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The BLM will host a meeting on Saturday to discuss the development of the Jade Mill area. Mike Zesiger, a member of the Timekeepers MC, has volunteered to take the lead on this project and would welcome anyone who is interested in what happens to the Jade Mill area to join him at the meeting. Click on the link above to read more about this BLM project.

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I stayed home on Friday, not because I was ascared of hitting another pig, but to reload the Rambler web site after our ISP had a hardware failure and lost all of our content. (Yes, I know that ascared is not a real word. Did you? My brother Mike still thinks it is!) Saturday morning I got an early start because I had to get gas and food. When I got to the intersection of Hwy25 an Coalinga Road a little after 8AM I was surprised to see a sign saying the Creek was closed. because both the e-mail from the BLM and the hotline said it would open at 8AM on Saturday.

I drove along at my normal speed for the road and eventually wound up behind a string of vehicles who were going much slower, perhaps because they were ascared of hitting a pig. When we got to the entrance, it looked like the staging area for an event. Apparently a lot of people got up early to get a ride in before Easter. Vehicles were clustered behind a Road Closed sign and parked along both sides of the road, from both directions. I drove up to the entrance and was greeted by some Timekeeper friends who shall remain nameless. They told me that the gates were closed across the river and no one from the BLM had arrived yet to open them. I asked if anyone in this group of perhaps 50-75 people had gone across the river to check to see if they were locked. No one had. So I did. They weren't. I swung them open and the procession began.

What a beautiful day it was on Saturday. Nice temperature and the trails were dry to dusty except in the shaded areas. Hardly had any mud to wash off. The BLM really needs to re-examine this wet weather closure policy. Was I sore after riding. I had not ridden for three weekends and I felt it Saturday night. Do you dream of trails in your sleep after a ride? I do and usually wake up more tired than when I went to sleep.

On Sunday the Ramblers hosted another Doc Wong riding clinic on our property. Yes, I know it was Easter, but Harry assured me that he was going to have a good turnout and so, against my better judgment, I passed up a family BBQ to host the class. (Yes, go ahead, twist my arm, make me ride at Clear Creek on Easter) Won't do that again (Easter Sunday, that is). Even Harry didn't show up. He got "stuck" at a meeting in Florida. Fortunately Joe "Racer" Wytman was able to fill in as guest instructor for the eight people who showed up for the class. All in all it was worth it as we raised some more money in donations for the legal defense fund.

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Please be aware that the BLM has closed Clear Creek again today through noon on Friday because of another round of heavy rain. The gauges today showed over an inch in less than 24 hours and there are still heavy showers falling on the Monterey Peninsula. Must be global warming! Now I know what it feels like to live in Seattle or Portland. I could not do it. I have been spoiled by CA weather for thirty years.

A friend and co-worker recently sold his home in Pacific Grove for an obscene amount of money and moved to the Seattle area. We kidded him about how much it rains up there. Well, I expect this is an aberration, but he calls upon a weekly basis to tell us what great weather they are having up there this year.

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At the Post Office there is a man whose job is to process all the mail that has illegible addresses. One day a letter came to his desk, addressed in a shaky handwriting to God. He thought, "Oh boy, better open this one and see what it's all about."

It read: "Dear God, I am an 83 year old widow living on a very small pension Yesterday someone stole my purse. It had $100.00 in it. This was all the money I had until my next pension check. Next Sunday is Christmas, and I had invited two of my friends over for dinner. Without that money, I have nothing to buy food with. I have no family to turn to, and you are my only hope. Can you please help me?"

The postal worker was touched, and went around showing the letter to all the others. Each of them dug into his wallet and came up with a few dollars. By the time he made the rounds, he had collected $96.00, which they put into an envelope and sent over to her. The rest of the day, all the workers felt the warm glow of the kind thing they had done.

Christmas came and went. A few days later another letter came from the old lady to God. All the workers gathered around while the letter was opened. It read, "Dear God, How can I ever thank you enough for what you did for me? Because of your gift of love I was able to fix a glorious dinner for my friends. We had a very nice day and I told my friends of your wonderful gift. By the way, there was $4 missing. I think it must have been those thieving bastards at the Post Office who stole it." (passed along by Ray at www.picacho.org)

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Because of the threat of rain, Brian White has postponed the meeting at Jade Mill until April 2. As he really wants a good turnout and public input he felt it would be best to reschedule the meeting, figuring that many people would not want to travel down to the Creek just for the meeting. Smart move.

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Just a reminder that there will be a meeting to discuss the future of the Jade Mill area of Clear Creek this coming Saturday at 10AM at, naturally, Jade Mill. Mike Zesiger , a member of the Timekeepers MC, is taking the lead on this project. The public is invited to attend the meeting and provide input. The BLM is planning to develop the old cabin site as additional camping, ala Oak Flat. This is a good location to promote camping because it is off the serpentine body. If you look around Jade Mill you will see regular dirt and oak trees.

This area is ideal for family camping and I am hopeful that an area adjacent to the camping can be developed for children to play on mini-bikes. We need something bigger than the little track that the BLM had constructed next to the Oak Flat Campground. What do you think. If you can't make the meeting, send an e-mail to Brian White, the Clear Creek project coordinator, with your thoughts.

I should remind you that in the EIS, the BLM was proposing to make the lower area of the Jade Mill area a "quiet camping" area. By this I think they meant a place where there would be no OHV allowed. I can not understand how something like this would work, given that one of the most heavily used routes in CC passes through lower Jade Mill. In my response to the BLM, I suggested that if they wanted a quiet camping area, they develop on in the middle of the Natural Area where we are not allowed to ride!

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Yes, I was missing in action for a week. I was out of town on a business trip the past seven days. Got to see part of Texas northeast of Houston, New Orleans and Bourbon Street, Mobile, AL and Pensacola, FL. It was a whirlwind trip with few breaks so I am glad to be back home, sitting in front of the old computer again. I guess I could have gone to bed a little earlier while in the Big Easy, but what fun would that have been. I did discovered that if I drank enough alcohol, I could numb my knees and they wouldn't hurt walking from bar to bar. Unfortunately, this treatment is not conducive to conducting business the next morning so I only did it once.

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A man is driving down the road and breaks down near a monastery. He goes to the monastery, knocks on the door, and says, "My car broke down. Do you think I could stay the night?" The monks graciously accept him, feed him dinner, even fix his car. As the man tries to fall asleep, he hears a strange sound. A sound not like anything he's ever heard before, perhaps like the sounds made by the Sirens that nearly seduced Odysseus into crashing his ship onto the rocks. He doesn't sleep that night. He tosses and turns trying to figure out what could possibly be making such a seductive sound.

The next morning, he asks the monks what the sound was, but they say, "We can't tell you. You're not a monk." Distraught, the man is forced to leave. Years later, after never being able to forget that sound, the man goes back to the monastery and pleads for the answer again. The monks reply, "We can't tell you. You're not a monk." The man says, "If the only way I can find out what is making that beautiful sound is to become a monk, then please, make me a monk." The monks reply, "You must travel the earth and tell us how many blades of grass there are and the exact number of grains of sand. When you find these answers, you will have become a monk."

The man sets about his task. After years of searching he returns and knocks on the door of the monastery. "I have traveled the earth and have found what you have asked for: By design, the world is in a state of perpetual change. Only God knows what you ask. All a man can know is himself, and only then if he is honest and reflective and willing to strip away self deception." The monks reply, "Congratulations. You are now a monk. We shall now show you the way to the mystery of the sound."

The monks lead the man to a wooden door, where the head monk says, "The sound is beyond that door." The monks give him the key, and he opens the door. Behind the wooden door is another door made of stone. The man is given the key to the stone door and he opens it, only to find a door made of ruby. And so it went that he needed keys to doors of emerald, gold and diamond. Finally, the monks say, "This is the last key to the last door." The man is apprehensive to no end. His life's wish is behind the door! He unlocks the door, turns the knob, and behind that door he is utterly amazed to find the source of that haunting and seductive sound... But I can't tell you what it is because you're not a monk. (Thanks Carl!)

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I am taking the weekend off from riding (and LAO working), strange as that might sound. I won't be at the entrance to greet you this weekend. Going off with the wife for a couple days.

Last weekend a CC regular who doesn't know me asked if I was married . I guess the presumption is that I was not or that perhaps I was divorced since I always seem to be down at the Creek.. The truth be known, Colleen and I have been married for 28 (going on 29) years. She knows that the enduro and CC are very special to me and puts up with my going away on weekends during the winter to organize the enduro.

I am very fortunate to have a wife who is so understanding. It certainly helped that, early in our marriage, her brother Brian was my #1 riding partner. I think it also helped that I took her to some enduros both before and after we were married. I wasn't as bad as my friend Bill Woolman, though. As I understand it, he took his wife to an enduro on their honeymoon. They had to leave the wedding reception early so they could get to the enduro the next morning. Now that is hardcore! I'm not that bad.

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Do you have a hero, or heros? What is a hero? Merriam-Webster defines "hero" as a: a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability b: an illustrious warrior c: a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities, d: a sandwich.

On Quicksilver day I was returning to camp after the event when I encountered a contestant who was searching for a fender pack that had destroyed his rear fender at the .4 mile mark. I stopped, introduced myself and helped him look for it. After it was found I offered to carry it back to camp in my backpack as he was on foot and the thing weighed a ton. He thanked me and then told me that I was one of his heros. This sort of took me by surprise but I thanked him. Since then I have thought about what he said. I have mentioned it to other people and talked to them about their heros.

The truth is I don't think of myself as a hero. I never thought back in 1984 when I first got involved with Clear Creek management plans that I would be the 'hero who saved Clear Creek'. (In 1984, Clear Creek was still "open use"). I'm just a guy who loves riding and who wants to see Clear Creek stay open. I am just doing what I can to see that we preserve the OHV experience that I have been fortunate enough to experience for future generations of Clear Creek riders.

Since I have had to think about this, I prefer to characterize myself as a role model, a person who I hope other people would want to emulate. In fact I wish more people would emulate me down at the entrance to Clear Creek on Saturday and Sunday mornings so I can take a break!

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