EDITOR'S CHANCE
By John McCully

Doug Jones, who hikes with the DPS but still hasn't paid his 10 bucks to join the section, reports that there is a bulletin board on Internet that has about 30 suggestions for avoiding getting burgled at trail heads. If an obscure topic like trailhead burglary rates this much information I can't imagine what the total quantity of stuff on internet must be. Most of the trailhead suggestions are attempts at humor by computer nerds ("hide on a nearby ridgetop with a deer rifle and shoot the scumbags") but several suggestions might prove useful. One was to cover the good stuff with a tarp and scatter a bunch of really dirty clothes everywhere in the vehicle. A few weeks ago Carol and I found a vandalized vehicle at a trailhead we were going to use in the Olympic peninsula. We took one of Doug's suggestions and drove a mile or so away from the trailhead and hid everything in a gully 20 feet off the road. The trail register and everyone we met on the trail was buzzing about the vandalized vehicle. One guy suggested that a clue as to a vulnerable trailhead is to check for broken window glass on the ground. Lots of glass indicates lots of break-ins. It's also possible that using a "Club" might indicate to a vandal that you're going to be gone for quite a while.

Several people have pointed out that the last SAGE didn't leave enough space for three ring binder holes. It was also too fat for an ordinary 3 hole punch. Bill T. Russell reports that the archive version has been somewhat butchered by his attempt to carve holes with an exacto knife. The printer (Universal Reprographics, 2 13-3657750) seems to do good work, what with the pictures being recognizable and all that, but it seems to have limited capabilities for such exotic as hole punching and stapling, so yours truly has purchased a fancy punch and stapler to provide the finishing touches for what you are holding. The last issue was also mailed from the post office at the airport rather than the always exciting central LA depot, and seemed to have arrived a bit quicker.

We've been trying to get the SAGE into the mail by the 15th day of the odd numbered months, but the next issue (November) will run late as Carol and I won't be back from Nepal and Thailand until November 20. I may mail it first class to keep it from arriving too late.

LETTERS

Kathy Price sends this along about Ursula Slager

Ursula Slager and the Braille Institute

The Southern California Mountaineering Association and the Braille Institute sponsor rock climbing workshops twice a year for visually impaired adolescents. Don Slager has suggested that friends of Ursula who want to make a donation in her memory support this activity. Monetary contributions will be used to purchase climbing equipment (shoes, harnesses, ropes, etc.) Donations of used equipment are also welcome. Contact Gerry Cox for information about donating equipment or volunteering your time to support the workshops. Monetary donations


Ursula Slager
 
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