Join Us Today!

06/09/2011 – The Southern California Tacoma Club has ratified new bylaws in hope of simplifying the management of the club and making it easier for those who want to be a part of it to join.  Voted in today, these bylaws are considerably shorter than the previous versions, less than one third as long in fact!  They remove such things as waivers, the former onerous requirements for membership in the club and the previously tedious paperwork involved in creating runs.  None of that was about fun, so it is gone!

How simple is it? Well, first know that the club is open to all makes and models of 4X4s, and anyone that wants to enjoy the fun! Under the new bylaws one just needs to show up for a run, ask to be in the club and after a vote, they are in!  The dues for the club are just those to cover the cost of the individual’s membership in the California Association of Four Wheel Drive Clubs, and if you are already a member of that organization, then sometime during the year, we just sync your dues with ours and that is it.  There are no other costs associated with being a member in the club.  Becoming a member is easy!

The California Association of Four Wheel Drive Clubs is one of the organizations working to keep our trails open and our hobby here for generations to come to enjoy. Everyone who is out on the trails in California should belong to this organization! Every club should be a member club. The Southern California Tacoma club has been a member of California Association of Four Wheel Drive Clubs since our little club started. Come help us support this fine organization!

Runs now have no required paperwork and, as before, anyone can propose and organize one. In fact, we welcome such input and help!  We have all kinds of runs, from hard to easy, in the local mountains and deserts and in more distant areas. Often we go to places where experience leaders take the group on a planned run but we sometimes just go explore things we have not seen yet. We encourage all kinds of outdoor fun, wheeling of course, but also camping, fishing, hiking, and anything you want to do. If like the outdoors, the Southern California Tacoma Club is the place for you!

The Southern California Tacoma Club’s new bylaws make having fun easier for everyone. We hope that you’ll come join us!

May 15, 2011 -  The attendance numbers started to fall off as this event grew near but Jeremy and I decided even if no one showed up, we’d go and look around in one of our favorite places, Butte Valley in Death Valley National Park.  However, long time member Kirk (who’d met the club on the Lipincott some years back) and Bruce on his first run also came up to enjoy a great rip.

On Friday night, Jeremy and I found ourselves in Ridgecrest at the wonderful Motel 6 and decided we needed to go try a Ridgecrest drinking establishment.  We drove down the main drag and found nothing but at the edge of town turned onto Triangle Drive and found Mikey’s Pub (http://www.mickeyspub.com).  Here oddly loud and annoyingly pop sounding music blared as we shot a few games of pool with Jeremy winning them all.

In the morning we met Bruce at Kristy’s (430 South China Lake Boulevard – no web site for their plug here).  The three of us enjoyed  breakfast and annoying Kirk, who was accompanied by his daughter and her friend, with text messages before setting off for Trona.  Then we all met up in Trona at what was the Chevron Station, which like many things in Trona is now closed, leaving the T Stop as the only place for gas in town.

So the four rigs departed Trona and headed just north of town to run the Slate Range to Panamint Valley and then we ran up Goler Wash.  The water fall is slowly becoming an obstacle again, which is good news!  We stopped along the way at the Newman Cabin, Barker Ranch (where I ruined my 2m/70cm antenna mount in the same place I had popped a tire the last time there), the Lotus Mine (lunch) and  at Mengle Pass to ascend the hill and get a glimpse of Stripped Butte.

We descended in to Butte Valley and found Russell’ s and Stella’s taken but the Stone Cabin was all ours with its magnificent views of the butte.  We had a fire outside for a while but the wind caused it to deliver little warmth, so we moved inside and enjoyed the fireplace before we all went to sleep. We let the girls sleep in the cabin and the rest of us made camp around it.

In the morning the gray clouds came and cold winds. We decided to exist the fast way, back down Goler rather than toward the West side Road in Death Valley proper.  We made it back to Panamint Valley and then to Ballerat without issue and stopped there for a bit before heading to the pavement.  We all stopped in the “Living Ghost Town,” Randsburg (http://www.randsburg.com/) on the way for some fine soda pops and food at the General Store. After that we all went our own ways, home, looking forward to the next run!

Click here for pictures!

 We have been looking for places that we’ve not been before. For years we’ve driven through Lone Pine and never thought to stop in the Alabama Hills where hundreds of movies have been filmed, many mines were tried and Native Americans once lived. So, it was time to go look!

John drove up early Friday and set up camp at Turtle Creek. Dennis came late, pulled into Lone Pine at midnight and went to the Dow Villa Hotel and got a room in the old hotel built in 1929. In the morning we met in Lone Pine and headed out to see the hills.

There is a lot to see but Dennis forgot the book with the locations of the movies. All the same, we went to see all the sites, hunted in the rocks for historic places, and headed as far north as George Creek.  We looked in nearly every canyon and looked under most ever rock!

The trails are generally easy with a few minor exceptions if one gets off the main trails. The big sell of the Alabama Hills are the many different geological formations and amazing views! There is no place like this so it is not to be missed!

We camped in the middle of the Alabama Hills with a great via of the Sierras, in a perfect site in the rocks. In the morning we packed up camp and headed home, the long run down the 395 but, for sure, we’ll be back!

For pictures click here!