December 1, 2006    The Official Newsletter of the New Mexico 4-Wheelers    www.nm4w.org

Note: Click on any of the pictures on this page for a larger view, 
then "Back" on your browser to return.

Meeting was held at Heights Cumberland Church.  Lauri Rector called the meeting to order at 7:00 sharp.

Guests:  Sheree Barnes, Dennis Wong.

Members Present:  Mark & Maria Berglund, Glenn Bontly, Pat & Sue Brady, Keith Chapin, Rance Cochrane, Mike & Kristy Coe, Leon & Marcia Duggar, Arne Gjerning, Erwin Greven, Heath Hislop, Tom Hurt, Jason Lavy, Cliff Meier, Don Miller, Bob Norton, Jeff & Lauri Rector, Mike Robertson & Kathy Wolf, Justin Simenson, Carlos & Laurye Tanner, Bob Telepak, Mary Turpin, Mark Werkmeister, Frank G. & Beth Whiston, Mark & Joan Wolf.

Secretary’s Report – Beth Whiston:  In the October minutes it was reported that the NM4W’s gave $500.00 to Southwest Land Action Fund.  Wolfie pointed out during the November meeting that the NM4W’s also donated $170.00 to the Fund.  The $170.00 was collected at the Summer Quarterly by donations made with the entry fee.  To make it clear, the NM4W’s actually donated $670.00 to the Southwest Land Action Fund.  Everybody accepted the minutes as printed in the newsletter.

Treasurer’s Report – Paul Thompson:  $3,484.04 - bank balance.  No outstanding bills.  Tom Hurt deposited $81.00 from the aluminum cans.

Vice President’s Report – Mark Wolf:  Mark displayed a visitor’s and member’s point list up on the chalkboard.  Everybody needs to check it and make sure it is correct!  The point system was explained.  A person needs to earn five points to become a member.  That way, they can see if they like the club before having to shell out money for dues.  Points can be earned by attending meetings and participating in club runs.

Members: If you lead a run, please e-mail Wolfie to let him know who was on the run so they can get their points! 

There are no fines at this time. 

Trip Chairman’s Report – Frank Whiston: 

Director of Environmental Affairs Report – Mark Werkmeister:  The change in control of the House and Senate makes it much more unlikely that a Pearce RS2477 bill will be considered (or even get out of committee).  Interestingly enough, a very anti-access bill to sunset RS2477 rights was introduced this past year.  In the Republican-controlled house, it did not even make it out of committee.  We may very well see more of this in the coming year and it will take a lot of effort to keep bad access legislation at bay.  We will keep a close eye on it and continue to update the club.

The main focus right now should be the Travel Management Rule implementation in the various New Mexico National Forests.  The Santa Fe National Forest is holding their first travel analysis workshops starting this next week (schedules are posted on the club web site).  Please try to attend any or all meetings that you can.  This is the precursor meetings for selecting which routes will stay open under the Rule.  We will also be starting to prepare our own Citizen’s Alternative, which the Forest Service will have to consider among the alternatives.

The Cibola National Forest is also starting the Travel Management Rule process with a ‘collaborative approach’ pilot in the Sandia Ranger District.  The club has several official representatives, but the public is free to attend and participate, so plan on attending those meetings also.

The changes in Congress make a bad Dona Ana Land Use bill or a Trackways National Monument bill much more likely.  We will keep you posted and alert you should action on our part be necessary or beneficial.

Program Chairman’s Report – Jerry Marx:  Not present, but Jeff Rector is selling tickets.  He needs Jeep parts, so buy some tickets! 

Historian’s Report – Laurye Tanner:  Did not get any pictures this last month.  Laurye was disappointed because she could not take pictures of people necking on the hills during the night run.  Aw, shucks.

Webmaster & Editor’s Report – Glenn Bontly:  Nothing to report this month.

Old Business:

New Business:

Thank you to the Wolf’s for hosting the meeting tonight.  There were lots of goodies!! 

Meeting adjourned at 7:44.

Winner of the 50/50 drawing:  The cheesecake guy (Heath Hislop)!!!  AGAIN!!   $50.00.  $51.00 went to the club. 

Next months Hosts:  The Rodacy’s House for the Holiday party!  See you there!

January Hosts: Jerry & Barbara Marx

Paul has owned his ’95 Jeep Wrangler for four years, but didn’t know where to go four-wheeling in New Mexico.  As he searched the web, he was drawn to the no-nonsense attitude and membership screening process of the New Mexico Four Wheelers.  His first NM4W outing was the 2006 Memorial Day weekend trip to the Jemez.

The first day’s run was up/over the Gilman hills (the trail just before the tunnels).  Paul had been off-highway with his Jeep, but never rock crawling.  At the trailhead, he dutifully disconnected the sway bar and aired down.  “My jaw dropped at the first hard spot because I didn’t think I could do it,” Paul remembers.  But with spotting by club members, he got through the obstacles just fine.  A flat tire later in the day was no deterrent.  He liked the NM4W group and had so much fun, he stayed for three nights.

Paul has always loved cars and driving.  In high school, he had a ’69 Mustang and later a ’91 Mustang GT—and did some race driving with each.  About ten years ago, he decided to try four-wheeling.  He bought a new ’95 Jeep Wrangler S (but not the one he currently drives) and practically drove from the dealers lot to Imogene Pass.  Paul correlates race driving to four wheeling.  “Tires are everything; you must find the right line and watch speed and braking.  The difference is whether you go 1 mph or 100 mph!”

The first ‘95 Wrangler was 4-cylinder.  So four years ago, Paul traded up for the 6-cylinder version.  This one has a 4” lift and 33” tires, and the previous owner was a “Barbie doll” who only drove it to the mall.  Using Glenn’s website as a guide, Paul prepared the Jeep for NM4-wheelin’, rather than grocery-gittin’.  He installed custom front and rear bumpers, CB radio, high-lift jack, tow hooks, under-hood compressor, and a winch.  Although happy with these upgrades, he looks forward to getting ARB lockers some day.

Born and bred in Albuquerque, Paul graduated from UNM.  He’s the computer IT manager at Applied Research Associates (ARA).  ARA is an engineering firm that specializes in civil engineering and software modeling, and whose main customers are DOD and DOT.  As IT manager, Paul often travels to the ARA site offices around the country.

To relieve work stress, Paul enjoys hiking, mountain biking, rollerblading, and “computer geek stuff”.  He likes video games that require interaction with others; Guitar Hero is a favorite.  Though too modest to say so, Paul is an accomplished musician.  He’s played trombone and piano since 4^th grade.  He was in the Albuquerque Youth Symphony in high school, and then the UNM marching band.  During college, he was in a rock band called The Circuit Breakers, so named “because we were too loud for some bars.”

His two Bassett hounds, Lucy and Schroeder, sometimes accompany him in the Jeep.  He hopes they can try the Jeep on some technical runs, but isn’t sure when or where that would be.  Sounds like Paul needs to check out the Chile Challenge in February (and buy some raffle tickets, right Leon?).  We welcome Paul to NM4W.  It’s the place to be for anyone interested in vehicles, four-wheeling, exploring, and having fun off-the-beaten-path.

Jan & I have been wanted to go night riding all summer long.  But with all of the rain we got early in the season, moving Jan and then me into new houses, and a myriad of other things that always seemed to come up, it just never happened.  Realizing that our schedules would be free the coming weekend, combined with a forecast of clear skies and a bright moon, we set the event for 4 Nov.  A few of us met for dinner at China Best in Cedar Crest, and then made our way to the Sandia Ranger Station in Tijeras for our 7 pm meeting time.  Nine vehicles awaited the evening adventure!

After a short driver’s meeting, we all headed down Hwy 337 to the trailhead.  I’ve been on this trail numerous times, but things are way different in the dark and it was a little difficult to find the turns onto the trail, especially when your headlights are pointing in front and there’s minimal lighting to the sides.  We aired down by flashlight and started the ride.  Just a few days prior, I swapped out my anemic sealed beams with a set of IPF Quartz Halogen units.  Wow, what a difference!  I felt no need for any higher-intensity “off-road” lights.  The IPF lights would not only provide significantly better visibility on the highway, but turned out to be a perfect set up for night trail riding as well.

Traveling east on the trail, we passed the turn-off to the “big hill”.  That thing scares me during the day; wouldn’t even walk it after dark!  We made out way back to Tablizon Canyon.  Unfortunately, this trail was being used by people during the really wet season this year, and the ruts were horrible.  It didn’t cause any problems for us, but others use this trail as well (hikers, mountain bikers, etc) and it was pretty torn up.  Just like on all trail rides, we stressed to everyone to keep the person behind them in sight at all times.  At night, this is even more important!  Everyone did a great job and we never got separated during the entire trip.  The hardest part of the trail is the narrow rocky hill climb out of Tablizon Canyon, through the trees.  The rains seemed to have washed away some of the dirt, and the rocks appeared “larger” than in the past.  But still, everyone made it through just fine.

As we rounded the back side of the mountain, we could see the towers at the top of the peak under the glow of the moon, but curiously, there were no marker lights.  We drove up to the lookout and had a nice view of the Albuquerque night lights, as well as the traffic on I-40 and North 14.

By this time, it was way past my 9 pm bedtime, so coming off of the mountain, we took the left turn at the concrete, traveled through the group camp area, aired up, and headed home.  Although a little chilly, it was a beautiful clear night for the ride.  I think Jan & I were the only ones in an open Jeep; all the other “wusses” were enclosed with their heaters running.  ;o)  We’ll definitely have to do this again sometime next summer!

Come to the Christmas Party and see a Year in Review of NM4W as a slide show.  Still looking for more pictures to put into the slide show.  Get them to me ASAP. 

Thanks and Merry Christmas.

A “Citizen’s Proposal” – What Does It Mean?

By now, most of you have probably heard me mention the term “Citizen’s Proposal” when referring to the ongoing Travel Management Rule planning process.  Did you ever wonder what I mean by “Citizen’s Proposal” and how it might affect the future of our trails in the Santa Fe Forest and other forests?

The Santa Fe National Forest is in the midst of the travel management planning process brought about by the Travel Management Rule (the new Rule states, in effect, that all motorized travel on the Forests has to be on designated trails).  We have attended a series of kick-off meetings and now are in the midst of the first round of “workshop” meetings.  We are rapidly getting closer to the point where we will need to introduce a “Citizen’s Proposal”.

To understand the importance of the Proposal, it is necessary to have a basic understanding of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).  NEPA requires federal agencies to integrate environmental values into their decision making processes by considering the environmental impacts of their proposed actions and reasonable alternatives to those actions.  To meet this requirement, federal agencies prepare a detailed statement known as an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).  A typical EIS requires a “preferred alternative”, a “no action” alternative to provide a current baseline, and a range of other alternatives.  The preferred alternative is the agency’s best effort at taking all of the information they have (including public input) and using that information and their professional knowledge to craft a plan that best meets the requirements of whatever action they are undertaking. 

As you might guess, the preferred alternative does not always meet the interests or requirements of interested bodies of the public.  The agency has to solicit and consider input from the public, but they don’t have to include that input in the preferred alternative if they don’t believe it meets their various requirements.  In order to provide the public a range of choices on which to comment, they are required to also provide a range of alternatives.

By general use and precedence, a well-thought-out and nicely documented “Citizen’s Proposal” is usually given a place as one of the other alternatives considered.  The anti-access groups have used Citizen’s Proposals to great effect in previous federal agency actions.

Why is getting our needs included as an alternative so important?  Each of the alternatives included in the EIS requires full study and discussion of the alternative by the agency, how the alternative impacts the affected environment, and the environmental consequences of the proposed alternatives as it relates to the proposed action.  In a nutshell, once a Citizen’s Proposal is included as an alternative, the agency has to treat it seriously and give it the full weight of their available expertise.  They can’t just dismiss it!  Having a motorized recreation sponsored alternative also gives the public a motorized recreation friendly alternative to support.  If there is enough support, features of the alternative can get integrated into the final plan.

I am willing to serve as “compiler and editor” of a 4WD Citizen’s Proposal, but I will need a LOT OF HELP.  I am not familiar with ALL of the trails.  I will need detailed descriptions of the trails, their locations, and their routes, what specific features they include that make them desirable and/or unique, how they relate to the larger trail network we are proposing, what potential environmental concerns their use may cause, and how those concerns could be mitigated.  We have an excellent template to work from, but I won’t lie to you:  A Citizen’s Proposal is a LOT OF WORK!   The more complete and detailed it is, the easier it is for the agency to adopt it as a viable alternative to be considered.

The timing of our submission is important also.  It needs to be soon enough that it can be integrated into the agency’s range of alternatives considered (or even integrated into the preferred alternative).  It needs to be late enough that we have some idea of how much of the existing roads system is gong to be left in place.  It won’t make sense to do a full analysis by the club of roads that we KNOW are going to be left open.  My best guess is that we will need to submit it sometime between March and May 2007.

If you are interested in helping craft this proposal, please let me know.  I will be actively soliciting participants at the club’s annual Christmas Party (you know, get them to volunteer when they are full of holiday cheer!).  See you all there!

Mark
NM4W Director of Environmental Affairs.

Tank Trap has been one of my favorites since my first time through this challenging trail.  I remember riding it at least 4 times the summer before last.  With all the rains this past year, we’ve pretty much stayed away from this one.  The whole trail is in the bottom of a stream bed; not a good place to be during the rainy season!  On our 11 Nov trip, Jan & I had 15 vehicles join us: Mark Werkmeister dusted off his Scrambler, Pat & Sue Brady brought their soft-sprung Tacoma, Heath Hislop in his little Samurai (boasting 1300cc’s of “high-revving fury”), Kristy in her TJ (whom Jan’s 15 year old son, Brandon, chose to ride with cuz Kristy was “cuter” than Mark), the Whistons Jr. in their Unlimited, Dan Prichard (XJ) brought along former member Dixon Patrick, Don Miller (XJ) hosted guest Sheree Barns, Mark Berglund (TJ), Brad Opatz (TJ) with new Dana 44 front axle and 37” MT/Rs (I’m jealous), Justin Simenson and Rebecca Tafoya (TJ), Eric & Jasmine Capener (TJ), former member Steve Hunt from Santa Fe in his “too tall” 4-Runner, and guests Doug & Eric Pannel, Dennis Wong, and Mike McDuffy.

It’s a long trek from Bernalillo to Santa Fe.  And after the air down point, it’s still another 30 minutes to the trail head.  But it’s well worth the trip to ride Tank Trap.  If I could find another way into the trail, I would.  Cuz the first obstacle is on an off-camber hill, whereby if you roll, you will end up upside down in a pond and probably drown.  I’m sure it feels way worse than it really is.  Anyway, the fact that it took over 2 hours to get 16 vehicles through should tell you something! 

After that, there are a series of really big rocks throughout the trail to play on.  Some obstacles have easy-moderate-hard options, others have bypasses.  However, there are some sections that you must go through, and this is why the trail is rated as hard.  For the most part, everyone’s vehicle was reasonably well equipped for this trail.  A few people had minor problems here and there, I’m sure some vehicles attained new “personality” that day; but as far as I know, everyone made it through without any major damage.  Darn, and I was hoping to get some practice using my new welder!

In all the times I’ve driven this trail, I’ve yet to find the right way out of the streambed.  One day, we’ll have to find a more appropriate route back to the road.  But for that day, we just found a clearing and went cross-country style.  Upon exiting the streambed, we heard people shooting in the local area.  Most likely shot guns, as was evidenced by the shot that rained down on us just before we all jumped back in our vehicles and high-tailed it out of there with horns honking!

It’s a well known fact that airing down your tires will significantly increase your traction on the trail, not to mention soften the ride.  For the highway drive back to camp, however, you will need a way to refill your tires.  Driving at high speed and low tire pressure is a very dangerous combination.  And it gets old having to “bum” air from your trail buddies after every ride.  A good onboard air system is a must-have accessory if you plan to air down for trail riding.

There are two primary types of air compressors: electric and engine-driven.

Electric compressors are compact, portable, and easy to install.  However, even the expensive, high-end units don’t put out much volume, and they draw a lot of electrical power.

Compressors usually carry Cubic Feet per Minute (CFM) at various Pressures per Square Inch (PSI) ratings.  For example, a VIAIR 500C compressor produces a volume of 1.4 CFM @ 100 PSI and draws 17 amps of power (www.viaircorp.com).

Engine-driven compressors are permanently mounted under your hood (i.e., non-portable) and they take up much more space than an electric, but they produce an incredible amount of volume and they won’t run down your battery.  A York 210 Series compressor, for example, is capable of producing 8+ CFM, depending on engine speed (http://www.kilbyenterprises.com/compressors.htm).

“Duty cycle” is another consideration.  The York 210 has a 100% duty cycle, which means you can run it all day long.  The VIAIR 500C, on the other hand, only has a 33% duty cycle at 100 PSI.  This means you should only run it continuously for 20 minutes, followed by a 40-minute cool down period.  In other words, you can probably air up all of your tires in one session, but you will have to turn down your buddy when he asks you for air.  Otherwise, you risk burning up your compressor from overheating.

In addition to airing up tires, a good compressor (especially used in conjunction with a storage tank) can be used to run air tools and reseat tire beads. 

You may have noticed my bias towards engine-driven compressors.  I have one in my vehicle, and it has turned out to be the most useful accessory in my Jeep.  For more info on my set up, visit my web site at www.webejeepin.com/Glenns_Jeep/onboard-air1.htm.

Aluminum Cans: Our club saves and recycles aluminum cans.  Money from the sale of cans goes into our club treasury.  Please bring your crushed aluminum cans to each meeting, and somebody will take them to the recycling center.

To Our Guests: If you attend a club meeting or event and provide us with your e-mail address, you will be added to our guest e-mail list, and will receive monthly notifications of when the Trail Tales newsletter is posted on our Club web site.  If you are interested in becoming a member of the New Mexico 4-Wheelers, please contact one of our officers for membership requirements, or visit our web site at www.nm4w.org/join-the-club.htm.

Trail Tales on the Web Site: In a continuing effort help save natural resources and to control costs, you are encouraged to read the Trail Tales newsletter on the Club Web Site in lieu of receiving a hard copy in the mail.  Around the first of each month, the current issue of Trail Tales is posted at www.nm4w.org/newsletters.htm and an e-mail notification is sent to all club members.  In addition, a minimum of 2 years of back issues of our newsletter is also available on the web site.  So if you want to help “save some trees”, please send an e-mail to TrailTales@nm4w.org stating that you do not need to receive the hard copy of the newsletter.  Thanks for your participation in this program.

Submission Due Date: The Trail Tales is published on the first of each month.  Submissions for each issue must be received by the Editor not later than the 25^th of the prior month.  Submissions can be sent to TrailTales@nm4w.org, or Trail Tales, 11404 Oceola Rd SE, Albuquerque, NM 87123.

Please see the Events Schedule Page

Trail Tales
11404 Oceola Rd SE
Albuquerque, NM 87123

TrailTales@nm4w.org