The Desert Sage
APR/MAY 1990 207
From the Chair
FREEDOM OF THE DESERT: One of the wonderful features of the California Desert is the ability, in most of our desert, to drive down a back road, pull off, park, & camp. Sharing this with a group of friends, a significant other, or in solitude, has been a very special experience for most of us for a long time. Scrambling the San Jacinto massif & canyons from Andreas Canyon through the years, 4-wheeling around the McCoys & Big Marias from '49, 4-wheeling the Baja road when it took 3 hours for the last 33 mi to El Rosario, and we harvested quail for dinner with our shotguns in '53, and just recharging our batteries in the serenity of countless desert nights, the desert has been a source of great joy.
Must we lose this to protect the desert? Must the desert become a Disneyland Diorama behind glass to save it? Perhaps, as the L.A. Megapolis expands from 14 million to 20+, as Metro Phoenix adds its' third & fourth million, San Diego-Tijuana expands from 3 million to 5+, as Las Vegas stretches for a million, we must. If so, let us lament, and mourn, the loss of FREEDOM OF THE DESERT!

ELECTION RESULTS: We have a new and very strong & competant Management Committee! Terry Turner is our new Chair. Bill Gray will be Vice-Chair, Outings. John McCully opted for the Secretary's job, Patty Kline is our Programs Chair. Bill Tryon is Treasurer. Jim Kilberg, the Management Committee's strong 6th man, has agreed to be our Conservation Chair for another year. Bill Russell will be Historian as well as Archivist, as his Peak Lists set new standards of world class excellence. Voting was close as only 9 votes separated 4th from 6th place! I'm pleased to leave the Section in superb hands. Let's all support them by LEADing A TRIP or two in the next schedule!
Ballot Measures: We now have 97 peaks! Delete Navajo, NO: 92-47. Delete Maturango, NO: 100-39. Add Canyon Point, YES: 71-64. Add Mountain Records Chair, YES: 119-13. Change DPS meetings to a 10-month season, NO: 77-48. Canyon Point's addition is a tribute to Ron & Steve's judgement, as almost no one has climbed it!

PEAK GUIDES: We recently sold our 300th DPS Road & Peak Guide, which is the main reason we have a healthy $4K in the treasury. Huzzahs to former Editor Randy Bernard, and to Karen Leonard, who pushed the idea when most of us balked! Dave Jurasevich is working
 
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