ORV Trail Watch

In the past alot of us (including myself) have kinda poked fun at the "cleanups." Mostly because they just seem strange to us. They guys in my normal wheeling group were all taught to pick up garbage in the mts at an early age. It just kinda seemed like people wanted some kinda special treatment or reward for doing something they should be doing anyway.

The truth though is that time's are changing and we need to change our way of thinking with it. The fact of the matter is that organized cleanups are needed for mainly two very important reasons. The first of which is, for lack of a better term, political. The mainstream cleanups let the orginizations that are trying to close our lands know that there are people out there willing to do what it takes to keep them open. Even if it means donating thier own time and energy. It shows that people do use and care about the areas. That they won't let them go away without a fight.
The second reason is that there is just way more garbage that gets cleaned up when a group heads into the hills with a sole purpose in mind. Things that you may normally just drive by. For example, Jeepscum worked his ass off dragging a 50' or so logging cable out the brush. That just wouldn't have been feasible on a normal trail run.

With all of this in mind, I jumped in with Roller Bear on Sat to lend a hand in the Ahtanum State Forest. We were there along with Hair, and BigJeeper representing InsanityFab.Com and The Outlaws Jeep Club. There were also members there from the RidgeRunners, Jeeping Nomads, and the AWORC.

We ended up having a great time and picking up a fair amount of garbage. Our group consisted of the some of the "rejects" that Ahtanum Trail Watch has tried to falsley condemn. Hair, BigJeeper, Blue Balls (RidgeRunner,) Roller and myself. We also invited Joe, an old aquaintance of mine, and his son to help us cleanup Doe Pocket. I felt kinda bad when Joe said later that he was trying to get Ceg to invite him into his club. Sorry Joe, we probably ruined you chances

On the way up Jackass, Blue Balls blew a heater core. He was able to bypass it but scalded his hand in the process. He's a tough ol bastard but decided afterwards to head back down.



We cleaned up alot of the slash piles above Doe Pocket and then jetted to the bottom at Nasty Crick and headed back up to do the cleaning.




Hair let the lovely, young Mrs. Hair drive while he kept an eye out for trash.



He even strapped a pallet to the top of the buggy to haul garbage in.



BigJeeper (Outlaw and InsanityFab member)






Nice, sunny day.



The "rock crawler" became the rock.




All in all it was a very productive day. Several trailer loads of garbage were hauled out, but in reality alot of that was larger items that had been up there a while. The area actually seemed pretty clean compared to what I've seen in years past. Our group carried out several sacks, some fender flares, and a couple of burnt up seat frames.

Can I get my Gold Star now?

Thanks to all who showed up!

Awesome write up Phantom!! Looks like you guys had a good time and that it was a good day to be up there.
I hope it was cooler up there than it was down here!!

Great job everyone!!









Oh.... here you go Shane...

Very well done guys and gals!
What are the Toys gonna do now that their emergency recovery cable has been confinscated?

I really appriciate all who came out to help especially on such a hot day! I hope you are not under the impression I am one wanting credit, I for one do not do clean ups to get points or brown nosing I do it becuase it is the right thing to do and I want to keep the trails open like most and do not expect anything in return. I am saddened by the bickering going on and hope some day everyone will get along if thats possible, I am a All Wheeler and need to support everthing that we do but still want to be involved with other clubs and all who care about keeping the trails open
P.S our Toy has done recovery for Jeeps and don't need no stinkin lft behind cable

Great clean up pics and stories P309.

Not sure where you are going with the comments that people or groups need a reason/recognition to clean up other peoples messes?

IMO: There are people out there using public lands that don't care what happens to said lands after they leave. Those careless people leave messes. Messes can be anything from simple garbage to mudded out meadows.

Those of us that want to see these public lands continue to stay open make it a priority to keep the public lands from getting closed by cleaning up other peoples messes.

I have been doing this for many years and I have yet to see anyone/club/group ask for special treatment.

IMO: It does not matter why you as a person or a group or a club do what you feel is right to keep our public lands open. Anything and everything that is done for the betterment of keeping our public lands open is a huge PLUS in my book. Use whatever motivation you personally need to do such... but please don't criticize other peoples motivation or "your assumption of their motivation" to do such.

Sorry guys! I originally wrote this piece for the IF site. If you were on that site you'd get what I mean by my opening comments. I should have explained them a little bit better for those of you that don't know me as well.



I assume this is what you guys are referring to. I was actually talking about myself and my normal group. In the past that's kinda been our thinking. I didn't mean it as an acusation against anyone personal it's just the way I've looked at it in the past. Like I said, I gotta change my thinking with the times.

There are some people out there participating in these that I dislike and do not trust, but believe me, if you are one of those people, you already know how I feel about you.