Back in the 1990s i joined "Wilderness Unlimited" hunting and fishing on private property sportsmen's club for about $700 initiation and about $700 in annual dues. I had seen their booth at the various hunting and fishing sportsmen shows as in San Mateo and had lost all my private property access through the farmers going "clean" as in no weeds or habitat for Cal.native wildlife and exotic game like quail, ducks, geese, and pheasants.
HUGE MISTAKE,,,
The first clue that the club was not interested in the game or member's best interests but primarily and mainly and mostly just profit, came when my very experienced and savvy Dad and i paid extra for Oregon licenses and also the club's arranged Maupin,north central Oregon, ranch access to a big private plot. We drove up there early and stayed in a small motel in Madras,Oregon and scouted the property from the highway as we were incouraged to do,also from the gated access. On about day 2 we ran into a fellow club member who told us he had seen another member from So.Cal. who told him that a helicopter from the neighboring eastern ranch had herded illegally all the male antlered elk in herds onto his off limits property and closed the fence!! Both were quiting,after paying and traveling,as it was thus useless. But Dad said lets "hunt".
The season opened and we were on the property we had paid tresspass for ,the Rocking something, before sunrise,,,and hunted for days,,,until just after sunset. Finally i decided to phone one of the club owners in San Diego and ask if he had heard complaints from the 2 other hunters that had left. He said no,,,and that i was "crazy" to think such a thing could happen on WU club property and in Oregon,,,and in these United States of America!! So i went into the town of Madras Chamber of Commerce office building downtown and asked if this was true,,,or was i "crazy"? The man said it was true, all the legal bulls had been helicopter herded onto the closed neighbors property,and it would cost me like $3000 to be taken on this ranch for a "guaranteed 5pt or better bull elk,i would shoot dead". I almost said ok,till he said it would be $6000.00 for my dad and me.
I immediately phoned the Oregon State Wildlife officers ,,,and they said if i did not see it ,it did not happen ,and they were too busy in their offices to come all that way out to see for themselves,,,is that corruption at it's worst,or what ?! I phoned the feds, same weak ass story, we are too busy story.
Dad and i drove home to the S.F. Bay Area very disappointed in WU.
Then i had the rare luck to run into one of the club's private property leasors who said the club told him ,for the same money, it wanted his worst piece of game habitat and not the best he intended the club to use,as he was filthy rich and afforded hunting in Oregon,etc.. That was it, and i was out of the club for good. BEWARE !!
Also, if you are an elk hunter, beware of Gunnison, Colorado as there is a popular guide there who will take your advance check in full and when you drive to his ranch,ride in his new red Dodge twincab,ride a horse in the snow up to 10-11000 feet base camp just north of town acouple hours,,,he will tell you -and get away with it- you being outofstate- that you are "not worthy of getting a shot at an elk because you are not as fit as a college athlete and have not paid your dues in previous many outfitter fees over the years",,,and the Colorado state outfitter association lets him get away with this fraud and larceny!!
Also, beware of elk hunting out of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, as there is/was a well known guide there who got away with booking outofstate hunters cow-no horns hunts on orders of getting male-antler only tags and not telling the hunters until they arrived !! Were we pissed or what ?! Back home,after the Wyoming state and outfitter association did next to nothing, we were contacted by the FBI that our guide "the best guide in Jackson Hole!!" was being investigated for child pornography during,,,during our week hunt of the area and inside the Grand Teton National Park !! Commercialization of hunting and fishing has many flaws and pitfalls.
Tho the state of california has had a bad attitude about the environment and state habitat health for decades of rep.and dem. governors !
Thursday, August 25, 2005
"Club Ed" surf school of Santa Cruz,Cal. and Baja surf camp,,,a consumer's opinion
Now 2005, so a couple years ago i reminded myself that growing up in California i had promised myself that i would learn to surf before i became a senior citizen, and not by getting away with cutting friday class in San Jose in high school and driving over 17 to Santa Cruz. So i chose one of the 2 or more surf schools at Santa Cruz's safe beach with sandy bottom on the right side of the pier,opposite the famous Boardwalk amusement park, at Cowell Beach. Club Ed gave me an excellent Hawaiian college student age surf instructor and i was standing up repeatedly, with difficulty as it is not as easy a child's play at 50, in less than a full 8hr day!!
I was jazzed, or as they say "stoked",so i signed up for the Baja surf camp week in Mexico and this is were my consumer experience went "south", in a big way !! We were to caravan drive down and i was talked into driving one of the trucks,since i had a chauffeurs commercial limo and bus license and a much better safety record with the state DMV than the college kid who was going to get extra pay for driving after finishing a commercial driving course,,,in exchange,i understood at the time ,for a new surfboard of my size and a wet suit,as i was a pro limo driver and wound never have agreed to the risk and work during my expensive paid vacation of driving to and in Mexico for any thing less, period. I make $400-300 a day,just in tips.
So in November of 2001, i drove from Santa Cruz on Monterey Bay down to the Mex border,scary TJ, and down thru the federales-over armed thugs of Baja to a place south of Ensenada, i believe called Erindira Beach. This is NOT a safe place for beginners to learn to surf, in my humble opinion !! The beach is rocky and so is the wave break area bottom and we had one athletic guy jump instead of buttflop off his surfboard and shatter his ankle !! Yes, there was a very nice guy as pro EMT but he failed to immediately or even near term treat the victim for shock as you learn in basic and advanced first aid by taking him off the steep incline head up beach position for a horizontal position,,,basic bonehead stuff,,,and the guy almost went into SHOCK plus having to be driven fast in the back of a pickup all the way north to a good San Diego hospital.
Also the instructors were not available,but seemed unhappy to work for so little,as Ed had told me he was into making a quick fortune-killing and buying a new bigger house and lots more land in expensive Santa Cruz. The college kid who i aced out of the driving job certainly was not happy about losing that additional income. And usually the instructors would be available the first few hours of the first day and then only the first hour of the day after the beauty led the option beach yoga class,so that they could get their surf time in. At first the waves were under 6 feet but then a tropical storm offshore brought higher waves and we were told to go in and try,,,as in pee in your wetsuit scared stiff try,,,!!!!!
The other members of the paid staff and paying guests were a good mix:we had a young family ,rich,from Piedmont with a beautiful french- speaking wife and 2 great kids,and a young pretty blonde from Long Island,NY,,,and some single men like my self,and the paid and excellent cook, and Ed's nice wife and 2 brat kids. The weather was awful:sweltering hot in the black rubber wetsuits during the day and cold foggy damp bone-chilling cold in the provided small tents and our sleeping bags at night. We usually had a guitar for someone to play at the nightly campfire and lots of Mexicans ready to steal any loose stuff from our campsite right on the beach. If you stlll insist on going there ,there is a good clean cheap hotel at the far north-one mile-end of the beach,which is where i wish i slept,,, every,,, night,,,, of the trip, tho i have backpacked and horsepacked in the Sierra Nevada's all my life. No showers, i seem to remember,either at the beach.
On the drive back norte i asked Ed what kind of surfboard and surfing wetsuit he was going to buy me in compensation,,, and he said i had misunderstood,not in writing, that he would only give me his pro surf shop discount of about $200 on both. Shock,,,again,,, i said i did not misunderstand as i had restated his offer for a full wetsuit and new board on the ride down. So i was screwed, and probably not the first or last. Beware!! And there are other surf schools.
I was jazzed, or as they say "stoked",so i signed up for the Baja surf camp week in Mexico and this is were my consumer experience went "south", in a big way !! We were to caravan drive down and i was talked into driving one of the trucks,since i had a chauffeurs commercial limo and bus license and a much better safety record with the state DMV than the college kid who was going to get extra pay for driving after finishing a commercial driving course,,,in exchange,i understood at the time ,for a new surfboard of my size and a wet suit,as i was a pro limo driver and wound never have agreed to the risk and work during my expensive paid vacation of driving to and in Mexico for any thing less, period. I make $400-300 a day,just in tips.
So in November of 2001, i drove from Santa Cruz on Monterey Bay down to the Mex border,scary TJ, and down thru the federales-over armed thugs of Baja to a place south of Ensenada, i believe called Erindira Beach. This is NOT a safe place for beginners to learn to surf, in my humble opinion !! The beach is rocky and so is the wave break area bottom and we had one athletic guy jump instead of buttflop off his surfboard and shatter his ankle !! Yes, there was a very nice guy as pro EMT but he failed to immediately or even near term treat the victim for shock as you learn in basic and advanced first aid by taking him off the steep incline head up beach position for a horizontal position,,,basic bonehead stuff,,,and the guy almost went into SHOCK plus having to be driven fast in the back of a pickup all the way north to a good San Diego hospital.
Also the instructors were not available,but seemed unhappy to work for so little,as Ed had told me he was into making a quick fortune-killing and buying a new bigger house and lots more land in expensive Santa Cruz. The college kid who i aced out of the driving job certainly was not happy about losing that additional income. And usually the instructors would be available the first few hours of the first day and then only the first hour of the day after the beauty led the option beach yoga class,so that they could get their surf time in. At first the waves were under 6 feet but then a tropical storm offshore brought higher waves and we were told to go in and try,,,as in pee in your wetsuit scared stiff try,,,!!!!!
The other members of the paid staff and paying guests were a good mix:we had a young family ,rich,from Piedmont with a beautiful french- speaking wife and 2 great kids,and a young pretty blonde from Long Island,NY,,,and some single men like my self,and the paid and excellent cook, and Ed's nice wife and 2 brat kids. The weather was awful:sweltering hot in the black rubber wetsuits during the day and cold foggy damp bone-chilling cold in the provided small tents and our sleeping bags at night. We usually had a guitar for someone to play at the nightly campfire and lots of Mexicans ready to steal any loose stuff from our campsite right on the beach. If you stlll insist on going there ,there is a good clean cheap hotel at the far north-one mile-end of the beach,which is where i wish i slept,,, every,,, night,,,, of the trip, tho i have backpacked and horsepacked in the Sierra Nevada's all my life. No showers, i seem to remember,either at the beach.
On the drive back norte i asked Ed what kind of surfboard and surfing wetsuit he was going to buy me in compensation,,, and he said i had misunderstood,not in writing, that he would only give me his pro surf shop discount of about $200 on both. Shock,,,again,,, i said i did not misunderstand as i had restated his offer for a full wetsuit and new board on the ride down. So i was screwed, and probably not the first or last. Beware!! And there are other surf schools.
VBT/Vermont Bicycle Tours...a consumer's opinion
Now it is 2005, but about 4 or 5 years ago,so about 2000-2001, i took my first trip with VBT/Vermont Bicycle Tours in central Vermont during the first week of October. And the Fall foliage was,for a Californian, absolutely Fantastic !! I wish i could say the same for VBT bicycle tour company.
In my 50s I had bicycled all my life, even to and from High School,embarassing when the car dealers' sons were all driving new free GTOs and other hot cars, plus at 25, 2 friends and I had bicycled up and across Canada one Summer. I was in average American, or average to poor shape by my 50s.
At the first inn, the start of the trip, in Waitsfield,we stayed at a lovely old place with very polite hosts. The trip had 2 leaders ,one old and one young, and the older was unfortunately in charge. The older took us out the first morning for the routine bicycle operation and safety lecture, except he tried to make it only a very corny standup comedy routine and hardly anyone laughed at his tired ,obvious,constant weak jokes. But he made it plain he was the boss. He did not cover such basics as 1) shifting well before the hill and 2)ankling,or not keeping your ankle rigid. Unfortunately the bicycles were of a major manufacture but of the cheap end of the line as far as brakes and gears went and without any shocks in front forks even or at best front and rear. Some of the guests opted for the very thick ,cost extra, padded seat for all the bumpy dirt roads we would be traveling on on our bone shakers !
The younger leader drove the sag or tail or pickup wagon for those that got lost even with the detailed but flawed directions we all had-me included- or those that got too tired each day of the week trip and decided to ride in the van the last few miles-and many did thus. The terrain was gentle rolling hills and usual good shoulder with considerate passing drivers, but on the frequent dirt roads the VBT companies choice in rigid,non-shock bicycle frames proved a very uncomfortable,painful and unnecessarily difficult to operate choice. The handlebar wanted to vibrate out of your hands on such bad bumpy dirt roads! It was only the shockingly vivid colors of the leaves,,,and hopes of a hottub at the end that kept me in good spirits on this expensive adventure-working vacation.
One of the inns that VBT had chosen was a large county club golf course afair and ,unfortunately, we were all made by lack of smiles and welcomes , to feel unwelcome. At least the rooms were clean and well furnished,,,and they had a hot tub!! Why VBT does not advertise or promote or inform you that a wonderful for tired muscles jaccuzi is available some days at some inns is beyond understanding. The food and drinks were good, but again no friendly customer service.
One of the best inns/stays was at the "October Country Inn" in southern Vermont !! A++ gentlemen at the inn !! So friendly and welcoming and the food was definitely the ultimate ,very best cuisine of the trip ! Delicious, we were in such good spirits...and there was a beautiful river and microbrewery across the way...such a wonderful choice by VBT, as if all their chosen inns could be so friendly and high quality. It's near or just south of that famous ski area with a "K".
The younger leader was friendly,confident, capable,patient,much more handsome, ladies, and without the cornball constant jokes, so in my humble opinion, a much better tour leader than the older for boss, but not by VBT.
I would recommend VBT a grade of "C" for the uncomfortable rigid bicycle frames, the boring cornball older leader as boss who did such a lousy safety talk the first day and thought he was god's gift to bicycle tours, and the few unfriendly or tackly trailer-trash furnished inns that VBT for profit over quality chose to put us in. A 1" seat tube schock absorber, such as used by the competition, would not have helped much. For the money you pay, VBT could do a much better job. I flew in and out of the cute college town on the lake to the east with good rental car and flight service. Great job Vermont !!
In my 50s I had bicycled all my life, even to and from High School,embarassing when the car dealers' sons were all driving new free GTOs and other hot cars, plus at 25, 2 friends and I had bicycled up and across Canada one Summer. I was in average American, or average to poor shape by my 50s.
At the first inn, the start of the trip, in Waitsfield,we stayed at a lovely old place with very polite hosts. The trip had 2 leaders ,one old and one young, and the older was unfortunately in charge. The older took us out the first morning for the routine bicycle operation and safety lecture, except he tried to make it only a very corny standup comedy routine and hardly anyone laughed at his tired ,obvious,constant weak jokes. But he made it plain he was the boss. He did not cover such basics as 1) shifting well before the hill and 2)ankling,or not keeping your ankle rigid. Unfortunately the bicycles were of a major manufacture but of the cheap end of the line as far as brakes and gears went and without any shocks in front forks even or at best front and rear. Some of the guests opted for the very thick ,cost extra, padded seat for all the bumpy dirt roads we would be traveling on on our bone shakers !
The younger leader drove the sag or tail or pickup wagon for those that got lost even with the detailed but flawed directions we all had-me included- or those that got too tired each day of the week trip and decided to ride in the van the last few miles-and many did thus. The terrain was gentle rolling hills and usual good shoulder with considerate passing drivers, but on the frequent dirt roads the VBT companies choice in rigid,non-shock bicycle frames proved a very uncomfortable,painful and unnecessarily difficult to operate choice. The handlebar wanted to vibrate out of your hands on such bad bumpy dirt roads! It was only the shockingly vivid colors of the leaves,,,and hopes of a hottub at the end that kept me in good spirits on this expensive adventure-working vacation.
One of the inns that VBT had chosen was a large county club golf course afair and ,unfortunately, we were all made by lack of smiles and welcomes , to feel unwelcome. At least the rooms were clean and well furnished,,,and they had a hot tub!! Why VBT does not advertise or promote or inform you that a wonderful for tired muscles jaccuzi is available some days at some inns is beyond understanding. The food and drinks were good, but again no friendly customer service.
One of the best inns/stays was at the "October Country Inn" in southern Vermont !! A++ gentlemen at the inn !! So friendly and welcoming and the food was definitely the ultimate ,very best cuisine of the trip ! Delicious, we were in such good spirits...and there was a beautiful river and microbrewery across the way...such a wonderful choice by VBT, as if all their chosen inns could be so friendly and high quality. It's near or just south of that famous ski area with a "K".
The younger leader was friendly,confident, capable,patient,much more handsome, ladies, and without the cornball constant jokes, so in my humble opinion, a much better tour leader than the older for boss, but not by VBT.
I would recommend VBT a grade of "C" for the uncomfortable rigid bicycle frames, the boring cornball older leader as boss who did such a lousy safety talk the first day and thought he was god's gift to bicycle tours, and the few unfriendly or tackly trailer-trash furnished inns that VBT for profit over quality chose to put us in. A 1" seat tube schock absorber, such as used by the competition, would not have helped much. For the money you pay, VBT could do a much better job. I flew in and out of the cute college town on the lake to the east with good rental car and flight service. Great job Vermont !!
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