OTR
10-29-2007, 04:06 PM
One of my favorite roadsigns
http://www.panamintcharlie.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10013/Cleanup11.jpg
Had a great time out in Surprise Canyon on Saturday.
I had been planning to be in the valley for a long weekend for close to a year when a few months back I had received word that a cleanup date for Chris Wicht's Camp was being set for the last weekend in October. It was great that I already had plans to be in the area, made it real easy to show up. ;)
For those that dont know, Chris Wicht's camp is in Surprise Canyon about a half mile below the narrows and is where the most recent residents, the Novac's had their house and milling operation. This camp burned down in September of '06 leaving quite the mess.
I had arrived at Chris Wichts about 8:40am and found that the cleanup activities had not yet started, but most had arrived. The BLM had sent Craig Beck and Marty Dickes from the Ridgecrest office to supervise the days activities, as well as organising a half dozen or so volunteers from The Student Conservation Association (http://www.thesca.org/) to help with the cleanup.
When I notced that a few people on the board here were thinking about going I started putting the word out that we could use a showing. Although it was a short notice I feel that we still made the point that we value this area, are willing to help, and are not going away anytime soon.
In attendance from the pro-access/off-highway vehicle community were 6 members from the Tin :skull: Benders, two from the GearGrinders, two from the TrailBlazers, and myself and two of my boys. In all, not counting the BLM, I'd say a little over 20 volunteers made the trip up for the morning.
Not a bad turnut for a cleanup that was only advertised to a few environmental organisations.
The cleanup consisted of removing metal and trash from the remains of the camp, and bringing said debris down the hill to two awating roll-off's. The idea was to have one of the recepticles be for steel and iron and the other for trash. Within one hour of the loader getting started we had one dumpster full of metal, and were notified by one of the SCA volunteers that they would remove the trash from the other dumster and start filling that one with metal as well.
Work went on until just before noon when a lunch break was called.
I ended up needing to get the kids back to camp around lunchtime so I didnt get to see how much was accomplished after lunch. But I do know that with how much junk and trash was left there, I dont see how too much more of a dent was made in it with the available help for the rest of the day. With all we removed before lunch, it still didnt look like we really scratched the surface...
Well, enough rambling. Heres the pics...
MustardDog and Bender gettin it !
http://www.panamintcharlie.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10013/Cleanup01.jpg
One of my boys and a "student" volunteer with Krusty in the background.
http://www.panamintcharlie.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10013/Cleanup02.jpg
Both of my boys working, and another "student" in the background.
http://www.panamintcharlie.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10013/Cleanup03.jpg
http://www.panamintcharlie.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10013/Cleanup11.jpg
Had a great time out in Surprise Canyon on Saturday.
I had been planning to be in the valley for a long weekend for close to a year when a few months back I had received word that a cleanup date for Chris Wicht's Camp was being set for the last weekend in October. It was great that I already had plans to be in the area, made it real easy to show up. ;)
For those that dont know, Chris Wicht's camp is in Surprise Canyon about a half mile below the narrows and is where the most recent residents, the Novac's had their house and milling operation. This camp burned down in September of '06 leaving quite the mess.
I had arrived at Chris Wichts about 8:40am and found that the cleanup activities had not yet started, but most had arrived. The BLM had sent Craig Beck and Marty Dickes from the Ridgecrest office to supervise the days activities, as well as organising a half dozen or so volunteers from The Student Conservation Association (http://www.thesca.org/) to help with the cleanup.
When I notced that a few people on the board here were thinking about going I started putting the word out that we could use a showing. Although it was a short notice I feel that we still made the point that we value this area, are willing to help, and are not going away anytime soon.
In attendance from the pro-access/off-highway vehicle community were 6 members from the Tin :skull: Benders, two from the GearGrinders, two from the TrailBlazers, and myself and two of my boys. In all, not counting the BLM, I'd say a little over 20 volunteers made the trip up for the morning.
Not a bad turnut for a cleanup that was only advertised to a few environmental organisations.
The cleanup consisted of removing metal and trash from the remains of the camp, and bringing said debris down the hill to two awating roll-off's. The idea was to have one of the recepticles be for steel and iron and the other for trash. Within one hour of the loader getting started we had one dumpster full of metal, and were notified by one of the SCA volunteers that they would remove the trash from the other dumster and start filling that one with metal as well.
Work went on until just before noon when a lunch break was called.
I ended up needing to get the kids back to camp around lunchtime so I didnt get to see how much was accomplished after lunch. But I do know that with how much junk and trash was left there, I dont see how too much more of a dent was made in it with the available help for the rest of the day. With all we removed before lunch, it still didnt look like we really scratched the surface...
Well, enough rambling. Heres the pics...
MustardDog and Bender gettin it !
http://www.panamintcharlie.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10013/Cleanup01.jpg
One of my boys and a "student" volunteer with Krusty in the background.
http://www.panamintcharlie.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10013/Cleanup02.jpg
Both of my boys working, and another "student" in the background.
http://www.panamintcharlie.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10013/Cleanup03.jpg