June 2000 Newsletter

SCHEDULED EVENTS

6/17 Miller Jeep Trail
7/15 Big Bear The Easy Way
8/19 Big Bear The Hard Way

For more trip information, see TRIPS.

CONTENTS

Trip Report
Rattlesnake Canyon -The Next Day
Know Exactly Where You Are
Earth Day Clean Up At El Mirage
High Desert Kid's Games
Run Safety Requirements

Our trip up Rattlesnake Canyon began at 9am with 15 vehicles. It was a beautiful, sunny morning that proved to remain that way all day. Some of us who were camped at Heart Bar campground came down from Big Bear, while the rest came in from Victorville.

After the safety check and usual driver's meeting, we were under way at 9:30. The canyon provided it's usual beauty, however this year it seemed a lot easier than before. Less water resulting from a lean winter kept the canyon dry nearly all the way to the springs.

We stopped for lunch at an abandoned homestead that provided plenty of shade. There's another spring feeding a pond providing natural habitat for birds and other wildlife.

After lunch we took off for the loose hill climb leading out toward Landers, but this time we turned around at the top and headed back towards Pioneer Town and Bums Canyon Road. Missing my turn near the observatory and hitting pavement about 3 miles beyond, I quickly reacquired the nickname "Turn Around". Back tracking after a short consultation with my map "experts", we turned around and headed up Bums Canyon toward Onyx Summit.

We were looking for trails that might give us a bit more challenge than the graded dirt road we were on. We stopped at a trail that took off to the left that looked promising. We tried to find it on a couple of maps, but couldn't find it. It was an adopt-a-trail by the Riverside 4 Wheelers and rated difficult (black diamond) marked 2N73. Since we had a few stock vehicles with us, and we didn't know where it came out, or how difficult it really was, we decided to leave this for another day. It turns out that it met up with the road a few miles further up.

Continuing on, we turned onto I N02 towards Onyx Summit Immediately after, there was another trail going left marked 2N85 (I think). The same adopt-a-trail club and rating, but again not showing up on the maps. I know my map is old (USFS), however, others with more recent maps showed nothing. Kind of makes you wonder.

Making the same decision as before, we headed up to Hwy 38 and ended our trip around 4. Dave Felando was happy.

Members present: Jay, Laurie & Kevin Anderson, Jim & BETTY Bays, Dave Felando, Jay & Ellen Jimenez, Mike & Carol Kelly, Jerry MacDonald, Bob & Pat Matula, Brad Quick, Rick & Suzy Schaffer, Dennis Sullivan with co-pilot Ric Jones, and Andy Vique.

Guests were: Elaine Sullivan (should be a member by now) Edgar & Jamie Roj as, Randy & Kate Goodman with Michael Ondrey, Tom and Heather Morey, and John Mahin in his nice Range Rollover Defender.

It seems that the Kellys had talked to some folks about our run and said that we were camping at I Heart Bar. So, they said they'd camp there to, and catch us in camp before we headed down to Lucerne. Well, they missed us somehow and didn't catch up with us for the run. They found us in camp after the run though, and we talked about doing a run up Jacoby Canyon in the morning. They have a CJ5 with 33's open, with stock gears. I'd heard that Jacoby might be a little challenging but had never run it. "Sounds Great".

So, off we go Sunday morning to Jacoby Canyon. It starts part way down Hwy. 18 from Baldwin and heads back up to 3N16 right next to the mine. It was pretty, but not very difficult, and only about 2-1/2 miles long. Since we were done so early, and in the neighborhood, we thought we'd try John Bull. Our guests were having a good time (and feeling adventuresome), so we went for it.

Along with Suzy and I were the Kellys, the Bays, and Jerry MacDonald. John Bull is in pretty good condition now. Everyone was doing great until our guests Jeep started running hot and they were slipping the clutch a lot. They got tipped up to one side pretty steep and the radiator boiled over. We stopped for a while to let it cool down, then strapped him back up straight. While we were waiting, a Grand Cherokee with father and son (about 14) were coming down. The vehicle looked stock and the boy was spotting his dad, so I asked if they were okay. He said they'd already gone up the trail and were heading back down. Awesome!

Once underway everything seemed to go well except for our new friends with a burning clutch. We stopped at the top of the hill for another break, ate a quick snack, and continued on.

Just before you get off the trail, there's a sharp left turn at the top of a short hill. It would have been easy except some guy parked his Jeep right on the turn. I had to do a sharp 3 point turn into some bushes to get around him. Jerry wasn't having any luck with that, and he was in the bush and up on a rock. The guy walks up to

Jerry and asks "You want me to move my Jeep?" Jerry says, "That would really be nice." DAH!

We got back to camp about 2:30 and headed home. Our guests were Wayne and Barbara Parish. They're sort of new to Jeepin' and we hope we didn't scare them off. They were great fun and good sports for trying John Bull on an initiation run.

As of the first of May, the government has downgraded it's selective availability for GPS signals.

That means that we now get a more accurate reading out of our GPS units (and that we have no more military advantage and that enemies can bomb us better! Way to go Bill. -JJ). Now, when we are lost, we will know exactly where we are. This won't help though, without a good map, and knowing how to use the GPS!

On May 6th, I went to El Mirage dry lake to give a hand on the first annual El Mirage clean-up, which was also the site of this year's Earth Day event hosted by CA4WDC, CORVA, ANA, SCTA and other organizations. A good portion of the Desert Dawgs were representing CA4WDC, along with a couple from Point Mugu 4 Wheelers. A few others from AMA, some land sailors, a good showing front CORVA, and about 50 from SCTA along with some locals all showed up to work.

After coffee and doughnuts, introductions were made, and we split into 5 different groups. All of the Dawgs were assigned to a group to pick up discarded tires.

While mustering at our discard site, Ric Jones suddenly appeared. He had come out with his brother-in-law to try out his new motorcycle. Something about a second childhood, and his being forced into buying a bike by his brother-in-law (always a good excuse!) He must have forgotten about all the aches and pains one experiences with bikes. We all harassed him about coming out to play while the rest of us slaved away. He didn't have any sympathy!

We loaded up two trailers (Matt's and Ray Leuschner's), a stake bed truck, and my pickup with tires and headed back to the semi-trailer to load them. All the tires on Matt's trailer still had rims on them, so they were taken across the lake to a resident who had a tire machine to be broken down. Little did he know when he volunteered he would have 50 to do!

After lunch we headed out for another load. While heading out, we saw Ric riding along El Mirage Road. I thought he must be out looking for locked gates, but it turned out he got lost and took the long way back to the lake.

On the second trip we brought a dump truck to fill with trash. We managed to once again fill both trailers, a stake side pickup and my truck with tires, and the dump truck with trash.

He headed back to camp about 3:30 and happy-houred until about 5 when the BBQ started.

Dinner that night was a tri-tip BBQ . The wind picked up and we retreated to Mike Ahern's enclosed trailer for a party. Can you say "Sauna"?

After the BBQ they had a raffle and Matt Battaglia and Ray Leuschner probably won about 80% of the staff. Lots of hassle over that!

I left after the raffle, but others stayed until Sunday for the Poker ran. I hear it was fun, but the wind continued.

This year for Hi Desert Round-up (HDR), F.I.T.S. volunteered to chair the Kids Games event. This portion of the HDR is held on Sunday afternoon just prior to the raffle and awards ceremony.

Prior to the event, Jon & Dale Rice, and myself attended the HDR meetings one a month in Corona. Since none of us had ever even seen this event, or had been to HDR, we were trying to find out all that we could. Ginger Hughes of the Desert Dawgs ran the games the year before and provided us with a box of toys, game equipment, and the event roster from the year before. The roster had game rules, and past volunteers that I could call for help.

Jon and Dale were able to purchase other equipment we thought we'd need as well as a wagon to use in I game, then donate to the kid's raffle.

We were able to got most of the previous game operators to do this year's but we needed a few more from the club.

When it was time for the event, those FITS members who volunteered to help all camped at the Slash-X instead of the event location. It was quieter there.

This is the first year that a large tent would be used to hold some of the in-camp events. This provided an excellent place for the games. Finally, shade at Hi Desert!! Dinner. from Andy's Cafe, was served there on Saturday night., the raffle prizes were displayed there. and the raffle and awards were held there in comfort. A very welcome addition.

So, Sunday morning we all headed over to the tent and began setting up. I had made a sketch of where to put each game and we all started pounding stakes and stringing barrier tape.

I assigned Mike & Carol Kelly to cover the Potato Sack race, Jim & Betty Bays to the Can-Can (no Betty didn't do a cancan, this is different) race and Suzy to the Snag-a-Duck (no animals were harmed) game. Dave and Grace Trice assisted Suzy, Wayne rail around assisting anyone who needed it, I sold tickets, and Diana wrote out participants ribbons, helped the kids with toys and worked with the trophy announcer to award the trophies (picture a very dusty Vanna White). Once the game started, it was frantic for two hours straight!

The whole event went extremely well. Lots of compliments from the HDR committee. Everyone from the club who helped set it up worked their tail off! But, it was a lot of fun.

After we all packed everything back up, we all went back to the Slash-X and had steaks, ribs and BBQ chicken.

The only sad note is that Jon Rice has been ill for quite some time and, after all his hard work helping bring this together, wasn't able to attend and see it happen. Thanks Jon & Dale!

Rich & Phyllis - Raffle chair/dash plaques and PORTA-POTTIES! (Rich's specialty? Ed.)

Rick & Suzy Schaffer -Coordinator & cashier (can't stay away from the money! Ed.)/Snag-a-duck operator.

Jim & Betty Bays -Can-Can race (not dance). If you want to know what that is you'll have to help next year to find out.

Wayne, Diana, & Taylor Begg -Overall assistance/ribbon writer, trophy administrator, Vanna White fill in/Trophy Winner.

The club would like to thank everyone who helped with the kid's games at Hi Desert. Especially Rick Schaffer and Jon Rice for putting everything together.

Jon Rice has been tinder the weather for a while with an unknown problem, and was unable to make Hi Desert.

Archived Newsletter

RUN SAFETY REQUIREMENTS