Thanks to the presence of Preston the organizer of the event we are able to learn what whent on. Humarous in part and sad in others. Please read, it involves our sport and the preservation of FREE locations to ride.
DAY I
I am just more or less going to recap the weekend. Part two, I will get more into the meat and potatoes of the event.
Like many things we do in life. Not everything always works out as planned. This weekend was no exception.
I had spent last weekend and much of last week as did my wife getting the camper & truck ready. I took off on Friday, as Dave Hook was to ride up with me and we would stay in the camper. Thus give us plenty of time to lay out Saturdays Conference and maybe drowned a few worms in White Sulphur Pond.
Dave calls me Friday morning to inform me that he was rather ill and would have to stay home. My daughter was in school and the better half had plans aready for those two. So, the dog and I went up.
The weather was absolutely perfect. I stop and filled the Jeep up at Belle Grove. Then I went to the Headquarters to get my camp site. Site 29 was already taken! Okay, site 30 was open. Not as nice, but room for others, none the less. At that point, I realized I had forgotten to by my fishing license when gassing the Jeep up. I was not going to double back with the Jeep in tow. So, I went straight to Camp.
Setting up was quick and easy. The only down side, there was a timbering operation right next to the site. Fortunately, by 2:00pm, the were done for the weekend. The view was awesome from that site. Little to no privacy, though. After lunch, the dog and I went to Belle Grove for my license. The drive on Scenic US40 was fantastic. The Red Bud was in full bloom.
We got back and I left a message for Tom Taylor to see if he was coming over. Well, he did indeed call back. His work had him tied up. Well, several other members had the same issue. Of course, when he called, I am at the pond and this rather large bass and trout swimming side by side right in front of me and I just could not do anything about it with my phone in one hand. Not often one sees a trout and a bass side by side. That pond is full of fish. At the same time, it is full of bait. I watched on large bass catch his food right infront of me. No one at the pond was catching a thing. The water was just too clear.
During the day, after the timbering shut down, it was extremely quiet at that sight. At night, while the dog and I sat around the campfire, I soon found out that I had camped in the Whip-O-Will capitol of the world. It was down right loud. It got cold that night, so with the camper closed up, I heard nothing.
Oh, while I was tending to my light, a previous camper had left a couple of AA batteries in the campfire pit. One of them blew up. It sounded like a 12ga. shot gun. As luck would have it. It blow some embers out of the pit and right on to my brand new chair that I had never even sat in. It burnt a few holes in it.
The next day, everyone was at the Head Quarters for the Conference. Everyone, except for the Forest Manager, who was essentially my first quarter of the conference. We later found out, that he got called in at 6:00am for a forest fire. That was too bad. One for his weekend gettign messed up. Two, he is extremely interesting to listen to. We went out for lunch. Of course, he stopped by on his way home and we were out.
We did get some good stuff done at the conference. I will get into that tomorrow.
What was extremely disappointing was that there was NO representation from PA Jeeps, other than myself, nor the Maryland Rock Raiders. I know that each club had planned to be represented. But, work interferred in both cases. Still, folks, if you enjoy wheeling, you really need to get involved in this stuff. You need not make it a second job. But, events like this conference is an easy way to get involved and educated and have fun.
Dan Henderson was our guest and represented the Baltimore 4 Wheelers club.
Lunch was good, but was slow at the restaurant. We continued to talk business there, infact.
As luck would have it, after we wrapped up the conference and went outside, it started to rain! We were in the driest region in Maryland. Yet, it rains on us and after the forest fire.
I packed up the camper and hooked up the Jeep while it was raining. Not hard, but just enough. As soon as I finished, so was the rain.
Just to top off the situation, when I opened the valve to drain my fresh water tank, I broke off part of the plastic handle. Still, the ride home was very pleasant and scenic.
A special Thanks to Ranger Francis Zumbrun for arranging a place for us to meet and to those that did show up.
The next time we are planning on doing this at a campsite. Maybe that will be more inviting.
Please read tomorrow's Land Use Conference report. We have a plan. So read up!
DAY II
Hi Folks,
As promised, here is a wrap up of what we went over.
As I mentioned before, Dave took ill and Francis Zumbrun was fighting a forest fire. So, right out of the gate, two major sections of our agenda was compromised
Still, we made the best out of the situation.
We discussed the Maryland State Forests are coming up on the 10 year plan revisions. Not much information yet, but is will be starting up officially, very soon.
We discussed The GWNF plan coming up for revision.
1.) We want a full schedule of the meetings and try to be represented at them as much as possible.
2.) Develop a partnership with the VA. Association for this process.
3.) We want to do a full blown campaign for this effort.
4.) Write Letters, e-mails and Faxes.
a.) Hand Written letters are the best, but E-mails and Faxes are fine.
b.)Write your letters as and individual or family, not as a member of youur club, United, MAFWDA or the like.
c.) One person should represent your club, one the association another one United, etc.
d.) Give some light personal background.
e.) Mention all of the uses you do on the Forest.
f.) Use your own words. You need not write like a lawyer.
g.) Mention specifics. In otherwords road names, etc.
h.) Ask friends to help
i.) We all have to be consistant.
j.) Go after more than we really need or even want.
5.) Club and Association reps should mention numbers. Member numbers should be 3X the voting members and referred to as "Family Members."
6.) Everyone needs to write their elected officials
a) we have had almost no representation in our state's and country's Logic Free Zone.
b.) tell you are tired of seeing you access
Okay, there is more. Look for more on Thursday night. I am having issues with the sand man.
Happy Wheeling!
Preston Stevens
President of the
Mid-Atlantic Four Wheel Association
Wed May 09, 2007 8:50 am