2019 Sierra Trek Volunteers

Jeff_R said

JohnDF said

And just so we're clear... That was a "flop" not a "roll".

I've flopped my Jeep a few times but I haven't rolled yet.

True. And he had little damage. A dent in the A pillar, cracked window and a few scuffs on the tube fenders. Funny story. After the flop the driver said to the passenger "Well, at least I didn't break my windshield". A few seconds later it cracked.

Lol... That's a funny story.

Jeff_R said Tyler and I would like to see our club agree to work winch hill 5 at Sierra Trek next year. You can get to the top of winch hill 5 in a high clearance vehicle in 2WD. It is a lot of fun. You are only 20 minutes from camp where the other fun and action occurs at the camp at Meadow Lake. For $90 as a volunteer you get dinner and breakfast for three days and you can run one of the organized trail runs. Why would anyone not want to go?

Because as a volunteer, you shouldn't have to pay to work.

I volunteer for many events and Cal4Wheel is the only one that wants to charge me for the privileged.

Other organizations usually give you free food and t-shirts. It's the reason our club stopped working Winch Hill #5 in the past.

However, the club's membership has changed a lot since then and newer members may be all good with it. I certainly don't want to discourage it.

JohnDF said

Jeff_R said

Tyler and I would like to see our club agree to work winch hill 5 at Sierra Trek next year. You can get to the top of winch hill 5 in a high clearance vehicle in 2WD. It is a lot of fun. You are only 20 minutes from camp where the other fun and action occurs at the camp at Meadow Lake. For $90 as a volunteer you get dinner and breakfast for three days and you can run one of the organized trail runs. Why would anyone not want to go?

Because as a volunteer, you shouldn't have to pay to work.

I volunteer for many events and Cal4Wheel is the only one that wants to charge me for the privileged.

Other organizations usually give you free food and t-shirts. It's the reason our club stopped working Winch Hill #5 in the past.

However, the club's membership has changed a lot since then and newer members may be all good with it. I certainly don't want to discourage it.

I definitely think it would be fun to volunteer. I know that as a whole, Cal 4 Wheel has been fighting an uphill battle to raise funds. I have talked with the President and Central District Vice President in length last year about some of the needs of Cal 4 Wheel. Membership is dying unfortunately and the younger generation doesn't seem to be stepping up to the plate to continue the fight.

Some may disagree with the methodology of Cal 4 Wheel, but are you helping in another capacity with another organization? (This is a blank statement, not intended for JohnDF. JohnDF has put in a lot of work keeping the club and trails open for a long time. He is currently on sabbatical.) My intentions are to encourage education and growth of the sport.

The charge that Sierra Trek has for volunteers is to cover costs. I've been to a Cal 4 Wheel event in a media capacity and demanded free participation in return for our efforts of covering the event. Later I discovered that a staff member stepped in and payed for my entrance. I did not know that at the time, and would have paid the discounted rate but the coverage of the event is what was important to the staff member.

I think we should volunteer for Winch Hill 5 next year. Count me in. Like Jeff said it's easy to access and close to camp.

JohnDF said

Jeff_R said

Tyler and I would like to see our club agree to work winch hill 5 at Sierra Trek next year. You can get to the top of winch hill 5 in a high clearance vehicle in 2WD. It is a lot of fun. You are only 20 minutes from camp where the other fun and action occurs at the camp at Meadow Lake. For $90 as a volunteer you get dinner and breakfast for three days and you can run one of the organized trail runs. Why would anyone not want to go?

Because as a volunteer, you shouldn't have to pay to work.

I volunteer for many events and Cal4Wheel is the only one that wants to charge me for the privileged.

Other organizations usually give you free food and t-shirts. It's the reason our club stopped working Winch Hill #5 in the past.

However, the club's membership has changed a lot since then and newer members may be all good with it. I certainly don't want to discourage it.

Thanks for the reply John. As I said, the cost was $90 for meals which is half of what attendees pay to attend the event. Sierra Trek is an important fundraiser for the California Four Wheel Drive Association so I don't mind paying to volunteer to help out. It takes a large number of volunteers to set up, run and tear down the event. If the association didn't charge the volunteers it would really cut into their profits from Sierra Trek so I understand why they charged me. John MacDonnall and I were invited by Tyler to camp with his other club, the Mad Hatters. This was the second time I have camped and wheeled with them. They go up earlier in the week and secure a campsite for their club. We had a great time sitting around the campfire, wheeling and volunteering together. I think a lot of our club members would enjoy this experience as much as I did. Given the size of our club now, we should be able to get enough volunteers to work winch hill 5. That said, we were very understaffed this year so I don't think our club should commit to it unless we have enough people willing to volunteer. I think a minimum of 10 to 12 volunteers would be necessary for us to commit to work winch hill 5 next year.

It was a lot of fun working the Winch Hill the years that we did it. 🕺

The other nice thing was they held camp at Cisco, so we had the whole lake to ourselves.

If I remember, them moving the camp back to the lake was the other reason we stopped working it.

But like I said, it was a whole different group of members back then. Viva la difference. Seize the day. And all that. 😎

Jeff_R said Tyler and I would like to see our club agree to work winch hill 5 at Sierra Trek next year. You can get to the top of winch hill 5 in a high clearance vehicle in 2WD. It is a lot of fun. You are only 20 minutes from camp where the other fun and action occurs at the camp at Meadow Lake. For $90 as a volunteer you get dinner and breakfast for three days and you can run one of the organized trail runs. Why would anyone not want to go?

I'd like to join next year if possible

I was on the original winch hill crew. It was fun.  Since the original site was at the bottom, there wasn’t a cost for us up at hill 5.   Then it moved back and we were charged.  That didn’t stop us from the sponsoring, it was a waning interest from membership.  This was 3 days camping in limitedly improved campgrounds. And then it added hundreds of people, drinking and late nights. I think it’s a great event and a fun one. And paying a few bucks doesn’t bother me at all. We even ordered custom club Sierra trek shirts each year!  I can drive my raptor to the top of winch hill 5 with no problem so Off Road rigs aren’t required.

‘That being said, my wife doesn’t dry camp.

I support the clubs interest in both visible volunteering and CA4WD.  Go for it!

There are lots of pros & cons associated with having to pay to work, especially volunteer, but $90 is not really the point. We all spend a lot more than that for just about every thing we add to our Jeeps, without even thinking about it.

I think the real point here is knowing where the money ultimately goes toward benefiting our "sport" & not just a single event. Without Cal 4WD, in the long run, you have to ask where would we be? What trails would still be active & not closed? What would the state & Federal legislatures be doing to us, without the fight? I could go on, but I hope that everyone gets the point, all this goes way beyond Sierra trek's event & whatever money is forked out. I would hate to think the hardest open trail remaining is a trip to Burger Lounge (which isn't a bad thing)!

I guess my take on all this is academic as to where or how the money comes in, it really only matters how it's spent for the betterment of how is goes out.

Bottom line: I would still be ok with paying to volunteer on any winch hill, especially with club members in one location.

I agree with Greg as a club we should be try improve our off road visability at more organized events. I know as, we all do that at times life gets in the way. Our club dose volunteer a lot. To keep enjoying our off road life style we should try and do what ever we can. Like Guy said we can spend that amount on any run without thinking about it on any given weekend.

I think it would be fun to volunteer as club.  I all ways have fun with our club members we work and play well together. I think as a club we should discuss it and do it if there is good consensus. I personally I'm interested in volunteering.

I had a good time volunteering at the event. I totally understand JohnDF stance on the current format especially since he was part of past events.  I had a similar experience when I coached volleyball for USYBL. Being one of the newest members I would like to give my perspective on the event. I volunteered with the hope of getting to know the members and learn more about the sport. I have been away from it for over 25 years and was more into participating in mud drags than rock crawling. I saw the $90 as an investment in my 4 wheel education. I did appreciate that is was half off what others paid.  I could only volunteer on Friday so I came up solo. When I arrived there were only 3 people working Winch hill 5 and about 20 people in the peanut gallery drinking and having fun. Tyler and Jeff (the experienced guys) and James from Mad Hatters. I watched Tyler spot about 4 vehicles and then he told me to take over. I was not prepared for that as I did not want to be responsible for damaging someone else's vehicle. Tyler helped me through the first couple of vehicles and coached me on the proper hand signals. He told me as long as I act confident the drivers will trust you. I was able to see the line and adjust it for 4 doors and Toyotas. It felt good when drivers would compliment you on how easy the obstacle seemed with your help. I was unfortunately able to witness a couple of roll overs where they attempted the most difficult path.  I got to see how to use a 3 point recovery method.  We spent the better part of 10 hours there and really got to bond with each other. That made the following trail run the next day that much more fun. Started from Winch hill 5 then down across the river then turn around and come back. Jeff and I did an emergency repair on my jeep at the campsite so I could get home the next day. We hung out with the Mad Hatters that night and had a great time. Yes there were a couple of Asshats and a diesel driving around the campsite at midnight with the radio blaring. All in all to me it was invaluable experience in which I'll have for future runs. I would do it again next year. Did I forget to mention that some people recognized Jeff and I so we got a free drink at the bar.

I found this video of WH5 at this year’s Sierra Trek. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o-BJuIpUTpQ

Cool video Jeff! Thanks for sharing it.

Finally at the end see something besides a Jeep JK

Very cool video Jeff thanks

Hey all!

This is really cool to see the discussion happening about the Posse doing WH5 next year. It really is a fun time. If there is a WH to volunteer for, it is definitely WH5.

I would touch on the merits of "paying to volunteer at Sierra Trek", but it seems like everyone already gets the point, so I will skip it 😛

It is definitely fun, and the location of it makes it SUPER easy and convenient to volunteer. You can make it from camp to the top of the WH in about 10 minutes in a 4x4. A lifted 2WD can make it just fine. It is fun to see all of the smiling faces come through. You get access to main camp, showers, breakfasts and dinners for 3 days. And, if you stay late on the hill, the dinner crew will cater you and bring group style meals down for the WH crew 🙂

Generally, you need to be out there in the morning to see the trips down the WH, then you have spare time to hang out, or go back to camp, go get breakfast, etc until about 10-11am. Then you are working until roughly 4-5pm if everything goes well.

Being so close to camp also makes it very nice and easy to create "work shifts" so that you can have days off and enjoy the event rather than work the entire time.

You definitely get crowds hanging out in the peanut gallery, and if you are having troubles getting someone up the hill, they will definitely start barking "recommendations". You just gotta learn to ignore them, or say "thank you, we will consider it" to get them to be quiet.

You definitely get the stubborn people that want to do their own thing. You just gotta roll your eyes, try and plead your case, and see if they are understanding enough to listen to you. If they are Trek participants, usually they will listen to you and go with the flow. Its the non participants that we had a couple issues with.

It is looking like I will be taking over the Communications next year (if I get to go), so I won't be working on WH5 and pulling double duty again. I am definitely willing to help plan and coordinate the club's efforts though 🙂