshua Tree on fire and run around the Hidden Valley loop. One of the new dudes also drunkenly falls into the grill. I wish I had taped all of this. It was pretty wacky.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the singing continued, but yelling "Take a shower, you dirty hippies" into the wee hours of the morning was added.

I'm really sorry about that, but you did need to take a shower at that point. And it wasn't opera, it was Bohemian Rhapsody.

David,

Unfortunately, that's pretty common. A number of times I've pulled back into my site after a day of climbing only to find that someone else has pulled in, pitches their tent, etc. They give you the 'hey man, is it OK if we crash here', even though they already have. You kind of feel like an a-hole if you don't say yes, but I think it's pretty rude. When you get the late night, singing dirtbag, it's clearly worse but unfortunately, at that point they've become squatters. Unless you're willing to get into a confrontation, you're kind of stuck.

The tree stump in the top poster's photo was not cut down for firewood. I actually remember when I worked at JT and that was cut down about 5 or 6 years ago. There was a pest infestation and that tree was dying. The park had the summer temp workers (teenagers) cut the tree but they kind of butchered the job. The trees that were 'trimmed' that summer were dying or dead. I am not saying that visitors haven't done their share of damage, but just putting some perspective on the pictured stump. There was also a tree or two damaged from slacklining. Since then, anchoring lines to trees has been outlawed.

And thus the thread dies.

Zeke,

I don't think I know you, so I'm not sure why you commented. Yes, it was opera, they never made it to Queen. The shower remarks ware actually not about me, because strangely, besides the squatting, they were very nice to me. We talked for a while and they fed me at least half that damn chicken.

Fat Dad,

That's what I felt as well. What could I have done, besides made a stink, that could have possible done nothing to budge them? I felt it wasn't worth it. Plus, they did feed me.

The tree was being slowing butchered for fire wood before it was infected. Yes it was cut down because of pest infestation. Collecting firewood will still continue until people grow some balls and speak up when they see idiots doing it. While we are talking about tree and bush damage let's talk about the boulders that smash bushes and trees with there big ass crash pads to protect there ass from falling. Grow balls and do it with out pads like the old school guys did. As for people coming into my camp while i had the site first. I have no problem telling them to pack up there shit and leave!!!

David, just screwing around buddy.

Interesting about that tree... It has been a lightning rod for all kinds of tales and picked bones.

We all make impacts as a climber, the idea is to decide how much. I thought the Verm article in Climbing was interesting concerning this subject.

what month was the article?i want to see if i read it.

steve gooden wrote:what month was the article?i want to see if i read it.

OK, I'll come out of hiding on this one...
I don't pluck the trees for wood there but I was once guilty of too much noise at night. That's twice as bad as it sounds because I camp at Ryan to AVOID the noise/scene in Hidden Valley.

So one night we were up pretty late by a fire, having had a few beers and joking around and whatnot. No singing, but I'm sure we were to loud. I'm sure that we were too loud because someone came over and told us we were, reminding us of the thin walls of tents and how some others are light sleepers. Which, in turn, reminded me of why I camp at Ryan... and we were pretty quiet thereafter. My only regret otehr than having been loud was that someone had not said something sooner.

The moral of the story is that if you ask nicely, sometimes you can get what you want without starting anything.