2017 - General Meeting - Saturday September 9, 2017
Desert Explorers Meeting Minutes
Saturday, September 9, 2017
Attending Mal Roode, Daniel Dick & Bobby Sanchez, Ruth & Emmett Harder, Ding & Allan Wicker, Marian & Neal Johns, Dolly & Jerry Dupree, Julie & Bill Smith, Lindsay Woods, Tracy Woods, Vicki Hill, Eileen & Terry Ogden, Dave Burdick, Brett Henrich, Nelson Miller, Sue & Bob Jaussaud.
Start 11:40 a.m.
Remembering Jerry Harada Everybody had a few words to say about what a great person Jerry was and how he╒ll be missed. Words describing him and his manner included: capable, outgoing, funny, always made you comfortable, loved to cook, how he loved to share places and trips, made sure the elders on his trips had a comfortable bedroom to stay in. Folks remembered the great trips and great times he led that centered around his house in Chloride. He left some big shoes to fill.
Bob Jacoby Apologized in advanced for impaired hearing while manning the Chair. He is being fitted with some new state-of-the-art units and hopes to be back in the conversation soon. Go Bob!
Regrets Deb Miller-Marschke, Steve Jarvis & Kate Fosselman, Ken Hemkin, Nan Healy
Minutes Accepted as published
Treasurer Bill Smith reported all good on the money front. Current funds $4,435.12, up a bit over $9 from last month after subscription income and donation to museum expense.
2018 Rendezvous Bob Jacoby and Jerry Dupree visited Ridgecrest, met with representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and visited the fairground facility where we will have our upcoming Rondy in April. Meeting place is large, ours from Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon. There is tent camping and RV hookup camping on-site with showers and heads. Motels are a mile or less away for non-campers. Catering will be by Casey's Barbecue, featuring tri-tip, chicken, vegetarian and pork. Price points were discussed, seemed reasonable and Bob was given the go ahead to negotiate a contract to lock things up.
There are a boatload of trips in the area as well as great opportunities for inbound and outbound trips. We will be arranging trips on both Saturday and Sunday to Little Petroglyph Canyon on the China Lake Naval Weapons Center base through Sandy Rogers from the Maturango Museum in Ridgecrest. He will also be our Saturday night after-dinner speaker. Trips mentioned include the Panamints area, Trona Pinnacles, Fossil Falls and Death Valley spots. Dates are April 6-8, the weekend after Easter.
Website Deb reported in absentia that the site was up-to-date with the exception of our most recent newsletter materials, which will be plugged in this weekend.
Museum Nelson Miller reported that the museum will be having their Mini BBQ on September 26th. Food will be from the same caterer as the big BBQ and it is great. There was some light discussion on the possibility about being able to take museum membership dollars on PayPal alongside our subscriptions so it would be a one touch operation. Bill Smith will check it out with Pat Schofstall at the MVRM.
MVRM Work Party Nelson proposed a museum work party Saturday, Black Mountain area trip Sunday with an overnight at Paradise Springs weekend trip. Possibly January He will check it out with the museum and Cliff Walker.
OSPA The Old Spanish Trail Association is coming up October 5-8. 18 guest speakers (including Nelson), access to the Daggett Museum which has been closed for years, Sunday field trip to primary Old Spanish Trail sites. Early sign ups included museum members and DE subscribers Glenn Shaw, Nelson Miller, Cliff Walker and Craig Baker. Emmett Harder has been asked to reprise his role as Death Valley Scotty.
Trips We started with two on the calendar from Bob & Sue Jaussaud and several in the planning stages. This quickly escalated.
>NW Clark Mountains to Spring Mountains, September 19-21. Exploratory, will include locating backcountry cabins, mines and rock art.
> Nevada exploratory Bob & Sue Jaussaud. Trail out of Belmont (near Tonopah) overland to Barcelona. Will include ranch cabins, some pretty serious 4WD and old townsites. October 23-27.
> Hastings Cutoff Bill Powell moved his trip date Spring 2018.
> Black Mountains Nelson Miller will lead Sunday trip combined with Saturday museum work party and overnight at Paradise Springs. January 2018
>Lucerne area focused on the north face of the San Bernardino Mountains. Nelson Miller, November 4th.
>Lucerne Valley Rocket Launch Nelson will lead a group out to the big rocket launch November 11th.
>Mirian to Borate Dave Burdick
suggested this trip with notes from an old MVRM trip. Will likely start in Daggett where the old 20 Mule Team wagons are on display. Nelson Miller and Dave Burdick will co-lead the trip. December 2nd is the proposed date.
>Overland Trail Jerry Dupree will lead trip along the old stage line from Salton Sea to Julian. March 2018.
>Route 66 original alignments. Brett Henrich loved the trip led by Joe De Kehoe and wanted to expand on it. Bob Jacoby will put this together and lead it in Spring 2018. Four day trip will go from the New Mexico border to Victoviller in segments so people can join for all or part of the trip.
>Tour of Death Valley Brett also suggested a trip in Death Valley. Emmett Harder and Matt Jones could/would co-lead sometime February/March 2018. Could include the racetrack, Ubehebe Crater, Skiddoo, Old Woman Springs. Planning will begin, details to follow.
>Butte Valley and Emmett's cabin area. Emmett Harder. Possible second trip to this area of Death Valley. Early 2018 due to heat in Spring.
Newsletter Newsletter is in great shape. Jay reported on deep conversations with high level tech support experts at his ISP who explained that the Yahoo hack and security breach a while back has all the internet providers re-writing their email software for better function and privacy. The takeaway is that email from all providers has been and will be a little flaky for some time, like the next six months. We will be breaking our email mass mailings into smaller chunks to make them more digestible to the providers who are currently having indigestion. Like AT&T and socal.rr.net. We have also established a DropBox folder with ALL of the 2017 newsletters available for instant download for anyone who is having trouble receiving the email mass mailing. We tried it out this month and it works as advertised. And it's free.
New business Mitchell Caverns reopens the first weekend of November after many years of closure. Campground and cavern tours will be up and running.
Next Meeting October 28th at Ding & Allan Wicker's house. Several requests for costumes and/or masks in honor of Halloween.
Adjourned 12:50 p.m.
