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Sons of Thunder Support National Public Lands Day

By: Tom Ferch, Sons of Thunder 4 Wheel Drive Club

Saturday September 23, 2000 was National Public Lands Day. A small group from Sons of Thunder Christian 4 Wheelers of Southern California were at Dumont Dunes to help the Bureau of Land Management set up rock cairns to mark the Sperry Wash Trail. The participating club members were Doug, Kelse and Trish Roberts, and Tom Ferch. A guest and future 4X4 hopeful, Marty Young, also joined the group.

The group left their home base in Orange County on Friday afternoon, just in time to miss the rain and in time to catch the dust and sand storm blowing in the desert. Destination, Dumont Dunes which is located north of I-15 and the town of Baker, near the southern border of Death Valley. Arriving at Dumont Dunes around 8:45 pm, they quickly set up tents on the leeward side of the vehicles in a vain attempt at keeping the sand out of the tents. The interiors of the cars were quickly "sugar coated" with sand and dust as they were being unloaded. Once Doug's tent was set up, Trish and Kelse jumped in and, to their delight, realized that the sand storm was making their tent a static electricity generator. They giggled themselves silly watching there hair stand up on end and stick to the sides of the tent.

The wind eventually died down and when morning arrived the skies were crystal clear. At a 7:00 am check-in with the BLM, work team assignments for building the rock cairns were assigned. Joining the Sons of Thunder were two men from San Bernardino and the team leader who is a member of the Las Vegas Jeep Club. First stop was picking up supplies at the supply depot the BLM had set up where they loaded the leader's truck with two 20 gallon jugs of water, fifteen 60lb bags of mortar, wheel barrow, shovels, trowels, gloves and everything else necessary to build a rock cairn.

The next destination was the Sperry Wash Trail, which is a sandy wash located between two wilderness areas, and the first metal stake without a team working on it. We collected rocks, mixed mortar and built a cairns. Everyone had a different vision of the finished project, so the Sons of Thunder team's cairns had a distinctively freeform look. Attempts at design leadership were a failure as a "fist sized" rock or a "flat" rock meant different things to different team members. Eventually the team's synergy took over and the allotted cairns were soon finished. After making four cairns, four hours of work and the supply of mortar exhausted, the team headed back to the BLM camp.

The trip back afforded the opportunity to stop and check out the Desert Pup Fish, or chubb, that were swimming in Sperry Creek and the rock cairns that were built by fellow volunteers, some of which were really nice looking piles of rock. As an added bonus, the volunteers were treated to an informal air show as two A-10 Warthogs flew low over the canyon.

The BLM had a large army camouflage tent set up with displays, a band playing and hamburgers and hot-dogs cooking. Rose Villagas and the rest of the BLM crew worked hard to put this event together, including providing construction materials, food and free T-shirts. The volunteers thanked the BLM hosts for the opportunity to help. In turn, the BLM crew was thankful for volunteer help. There were approximately 100 volunteers who helped build cairns, pick up trash and set boundary markers. This was definitely a great opportunity to reinforce a positive image of four wheelers with the BLM employees.

The Sons of Thunder 4 Wheelers was started in 1989 with the goal and purpose to bring together people with the same interest in off-roading and is now the largest Christian 4WD Club in America. They schedule numerous activities for families, all age groups, and year around action for every type of vehicle. Sons of Thunder provides assistance in natural disasters such as floods, fires, and earthquakes as well as involvement in community service projects such as feeding needy families, juvenile outreach and missionary expeditions to countries south of the border.

Contacts:	Related Links:
Tom Ferch, Sons of Thunder 4 Wheelers	Sons of Thunder 4 Wheel Drive Club National Public Lands Day BLM California State Office BLM National Office 4x4Wire's Environmental Policy Links from the 4x4Wire Link Index Blue Ribbon Coalition Tread Lightly!