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Welcome Friends

Warriors,

      I hope you all had a great summer!  It's time to quit working on your tans, dust off your bikes, and get ready for the Toad Festival in October.

    The wilderness battle is still ongoing and it looks like the bill will not be acted on this year.  We are lucky that the failures of forest management caused by the influence of the environmental movement have come to light.  The actions of Democratic Senator Daschle in seeking exemptions from environmental lawsuits against logging, and Democratic Senator Feinstein's and other Senators efforts to seek the same exemption for their states are very telling.

This may be part of the reason why to the pro-wilderness folks it is best that the bill be postponed until next year with the hope that the public forgets the misdeeds of the environmental movement and the part they and their policies have played in the destruction of our forests by fire.  They also need time for the public to forget their other misdeeds, which I write about in my commentary.

We must not let this delay lull us into complacency.  We must be vigilant during this time and continue to expose the threats the policies of the environment movement have to not only our forests, but to our access, economy and freedom as well.

      In this issue we have the final installments of the Adventures of Josh the Wonder Dog as well the second part of our two part commentary "Do the Mainstream Environmental Organizations Deserve Your Blind Support" as well as a guest commentary by retired Forest Service Supervisor Peter Hanlon.

    We have the final installments of the adventures of Josh the Wonder Dog, which began on the previous contents page. To follow the whole story click here.

      We thank you all for your support and look forward to another successful trail work and event program in 2002-2003.

Chris Vargas

Executive Director 

Club and General News 

The Warrior's Society June 15^th Silverado Hill Climb and Club meeting

The Silverado Hill Climb,

It appears Jeroen Bosboom lived up to his name "Dust Cloud."  He was the first to the peak with a time of 1:30:31.  Nate Whitman was second with a time of 1:35:39 and James "Legs of Iron" Hahn was 3^rd with a time of 1:40:32.

Keith "Keeps His Word" Eckstein was the first to run to the peak with a time of 1:57:25.  One thing the club forgot to mention that the only rule in this event is you run to the peak.  Keith graduated from the Dave Wonderly school of trail running Aka "The Great Silverado Footrace" with all A's.  Calvin "Keeps one Horse" Mulder was second with a time of 2:04:59.  Paul "Moves Too Fast" Miller was third with a time of 2:05:13.

We are going to start the runners next year with a Le Mans start similar to the bikes - except instead of running to their bikes at the start, they will run to their socks and shoes and put them on.

Riders finishing times:

Runners finishing times:

First female:  Cheryl Thiele

Oldest finisher:  James Kittel

The Club Meeting

Items of discussion and resolution:

1. Forest Access Policy

We will state as part of our mission to support all responsible access of the forests and other undeveloped public lands.  We will work with all organizations to support the responsible access of the Forest.  In 2003 we will end our affiliation with any outside organizations but allow links to their web sites on our home page.

2. Continued opposition of the wilderness bill.

We will continue to oppose the wilderness bill.  The wilderness bill may take several years to finally be presented to congress. If during that time the mainstream environmental organizations support, by action, not words, the sport of mountain biking our position may change.  This is contingent on a good faith effort, on behalf of the mainstream environmental organizations, to modify the bill to exclude areas of historical recreational access.

3. Support the Forest Service's Position on the Road Through the Santa Ana's.

We will continue to support and adopt as our official policy the current Forest Services course of not taking a position on the road until a concrete plan is presented and the impact of the road is assessed.

4. Disciplinary Action Against a Club Elder

This was a difficult discussion.  For the sake of the club, the Elder took a voluntary suspension.  He will be taken off the club e-mail list but still receive our weekly news sent to non-club members.

If a club member has concerns related to the club he will forward his concerns to the Elders Council who will discuss the issue with the member.  If he is not satisfied with the decision of the Elders Council, he can call a club council and speak to all the tribe members who will decide.

The length of his suspension will be determined at the club meeting in late August.

5. Nomination and Election of New Executive Director.

Executive Director Chris Vargas has agreed to continue as Executive Director of Policy and Planning.  Club members agreed to volunteer to assist in organizing the following:

A. Trail work.

B. Making awards (beading, tying feathers, etc).

C. Printing and mailing the newsletter.

D. Helping with the processing of Event applications and information requests.

We will be having a club meeting in late August to organize these activities and plan our 2002-2003-trail work and events.

Larry Branham was issued a ticket for using his Administrative pass out side a scheduled trail work.  Karla Gallegos apologized for this and the District Ranger will be talking to the new employee who issued this and explain to him that when we have our club jerseys on we are on volunteer patrol, the same as the equestrian patrols in the San Mateo Wilderness.

Our current nominees are Grant "Standing Bear" Curtis, Steve "Rides off Cliffs" Foster and Caprice "Flying Sparrow" Rasmussen.  We will be having a club meeting before the Toad Festival to initiate those who have not received their club coup feathers.

We've been getting a lot of compliments on our trail signs from the Forest Service and others.  Joe Lopez did a fathers day ride in the San Juan area and enjoyed hearing the comments from riders about the signs (and the fact they wanted to know how they could get one of our jerseys).

    We have two new representatives in Los Angeles County, Jennifer Klausner and Peter Aiello. Jennifer Klausner will be representing Santa Monica and Pete will be representing the Angeles/JPL area. Both are known for their involvement in formulating policy for our forests and parks.

    To contact them regarding issues in the area they representing, send an email to countingcoup@warriorssociety.org

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