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BBA
climber
OF
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Mar 15, 2011 - 11:34pm PT
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I believe Galen was named after Galen Clark, "Guardian of Yosemite". At the time Galen's father was a professor emeritus at UC in either physics or math (I think). It's been a long time since I thought much about "the criminal", our nickname for Galen. He had an interesting friend named Scott who was a Section 8 out of the Marine Corps. My problem was no wheels, so I got a ride with Galen in some hot car sans plates in early 1961, really fast on the curves along the Merced. We did Rixon's East with water running down on us and icicles crashing around. After that trip I decided that hanging around with Galen would be a way to get arrested, even if not guilty of anything that particular day. We still met now and then at Indian Rock. He was afflicted with schemes.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 15, 2011 - 11:42pm PT
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Bill Amborn, that was Scott Walker.
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Mar 16, 2011 - 12:03am PT
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Hi #310,
Never saw an article, but Galen showed me slides of the bear carcasses. Quite a pile of them, dumped off the side of 120 as it goes down into the Valley. And they were naked. Without their fur coats they looked uncannily human, beefy like well-muscled climbers. Galen was pissed, figuring that the Rangers had scored bearskin rugs along with their genocide.
Not that the LEO Rangers needed more reasons to hunt Galen; there were many.
One time there had been fresh rockfall off the wall above Rixon's Pinnacle. Pretty massive, so the Northside Drive was cordoned off just past Camp 4 with yellow hazard tape. Galen wanted photos and of course ducked under the barricade. A patrol Ranger accosted him and things escalated. The Ranger raised his voice and put his hand on his gun.
At that, Galen started dancing around chanting,
"Shoot me,
Shoot Me,
Shooot me!"
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 16, 2011 - 12:06am PT
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To clarify further, Galen found out that not only were the rangers trapping the errant bears, but that they were releasing them from the mobil bear trap, off a sizable cliff on the way out of the Valley, thus killing them.
Dougie, I did not know that they were skinning them..... god, it just won't stop! There must have been a subroutine involved then, before they dumped the poor animals.
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BooDawg
Social climber
Butterfly Town
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Mar 16, 2011 - 12:06am PT
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Galen's bear expose was titled, "The Yosemite Solution to Ursus americanus" and it appeared in the Sierra Club Bulletin #59. It caused quite a stir with photos of where the rangers were dumping their killed bears off the Hwy from Crane Flat near one of those 3 tunnels. But after that story, bear proof boxes and other innovations in policy appeared in the park.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 16, 2011 - 12:08am PT
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Yeah, Boo, the program really improved. But in that article did they mention that the bears were skinned? I never heard that.... jesus.
Plus, your new avatar looks a lot like Eleanor Roosevelt. I like it.
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Mar 16, 2011 - 12:35am PT
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Ah yes the infamous Scott Walker!
Galen's best friend thru Berkeley High and the wild years thereafter. Studly, good looking too a fault, charismatic, the guy could talk a snake charmer out of his snake, and one of the best BSers I have ever known.
In the good season the boys would hang out at the UCB rec outdoor swimming pool in Strawberry Canyon behind the football stadium. The lads would lather up with their special, proprietary tanning solution of coconut butter and iodine and metamorphose into Greek gods. Neither were students at UCB at the time but that never seemed to alarm them. Plenty of young ladies to entertain.
I would call it Galen's "Patrick Swayze Dirty Dancing Era", circa late 50s early 60s, Galen could always be found "hanging" at Mels Drive In in Berserkeley. Almost every evening he would pull up to his favorite slot and hold court. Hard not to think of Newman and Redford in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." The Checkered Demon would be proud. You have to remember that this is pre Free Speech, Mario Savio and certainly way before Galen became politically active.
If we were headed to the Valley early on a fri night, I often had to wait until midnight because Galen was on a date and just couldn't break away. On one of these late evening in his 63 silver Corvette, he fell asleep at the wheel twice between Planada and Mariposa and we careened off the road at close go 90 mph. On another occasion, we had just wired up the dashboard on another Corvette and while flying along at well over a 100 mph the lights went out. I'm upside down trying to reconnect the wires and Galen is having a wee temper tantrum because he can't see the road.
Once we raced a Porsche from El Portal to Merced. The Porsche would pass us on the curves but Galen would retake the lead on the straightaway. Galen won of course.
On another trip on a friday afternoon we were trying to set a speed record from Berkeley to the Valley. There were enough of us that we worked out a Grand Prix type scenario in case of a flat tire. Sure enough we had a flat and it was like a Fellini movie, but we set a record. This was when the route from Berkeley to 99 was still only two lanes.
Walker use to tell us about his Triumph Bonneville that he left in Berkeley and wanted to bring to the Valley. So I gave him a ride down and we cruised thru the UC parking lots looking for his Triumph that he had loaned to a friend. Sure enough, after several hours he spots his motorcycle, hops out of my car and says he will meet me back in the Valley.
Roper and I had a great time riding the Triumph all over the Valley and only later did we learn that Walker had stolen it that day in Berkeley when I had dropped him off.
One summer the entrance station at Tioga was robbed at gunpoint and our buddy Walker seemed to match the description but nothing ever came of it.
Then there was the time we all sat high in a tree somewhere outside Merced because we had got into a drag race and the police came and were looking for us....................................
Well that is enough for now but feel comforted that there exists no deficit to stories relating to Galen and his Rowellmobile years.
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BooDawg
Social climber
Butterfly Town
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Mar 16, 2011 - 12:36am PT
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I don't remember reading about skinning bears in the article; it may or may not have been in there.
People have said that I look like Will Ferrell but never Elanor Roosevelt! Thanks anyway, Peter.
BTW, Peter, I have a new computer here in CA and will be getting Photoshop installed on it plus a new camera that will take RAW pictures! Only problem will be to find time to learn Photoshop and to scan my slides. I did get some of that emulsion cleaner; it's GREAT STUFF!
GREAT STORIES, Guido! Some I've heard before, of course, but I know it's a deep well where reside your stories of yesteryear! Thanks for sharing.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 16, 2011 - 12:42am PT
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Don't worry Boo. Photoshop has sort of "levels'" informally. You can get a bang out of it right away. Also go join Lynda.com for the zillion great tutorials on PS as well as a myriad of other important programs. It is cheap also.
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BooDawg
Social climber
Butterfly Town
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Mar 16, 2011 - 12:44am PT
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Thanks, Peter. Lynda is aleady installed, actually...
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Jerry Dodrill
climber
Sebastopol, CA
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Mar 16, 2011 - 11:22am PT
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Great stories! Brings back so many memories of GR. His temper tantrums were legendary. I'll never forget the night while returning from the Valley when a logging train at Chinese Camp stopped on the tracks and blocked his path. He spent about a minute putting all his strength into the Suburban's horn while his blood pressure rose higher and higher until he burst out the door running, screaming, toward the engineer who had just stepped off the train to switch the tracks. Scared for his life the poor fella waved his arms in submission, jumped back on board and backed up the train so the mad man could pass.
Galen was fuming but proud of his success when he got back in the truck. We had been climbing and shooting for a few days on assignment for Rock & Ice. I was pretty tired and actually fell asleep around Manteca but was jolted awake by jarring Bot Dot vibrations while coming down the Altamont Pass. Galen was hunched toward the wheel in that tell-tell position of one who has tried and failed to maintain consciousness but is still fighting. I asked him to let me drive but of course he was "fine" so changed lanes and stepped harder on the pedal just to make sure. For the rest of the drive I was the only one fully awake and kept subtly grabbing the wheel to make critical course corrections when I really thought the end was imminent.
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BBA
climber
OF
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Mar 16, 2011 - 11:23am PT
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Bear genocide was a program started by a Park superintendent (Col. Thomson) back in the 1930's, I believe. He was the one that had the good roads and the big stone buildings at the visitor's center built, too.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Mar 17, 2011 - 02:27am PT
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Does anyone know how Galen developed an interest in small planes? Was it transference from cars and climbing, or perhaps acquired from Steve Roper, or?
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay
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Mar 17, 2011 - 03:45am PT
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Galen was rather annoyed by my preference for racing British cars: Austin Healy, MG, and Lotus. So one day he took me for a drive from Camp 4 to Tuolumne in a black souped-up Corvette convertible. He told me he was in the business of buying stripped cars from insurance companies and then rebuilding them the way he liked. He was hoping I'd get hooked and buy this one. I'm not sure which of us was more embarrassed when we smelled hot brakes and realized I'd been racing the mountain roads with the hand brake still on.
I told him it was certainly a cool car, but he should check out the new AC Cobras that Jeff Schoolfield was helping Carroll Shelby build in Santa Monica. Not long after, Galen could be seen racing around the valley in a dark green 289 AC Cobra that today would probably be worth half a million bucks. This car pretty much shut down the competition that several of us had been having each weekend from the Bay area to Yosemite.
Shortly before they died, I was driving by a farm west of Bakersfield and saw an old stripped-out black Corvette with no engine or transmission and every body panel smashed. I figured it was about time for me to get the Corvette that Galen wanted me to have, so bought it. Then it became my Galen Rowell memorial project and I built up an engine from a bare four-bolt 350 block, got it running, built up the suspension and brakes, fixed up the body, new leather interior, etc. It's still an evolving project sitting out in my driveway.
Edit: Years ago Galen visited us when I was working in Connecticut and using a small plane to fly business trips. I can't claim to have influenced his interest, but he appreciated the idea of hopping over all the traffic.
Speaking of which, we had some special tricks for getting by the heavy weekend traffic from Livermore to Tracy on the way to Yosemite. If you tried to drive on the shoulder to pass all the bumper to bumper traffic; you'd not get more than a few miles before you'd get a ticket. So we'd race along on the shoulder for a mile or two, and inevitably pick up several over-eager drivers following us; at which point we'd slip back into line and let them go ahead. Soon they would get pulled over by the next available cop. As soon as we had passed by them, we'd repeat the stunt.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Mar 17, 2011 - 05:53am PT
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And here I thought Frank Sacherer invented the driving on the shoulder trick! I still use it on occasion in the bus and taxi lanes in Japan if I'm late on an airport run. It helps to have good intuition and that famous tracking sense you talk about on other threads.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Mar 26, 2011 - 02:43pm PT
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Hot cars and cold beer Bump!
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Mar 26, 2011 - 03:01pm PT
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missed this thread first time around.
tx esp. for the photo of the shop-- i always wondered where his garage was.
ive heard lots of the stories but mostly 2nd or 3rd hand.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 26, 2011 - 03:32pm PT
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For those that want it pinpointed, it is 660 San Pablo Avenue, Albany nearest cross street is Castro, and next to Hillview Pet Hospital.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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Mar 26, 2011 - 04:05pm PT
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Best threads on the taco....rj
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Chris Jones
Social climber
Glen Ellen, CA
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Mar 27, 2011 - 08:04pm PT
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Ah Peter, the memories! When on San Pablo Avenue, which is where I buy wine among other essentials, I usually scan the various nondescript buildings knowing that one of them is Galen's old stand. That is it for sure. One fascinating detail is the contrast between the early Galen alluded to here, the slightly disreputable greaser, and his upbringing. Before one trip Galen had to swing by his parent's house. It was a beautiful home in the Berkeley hills. I learned to my complete astonishment that his mother, Margaret Rowell, was a nationally recognized cellist who gave master classes - I later met this gracious lady several times. His father was, as I recall, a professor of rhetoric at Cal.
When Galen, Joe Faint or others and I went on our mad weekend trips in the early 70s- for we were all working stiffs of one stripe or another - we always took Galen's car of the moment, and Galen did almost all the driving. Our cars were simply not up to the task. He drove very fast, was very skilled, and was confident he could handle the highway patrol if pulled over. Galen had a line of patter down about how the officer was perhaps correct; he had recently equipped his car with oversize tires, and of course this meant the speedometer would read too low and so on and so forth. Claimed he had used this line too.
One time around midnight we were tearing down 395 towards Bridgeport. At that time there was a 90 degree left turn somewhere north of town. Galen saw it just too late. He swore, did something magical with the brakes and steering, we spun around and ended up facing the way we came. I have never seen driving like it. (As a reason for his lapse, he said he suffered from an allergy to cat fur, which was on a girlfriends' clothing).
The driving was so much a part of these epics that he titled an article he wrote for Summit something like: "The Thousand Mile Weekend." Maybe someone can find it and post it up?
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