Combined Visions Foster ‘Wounded Warrior’ Recreation Access Pathway at June Lake

What do you get when you put together a band of U.S. veterans and Wounded Warriors, marine industry professionals, and a motivated local community? At June Lake in California, you get access to a world of recreation for people who are too often denied even the simplest pleasures of the outdoors.

June 7, 2016, marked the opening ceremony of the Dick Noles Wounded Warrior Pathway, a 330-foot long ‘mobimat’ that now enables disabled veterans and others to reach the beach shoreline on June Lake with relative ease. It was not always an easy journey, but with the vision of one local icon and the cooperation and drive of several dedicated organizations, the new pathway was a project well-worth celebrating.

Dick Noles was a man of action and compassion who worked for Southern California Edison, “keeping all of the lights on” in the harsh eastern sierra region around Mammoth Lakes, California, before retiring 20 years ago. Dick passed away in November 2015, after spending most of his life making things better for the people and wildlife in the region. After his passing, a small group of his friends, including Randy Short, president of Almar Management, Inc., and past president of the MRA, continued to foster his vision in outdoor recreation access.

“Dick always was about access for everyone, not just the young and agile,” Short said in an interview with The Inyo Register. He is also a Vietnam combat veteran.

Among his many accomplishments, when the City of Bishop wanted a lake at the city park, Noles found an old crane in Mammoth, and talked the owner into bringing it down and digging out the lake; a daunting task since the old road down Sherwin Grade was too steep and curvy for the big crane to make it down on its own. But Noles also located a couple of big trucks to guide the lumbering crane down the mountain, and the new lake was dug. The material from the excavation was also used to expand the park and add several new ball fields still in use today.

Noles took on creating other new fishing ponds and making old ones more functional through the years as well. He was instrumental in pulling together the many volunteers, excavators and other land moving equipment to create the Buckley Ponds on property, lent by the LA Department of Water & Power in Inyo County, a truly massive and well-coordinated construction project. Along with these lakes came accessible fishing platforms and docks, some built by the Bishop Lions Club, so that people of all abilities could gain access to fish and enjoy the lakes.

“The last project that Dick Noles was involved with came about when I was appointed by Governor Brown to be on the Division of Boating & Waterways Commission,” Short said. “Among other things, Boating & Waterways (DBW) grants and loans money for boating infrastructure. I wanted to see if there were things we could do in the Eastern Sierra so I called Dick. I thought maybe we could build an accessible kayak and canoe dock on the lake he had just completed.”

“Dick’s vision was always 20/20 when the rest of us were using bifocals. He wanted to create a series of lakes through the Owens Valley that could provide access for kayaking and fishing for Wounded Warriors. I told Dick, ‘you need to meet my old friend Kathy Copeland,’ and over lunch one day the three of us launched the Eastern Sierra Waterways Project.”

That project now includes forty-two lakes throughout Inyo and Mono counties. With Noles’ leadership over the years, it gained the enthusiastic support of the Inyo and Mono County Boards of Supervisors, and an advisory board of some of the most prominent people in the area. As a result of all this hard work, the DBW awarded a grant to build accessible facilities at Diaz Lake. In addition, the DBW and River Parkways agencies are meeting with local officials and Eastern Sierra Waterways to discuss funding to expand access to the Lower Owens River, the most beautiful four- to six-hour kayak trip anywhere in California.

“Last spring a group of us got together to carry Dick Noles’ work forward even further,” Short said. “Working with the volunteer based Disabled Sports Eastern Sierra 501c3 nonprofit organization, we developed the Dick Noles Wounded Warrior Pathway project at June Lake. The financial contributors were all friends who jumped at the chance to do this project, including Dave McCoy, founder of Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, Bob Schotz, a Mammoth area developer and Pacific World War II veteran, John Fredrickson, owner of June Lake and Crowley Lake marinas, John Atkins, Vietnam combat medic veteran, U.S. Ski Team Trainer, and longtime President of Howard Head Sports Medicine, and of course, me.”

The $20,000 project broke ground in early summer last year led by Todd O’Banion, with a group of volunteers who laid a transition of new pavers from the parking lot to the newly installed ‘mobimat’ running down to the June Lake shoreline. Todd’s crew included the remarkable Sgt. Dylan Gray, double amputee Marine Corps veteran, and nationally ranked snowboard racer who installed pavers and drove equipment throughout the project, and proved the value of employing more Wounded Warriors for fantastic projects like this.

On June 7, 2016, nearly 200 local residents, wounded warriors, and other veterans along with General Ted Banta, Commanding General MCI West MCB Camp Pendleton, with his wife and family, and the family of Dick Noles, gathered along the new walkway and cheered as five-year-old Damian walked triumphantly on his prosthetic leg in the arms of his wheeled-walker toward the lake, his smile beaming in appreciation.

John Fredrickson of June Lake Marina said that hundreds of people use the accessible pathway each day during the summer season.

Noles would be proud; his mission to provide accessibility to lakes and rivers in the Eastern Sierra is an ongoing manifestation, thanks to a dedicated group of friends carrying forward his vision.

J. Mills is Western Region Sales Manager for Meeco Sullivan – The Marina Company, a licensed General Engineering Contractor, and part-time freelance writer for Marina Dock Age and other industry publications, and Editor at the Bay & Delta Yachtsman magazine.

This article includes content from Randy Short & The Inyo Register