Newsletter1214

The Rooster December 2014

The Dogs Of Anza (Hot Dogs that Is!)

By Mike Bacon, photos by PJ Carrier!

The 3rd Annual Mona Bacon Memorial Spook Poker Run And Hot Dog Weenie Roast, this year dedicated to our good friend Doug Becker, went off without a hitch! First I want to thank all those who aFended and always make this such a fun trip! Second I want you all to remember our good friends Mona Bacon and Doug Becker, who both enjoyed what for most of us is the first trip of a new desert season.

The Schellingers and I arrived on Thursday aLernoon to get a liFle riding in and check some possible course areas. We found the washes to be in preFy good shape despite an obvious good amount of water having flowed through them over the summer. CondiOons were very dusty though. As others started to arrive we had a preFy good idea of where we were going to go for the poker run. It would be easy and

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Whats New

It’s almost time for Thanksgiving. In just a few days members will start arriving at Glamis for one of the biggest trips of the year.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Our traditional Thanksgiving pot luck will once again take place in camp on Thanksgiving day. If you’re planning on joining in, please post what you plan to bring on the website so that we know we have the basics covered. Right now it looks like we could use a second Turkey…

RZR Rolls

We aren’t aware of any new RZRs in the group this month, but at least two of them have gone inverted. Fortunately everybody has walked away.

THE ROOSTER A monthly update from the Inland Empire Offroad Association


a bit challenging, seeing some old favorite, as well as new locaOons.

We headed out with eight RZR’s this year, as Dave & Cindy decided not to subject their new Jeep to the rigors of the washes and canyons. We didn’t blame them a bit! First stop was the Pumpkin Patch where the first card was drawn.

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Upcoming Events

• November 21-30: Thanksgiving week at Glamis, Wash 6.

• December 25-January 5th: Christmas / New Years at Glamis, Wash 6

• January 16-19th: MLK Dune Cleanup Weekend at Glamis, Wash 6

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JanuaryS M T W T F S0 0 0 0 1 2 3

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Next stop was the Honda Memorial. It was preFy hot in the sun so we choose not to draw cards unOl we could find shade, which we found in the next canyon.

We climbed out of the canyon and went across the top of the plateau to find the fire hydrant. We only made a quick stop as it was hot, so we kept moving to keep some air flowing (RZR Air CondiOoning!). We went down through the most challenging part of the course, a very Oght, rocky canyon, and came out in to one of the big canyons to find a nice shady spot where the rest of the cards were drawn.

From there it was back to camp to tally scores and relax for a while unOl Hot Dog Time! We started seYng up about 5 o’clock and it wasn’t long before the Hot Dog Line was going strong. Again thanks to everyone who contributed to the pot luck dinner! I ate way too much!

ALer dinner prizes were awarded in a white elephant drawing fashion. Again, I have to thank everyone who contributed prizes! There was a lot of very “interesOng” items, and it was all great fun. We reOred to a nice camp fire aLer the drawing.

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The next day some people had to pull out to go home early, and some stayed to go for a morning ride. We visited the Gas Domes, Gas Dome Canyon, and the Artesian Well, then did a liFle cross country exploring.

We arrived back at camp in Ome for those who had to could make it home at a reasonable hour. Those of us that stayed went to the Alamo Restaurant for a great Mexican food dinner, then had a small campfire before bed. Monday was a moving day as those of us that stayed were moving to Glamis for the Halloween weekend. More on that as it happens!

RZR Observations By Shirley Ford

The Razors out number the sandrails now. !There are 5 - 1000 12 - 900 4 - 800 Way to go Razors!

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Glamis, October 27-November 3rd by Jim Kastle

Monday after the weenie roast/poker run Don and Shirley, Chuck and Janece, Mike, and I headed to Glamis. Mike arrived first, and set up in exactly the usual spot. A.J., Mike's son, arrived at the same time Mike did, having ridden Mike's motorcycle from Lake Elsinore. The rest of us soon arrived and set up camp. I picked up the yellow trailer from the storage lot and was relieved to find it in the same shape we left it last April. The tongue jack wouldn't work for the second year in a row, necessitating me manually cranking the jack with a pipe wrench. It would have been nice if the trailer had cleaned itself, but I didn't expect that to have happened. We didn't ride Monday, but had a campfire.

Tuesday morning Mike led a RZR ride that included some riding in the recently reopened area. We returned to camp for lunch. We relaxed around camp and then Don, Shirley, and I went to Yuma for a Cracker Barrel dinner, some Harbor Freight shopping and some $2.79 a gallon gas. We returned in time for a campfire. Steve, Kim, and Steve's son Payden arrived just before we went to bed.

Wednesday morning Mike led another fun RZR ride. When we got back to camp, I decided to blow the dust out of the yellow trailer. With Chuck's help that turned into a pretty thorough cleaning. After three hours of vacuuming, leaf blowing, throwing a lot of junk away, and reorganizing, it looks the best it has in years.

On Thursday's morning ride, Chuck rolled the RZR. It was a seemingly gentle roll, but after we righted it and drove it, we found it had bent a rear trailing arm, causing the tire to rub the arm. We spaced out the tire and Chuck drove it to camp. Steve Porter arrived, as did Bill and Linda. Back in camp, upon closer examination, Chuck and Bill found some bent parts on the front end. Chuck decided buggies are more fun. Speaking of buggies, Chuck's has been taken completely apart and powder coated with a grey texture finish. It looks great! Chuck was full of praise for Justin who worked long and hard to reassemble the car for this trip.

Friday morning we awoke to find Bob Amador and Luan had arrived around midnight, after having a flat on one of the trailers. The RZR has spent some time in the shop, and looks like new, with no evidence of last year's wear and tear. Friday morning we went for our first buggy ride of the season, with Steve Porter, Bob (in the RZR), Bill, and Chuck following me. We went to hill 5 and then to the recently reopened hills 6 and 7, and the plane crash. Hills 6 and 7 were not as big as I remembered. We were all surprised to find the plane crash just as we last as saw it nearly 15 years ago. ( Upon getting home, and looking at a current closure map, it appears the plane crash may still be in a closed area, the new one that borders the sand highway all the way to Gordon's Well. We did notice a few closure stakes, but thought they were ones that hadn't been removed. We will need to research this further.). We headed towards Roadrunner, and then cut through the former "small" closure to Olds and back to camp. We went to Camp RZR, where we had different reactions. My hatred of crowds limited my enjoyment, but Bob and LuAnne and Don and Shirley seemed to enjoy it. The crowd was huge, seemingly nearly twice as large as last year's, but that's my take.

Friday afternoon Bob brought a friend with a broken buggy part to camp with a request for some welding. We were able to reweld the part and set up a ride for Saturday morning. Later Friday afternoon Paula, or P.J., Mike's new and greatly improved girlfriend (an opinion shared by many, not just me!) arrived along with her grandson. She is a great fit and is really friendly.

Saturday morning Ray and Janice arrived with the recently finished monster quad instead of the new-to-Ray 900. He had an appointment with a prospective buyer from Texas who ended up buying the quad, thus making room in the trailer for the new 900. Apparently Bob's friends have never seen him drive an off road vehicle, and had given him a bad time about driving the RZR. It became my job to leave them in Bob's dust.

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We had a good time, and definitely proved Bob's point. One of their buggies was not up to the task, and broke off the right front wheel out beyond the "Boardman Box." All of the IEOR types thought of John Cole as the guy tried to fix it, and then decided to three-wheel it back to camp. He got back to camp, but not nearly as proficiently as John would have. The day ended with a Mama Jeannie's dinner and a campfire.

Sunday morning Mike led another great RZR ride. Mike's pace in the 1000 is considerably faster than it was in the Ranger or the 800. We covered a lot of the dunes and a good time was had by all. There was a buggy ride, but I don't have any details. I had to pack up and leave Sunday afternoon in order to go to the SEMA Show in Las Vegas. For the first time in years I didn't store the buggy box at Glamis Dunes Storage, instead I hauled it home.

In just three weeks we'll be at the dunes for Thanksgiving. I can't wait and look forward to a big group. Please post on the club site what your pot luck item will be. Shirley has already volunteered to cook a turkey, but we usually have two, so I hope someone else will volunteer to cook a second one.

Bad News For Gordon’s Well

The government giveth (to Glamis) and taketh away (from Gordon’s Well.) %By Jim Kastle!

In my elation over the reopening of the closed areas by Glamis, I overlooked a big problem at Gordon’s Well. As I mentioned in my report on the Halloween trip, we saw some closure stakes near the plane crash site. In looking into whether we were in a closed area or not I found the attached, very low resolution, map:

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When they reopened the big closures they instituted a long, narrow closure paralleling the sand highway, from about a mile north of I-8 approximately HALF WAY TO GLAMIS!! That means if you want to go to Patton Valley, you must go through the dunes and valleys, all the way from the first valley north of Test Hill to Patton Valley. Imagine the problems if a vehicle breaks down or worse yet, someone gets hurt at Patton Valley. There are no pathways through the new closure, unlike the one that used to go through the old closure to allow access from the sand highway to Patton Valley. In the case of an injury, I am pretty sure I’d be forced to break the law and ignore the closure, and that frustrates me. In addition, the lack of pathways through the closure means we can no longer run through the desert to the canal crossing at the Five Mile Drop, cross the canal and access the dunes unless we are willing to drive about 5 miles north past the closure! That really sucks!

Apparently the folks who frequent Gordon’s Well are up in arms about this closure, and feel betrayed by the BLM and the ASA. I can understand their anger, but for the most part feel overall the reopening was a positive. However, the ridiculousness of the lack of pathways through this miles long closure is very frustrating to me. I consider myself fairly well informed on dune matters, yet am totally surprised by this. Mike Bacon mentioned it at Halloween, but I assumed since I hadn’t heard anything, it wasn’t that big of a deal. I was wrong, this is huge, and will greatly lessen my desire to go to Gordon’s in the future. Apparently there have been lots of meetings, some hosted by the Duner’s Diner, to address this issue, but most seem resigned to living with it.

One other sad note, I researching this article, I found that Britt Ford, the manager of the Gordon’s Well RV park lost his battle with cancer. We met him last year on our Gordon’s Well trip. I just found out he was a decorated Marine with 3 purple hearts, and a well-known south dunes character.

Halloween Haunts in the Dunes Halloween at Glamis 2014

By Mike Bacon

After the Poker Run those of us left went on to Glamis for Halloween week. We found the washes had a lot of water run through them and a lot of new vegetation. The sand was very soft, but the weather was very nice.

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!As people arrived we had a good number of RZR's on the rides. We visited the Flagpole, the Water Buoy, and Hill 3, while also playing a lot in the old closed areas behind 3, and out past the Flagpole.

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On one ride we stopped at the top of Hill 3 for a break and someone noticed Shirley didn't have an antenna. We all we knew she had it when we left camp! Ray mentioned he thought he saw it in the dunes so we decided to back track and see if we could find it. I tried following our course back using my GPS, but easier said than done. We had gone way past where Ray thought he saw the flag so we doubled back and as I came down one ridge I looked to my right and there it was! Everyone praised me for my superior flag-finding skills, but I'm here to tell you it was pure luck! After re-securing it with extra zip ties we were on our way again.

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It appears this was the trip for antenna problems as Chuck had his antenna break while on a ride. It was one of the very nice LED antennas so we did our best to try to save it by giving it a little "male enhancement" using sticks, tape and zip ties. Unfortunately our "enhancement" efforts didn't fare too well. At least Chuck had an extra antenna in the motorhome.

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My friend PJ came out Halloween night and brought her grandson Mykel for his first trip to Glamis. He dressed up and we visited a couple of camps trick-or-treating. Earlier in the week AJ came out to spend a couple days with me. He didn't like the look of my new 1000 so he decided to "modify" it for me! He's OK, and the RZR wasn't hurt either, just a couple of scratches and a torn top. I replaced the top when I got home and hung to torn one in his room as a reminder!

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Looking forward to seeing you all at Thanksgiving!

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Vets At Anza

By Mike Bacon

Kris discovered she had a four day weekend for Veteran's Day so they asked me if I'd like to join them in Anza. You don't have to ask me twice! We arrived on Saturday morning to find our normal camp spot open and ready for us. I felt this was a perfect place to celebrate Veteran's Day as Gen George Patton had used this very area to train his troops before the North Africa landings in 1943.

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We rode up through one of the tighter canyons to get to the top of the plateau to oversee the mudhills. It is actually a very beautiful area from this vantage point. We could look all the way across the valley and see Blowsand Mountain in the distance.

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We rode down to the Salton Sea one afternoon to see all the birds. Doug ran his RZR through some mud while there so on the way back I stayed way back because of the flying stinky mud coming off his tires!

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�� While riding down the Pole Line Road I just knew we were in the right place because, as you all know, "X" always makes the spot! We enjoyed a beautiful sunset before going back to camp.

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We did some scouting for next year's Poker Run, visiting the old favorite Pumpkin Patch. I was looking for something different and found an old trail that looked like it hadn't been used in a long time. We soon found out why! Very rough and torn up, but we, or at least I had fun on it. Kris ended up getting out and walking through one section. I know there are times when my good friends question ever following me anywhere!

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�� We ended up over by Blowsand Mountain for a break. We then cut our way back across the valley looking for Bin Laden's Cave, eventually finding it after a couple of detours. We found some new places we hadn't been before and hope to incorporate those in to the Poker Run next year. All in all a very nice trip. Hope to see you all at Thanksgiving!

It’s Time for Turkey in The Sand Bring your contribution to this annual tradition

We’ve mentioned it a couple of times in this newsletter, but I have a quarter page to fill so I thought I’d put in one more reminder. We know we’ll have a big group out there for Thanksgiving, and the pot luck dinner is a great annual tradition. It would be great if someone agrees to bring an additional

Turkey, as currently only Shirley is bringing one. Nancy is bringing Ham, and some people have signed up for sides, but it would be great if everybody who is coming listed their contribution on the website so that we know the basics will be covered. We’ll see you there!

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This month we’d like to thank Mike Bacon, Jim Kastle, and Shirley Ford for writing articles. Thanks to their contributions, we have a nice 12 page newsletter! The next newsletter will cover Thanksgiving trip, and will be out shortly before we return to the dunes for Christmas / New Years. We look forward to reading your articles to hear about this season’s trips from various perspectives, so please send them in.

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