Happy Turkey, Thanksgiving and Holidays

Holidays are time for family and friends. I hope you have both in your lives for this holiday season. In spite of empty seats at our table; or missing rigs on the trail, family and friends live on with us. So I hope you can take time to enjoy those blessings you have.

Del

Rubicon Trail, FOTR, 2009 Annual Meeting Announced

Please join us for the Annual Meeting of the Friends of the Rubicon (FOTR), Saturday, Feb. 28^th, 2009 at the Cal4 office in Sacramento. Send a friend or club member if you can't make it and would like to be part of the planning for the future of the Rubicon Trail. Even if you can't be there or be represented, we ALWAYS welcome input and ideas from anyone who loves the Rubicon Trail and wants to keep it open to motorized recreation – alive and well.

Get more details and sign up here: http://www.delalbright.com/Rubicon/fotr_2009_meeting.html

And yes, I'll be running again for Trail Boss as I see 2009 to be a critical year for us to have experienced leadership. J On the other hand, anyone who'd like some time in a leadership role, or who would like to be involved in the future of leading volunteers on the Rubicon, you are MORE than welcome to get on board. If we have a future Trail Boss out there, I'll be happy to start offering you more training and opportunities to learn this job.

Thanks ,Del

Trail Boss FOTR

Dennis Mayer Celebration of Life, Dec. 14th

His Legacy Will Live On -- We Celebrate Dennis and his Family

December 14, 2008, 2pm at the old Gold Country Fairgrounds, Auburn, CA

Please accept this invitation to attend the celebration of the life of Dennis Mayer -- a hero, a friend, a mentor, a father and husband, and just one of the best inspirations you could ever hope to know. We all miss him terribly; but he wanted us to celebrate his life, not cry. So here's the plan. Sign up and learn more about this memorable event right here: http://www.delalbright.com/Misc/dennis_celebration.html

Del

Support Our Off-road Businesses as Best You Can this Season!

Do Your Christmas and Holiday Shopping "Off-Road"

Times are tough all over and some of our off-road businesses are going under -- or about to. Some are just keeping the lights on. We still have stuff that needs work; and we still have a Christmas list (of off-road goodies). PLEASE try to help keep our supporting businesses going. You can HELP.

Please buy from, and patronize those businesses that are helping us keep our lands and riding areas open. It's our way of helping them continue to help us.

Great Christmas and Holiday shopping deals are going on right now. We can help our partners.
Read more from me about this right here on my website:
http://www.delalbright.com/Access/holiday_shopping.html

thanks, Del

Off Road Friend, Dennis Mayer, Passes Away After Accident

Our great friend, and my hero, Dennis Mayer passed away after an accident. Dennis was the Treasurer of the Rubicon Trail Foundation, member of the Auburn Jeep Club, and charter member of the Friends of the Rubicon --- not to mention a gentleman, star and darn right good man.

Read my tribute to him here: http://www.delalbright.com/Misc/dennis_mayer.html

I miss him terribly.

Del

VLLS -- Volunteer Leader & Land Stewardship Class #4 Graduates

The fourth leadership training class of the Volunteer Leader & Land Stewardship (VLLS) Workshop graduated on Nov. 16th. at Ghost Mountain Ranch, Pollock Pines, CA. 18 graduates hit the street with new OHV skills and have become part of a unique team of folks striving to save our sports and access across the country. This is a workshop I developed based on my online training course, the Recreational Leadership Training Course (RLTC).

Learn more and see a photo essay of the recent classes (and sign up for the next class) right here:
http://www.rltc.biz/

By the way, if you finish the online course by Dec. 20th, you get in on a fantastic drawing for prizes like a winch, Rancho Shocks, and a Warn PullzAll (plus a ton of swag for all grads).

Del

A New President! Now What? (article)

A New President! Now What?
Recreationists Must Unite and Mobilize

By Del Albright, BlueRibbon Ambassador

Recreationists who enjoy the backcountry, waterways, off-pavement trails and SUV exploring have a huge new door of opportunity open to us – as well as a new challenge. The time has never been more critical for us to unite and mobilize to enjoy this new door and meet this new challenge. No matter how you wanted this election to turn out, we have to step up, work together, and mobilize our forces to help this new administration understand our sports and access issues.

Inherent with new Presidents, rotating congress critters, and term limits, we will always be in the game of educating new elected officials. It is our destiny if we are to survive.

I think there are a few steps we can take to ensure the future of our sports, no matter how you view this change in American politics. And one thing is for sure: we can all be proud of the fact that it is America and we can affect change by speaking up and working together. This is not the time to sit by and wait. We must act and help the newly-elected politicians at all levels understand that we are the responsible stewards of our public lands and that we deserve access. Here are my suggestions for “now what?”

Please go here to get the full article and what steps I think we need to take. You are welcome to use this article in pro-access newsletters, club news, websites, and magazines.
thanks, Del

SEMA Show, Las Vegas

I'm in Las Vegas for the annual Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show. There's nothing else like it on earth. It's for businesses, manufacturers and dealers; and it's huge. We'll be doing three days of walking around the show. The SEMA folks are good supporters of land use and access as well. BlueRibbon Coalition and other major groups are partnered up with SEMA in different ways to save trails and keep our sports alive.

This week also includes the annual meeting of the North American Motorized Recreation Council (NAMRC). Several motorized groups will be coming together for an all day session on sharing common problems and finding solutions we can all use in our home organizations.

Learn more about SEMA here: http://www.sema.org/
Learn more about NAMRC here: http://www.namrc.com/
Learn more about BlueRibbon here: http://www.sharetrails.org/

Del

National Forests Public Lands New Blog

I found this new public lands blog (from an attorney in WI) that I thought you might find interesting. It’s well done and he’s obviously pro-access. Good stuff and with links and references. It’s factual with plenty of back up data/links. Because he is an attorney, it does have just a bit of a legal slant/interpretation that is very helpful to understand some of the public land issues.

Check it out here: http://www.nationalforestlawblog.com/index.htm

Del

Tahoe Forest and Greenhorn Area Needs US Now!

Tahoe National Forest is going to outlaw snow wheeling forever...They will close Greenhorn forever...The Fordyce Trail will be the new Barrett Lake Trail...

We MUST turn this around with our letters, our passion and our involvement in keeping our favorites trails open. Write your letters today http://www.pirate4x4.com/letters/

Thanks, Del