Hello all!  I have an important update to get out: I hope each and every one of you are here in Visalia attending the 65th annual Cal4Wheel Convention!  For those of you who are not able to attend, I am planning to try and have a Zoom meeting for General Session - I have no idea if it will work well, poorly or at all.  Its an attempt to allow those of you that would like to at the very least see/hear general session on Saturday, here is an opportunity.  If it works, great, if it doesn't, my apologies. Josh Epstein is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Convention 2024 General Session Zoom Meeting Time: Feb 17, 2024 01:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85466213938?pwd=bDJrQWUrb05HWkEwa2FvQWVpMHpmZz09 Meeting ID: 854 6621 3938 Passcode: 663876

Hello all!   I wanted to get a quick update out to everyone letting you know that we have prolonged registration for convention.  Registration will now be open until the 31st at midnight. If you have not registered yet, you have time, so please do so sooner than later.   This is the 65th year and I hope that we have a record-setting attendance as the venue is awesome and Bonnie Ferguson and Aida Torres have planned a wonderfull time to be held by all! Call the Windham in Visalia and mention the code "cal" for $99 a night for room. https://cal4wheel.org/convention-reg   Hope to see you all there!

Hello everyone!  I hope you are all enjoying the New Year!  I have a few bits of information I wanted to get out to you all: This year’s convention will be held at the Wyndham Hotel in Visalia and is hosted by the South District.  If you can help at all, at any level, can you please reach out to this years Convention chairman, Bonnie Fergueson as there is a ton of work that still needs to be done and they can use all the help they can muster.  Bonnie can be reached at email: [email protected] or call her directly: 661-400-1292.  Many hands make light work and if you can spare a few minutes to reach out and see what you can help with, we would all appreciate it!  There is still time to register for convention and you can do that here: https://cal4wheel.com/convention The first annual East Mohave Trek is planning is underway and Chairman Dave Hess and Co-Chair Russ Chung are also looking for help for this event in March.  Please feel free to reach out to Dave via email, at: [email protected] as there is quite a bit to be done and they could use a few extra hands with things.  More information on this new and exciting event can be found here: https://cal4wheel.com/events/east-mojave-trek.  The Central District meeting is this coming Saturday at the Selma Portuguese Association Hall at 1245 Nebraska Ave. Selma, Ca 93662.  Elections for Secretary treasurer and Membership chair will be held and nominations for President will open as well.  Meeting starts at 9am.  There is no option for a Zoom meeting The following weekend (1/27/24) is the South District meeting which will be held at: Bass Pro Shops, 7777 Victoria Gardens Ln, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91739.  There is also a Zoom option for those of you that cannot attend in person.  Meeting starts at 9am and there will be elections for District Secretary/Treasurer and Membership chair as well opening the floor to nominations for President of the Association. There is still time to purchase Raffle Vehicle Tickets for this years awesome Jeep Gladiator built by Fred Williams – you can order them online here: https://cal4wheel.org/win-a-jeep or come to the district meetings and purchase them there or wait till you come to Convention and buy them there.  We are looking for a Raffle Vehicle Chairman for next years raffle vehicle – if you are slightly interested, this would be the year to do it and Chris Silveria has setup most everything for the next chairman and this would be a great and easy opportunity to give back to an Association that has done so much for all of us.  If you’re interested, please reach out to me at: [email protected] Well, I have a lot to do before the district meetings and convention, so I better get back to work.  ….Till the next update

Hello everyone! I hope you made it through Christmas okay and are going to be safe this coming New years weekend! There are a couple of important things I need to get out you to? First, I have planned a Zoom BOD meeting for January 8th – 7pm. This is to finish a few items from the November BOD meeting: Ratify Raffle Vehicle Chairman, Ratify Event Chairman’s - It should only take an hour. Here is the zoom link: Josh Epstein is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Cal 4 Wheel Zoom Meeting Time: Jan 8, 2024 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81423853166?pwd=Zm14clFaczJUOG1NQjIrQmZLOVgwQT09 Meeting ID: 814 2385 3166 Passcode: 325550 Meeting ID: 814 2385 3166 Second, Keith Graham has planned a Volunteer work day at Slash X on January 13th to help make improvements that will benefit use with raffles, events, etc.. If you can make it, please contact Keith at: 909-215-0729 Keith is looking for volunteers to help and donations of 3/4” Tung/Groove plywood for the roof. I’ll get a more detailed update to you all soon and until then, be safe this weekend and we’ll see you all next year!

Hello all! I recently got back from the Central and North district meetings and its nice to see all the members coming to attend these meetings and get to talk to you about your concerns and idea on how we can improve this Association. One of my favorite things of being President of this awesome Association is hearing from all of you. Operation Desert Fun was a great time! I want to thank Dannette Starksen and Christina Epstein for chairing this years event. It was an undertaking but overall ODF did very well raising money for the P.V.A. (Paralyzed Veterans of America) San Diego Chapter. Thank you to each and every one of you that donated prizes for the kids and adult raffles – I don’t have exact numbers just yet but the PVA did very well and I wanted to thank each and every one of you. For those of you that don’t know, all raffle proceeds are donated to the PVA. Thank you to everyone that went above and beyond to make this ODF one to remember! In this email with my update, you’ll notice a huge discount for ARB for all Cal4Wheel Members that expires on October 31st. If you’re looking to buy anything that ARB offers, please use this discount before it expires and do some early Christmas shopping for yourself! I mentioned that Panamint Valley Days was cancelled this year. I, along with a slew of others were heart broken and still wanted to do something since like myself, I had already scheduled the weekend off. I reached out to Ron Delaney and we (well, he did about all the work) came up with a great plan to go camping at Jawbone Canyon. The information for who, when, what and were will be in this email – Thank you very much to Ron Delaney and Jim Bramham for spearheading this plan and putting it all together. I very much look forward to telling lies around the campfire with a lot of you members in a few weeks! Speaking of PVD – the Challenge is still on from the High Desert Four Wheelers! They have formally challenged the entire Association $500 donation for the cancellation of PVD and are asking to match, beat or just donate a few dollars in lieu of cancelling PVD this year. If you’re interested and able to donate, please contact the wonderful Office Staff. I got a busy weekend/week in front of me – As I write this, I’m finishing my week at work and will be attending the South District Meeting on Saturday at the Bass Pro Shops in Rancho Cucamunga and after we’re done there, I’ll be heading to Vegas to attend the yearly NAMRC meeting and partake in SEMA – Keep safe out there and I look forward to seeing you on the trails and around the campfire …..till the next update

I wanted to take a minute and update you on some awesome stuff. Operation Desert Fun is a week away and pre-registration is closing October 8th – All pre-registered attendees will receive one special raffle ticket to a surprise raffle prize that you can only get if you register before it closes on the 8th! Go to Cal4wheel.com/odf and register today! You can still register on site but you’ll miss out on a great opportunity. Operation Desert Fun Raffle 100% supports the Paralyzed Veterans of America, San Diego Chapter. This year will be food and great times to be had by all! Don’t hesitate and consider this your personal invitation from me to attend! If you didn’t know, Bonnie Fergueson and Jeff Godde had to make the painful decision to cancel this year’s Panamint Valley Days due to the insane amount of damage that Hurricane Hillary did to that area. Having to cancel an event before, I know the pain they both felt as they both love PVD and would do anything to make that happen. In lieu of PVD being cancelled, I was informed by the High Desert Four Wheelers of their challenge to every club, member and Associate member of the Association to match or beat their donation of $500 to Cal 4 Wheel to aid in the revenue lost due to the cancellation of PVD, or at the very least, donate in whatever capacity you can since every penny counts and loosing this event, really sucks. If you or your club is interested in donating in lieu of Panamint Valley Days being cancelled, please contact the office: 800-4X4-FUNN – every penny counts and having to cancel PVD is a hard hit to the Association. The Central District Meeting is this Saturday 10/7 at the Broken Yolk Restaurant, 3300 Buena Vista Rd, Bakersfield, CA 93311. Please come join your CD Board Of Directors as we talk about the great success of High Sierra Poker run, the impending winter weather coming, eat, drink and enjoy a great Saturday morning with your fellow Cal4 members and me!  Meeting starts at 9am – I hope to see you all there helping us keep these public lands, public. Well, I got a lot of work to do, till the next update….

Hello all! I hope this update finds you with some cooler weather and hopefully a little dryer than all of us who attended High Sierra Poker Run this past weekend. What an amazing event! Thank you to Steve Peckham and Paul Brady for putting together this amazing event with an equally amazing group of volunteers that put together a great event from start to finish! Well, perfect other than the unexpected weather Saturday early morning around 3am when I had opted not to put the fly on my tent while camping with my middle daughter when setting up our camp around 2pm, when about 3am, noticed a bit of precipitation entering our tent through what was a star filled sky when going to sleep and discovered that the rain had come quite a bit earlier than any forecast I (and others) looked at. Other than some damp spirits and a little bit of hail Saturday throughout the day, it seemed like everyone had a great time at High Sierra Poker Run. The rain kept the dust down and made the trails a little bit more challenging.   Again, for those of you that have not volunteered with an event or have chaired/co-chaired an event, it is a small miracle when it all goes off and all of that hard work that you and many others put in, allows everyone that attended to have a great time.   There are so many behind the scenes situations that most never notice and I just want to thank each and everyone of you for all of your hard work and dedication. Our August Board Of Directors meeting went very well and I feel very vindicated for all of our hard work leading up to the BOD meeting and at the meeting. I have said it before and will say it again here, the most amount, the meaningful amount of work happens between the meetings, not necessarily at them but in this case, it was both. There is soooo much happening to work towards streamlining the Association in its efficiency and just like our events, there are many volunteers in the background helping with this endeavor. The BOD has decided to move to a new Accountant and Bookkeeper as to have all of our financials handled within one firm. This will relive the office staff and State Treasurer immensely. There was a ton of information that came out of the BOD meeting and I don’t necessarily want to bore you with all of that here – if you want to hear more, please, feel free to reach out to me personally and I’ll fill you in on all the happenings. I also want to say, the next time you talk to one of your district BOD members, take a minute to thank them for their hard work as they are all busting their behinds to make a better Association for tomorrow. Speaking of events, one of my favorite events is coming up rather quickly and I would like to formally invite each and everyone of you to Operation Desert Fun. This is the official 21st ODF that was started by Angela Cook and Mark LaFontaine 21 years ago!   Angela has decided to step down this year as Chair and I want to personally thank Angela for all that she has done for this Association and the South District for the past 20+ years! This year, Danette Starksen and Christina Epstein are Co-Chairing ODF and they have a spectacular event planned that you should make plans to attend! For those that do not know, the raffle proceeds from ODF go directly to the San Diego PVA which is near and dear to my heart. Look for a link in this update for Registration which should be going live as soon as you see this. Thank you all for your patience as we continue working with our new contractors to get them and all of us up to speed as this is a very involved process with new contractors along with all the behind the scenes stuff organizing and streamlining the Association. Till the next update…..

What a whirlwind of craziness since the June Board Of Directors meeting!  I am just now getting back to civilization from attending Sierra Trek 2023 this weekend and I can’t say how much I appreciate all that John and Rene Allen have done to have put together this awesome event!  They obviously didn’t do it by themselves, or could have if they tried but nonetheless, John and Rene had a great support group behind them from this years co-chair and next years Chair, Tom Allgaier who has a ton of work ahead of him for this bar John and Rene set so very high – but after talking to Tom, he was genuinely excited for next year which I’m sure will wear off pretty quick as the planning process starts for Trek 2024, but right now, he's excited and I am too!   John and Rene have done a spectacular job these past few years and I can’t be anymore proud of them and the work they have accomplished – Rene, John, from me personally and every member that attended this weekend, THANK YOU!  You two hit it out of the park and made all of us proud. I don’t know what the final numbers are just yet but it was said that we were up about 10% attendance this time last year!  There was also a huge increase in vendor participation from years past (at least for the measly 4 years I have been attending) and that was no light task either and I wanted to thank Amy Seagraves for her hard work putting the vendor show together.  I can’t mention membership without thanking Steve Egbert and Barbara Seaton who worked tersely to get all registrations figured out with a new Webmaster and new learning curve for everyone involved – thank you Steve and thank you Barbara for your patience and hard work! Ms. Andrea Harris had a huge job feeding all of the hungry travelers and her and the countless volunteers to help to serve this awesome food went above and beyond and Andrea, thank you soooooo much for doing this incredibly difficult job and getting all of us fed.  The food was spectacular, and no one went away hungry. Thank you to all the clubs that worked in and behind the scenes to help with all the winch hills, to help with the raffle, to help with the snack bar, the bar and so on!  It’s a huge job on everyone involved and you all did an amazing job!  I can’t fit everyone into one page here but know that you outdid yourselves and I can’t thank you enough!  The Hi Landers did an incredible job serving the best ever root beer float (or Dr. Pepper float - per Uncle Willie) and hands down, the best French fries on the hill!  Thank you to Julie Nauer and the Boonie Bouncers for their incredible work in the bar where weary travelers were able to hydrate. All in all this weekend was spectacular and if you haven’t gone, you are truly missing a great time, great location and hands down, a truly great event! August 19, 2023 Board of Directors Meeting There has been a ton going on since the June BOD meeting and I have been working with our new Webmaster and our new In Gear editor.  There are some learning curves to be had on both fronts and we are working together to make this change as easy as possible.  There are going to be hiccups and please be patient with not only our new contractors but the Office staff as well as we all find a happy median since this transition is not easy and everyone has a ton more pressure than we are used to. In closing, I want to remind you of our BOD meeting this weekend and wanted to provide you a Zoom Link for all of you that are interested in joining virtually: Topic: CA4WDA August 2023 Board Of Directors Meeting Time: Aug 19, 2023 12:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83844706124?pwd=YlJqYlVLdXZnYkpyek1jQXRvWmlFZz09 Meeting ID: 838 4470 6124 Passcode: 975974

I hope this update finds all of you in great health and you’re out there enjoying the great weather!  Molina Ghost Run I want to thank the Central District for the great hospitality and great times at Molina Ghost Run this past weekend! From what I could tell, everyone had a great time, food was great, and the raffle was even better! Thank you,Mike Magaña, this year’s chair and everyone else who selflessly worked their butts off to put on a great experience for all those who attended! RFP’s Request For Proposals – I have been saying this a lot and need to say it again – We are looking for proposals for: In Gear Editor Web Page Editor Database Administrator Quick Books Consultant Natural Resource Consultant If you have any interest in these positions, or know of anyone who is, PLEASE, have them send me an email: [email protected]. I’d love to talk to them. Before anyone asks (again) no, we are not getting rid of Rose Winn, our current Natural Resource Consultant. Historically, there has been two NRC’s and Rose applied for the northern part of the state and we coerced her into doing the whole state. Please, get your proposals, email, phone calls in to me before June 3! Just to reiterate, these positions are paid contractors! If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me and let me better help you understand the potential position you are applying for. HI Desert Round UP! HI Desert Round UP! Is right around the corner, like next weekend! Couple of quick updates I wanted to share before I ask you to attend: Slash X will be serving food Saturday evening:BBQ ribs, chicken, and sides, for $30. There is a kid’s plate, same deal but smaller portions for $15. We are looking for raffle prizes of all sorts! If you have anything you would like to donate, please let me know! Tony Pellegrino from GenRight has graciously donated fenders and will be there in person to sign autographs! Thank you very much Tony for all your continued support of this event! Keith Graham and I have been working on increasing the vendor show and it looks like we’ll have quite a few and would love to formally invite you and your family up to the Slash X near Barstow this Memorial Day weekend for a fun filled, family fun weekend! June BOD Meeting Weekend after HDR is the June board meeting where we finalize the budget and contracts for all current/future employees/contractors.In my opinion, it’s the busier meeting of all of them and if you come across a BOD member in your district, please take a moment to thank them for all their hard work and continued dedication! They are all volunteers and have been working their butts off the past few months to get ready for this weekend.

To support our goal of actively promoting the advancement of vehicle-oriented outdoor recreation,  the Cal4Wheel Conservation and Education Foundation has partnered with onX Offroad for digital mapping to enhance your off-road experience, including discovering new trails and navigation without a cell signal. This partnership aims to generate funds for the Cal4Wheel foundation to sponsor trail maintenance, stewardship, and access advocacy, while also providing a Cal4Wheel member benefit. Use code “CAL4WHEEL” at checkout for 20% off your app purchase and onX will donate an extra 20% to the Cal4Wheel Foundation. Your participation means more funds for trail maintenance, improvements, cleanups, and promoting land and trail access. Redeem your 20% discount onX Offroad is trusted by hundreds of thousands of off-roaders nationwide, helping riders find new trails, discover new riding areas, and hit the trails with confidence. With onX, you can: Find trails for 4×4, ATV, SxS, dirt bikes, and snowmobiles across the nation. Tap any trail for details such as open and close dates, difficulty ratings, and trail photos. Save maps to your phone or tablet, including all interactive land and trail data. You’ll still be able to view your location on your saved maps using your phone’s internal GPS. Easily track your trips, including location, distance, speed, and elevation with Go & Track’s GPS capabilities. Save your trips for future reference, or share them with friends so they can add them to their Offroad app. Organize your waypoints, recorded tracks and other markups into Folders to easily share with friends and club members. To access the maps on your phone: Search for “onX Offroad” in the App Store > Download the App > Log in using the information you provided when creating your account. If you run into any issues when creating your account, please reach out to onX’s US-based customer service team at 406-540-1600, and they will get it resolved.