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Archived Newsletter |
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June 2005
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EXPLORING THE HAMMERS (or "What the
Hell are We Doing out Here in the Desert in All This Heat?") Nine Jeeps showed up before 9:00 for our exploratory trip to find as many of the famous Hammer trails as possible. All gassed up and fed, we hit the road to Means Dry Lake and finally arrived around 10:30. Steve Frank towed his Jeep out so he unhooked on the dry lake and we all aired down. Steve led us to the first three trails as he was most recently there. We parked at the base of Sledge Hammer and Jack Hammer and some of us walked up part of Jack and agreen not to give it a try with a vehicle we had to drive home in. Steve then led us around to the finish of Jack and on to the start of Claw Hammer. On the way we make a short stop at the sand dune to allow Jim Bays, Paul Coursey and Marty Goetsch to play on it while Ric Jones was letting air down of his tires so he could get unstuck from the sand at the base of the hill. Marty had a little trouble making it to the top, but when he got down he discovered he was in 2 wheel drive! After lunch, (sorry, no shade and at least 102) Steve, Marty and Jim headed up the trail to play. After playing on a neat little waterfall, they got turned around and we headed out to search out the tops of the trails. On the back side of the mountains, we went past the area of some rock crawling contest a few years ago and wound up on the Fissure Mountain Trail. We drove right along the fault line of the Landers quake past several mine sites. We were making good time until Jim Bays let loose with his rear driveshaft. Seems while he was playing on Claw Hammer, he hit a U-Joint restraining bolt and bent it just enough to finally let the joint spin out. Jim's passenger, Mike Probst, and Paul Coursey promptly crawled underneath and began repairs. Paul had a spare U-joint and bolt, and I had a strap. In about an hour we were on our way. With the help of Ric Jones and his handy GPS, I was hoping to follow trails out to the southeast and connect with Giant Rock Road, but doing so would take us into 29 Palms Marine Base for a short distance. I lost the trail and found one that looped around to the east and back to Means Fry Lake. Everyone aired up at the highway and we were on our way by 5:30. With myself and Suzy, were Mike and Carol, Paul and Debbie, Steve, Michelle and Steve Jr., Jim Bays with Mike Brobst, Marty Goetch, Tom Pastore, Rick Jones and Seiichi Hirahatake, and guests Mike and Ally Nieto.
MEETINGS IN THE PARK Starting in July, we will once again be having our summer meeting as Simon Bolivar Park in Lakewood. Along with the meeting, we will have a BBQ and pot luck. Hope you can make it.
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