Toad Festival Continued...
Jim
"Hunts for Food" Simescu and his volunteers (including Continental
Marketing Rep. Jim Drain) did an outstanding job in organizing the food and
cooking.
My cousin Becky Vargas was my right-hand woman and a great help.
I owe a special thanks to all of our club members who helped haul
everything out to O'Neill and back to my house after the event.
As some of you know, I herniated my back and was pretty much
incapacitated.
Thank you all for your help.
Our next event will be the Mountain Bike Pow Wow on March 9, 2002. This event is made up of the long-distance Vision Quest, medium-distance Counting Coup, and short-distance Seek the Peak.
Club News
We've had several changes in the club. The Executive Director of the Warrior's Society, Chris Vargas, suffered a work related back injury which has dramatically reduced his abilities. He will undergo back surgery in January and a decision has been made to split the duties of the Executive Director to better support the future growth of the Warrior' s Society.
It was decided that Chris would be the Executive Director in charge of events and policy and Keith Eckstein would be appointed Executive Director in charge of advocacy and public outreach. Keith is an outstanding rider and well known in the activist community.
He, as well as club members Mark Friis, Colleen Rashford Friis and Larry Branham, have been instrumental in working with other organizations to develop the Trabuco Protective Area designation, which we hope to implement in the future.
We have also appointed Mark Krotine as Treasurer, and he will be taking over
those duties on January 1, 2002.
Mark is a controller for KBS Realty, and it will be a great asset to have
him in charge of our finances.
Shidan Towfiq, the Executive Editor of Smoke Signals, has been named a
club Elder
and appointed a position on the Club Council.
We have several new nominees who will be initiated into the club before the Pow
Wow in March.
The first
is Tam "Speaks for Warriors" Pham, who is not only a strong rider but a
great programmer who has developed our message board http://www.warriorssociety.net/voices.mv
. Tam is a single
speeder who also operates the web site www.singlespeed.net
. The next
nominee is Andy "Fast on Slow Horse" Lightle, who is also an outstanding
rider and was the 1st place single speeder at last year's Pow Wow.
Tani Walling, the owner of the Path Bike Shop and a great technical rider, will also be joining us. Anthony Coley, (who is still getting a feel for technical riding), is also a nominee. And last but not least, Ed "Honored Warrior" Kostiuk, a Marine veteran, federal marshal and member of the Orange County Search and Rescue. Ed is very experienced in surviving in the wilderness; he taught wilderness survival skills as a Marine Corps instructor. We will be proud to have them as members.
Trabuco Protected Area
The Warrior's Society's representatives have held several meetings with
representatives of the Sierra Club and other interested parties and have created
a document that we hope will create the Trabuco Protected Area.
This document will offer the same protections of the wilderness
designation but still allow recreation.
We
will keep you posted on the progress
implementing
this protected area in future issues Of Smoke Signals. We may call upon
your support to contact legislators to support the passage of this designation.
Mountain Bike Pow Wow
Once a year
mountain bike enthusiasts have an opportunity to test themselves against the
best riders and toughest terrain by competing in the Santa Ana Mountains.
We are a Non-Profit Organization and our annual event is the main source of
funds used to privately maintain the multi-use trails of the Trabuco District of
the Cleveland National Forest.
Three events are
set up to offer every level of rider a chance to be truly tested by the super
rugged terrain. All three events, the Vision Quest, Counting Coup, and
Seek The Peak, includes the strenuous climb to the top of Saddleback Peak, which
can be seen from all points in Orange and Riverside Counties. The famous
trails in the range will be incorporated into the event: Blackstar, the
Silverado Trail, Holy Jim, Trabuco… to name a few. 
Our web sites
opening page has been updated to reflect our product sponsors for 2002. We
retained all our sponsors for 2002 save for three but gained two new ones.
We haven't heard back yet from all the companies we've approached so more
may be added.
We are making
arrangements to allow those who have volunteered in our past trail maintenances,
or have contributed articles or photos to Smoke Signals, more time to finish the
Vision Quest if they wish to participate in that event but are concerned about
making the cutoff times. If you qualify and wish to take advantage of this
offer, contact the Warrior's Society at countingcoup@warriorssociety.org
If you're interested in participating you can print out and application from our web site under our events link, register online at active.com (we supplied the links below), or pick up a flyer at one of our sponsoring shops. The event is limited to 200 participants so if you are serious about doing any of the three events you need to get your app in early. Our San Diego Rep. Andy Darragh, Our Big Bear Rep. Jerry Henderson, and our Santa Barbara Rep. Chuck Anderson will be distributing application and posting flyers in their respective cities.
Below is a list of our sponsoring bike shops, the events and their fees.
Sponsoring Bike Shops:
South
County Cyclery in San Juan Capistrano at
32302 Camino Capistrano (949) 493-5611
Switchback
Cyclery in Orange
at 8530 E. Chapman (714) 628-3913
The
Path bike shop in Tustin
at 215 W. First Street, east of the 55 Frwy. (877) 425-2453
Rainbow
Bicycle Co. in Laguna Beach
at 485 N. Coast Hwy. (949) 494-5806
The Bike Co. in Lake Forest at 21098 Bake Parkway (949) 470-1099
Edge Cyclesports in Laguna Hills at 23582 Moulton Pkwy. #107 (949) 472-9497
Jax Bicycle Center in Irvine at 14280 Culver Dr. (949) 733-1212
Jax Bicycle Center in Fullerton at 2520 E. Chapman Ave. (714) 441-1100
Jax Bicycle Center in Huntington Beach at 401 Main Street. (714) 969-8684
Jax Bicycle Center in Long Beach at 3000 Bellflower Blvd. (562) 421-4646
Jax
Bicycle Center in Yorba Linda at 17593 Yorba Linda Blvd. (714) 996-9093
Bike
Tech
in Laguna Niguel at 23882 Aliso
Creek Road (949) 362-9171
Bike
Tech in Dana Point at 34155 Pacific Coast Highway (949)
496-1995
Vision Quest - $85.00, which includes shuttle bus for you and your bike to the starting area, event T-shirt, beaded feather award for finishers, feather sticker for finishers, continental breakfast, lunch, and prize raffle. To register online at active.com click on the link below:
http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=977821
Counting Coup - $65.00, which includes shuttle bus for you and your bike to the starting area, event T-shirt, feather attached to hairbone for finishers, continental breakfast, lunch, and prize raffle. To register online at active.com click on the link below:
http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=977820
Seek The Peak - $45.00, which includes shuttle bus for you and your bike to the start area, event T-shirt, continental breakfast, lunch, and prize raffle. To register online at active.com click on the link below:
http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=977818
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