May 1, 2004    The Official Newsletter of the New Mexico 4-Wheelers    www.nm4w.org

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Members Present:  Glenn Bontly, Pat Brady, Rich & Camille Capener, Bill Cline, Marcia & Leon Duggar, Eric Finch, Bear Harrison, Rich Hunt, Tom Hurt, Jason Lavy, Chet Markham, Susan Miller, Chuck & Ethel May Peeples, Jeff & Lauri Rector, Stella Sierra, Paul & Mary Thompson, Frank Whiston, Frank G. & Beth Whiston, Mark & Joan Wolf (& Mark’s mother Lois), Jeffery Woodard, Tahoe Zahn, Keith Chapin

Introduction of guests: Brent Hudson, Shawn Kelso, Emil Ardelean, Ryan Eklund, Nancy Crowley, & Rod Martin.

Sheriff, Jeff Rector had no fines to levy.  However, it was decided that Dr. Bob should have gotten the cow bell for rolling his scout.  (Sounds like an interesting story)

Treasurer’s Report:  $3,056.39

The Historian was not present.

Program Chairman:  Reminded those that hadn’t, to buy raffle tickets for the 50/50 raffle.

Trip Chairman: 

The Environment Chairman was not present.

Old Business:

New Business:

Good-day, New Mexico 4-Wheelers!  I hope you're planning your schedules for the summer quarterly.  Mark Werkmeister says he will fetch me a beer, right after he gets one for Wolfie.  Where are his priorities?!  We need trip leaders and tail gunners for the quarterly.  Mark is setting up dates for pre-running the event.  Trails range from easy to extreme, and we need leaders for all of them.  You don't need an extreme rig for this event.  The trails are beautiful, and it's a nice break from the Albuquerque heat.  We usually get some Texans at this event because of that, so bring all your Texas jokes.  Just don't use 'em on me.  Like any true Texan, I've got a gun.

Stay tuned for news on the Robledo Mtn lawsuit - there are changes afoot.  There will be a report on this at the next meeting, which is this Saturday, 1 May, at Keith Chapin’s house.  And thus the grazing tray season begins.  Word to the wise - get in line early.  Bring your lawn chairs and a pot luck dish.  I'll be in Utah for the May meeting putting the Bronco on slick-rock for the first time with Don Miller's guidance.

Everyone, repeat after me: “I will ...be in ... Colorado ... July 29-31....very good!”  And if you ask nicely, Mark may fetch you a beer too!

(Joan took some personal time “off” from her Member Spotlight column the past couple of months, and I for one have certainly missed reading it!  We have quite a diverse group and I love “getting to know” our members.  Thanks Joan for being so faithful to this column and welcome back!!  --ed.)

There are challenges and then there are CHALLENGES!  Joe Abbate (pronounced Abbot) appears to favor CHALLENGES since he is: (1) training for a marathon, (2) working on his Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering, and (3) upgrading his ’68 Bronco.  The energetic 26-year old also manages to work fulltime as a Process Engineer at Honeywell and play on a flag football team.

So what’s up with the marathon?  Joe says he isn’t really a runner and his “competitions” have been limited to 5k walks for charity.  Last fall after his older sister completed her first marathon, Joe took up the challenge.  He’s been training since February for the June 6^th Rock & Roll marathon in San Diego.  He recently ran 15 miles and said it wasn’t too bad during the run “but my knees were sore for two days afterwards.”  He’ll do a 20-miler sometime prior to the run, but won’t do the entire distance until June 6.  Good luck, Joe, and I probably speak for many NM4Wers in saying better you than me.

Joe hails from the Chicago suburb of Barrington, Illinois and has been in Albuquerque for four years.  Shortly after graduating from Purdue with a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering, Joe moved to Albuquerque for a job with Honeywell.  Unfortunately, 1½ years later, the Honeywell plant closed down and Joe was laid off.  Besides looking for employment, Joe used the five-month downtime to work on his Bronco.  Just in the nick of time, he was hired by Honeywell FM&T (Federal Manufacturing & Technology) and was able to remain in Albuquerque.  The new job was a good fit, “I love my work,” says Joe.

Having completed three of ten distance-learning courses for his Masters in Mechanical Engineering, Joe’s educational challenge is 30% complete.  Each week he gets three videotapes of class lectures.  He must view the tapes, mail back his homework, and take proctored exams at Kirtland Air Force Base.

The Bronco building isn’t viewed as a challenge by Joe because he enjoys working on it as much as driving it.  When he got the vehicle six years ago, it didn’t run.  It now has a ’94 Mustang engine, 3-1/2” suspension lift, 2” body lift, and 33” tires.  He’s done all the work himself.  The Bronco is red and has no doors or top, except for a bikini top (which wasn’t much fun last summer at Gallup during an afternoon rain!)  Everything else is stock, including the gears, drive train, Dana 44 front, and Ford 9” rear.  He’s got a Dana 60 front end to install, and a set of Hummer rims for yet-to-be-purchased 38” tires.

Joe has been a member of NM4W for about a year and learned about the club through the Internet.  (Once again, kudos to Glenn for impressing visitors to the nm4w.org website!)  Joe joined the club to learn about local areas and to meet experienced four-wheelers.  His impression of NM4W, “Everyone is nice.  I like that the people range from those who are very serious and have serious vehicles to those who are more laid-back about four-wheeling and have regular vehicles.”

Joe has enjoyed taking the Bronco on runs to Gallup and Cedro Peak.  He was tickled to take his father up Cedro Peak when he visited New Mexico.  Dad had never seen the Bronco in running condition!  (By the way, since Dad was a drag racer Joe won’t get any lectures about risky sports.)

Another fun trail experience for Joe was riding with Glenn on Broad Canyon at the 2004 Chile Challenge.  A rock-crawling aficionado, Joe enjoyed watching vehicles tackle the various obstacles.  Someday Joe wants to do the Rock Garden in Farmington.  

Joe hopes to attend more events and become more involved with NM4W after completing the marathon and his Masters.  He wants to have the Bronco “up to par” by summer so that he can help with the SWFWDA Summer Quarterly in Fairplay.  In the meantime he gets around town in his ’95 Wrangler.  Joe swears he will not “touch” that vehicle!  Oh come on Joe, how about another CHALLENGE?

I am planning pre-runs for the summer quarterly on two weekends (July 10^th and July 17^th).  This will allow us the use of the final weekend (July 24^th) only if we have weather issues or something else come up.  I plan on being there from Friday evening through Sunday afternoon both of the weekends to lead, coordinate, host, fetch Wolfie’s beer, etc.  These dates do not preclude members from going up earlier (like the July 4^th weekend) if they desire, but I will not be able to accompany them.

It is the expectation of the club that all trail leaders and tail gunners pre-run their trails at least once this summer prior to the quarterly.  We ask that you pre-run the trails even if you have run them before to ensure that the trail conditions haven’t changed significantly.  If you think that you qualify for an exception, please contact me.

It is also time to volunteer or re-volunteer to lead trails and be tail gunners.  We are close enough now to for me to take names and make lists and start matching up volunteers and trails.  If you have a specific trail that you desire to help with, please let me know as I will try to match you up with your desires.  I anticipate that we will run all levels of trails, probably two or three of easy, moderate, hard, and extreme for each of the three days (Thursday, Friday, Saturday), so we will probably need at least ten leaders and ten tail gunners each day.  I especially will need people willing and able to lead Hard/Extreme trails (Carnage Canyon, etc.) and the trails on Thursday.

Here is a tentative list of potential trails:

Obviously, this trail list is subject to changes due to your willingness to lead them, availability due to snow melt, and our registrant’s desires. We will adjust accordingly.

I'm sure most of you are quite familiar with our Club web site at www.nm4w.org, but I wanted to remind you of a relatively new addition to our Internet presence; the NM4W Discussion Board.  Also known as bulletin boards or forums, a discussion board allows its users (that's you) to post new messages or reply to others' messages via the Internet.  In order to use the NM4W Discussion Board, go to the Club web site's main page and simply click on the link near the top of the page.  When you get to the discussion board, click on the "Register" button at the top right and follow the instructions.  It's easy and it only takes a few minutes to self register.  You create and control your own username and password.  After that, click on any of the forums to view the various "threads".  Within each thread will be one or more posted messages.  Current forums include "Help", "Trails & Trips", "General Discussion", and "Classified Ads".  There's also an "Officer's Only" private forum, but most of you will not be able to access it.  To post a message (suppose you want to enter a classified ad for some 4x4 parts you want to sell), after you “Log In” to the discussion board, click on the "Classified Ads" forum, and then click "New Topic".  Unlike the For Sale page on the web site, you have total and immediate control of the ads that you post on the discussion board.  You can change it anytime you want, or delete it after you've sold your stuff.  The NM4W Discussion Board offers you an excellent opportunity to keep in touch with your fellow Club members, as well as other 4x4 owners (i.e., non-members can also register to use the discussion board).  Even if you don't want to post any messages, you can always go to the discussion board periodically to see what other 4-wheelers are up to.

Mr. Chuck Peeples put together a fantastic event on Saturday, April 17th and I think we all owe him a big THANK YOU!  While it took several members to pull off this event, it was Chuck who had the most time invested.  It was good to see Mr. Peeples out there getting everything together.  He worked his rear off! (Well…not really, but you get the idea!)

Also, thanks to Mr. Robert Auge for asking us to help him with this event.  Robert brought this idea up a couple of years ago and this was our second time helping with this event.  Robert advertised quite a bit this time, but the participation level was not what he wanted.  I hope that he continues this event as it will probably take 4 or 5 events like this to bring out the people.  I hope that the NM4Ws continue to support this event as someday it will be widely talked about and attended.  We use this as a reason to have some fun, but there is more to it than that.  Our “talks” give us the opportunity to promote land use issues and remind everyone of the safety issues prevalent when they go out four wheeling.  Let’s keep up the great attendance and hard work.  Nothing comes easy.  Thanks to every member who attended and especially thanks to those who assisted in the preparation!  Thanks to the guests for attending also!  We may even have a couple of prospective members show up after this event.  The more the merrier!

We met up with Guy Conway (a fellow NM4W-er) Thursday morning at the meeting spot.  When Guy introduced himself to me, he said not too many people know him because he’s always in Moab and can’t get to the meetings.  I replied that it sounds like he’s got his priorities straight anyway.

Guy treated us to a day out on Golden Spike.  Two families from Oregon (Dave and Megan, Steve and Addison), Tom Hurt, Daniel, Luke, and myself met at 9 am at the Market, and off we went.  Guy showed us how to traverse Golden Crack, shoot up the Launch Pad, slip through the Wedgie, as well as pointing out some of the beautiful scenery found anywhere.

The only casualty was a broken U-joint.  Tom Hurt impressed us all by swapping it in about a half hour.  It gave us a chance to view more spectacular scenery, then we were off again.  The trail was long, and the final portion was run in the dark under a blanket of stars.

Aluminum Cans: Our club saves and recycles aluminum cans.  Money from the sale of cans goes into our club treasury.  Please bring your aluminum cans to each meeting, and somebody will take them to the recycling center.

To Our Guests: If you attend a club meeting or event and provide us with your mailing address, we will send you three complimentary issues of Trail Tales.  If you provide us with an e-mail address, you will also be added to the guest e-mail list.  If you are interested in becoming a member of the New Mexico 4-Wheelers, please contact one of our officers for membership requirements, or visit our web site at www.nm4w.org/join-the-club.htm.

Trail Tales on the Web Site: In a continuing effort help save natural resources and to control costs, you are encouraged to read the Trail Tales newsletter on the Club Web Site in lieu of receiving a hard copy in the mail.  Around the first of each month, the current issue of Trail Tales is posted at www.nm4w.org/newsletters.htm and an e-mail notification is sent to all club members.  In addition, a minimum of 2 years of back issues of our newsletter is also available on the web site.  So if you want to help “save some trees”, please send an e-mail to TrailTales@nm4w.org stating that you do not need to receive the hard copy of the newsletter.  Thanks for your participation in this program.

Submission Due Date: The Trail Tales is published on the first of each month.  Submissions for each issue must be received by the Editor not later than the 25^th of the prior month.  Submissions can be sent to TrailTales@nm4w.org, or Trail Tales, 21 Rattlesnake Ridge, Tijeras, NM 87059.

Please see the Events Schedule Page

Trail Tales
21 Rattlesnake Ridge
Tijeras, NM 87059-7440

TrailTales@nm4w.org