Hollister Hills Roadside Clean up - April 2011

Thank you to everyone who stepped up to join us for the roadside clean up at Hollister Hills this weekend. It was a glorious weekend and we had a strong turn out.

The HHORA meeting went until just before noon and when it let out, the ED4 crew had gathered. There was a slight mix-up with the park staff in that they had apparently just cleaned the roadside the day before. So we reduced the number of road side crew and send ten of the 16 folks into the upper ranch to do some trail clean-up. Josh, Greg, Mike, Tom, Ole and myself attacked the road. Even with them just having cleaned the roadside we still collected 5-6 bags of trash.

BTW, in my estimation the number one item picked up was beer cans/bottles with the second category of fast food wrappers.

After 2 hours we met up back at the HHORA training building and piled up our junk. Great photo opp for the crew. We had bags of garbage, tires, signs and other crap. We ended the day with a legislative update from Jeff on Clear Creek and the offroad trust fund situation.

I appreciate that ED4 stepped up to help out with this clean up. It was great to see such an out pouring of support both from new members and old timers. Multiple drivers shouted out their thanks as they drove past. With all of the battles around offroad access it is important that the offroad community put their best foot forward. Opportunities like this clean-up day help keep us in good standing with the local community.

Thank you to everyone who came out.

Attendees:

David Grubman, Trail Boss Brian McMinn Rick Montez Greg Quintana Joshua Farnsworth Daryl Nelson Micheal Sickels Brian Ryder Connie Wison Tom Vella Ellen Layendecker John Ruiz Michael Cline Loro Paterson Richard Beard Howard Knutson Ole Stortroen Jason Green Jim O’Leary

Fighting for Clear Creek

Hello Esprit de Four,Some members/prospective members attended the Public Comments on the Clear Creek Closure last night.

Bill Farley Ole & Sherry Stortroen Jim O'leary Jason Green Richard Beard

Chris Mains Coby ???? (I apologize if others attended and we didn't see you)

This meeting was an opportunity for the public to make a comment about the park closure. Keep in mind, although the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) was in attendance, they were clear that what was said last night had no bearing on their decision. Essentially it was more or less a government process that they had to follow. However, it was certainly a good opportunity for many of us to show up, and demonstrate that there is a force behind our cause. It was also a good opportunity for me/us to hear the arguments against the closure and include these in the comments we make.

For us to be effective, we must make a written comment, whether it be via snail mail or e-mail.

Not only do I encourage you, I am asking you, to take time out and send in a comment, even if at this point your are only asking for an extension on the comment period, which currently has a deadline of March 5, 2010. (You can use the argument that it took the EPA, 19 + months to come out with a report, why should we have such a short period to make comments)

-> For those never having been to Clear Creek - I am one of those. You may be asking, or reasoning to yourself, it's not familiar to me, it doesn't affect me. The truth is, it does. If we don't stand together in support of our sport and our activity when we can, soon, we will stand alone and it will be easier for them to knock us down. They will come to your park next! Furthermore, you may have not used it in the past, but wouldn't you want the opportunity to have to use it in the future?

Here are some of the arguments I heard last night - I didn't write them down so it's coming off of memory: 1. The asbestos found at Clear Creek is not the industrial type that leads to health issues, the EPA has bastardized/generalized them into one category and made the wrong presumption. 2. The presumptions and or assertions of the EPA's report are based on questionable data, and there should be more time to allow an independent organization to conduct their on research. While that is being conducted, the park should be kept open. It's been open for the history of the country, why now the urgency to close it - keep it open, until facts are agreed upon.

....Others whom were in attendance, please add other things you heard, so that our membership can leverage that. You do not have to include everything in your comment, but please include something. Here's the BLM's website: http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/hollister/clear_creek_management_area.html

You can also find the DEIS at the bottom of this page: http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/hollister/clear_creek_management_area/CCMA_RMP.html

You can send your comments to:

Mail: Bureau of Land Management Attn: CCMA RMP/EIS 20 Hamilton Court Hollister, CA 95023

E-mail: cahormp@ca.blm.gov

Fax: (831) 630-5055 Attn: CCMA RMP/EIS

For everyone, please make your comment, and if you do nothing, else, please support the organizations that are fighting this fight on our behalf: (Donate or become a member)

Friends of Clear Creek Management Area - http://www.ffocma.org Blue Ribbon Coalition - http://www.sharetrails.org Facebook Group - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=131594804989&ref=mf

I apologize if this e-mail got a little long, but I hope you all understand the magnitude of what action and inaction on your part means! The government, it's entities should work for you and me, not against us. Remember these few numbers, 15% of all house holds are OHV users, in any election there is only 50% of the population that votes, by my calculations, that means we are 30% of the voting population. Now I'm not a union leader and I'm not telling you how to vote, but if you feel like you're alone, you're not.

Kindest Regards, Michael Phorn President, Esprit de Four

P.S. Please feel free to add, and forward this to all your friends & aquaintances, we must spread the message and keep up the fight and bring it to them (even though, they should be working for us)

Christmas Time

 

This is my trip report for the Saturday December 13th.

Kathy, grandson Jaden, and myself packed up all of the Pajamas that were gathered and tendered to us for distribution along with toys that we gathered for the Toys For Tots donation. We left our house about 8:55 and headed over to pick up Dede to join us. Mike had to work would not be able to join us. We arrived fashionably Esprit de Four late, at about 9:10am at the Cambrian Plaza shopping center. What a sight! There we found members and friends all involved with conversation and taking pictures of the decorated vehicles. All in all there were 16 vehicles with some decoration on all.

We headed out after a short driver meeting to the County of Santa Clara Children's Shelter. The shelter is only about three blocks away. We were greeted by one of the staff by the name of Mark. Mark was a little taken back at the amount of people and vehicles there for the event. Mark went and had some kids along with some more staff come out and meet us. The kids were quite excited to see Santa Claus and came up and got and gave hugs with Santa. A cart was brought out to the front and bags and bags of PJs were loaded into the cart. The last count that I had was 242 PJs. This was really impressive to me to see that large pile of PJs.

The staff took some of the kids to look at the vehicles while we all went out to the facility sign and posed for some pictures.

The next stop for the day would be the Toy For Tots down at Christmas in the Park, downtown San Jose. As you can imagine, it was a little bit of a challange to keep all 16 vehicles together. We pulled over and waited several times to make sure we were all together. We did our normal circle the whole park before coming in for a landing. What a sight. KBAY came over and asked Santa who we were and where we were from. Esprit De Four did get a little mentioning on the radio station and thanked us for supporting the drive. We all kind of scattered from there to do whatever till the evening.

Some of us went to Fernwood Winery in the Santa Cruz mountains to do a little tasting and buying. We also stopped at Martin Winery, which is very close to Fernwood Winery.

Kathy and I loaded up things once again for the annual ED4 Christmas Party at the Santa Clara Train Depot. This was once again a very special time of meeting with members, families, friends, and future members. Wonderful food, conversation, great intertainment. Santa and his elf Buddy were there. This was a very special appearance for the ED4 group. I hope that Tom is OK from all of the laughing that he did.

I would like to send out a special thanks to my wife, Kathy for the organization of the PJ drive, to Mike for the Toys For Tots drive, to Ellen for the organization of the Christmas party, and a REALLY BIG THANKS to all that made this day so very special to alot of people that are being helped by your generousity.

I also want to wish each and everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, till we meet again happy trails to all.

The Santa Man

2nd Harvest delivery

Hi All On November 12th we left our house at 11:00 am. There was the three of us, me, myself and I. ( That makes it an official run, right?) We went and picked up another worker, my grandson Jaden, who is 3. We headed off to the Second Harvest Food Bank. Jaden said that it was a long trip to get there.

When we arrived, were asked to come into the conference room where they counted the money donation. ED4 donated $198.17 to the food bank. After that we moved the car to the food drop off zone. Jaden helped unload the food. Jaden said, “there is tons of food”. We then went inside of the building where the food is stored for needy. The people there weighed the food and the amount was 180 lbs.

We all can be very proud of our participation with this event. Thank you again for all of the donations to this needed project.

The workers were very excited to see what we had brought in. Jaden helped me last year and again he is learning all about being helpful and giving.

Kathy Kroeker and the others

Boys Battalion

Hollister Hills, Boy’s Battalion weekend, September 9, 2007, by Brian McMinn I joined up on Sunday morning since school commitments prevented me from coming out for the Boy’s Battalion on Saturday. Everyone who stayed over was provided the opportunity to preride some of the new trails on the other side of La Cienega. One of the park rangers met up with us at 9:30 a.m. to lead us on the trails. Falling in behind were Sherry (CJ7), Richard (from Napa) (M38A1), Ed (Toyota PU), Tom (CJ7), Jim (ZJ), myself (TJ), Mike & Dede (Early Bronco), and Ole (CJ7) bringing up the rear.

The trails were cut in wide enough to accommodate the variety of the vehicles in the group. Many of the routes traversed the sides of steep slopes which required staying on the trail for continued enjoyment of life. The group had to stop from time to time to trim branches here or there. The ranger was driving a Rhino that was well suited to the trails made narrow by brush.

The outing amounted to about 3 hours of trail riding on a warm sunny day in Hollister Hills. The heat eventually got to Dede, the lack of power steering gave Richard a workout, and Ole had a bee encounter. The trails made for a good Sunday drive with few challenges and plenty of opportunities for custom pin striping. Everyone returned to the campsite to pack up and have leftover tri-tip sandwiches before hitting the road.

Brian.

March of Dimes

Hello All, Thanks for the reminder about the trip report and to all those that helped make the walk a success. Those in attendance from ED4 were : Ellen Layendecker, Ira Weiny, Lorrie Weiny, Ole Stortroen, Sherry Stortroen, Mark Padowski and Matt Saul. I, Matt Saul was at Vasona on Friday April 23rd from 8-5:30 setting up tables and the route for Saturdays walk. It was a very nice sunny day. Saturday at 5am, Ellen took her spot at the side gate, Ole was in charge at the front gate, Ira, Mark, Lorrie, Sherry and I loaded up and got the stuff ready for the checkpoint setup. Lorrie and Sherry went off to the walk and Ira, Mark and I setup the checkpoints. Dropped off tables, water and all the items to run the checkpoint. Throughout the day we stocked the checkpoints and helped pull down the checkpoints at the end of the day. It was a beautiful day out, sunny and hot. The March Of Dimes expected about 1500 walkers and got around 2000. All said, we provided a lot of help to a worthy cause and it was a day well spent. Thanks to all that helped, Matt