[ihc] Scout makes it through with no major damage

[John Hofstetter <hofs@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In light of the misadventures that seemed to plague my Scout in the 
Winter and Spring, (another spring perch torn out of frame, broken main 
leaf, fire from exploding brake booster, etc. ) I thought that everyone 
would like to know that yesterday, Saturday, I took the Scout from 
Union Lake to Alpine Lake via Slick Rock trail, with no damage other 
than a few more dings in the sheet metal.

If I had known how bad this trail has gotten, I wouldn't have attempted 
it, but ignorance is bliss. Nah, ignorance leads to terror. Anyway, no 
torn spring perches, no broken spring leafs, no brake failure.

It's only been a couple of years since I went through here with the 
Mother Lode Group but the trail now is very different in difficulty. 
Seriously, this trail has become a real challenge to any but the very 
well equipped. I promised my Scout that this would be the last trip 
across Slick Rock for it.

My son, John, was the only other vehicle on our trip, but we talked to 
a lot of Jeepers standing around to see if the Scout was  going to make 
it, and the BIG topic of conversation was the big story in the 
Sacramento Bee about Del Albright and the FOTR work on the Rubicon 
Trail.

70,000 lbs. of poop a year on that relatively short trail. Access on 
the Rubicon could end up denied just on the basis of poop.

In Utah, Del and I saw trails where you were required to have poop 
equipment with you, and I've done several Utah trips where you had  to 
show your poop equipment, and your poop, at the end of the trip, or get 
 a substantial fine.

Anyway, Del continues to promote, very well, public access to public 
lands, but right now the poop problem solution seems to be suffering 
from a lack of resolution, which I guess could be a form of 
constipation.

One more anyway, thanks Del for working so hard to keep our access to 
our lands. I just renewed my membership in Blue Ribbon Coalition and 
consider it money well spent.

John

John Hofstetter
Ol' Saline
www.goldrush.com/~hofs