Group blazes trails to unity as Mammoth grows

Posted by High Sierra Rural Alliance

February 19, 2008

Like so many conflicts in the American West, this one began when newcomers put up a gate.

It was an artsy barrier, much like the posh developments that began to swell Mammoth Lakes even before Dave McCoy sold the famed Mammoth Mountain ski area in 2005. Owners in the new gated communities said they were only trying to keep cars off Ranch Road, where locals had long parked to ski or snowboard the Sherwins, a series of much-loved powder chutes on the edge of town.
The fight that ensued forced many here to ponder whether the area's public lands were doomed to suffer the fate of some Malibu beaches -- public in name, but private in practice.

Read the entire story about how a local backcountry skier created Mammoth Lakes Trails and Public Access in the LA Times

By Dean Kuipers, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer