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Archived Newsletter |
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August 2000
SCHEDULED EVENTS
For more trip information, see TRIPS. |
CONTENTS |
BIG BEAR THE EASY WAY
by Ric "Locked Gate" Jones
On Saturday July 15, 13 vehicles met at the City Creek Forestry Service for a easy day of four wheeling.
I had about 20 calls about the run, and ended up with about 6 of them actually making the run.
Early in the week I got a call from Doug Meyer from 4X4 TV, and he asked if he could tag along on the run and do some filming. Me miss an opportunity to possibly be on TV?. I don't think so! Sure you can tag along!
At 9:30 we left the Station, missing 2 members and 2 guests that were supposed to be there.
On the way up the mountain, we passed one of the missing members (who shall remain nameless) going the other way. We tried to get him on the CB, but couldn't reach him. Not a big surprise, since he usually either has it turned off or down, even on a run. Well, we never did connect with him.
After turning on to Green Valley Road, we picked up Dave Felando and the Anderson family, and made our way to where 3N16 takes off. Here we aired down.
From the junction, we made our way to 3N52 and the beginning of the trail.
Fearless Leader made one incorrect turn in a moment of temporary location ambiguity. We got to see a little side trail, and then it was back on the trial to Butler Peak.
The trail was pretty easy, but very scenic. The weather was near perfect, good temp. a deep blue sky with puffy clouds. There was some pretty areas, great views, and still some PLFs (pretty little flowers).
We made Butler Peak just in time for lunch and to explore the Lookout tower. The day was pretty clear, so you could see for quite a ways.
What made lunch even better was Zal's friend Jolie brought a big batch of brownies. Her timing was great. Doug was working on a wrap up for the TV program, and was talking about one benefit of going with a club is that you meet some great people. And so he was going to include in the program her offering brownies . Way to go girl!
After lunch Doug and the film crew stayed behind while we headed off for the "challenging" part of the run. When we got to 3N14 Jim Carvin decided he would head home, but actually went for the hairier trails.
We took 3N14 to 3N12 then picked up 3N08. It is a fun little trail with a couple of minor challenges. We had 4 vehicles that were offroad for the first time, so it was a bit of a challenge for them. They all did great. We ended up back at 3N14 at 2:30 and at that point they had to make a very important decision. Go left and go home, or go right and follow me to Ice Cream. A tough decision, but 3 went home and the rest of us went for ice cream at Green Valley Lake.
It was just ice cream bars, not as good as the ice cream at Arrowhead, but I had to leave that for people to look forward to on my September run. We had a great group of people and a wide array of vehicles. The film crew was in an MB ML. We had a couple of Toyota Pickups, three Cherokees, a Grand Cherokee, a few Wranglers (YJ ), a CJ5 and the bookend vehicles (leader and tailgunner) in matching green Sahara TJs..
The great guests we had were: (I'm just putting the driver's name since I didn't get anyone elses).
Wayne Parish, Robert Day, Jose Arios, Brad Evens, Jacob Longfellow, Doug Meyer, and Rafael Gonzalez.
Members were: The Andersons, Jim Carvin, Dave Felando, Jay & Ellen Jiminez, Brad Quick, Jon & Dale Rice, Zal Tepper, and myself and wife Pat (without Sandy the Dirt Dawg). I'd like to thank everyone for a great time, and hope to see the guests at the meeting and future runs. They were great!
As I mentioned in the trip report, we had Doug Meyer from 4X4 TV along on the trip.
He is putting together a couple of pilot shows that he hopes to make into a series if he gets the sponsors. The basis of the series is sport utility vehicles. Each show will be broken into three segments. The first segment will be showcasing a sport utility vehicle. The one that he was using for this shoot was a MB ML, which is supposed to be pretty good off road, if clearance isn't a problem. They'll show the vehicle on the street and in the dirt.
The second segment of the show will be a build up. Like lifting a vehicle, or in the case of most sport/utes, adding floor mats!
The third segment will be highlighting a trail. What he's looking for in trails, is one that the average stock sport/ute could do.
It worked out well that my run was exactly what he was looking for. We had a good cross section of vehicles, as well as people, from young adults to seniors (Dave)! We even had a young woman from Australia.
Doug said he will send us a copy of the tape, which should be interesting.
Good luck Doug, and thanks for joining us.
John Uhern has reported that he read that Rockhouse Canyon at Joshua Tree has been closed.
He was to lead a trip through there in November, but now it's canceled. Another good trail bites the dust.
SPERRY WASH ROUTE IMPROVEMENT PROJECT
Sperry Wash near Dumont Dunes OHV area is having a work party. The wash is a corridor through a wilderness area and has about 7 water crossings. The greenies are trying to get the route shutdown, but by establishing a route with markers and appropriate barricades we hope to keep the trail open. Please show up and help support a good cause.
IT'S A DUSY ALL RIGHT!
Several members of the club did the Dusy Trail near Shaver Lake over the 4th of July. They all said it was very rough, and the carnage included a tire and a broken axle. Most people said they enjoyed it, but were not planning on returning for some time, if ever! The trail definitely lived up to it's name.
Since our meeting room is so hot this time of year, we decided to have the August meeting at Simon Bolivar park on Del Amo in Lakewood.
Dave will be BBQing hot dogs, so get there early and bring a soda, and if you want, bring a dish to share.
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