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Archived Newsletter |
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December 2002
For more trip information, see TRIPS. |
CONTENTS |
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TRIP REPORT RUN TO CALICO What a wonderful day it was, having the rain washing the air and settling the dust. Nice and clear, you could see details in the landscape that you've never seen before. After camping at the Slash X with the Kellys and the Rices Friday night, we met the rest of our participants at Ghost Town Road and the 115. A nice size group of 9 vehicles. We aired down right there, had our drivers meeting and were on our way by 9:30. Everyone bad at least I locker so the group was itching to do the rougher stuff. We started up Odessa and immediately encountered dry waterfalls. Wives bailed and cameras were clicking. Everyone made it through fine. Traveling the rest of the canyon produced no problems, but plenty of fun, except for Todd. When we made it to the "infamous" paved section where so many have had problems, everyone made it up OK (except for a few stalls) but Todd. He faltered half way up, slipped the clutch and rolled backwards into the canyon wall. With an exterior roll cage front and rear on his Suzuki, it twisted and dented the rear bar and tweaked the front windshield frame, thereby cracking the front windshield. He also took out his right rear side marker. After a few more small waterfalls, we cruised on around to Mule Canyon, and back over the mud hills to Odessa for lunch. On the way through Mule, there were hundreds of people, apparently from shooting clubs, having a competition, lots of bullets were flying. During lunch, Sherman and James Wallace decided to head back to their camp in Calico. They had friends and family there so they cut it short. He's really loving his "new" YJ, it doesn't break down ail the time! In the past, we've always come down Doran Canyon, so since we were all pretty set up, we decided to go up it this time. Bypassing the gauntlet at the bottom, we headed on up. It's a lot more fun going up! The bumper catching drop-offs were really interesting getting up, especially for the Matula's Cherokee. I made it up on pretty steep four tooter with a hole on the right, and caught some pretty good air. After some rocks were tossed in, everyone made it with good spotting. While we were going up Doran, a Boy Scout troop was hiking and actually made better time most of the way up. We drove around to the deep drop off that we've visited before and when we started back, the Boy Scouts were nearly there. We decided the shortest way (and most fun) back to Calico was back down Doran. We made it down in less than hour, we were out by 4 pm. The Schaffers, Kellys, Rices, Matulas, and Jay Anderson all dropped in at the Idle Spur for dinner before beading back. The Courseys spent the night in a hotel and joined us at the Slash X later. While they ate dinner, the rest of us tipped a few brews and shot pool. In the morning the Kellys led us around the area checking out some of the Hi Desert "Achy-Breaky" trail. Some of it was pretty steep and loose! It's the first time I ever needed to use both lockers going DOWN hill. With Suzy and I on Saturday were: Jay Anderson, Mike & Carol Kelly, Jon & Dale Rice, Bob & Pat Matula, Paul and Debbie Coursey, Todd Simpson, Tom Morey with Tom Purvis riding along, and Sherman Wallace with James Wallace riding with him.
DON'T LET BUSH AGENDA
DESTROY OUR DESERTS The Bush administration's anti-environmental agenda is biting the California desert even harder than the Times pointed out ("Dynamics changing in the battle for the desert" Oct 28th) As noted, the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management proposes reopening 50,000 acres of the fragile Algodones Dunes to off road thrill riding. Not mentioned is that the BLM is bullying it's sister agency the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to reverse a previous scientific decision that found the dunes closure necessary to save rare plants from extinction. Moreover, the Interior Department is readying new rules to ease the granting of rights-of-way for highway construction across federal public lands under an obscure 1866 mining law known as Revised Statute 2477. Rural counties across the West are claiming thousands of remote Jeep trails and even wash bottoms as R.S. 2477 "highways" in order to thwart wilderness designation or other conservation measures. In the California desert, San Bernardino County claims thousands of miles of these bogus highways, including 2,500 miles within the Mojave National Preserve alone, and others in Death Valley National Park, and in designated and proposed federally protected wilderness areas. If granted, these trails would become a spider web of new county roads, crisscrossing millions of acres of national parks and wilderness. Congress can help stop the Bush administration's attack on the desert by legislating permanent protection for some of the last unprotected wilderness in the desert, as proposed in the California Wild Heritage Act. In a state blessed with such beautiful landscape, we must safeguard our treasures for generations to come. Mary L. Wells -Executive Director, California Wilderness Coalition, Davis, California. (What a bunch of BS! -ed.)
MERRY CHRISTMAS We would like to wish all of our FITS family and friends the Merriest of Christmas and the Happiest of New Years.
SIR BIKESALOT Some FITS members were sitting around a campfire shooting the breeze when a cell phone rang. Ole Sir Bikesalot picks it up and sez, "Hello." "Honey are you with the guys?" "Yeah." sez Sir Bikesalot. "I'm at the mall and that leather coat I wanted is on sale and it's only $1000, can I buy it?" "OK if you like it that much," sez Sir Bikesalot. "Honey I also saw the cutest Mercedes sports car that I really liked." "How much is it?" sez Sir Bikesalot. "$60,000" she blurted out. "It better have all the goodies for that price!" sez Sir Bikesalot. "Great, and one more thing, that house we wanted is back on the market for only $650,000!" Sir Bikesalot sez, "Okay, but only offer them $620." "Okay, honey I'll see you later, love you!" Sir Bikesalot sez, "Love you too, bye". Sir Talksalot is speechless. Sir Jeepsalot is choking, and everyone is shaking their heads when Ole Sir Bikesalot sez, "Anybody know who's phone this is?"
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