March 1, 2006    The Official Newsletter of the New Mexico 4-Wheelers    www.nm4w.org

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Meeting was held in Adult Education Room 407 in the Heights Presbyterian Church.  Keith Chapin was our host for the evening and brought us Valentine’s Day cookies (the heart ring in my cupcake was the closest thing I get to a Valentine’s Day present).  Mark Werkmeister called the meeting to order at 7:04 pm (after the Brady’s arrival).

Guests:  Tom & Carrie Phillips – ’04 Rubicon; Keith Jurey – ’98 TJ; Robert Hohlfelder – ’98 Suzuki Sidekick; Jerry & Mary Moran – ’05 TJ Rubi; Tony Louderbough & Greta Berry – ’99 TJ

Members Present: Bontly, Brady, Chapin, Duggar, Eklund, Farrell, Gjerning, Greven, Hurt, Kiester, Markham, Marx, Meier, Ohnesorg/Coe (come on guys, make it one name!!!), Peeples, Rector, Sierra, Sousa, Tanner, Thompson, Werkmeister, Whiston (the younger), Wolf, and Woodard

Secretary’s Report – Lauri Rector:  A big thank you to Mike Coe for stopping me from having to read the January meeting minutes.  Mark Werkmeister gave my spiel on asking everyone to sign the appropriate sign-in sheets and why when he opened the meeting.

Treasurer’s Report – Paul Thompson: We have a balance of $2,495.18.  There has been no major activity with the account except for $59 +/- from Tom Hurt on the can recycling.  Please let me take this opportunity to thank Tom for taking on this function for the club, it’s greatly appreciated.

Vice President’s Report – Jeff Rector:  He’s got nothing again.  No undercover agents reported any fines from the two events since January’s meeting.  There was some discussion that he should be fined for not having any fines.  Ok, I need to interject something here that wasn’t said at the meeting.  We do have the Chile Challenge coming up.  It is a four day event that is well attended by our club.  Many, many silly things happen in 4 days of wheelin.  If you go to the Chile Challenge, bring your quarters with you to the March meeting.

Trip Chairman’s Report – Jason Lavy:  Past runs:  Frank Whiston (the younger) lead a “Tweeners” run at Gordy’s Hill.  Four club members and 8 guests were in attendance with 12 vehicles total.  One person had problems on Quebradas Scenic By-way.  They ran Hidden Valley, and they went back around and did Lower Armado Canyon to Pucker Falls.  Mark Werkmeister did a work weekend at Gordy’s Hill the following weekend.  They opened 4 more trail segments.  Squeeze Canyon and Upper Armado Canyon was one section that had cut off, but is now open between the two trails.  These are more for vehicles equipped with 35” tires, lockers, and drivers that aren’t afraid of rocks.  Saturday evening Mike Bilbo came riding up to camp on his ATV to get them to come help him get his truck unstuck from clump of brushes.  Even though a few gulps of adult beverages had been taken, they couldn’t refuse to help Mike.  Pat Brady did the honors.  They were paid the next day with locally brewed beer, the best kind of pay for that kind of work.

Upcoming events: The CHILE CHALLENGE – not even 2 weeks away (and there was much discussion because the Sheriff is still waiting for his new rear end to come in).  Our club usually has good representation at this event with about 20 to 25 vehicles in attendance.  Ok, I’ve got to go off the minutes here again because some of you that can’t go to the CHILE CHALLENGE may not be able to wait until the March meeting to know whether or not Jeff’s rear end came in on time.  Well you will now be able to get a goodnight’s sleep.  The rear end came in on the 13^th and installation is going along as smoothly as any installation can go (where else could you say rear end in one publication and it not be in an adult only publication?).

Cliff Meier is leading some easier trails down there 2 weeks after the CHILE CHALLENGE.

Director Environmental Affairs Report – Bob Norton:  Not present.  Mark Werkmeister had some items to bring up.  1^st – he sent an email to all the members about senate bill 708.  It is a short bill and it mandates that the governor get a task force to make recommendations before he goes to the forest service about his recommendations on the roadless area designations.  The committee hearing should have been yesterday.  This hearing has been put off twice now to allow the greenies to pack the place.  The hearing should now be on Saturday. 

Pete Domenici has targeted areas in Southern New Mexico; such as the Dona Mountains, were there are trails that a lot of us have been on.  There are land swaps between BLM and the University.  The areas will either be roadless areas or designated trails.  Broad Canyon could be involved in this as well as the trails in the Dona Ana Mountains.

SFWDA Delegate’s Report (appointed as needed):  Mark Wolf encouraged everyone that could, to go to the CHILE CHALLENGE.  He also encouraged all to buy CHILE CHALLENGE raffle tickets because you don’t have to be present to win, the raffle supports 75% – 80% of the operating funds of SWFWDA, and best of all, there are really good prizes.  Leon Duggar had more information on the raffle prizes.  B.F. Goodrich donated at set of 35” tires (baby tires to most of us – so Leon defined them as light duty pick up tires).  Goodyear is sending in a set of tires.  Detroit locker.  And several more 4X4 prizes that almost everyone could need or want, I just couldn’t type fast enough. 

Program Chairman’s Report – Jerry Marx: Reported that he has the winning ticket for the BFG tires.  He explained our 50/50 raffle to the guests.  He also has club apparel that will be available for sale after the meeting.

Historian’s Report – Laurye Tanner:  All of last years runs will be taken off Snapfish (well, a good chunk of them) and she’ll put them on a DVD and it will be for sale. 

Web Master & Editor’s Report – Glenn Bontly:  Had nothing to report.  (But he does so much for our club and does it very well).

Old Business:  Mark Wolf reported on the progress of the SWFWDA Summer Quarterly that we are hosting.  Ed Kausche is trying to get a hold of people he knows who live up there that could accommodate us.  This part is progressing slowly as most of them live elsewhere during the winter and it’s been hard to get a hold of them.  There is one possibility that is currently being worked on.  Marcia Duggar reported that she needs someone to man the registration desk during the event.  She’s almost certain that she won’t be able to make the trip as she’ll be very pregnant with twins by then (Oh no, that means twice as many Duggars).  They are due to arrive shortly after the event (seems to me that this is better timing than having to miss out on the CHILE CHALLENGE).  Cliff Meier is heading up the trail ride committee.  Mark Wolf said that it will be advertised as easy-to-moderate trails with extreme scenery.  Extreme trails however will be available in nearby Montrose, but the committee is not overseeing any trail rides there.

We need to pick a date for the 4X4 101 event at Auge’s.  Robert Auge wants us to pick a date in April, and he prefers one of the last 2 weekends.  Laurye Tanner asked when the Albuquerque birthday party was.  Mark Werkmeister’s response was that he wasn’t invited because he lives in Rio Rancho.  Mike Coe wants to know if they will be serving cake at the birthday party (you can tell he likes cake!!!).  I reminded Laurye that she doesn’t live in Albuquerque either and may not even be invited either.  Mark Werkmeister said that he needs a volunteer to coordinate the event as he is busy every Saturday in April.  It was voted on to have it on Saturday, April 29^th.  Then all eyes turned to Pat Brady.  He finally relented to all of the starring and volunteered to head the committee to organize the event.  Next month he can appoint a committee.

Laurye Tanner brought up the calendar.  She needs pictures.  I’ll be sure to get one of Jeff over to her right away, or maybe Mary Thompson has a good shot of him hiding behind something.

Wolfie found a place to have our garage sale. Honeywell, near Jefferson and Alameda, is having a swap meet sort of thing in their parking lot.  Lots of people come to this, a lot of hot rodder types.  Cost is $15 for 1^st spot (a parking space), $10 for each additional spot.  They do all of the advertising, which can cost upwards of $100.  Mike Coe also pointed out that having it here, rather than at their house, will save Kristie from having to clean up everything afterward.  It is the Saturday after the 4X4 101 at Auge’s, which is the 2^nd of May.  Mark Wolf asked Mike Coe if he wanted to coordinate this event since the garage sale was his idea in the 1^st place.  Mike said he’d have to think about it, then his eyes rolled and smoke started coming out of ears and he hemmed and hawed and finally said yes.  He really is very talented at avoiding any unnecessary exertion, such as volunteering to head a committee.  It was voted on favorably.

New Business:  Leon and Marcia are going to have twins.  This really wasn’t said during the New Business part of the meeting, but I just had to write it down again, I’m just so happy for them.

Jeff Rector (our Sheriff who has had no fines to pass out for months now and has not done his part to build up our bank account) motioned that the club buy CHILE CHALLENGE raffle tickets and we keep whatever we win.  The club can figure out a future use for it.  Discussion was how many?  Keith threw out the number 100 – I will not say where he pulled that # from (but he was sitting on it).  Leon wants to know how much it will cost to host the summer quarterly.  Mark said it would be about $1,500 (but, I don’t think that registration fees that we collected were considered).  What will we do with the prizes?  Maybe raffle them off at the summer quarterly.  Why would we want to do this?  We would be supporting the SWFWDA.  Why do we want to support them?  Mark said the same reason we support this club, except in a larger scale.  Money goes to their operating fund, pays for drive lines, and pays the retainer fees for Carla, the land action lawyer.  Jerry wants to know who will fill out the tickets?  Well, Jeff and I do have a stamp with our name and address on it.  We were able to stamp our ticket stubs in no time at all.  For some odd reason, no one liked this solution. Leon said that he would write NM4W on them on Saturday.  He would haul home all the prizes that we won as well – whine, whine, whine.  How low do we let our bank account get?  I heard Paul say that he was new to the job and gave an amount that was in the check book, but I didn’t hear what he said, because the Sheriff had to come up and ask me what guests were present.  Like I just sit up there at the table and work on looking pretty (yeah, I know, I need to work harder!!!)  $500 was voted on and approved, motion passed.

Jerry & Mary Moran were voted in as members, after the Vice President asked him how many points he had.  It was at this point that Leon accused me of whining because I asked trail leaders to please send me a list of the people that went on the run.  

Many thanks were given to Keith Chapin for sponsoring the meeting.

Meeting was adjourned at 7:52 pm – no wait a minute . . .

Mark Werkmeister forgot something - Gordy’s management team designating the OHV system.  Early October is when this will be completed.  Some areas limited and not open.  Consternation of some of the BLM members about some of the trails.  New trails will be closed, unless in concentrated use areas.

Also at Gordy’s, a vertical mine shaft was found with just a piece of wood over it.  Rock thrown in took several seconds before it bottom.  We have been driving over it and some have parked on it. Could be an illegal mine from the ‘80s?  Watch out for others out there.

Mark showed us the Nambe Plate that we contributed to for Mike Bilbo and all of his work for the OHV community.  It was not presented at the grand opening of the new BLM building.  They wanted focus to be on the building and the director instead of Mike.

Meeting adjourned at 7:57 pm.  Did it? Yes, it really did.

Winner of the 50/50 drawing:  ME!!!  One of our biggest pots was collected - $100.  $50 for the club and $50 for ME!!!  For the record, February’s meeting was a total of 4 years of meetings – that is 48 meetings, and we have only missed one meeting during that time.  We usually buy no less than $5 worth of tickets.  This is the 1^st time that we have won.

CAN EVERYONE TELL I’M EXCITED ABOUT THE CHILE CHALLENGE?

Greetings from the President.  Once again, the club was a big part of the largest 4WD gathering in the southwest.  With 378 registered vehicles, this past week was the biggest Chile Challenge to date.  Everywhere I looked, I saw NM4W members and involvement.  Congratulations everyone!  Our “investment” in 500 tickets for the raffle paid off handsomely when the club won the Warn winch.  We should consider “re-raffling” it off at the summer quarterly and we can probably fatten SWFWDA coffers even more.

The weather is warming up and we are looking for members to lead a bunch of runs this summer.  With the lack of local precipitation, we can probably count on an early and long closure of the local forests, so think about BLM opportunities and trips to locations where it is a bit wetter.  Don’t forget to dig out some of those “old” trips that the club got “bored” with . . . we have lots of new people who haven’t experienced them yet.

The Albuquerque International Auto Show is April 20-23 and our club has volunteered to provide a 25 vehicle display for the final day, Sunday, April 23^rd.  We need to have the vehicles there by 9:00 am and can get them out after 5:00 pm.  In addition to the great local publicity at this motorized enthusiast based event, each participant will be admitted to the show free of charge.  I have been keeping a list of the people who have volunteered to show their vehicles (thanks to all of you).  If we get more than 25 vehicles, I will pick the 25 that I think will be “most interesting” to the public.  There are still a few slots left so let me know if you can commit to that date.  Non-Jeep vehicles are especially welcome as our 25 vehicle roster looks like it will be primarily Jeeps.

See you at the meeting on the 9^th!

Mark

Blake Lavy was born Friday, 10 Feb, weighing 8 lbs 3 oz and 22 inches long.  We're very excited!

I would like to get an early start on signing up trail leaders and tail gunners for the Summer Quarterly.  In addition to the primary trail leaders and tail gunners, I would like alternates for each of the rides.  I realize this is early, everyone is focused on the Chile Challenge, but it is a start and I expect changes.

All of the trails are all around Ouray and Silverton areas, rated easy-to-moderate, and all depart from Ridgway.  I plan to put package together for each of the trails with maps and other information for the leaders.

Please e-mail me at sarmeier@yahoo.com for more information or to volunteer.  Thanks.

Ever felt like you were stuck in the middle between two extremes?  I have, when going down to Gordy’s Hill.  I remember my first visit back in November.  It was a work day, and Mark Werkmeister split us into two groups, big tires, and small tires.  I ended up right on the edge of the split.  The big tire group was for those with 35’s or larger and small tires included all below down to stock.  What to do?  As my mind was racing to make a decision for which group to go with, Mark asked for a show of hands for the big tires, so that he could get a good idea of how many rigs would be trailing him.  What the heck!  I raised my hand and went with the big guys that day.  It was a great day, but I definitely did not want to tackle anything more difficult than Coyote Canyon trail that we ran that day.

I returned to Gordy’s Hill for the New Year’s Rockin’ Weekend where Pat Brady headed up the driver’s meeting that Saturday.  Once again, we split into two groups, big and small tires.  This time, Pat explained that the first trail he would be running was suited for 35’s, but the next one may be a struggle for that size.  I used my better judgment and ran with the little tire guys that day.  It was a fun day, but I missed out on any kind of a challenge.

A week later, I contacted Mark Werkmeister about leading a run targeted for rigs equipped with 33”-35” tires and at least one locker.  He responded enthusiastically with some great suggestions for trails to run.  He even gave us a great name for these types, here is what he stated:  “So you are the classic ‘tweener!  Too well equipped to run with the stockers, but not wanting to tear things up on the big rocks.”  I thought this description fit me perfectly.  So, I took his suggestions, invited a few friends, and announced a run to the club at the next meeting.

The first “Tweener’s” Day at Gordy’s Hill was on Saturday, January 28.  We had twelve vehicles show up.  Members present included Joe Abbate and his Fiancé Crystal (early Bronco), Ed & Lyn Kausche (red TJ), Glenn Bontly and guest (red TJ), and us; Frank, Beth, and Kimberly Whiston (silver Unlimited).  All other attendees were guests.  Once all of the rigs were either unloaded from their trailers and/or aired down, we left the staging area to hit the trails.  As we made our way up the Quebradas Scenic Byway, a Unimog bailed on us due to some electrical difficulties.  I am not sure that he fit in all that well as a ‘tweener with the huge tires and four-wheel steering anyway.

We started out easy by dropping in to the top end of lower Arroyo de Las Pinos in route to Hidden Valley trail.  There we got into some moderate rock ledges and boulders.  From there, we continued on up the main drainage through the Upper Amado Canyon trail where the boulders in the stream bed got larger.  I pulled up to a waterfall and saw how tall and steep the obstacle was and decided to take the bypass as did the whole group.  Too bad the Unimog had to turn back.  We broke for lunch at the top of the canyon, as the topography shielded us from the cutting wind. 

After lunch, we went on to Over the Hill trail, where a couple of the rigs without front lockers were strapped up the hill.  Once everyone was up the hill, we made our way to the South Boundary Road.  From there we went down the South Canyon access road and traveled up the mid section of Upper Amado Canyon.  This time, we exited the canyon up and over the Causeway.  This brought us back to lower Arroyo de Las Pinos.  As we continued down the arroyo, Glenn noted that we had time to run the lower part of Upper Amado Canyon up to Pucker Falls.  Everyone was agreeable, so off we went.  The group crawled their way up the canyon and back without incident.  From there, it was back up lower Arroyo de Las Pinos.  We all took the Cutoff back to the Quebradas Scenic Byway returning to the staging area.  The only thing that could have made the day better would have been the absence of cold wind.

It was Tuesday, 21 Feb, late morning, several of us had just finished breakfast in Belen, and we were heading down to Las Cruces.  As I was driving, I though to myself:

 I got the whole week off of work,
I’m going to the Chile Challenge,
the weather is supposed to be good,
and Chuck just announced a clean bill of health.

It’s gonna be a great week!
(and it was!)

While on a visit to various areas with persons who may submit an special recreation permit application, we stopped today, 1/31/06, at a location just south of the Quebradas Backcountry Byway named Minas de Chupadera on the Loma de las Canas topo map.  This is apparently an abandoned mining area and looks to have been worked in the 50s or 60s.  At one location is a derelict, shotup tanker trailer, maybe 10,000 gallons, and two rectangular concrete basins for mineral processing.  This location has waste rock piles that have nice specimens of azurite and malachite, and so people park here often and there is a kind of turn-around casually developed here.  A lot of off-road enthusiasts also visit here and turn around.

So we did the turn-around and parked.  In the middle of the small flat clearing I saw a hole that wasn't there a few weeks ago.  So I walked over and looked in, noting wood splinters from what looked like 1-inch plywood.  I couldn't see anything so did the guy-test of dropping in a fist-sized rock.  About 3 seconds went by before I heard a distant ka-thoom and splash.

I then took two great big giant giant steps quickly back, because apparently I was standing on a PLYWOOD and DIRT covering of a deep vertical shaft - the covering with plywood and gravelly dirt is only about 4 inches thick!!!  The hole has appeared because of vehicle tires stressing out the old wood.  So the thing is failing.  I couldn't tell how big the opening is as the ground all around is very smooth there, so I decided to assume it's big.

There are other areas there with big waste rock piles indicating other shafts and adits.  So it's a very dangerous situation, isolated from our office, where many Backcountry Byway visitors arrive to collect mineral specimens and hike the area.  When I returned to the office, I notified Mark Lane and Brian Bellew.  Brian had Sabrina Flores and I call the district hazmat person who said we should call David Sitzler, which we did.  He advised us he will look at the site, and to go right away back out there and flag the site.

I went back out with 4 T-posts and plenty of flagging tape and cordoned a large square area around this feature.

Legal Location:   T2S, R1E, Sec 26, SE¼ of the SW¼ of the SW¼ of the NW¼

Garmin GPS: NAD 27, Zone 13 S, Easting 0333333, Northing 3775258

Aluminum Cans: Our club saves and recycles aluminum cans.  Money from the sale of cans goes into our club treasury.  Please bring your crushed 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 e-mail address, you will be added to our guest e-mail list, and will receive monthly notifications of when the Trail Tales newsletter is posted on our Club web site.  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.

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Trail Tales
21 Rattlesnake Ridge
Tijeras, NM 87059-7440

TrailTales@nm4w.org