The Desert Peaks Section notes with sorrow the loss of one of its most active members and trip leaders, Ron Fracisco. Ron died in late February from complications arising from recent heart surgery. Our sympathy is extended to Ron's family and children. We shall remember him as a strong desert climber, an explorer of Baja California and an enthusiastic leader of 4WD trips to remote areas. Ron presented the program at the 1978 DPS banquet and showed slides of a trip he led to the cave paintings in the Sierra de San Francisco.
This is my last Chairman's Corner and I am in the last month of serving in that office. I've enjoyed this year and working for the Section. I want to thank every active member for the support they gave the Section. Support through participation is what makes our Section strong. I want especially to thank the trip leaders and assistants who are directly responsible for our outings. Forty six trips were scheduled this year. Thanks go to Jon Inskeep for organizing such a strong program. Let's keep it up. We are as good as our activity schedule. would like to suggest more exploratory trips to give variety to the scope of our climbing. Special thanks to the Management Committee with an accolade to Barbara Reber, Sage editor for 5-1/2 years.
A last reminder of the DPS Banquet to be held on Wednesday, May 2, 6:30 pm at Luminarias Restaurant in Monterey Park. Tickets cost $10 and are available from Mike Manchester, 209-A Rosecrans, Manhatten Beach 90266, or from any other member of the Management Committee. See you there to enjoy our speaker, Ruth Kirk, with a talk entitled "Desert Survival- -Five Favorites" and her film "International Park" on the Organ Pipe and Pinacate area.
Joseph Wood Krutch writes in Baja California and the Geography of Hope, "In the legends of the saints and the prophets, either a desert or a mountain is pretty sure to figure. It is usually in the middle of one or on the top of the other that the vision comes or the test is met. Loneliness is essential and loneliness, it would seem, is loneliest where the air is either thin or dry and nature herself does not riot too luxuriously."
See you on the peak. Any of you are welcome at our adobe in Crow Canyon whenever you might drive through Trona or are in the area. The door is open.
