The Adventurers’ Club News News/AC News Dec 2010.pdf · BOOK REVIEW: MINES OF THE SAN GABRIELS 9...

The

Adventurers’ Club News©

Volume 54 December 2010 Number 11

Night Of High Adventure – 2010

SECRETARY Alan Feldstein

DINNER RESERVATIONS (323)-223-3948 Deadline: Tuesday Noon

ADDRESS 2433 N Broadway Los Angeles, CA 90086

MAILING ADDRESS PO Box 31226 Los Angeles, CA 90031

1sT VICE PRES TREASURER Vince Weatherby Rick Flores

1—PRESIDENT Allan Smith

2ND VICE PRES Mike Gwaltney

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DIRECTORY INSIDE FRONT COVER PRESIDENT'S PAGE 1

ARTICLES FRUIT BAT SOUP 2 THE RESCUE OF THOR 4

WHAT'S HAPPENING 6 THRAWN RICKLE 8 BOOK REVIEW: MINES OF THE SAN GABRIELS 9 CLUB ELECTION RESULTS

10

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

10 THURSDAY NIGHTS AT THE CLUB

11

FORTHCOMING PROGRAMS

21 UPDATE TO ADVENTURERS' CLUB ROSTER

21

The Adventurers' Club News The Official Publication of the Adventurers' Club of Los Angeles®, California

December 2010 Volume 54 Number 11 Publisher ACLA President. Allan Smith #1069 Editor Robert G. Williscroft #1116, Clarkston, WA 99403

Cell (818) 613-9445; [email protected] Asst. Editor .. Marc Weitz #1144; , Los Angeles, CA 90071

(323) 600-4805; [email protected] iaClub Phone (323) 223-3948 (24 Hrs) www.adventurersclub.org ii

ADVENTURERS’ CLUB NEWS December 20101

The

ADVENTURERS’ CLUB NEWS©

Volume 54 December 2010 Number 11THE PRESIDENT’S PAGEAllan R. Smith #1069 - President

Well it isw i t h

some sadnessthat I writethis column toyou, as it is mylast as yourp r e s i d e n t .Over thesepast two years

it has been a privilege and an honor toserve in the highest position of ourprestigious Club.

Over this time there have beenmany challenges, and yet mostly re-wards. We have seen excellent newmembers come in the Club withsuch energy and enthusiasm that itleaves me excited for the future ofour Club.

Looking back, I remember settingmany goals, and I am glad to say Ihave achieved most of them. Earlyon we had a challenge with our lease,but we were able to secure a fantas-tic five-year deal, renewable to fifteenyears. The book, Stories of the Adven-turers’ Club, was published, and wehave archived many of the items fromthe book in the Club. I reached outto members who are not local to theLos Angeles area, and we were ableto put together video presentations

of the members abroad to show onladies nights.

I wanted to be an active presidentand as such I left on two expedi-t ions, completed a major f i lmproject, as well as led the Club ontwo outings.

But these two years would not havebeen possible without the help of ourgreat officers and Board of Directors.I have to thank our 1st Vice Presidentand Program Chairman Vince Weath-erby for diligently working these pastyears to bring in the best programswe have ever had. Many people donot realize, but Vince and I work fulltime, and one day look forward to re-tirement. Running the Club, getting pro-grams, and yet running our lives, was achallenge, yet such a pleasure to servethe Club that we love so much.

To Robert Williscroft, Marc Weitz,and Bob Zeman for cranking out themeeting minutes every week, and thenewsletter. You are all what is so im-portant to this Club. It was a plea-sure every month to meet as a boardand have so many laughs and yet getso much done. Most importantly, toall of you – for your adventures offthe beaten path, the stories, your in-put and your friendship – I will beforever indebted, and I thank you!

Remember always to Dream Big &Dare to Fail…

December 2010 ADVENTURERS’ CLUB NEWS2

Fruit Bat Soup

Fruit Bat Soup...Rick Flores (#1120)

When I was scuba diving in Palauabout twenty years ago I went

out to dinner with some fellow diversat one of the nicer restaurants on theisland. Nice by South Pacific stan-dards meanthat theyserve some-thing otherthan fish.

There weretwo local del-icacies listedon the menu:coconut craband fruit bat soup. I asked about thecrab and the waiter told me that itwas deliciousand sweet be-cause thecrab’s maindiet was co-conuts (youare what youeat). He alsotold me thatthe crabsclimb up thecoconut treesto cut off thecoconuts. Then they drop and breakopen on the rocks below (apparent-ly, the crabs have good aim). I con-firmed his information, and foundthe following interesting anecdoteabout these fascinating crustaceansmany years later in a book titled

40-lb Coconut-Crab Photo Watchonline12.blogspot

How to Die in the Outdoors: 100 Inter-esting Ways by Buck Tilton:

Fruit Bat Photo US Forest Service

At least one account from 1951, froman island in the Red Sea, reports thatshipwrecked Moslem sailors were doz-

ing weakly onthe beach. Co-conut crabsemer ged si-lently fromtheir saltyhome to crackopen the skulls(and kill) 26humans before

the survivors awoke and retaliated. Per-haps the crabs mistook the hairy human

heads for coco-nuts.

T h i ssounds pret-ty incrediblebut if you seeever see aphoto of thecrabs youknow it’sp o s s i b l e ,they are enor-mous!

Unfortunately for me the crabs wereout of season so I ordered the fruitbat soup. I did this for two reasons.

First, there was this very annoyingNew Yorker that was having dinnerwith us who claimed to be a gour-mand. She had many laughingly out-


Fruit Bat Soup

dated opinions about food in LosAngeles and didn’t back her claim upwith any specifics about great foodin her beloved city (she did mentiona few good Delis). She and I had beensparring for days about the relativemerits of food in L.A. and N.Y., buther basic annoying attitude was thatthere were three types of people inthe world New Yorkers, ex-NewYorkers and rubes, and there wasn’ta rube on earth that could convince

her that there was haute cuisine out-side of the N.Y. city limits. I was hop-ing that she would freak-out when Iordered the soup!

Second, I have an adventurous pal-ette and I was curious. This bat ateonly fruit so it should have a sweettaste.

It was better than I hoped! Theyserved the bat whole sitting in the mid-

dle of a soup bowl in some tepid broth.It still had the skin on! The annoyingNew Yorker ran from the table scream-ing, “Eeeeyew...that’s disgusting!”

Mission accomplished. UnfortunatelyI still had to eat the bat, and it didlook disgusting. I pulled the skin off,grabbed some meat, closed my eyesand tossed it down my gullet.

“Mmmmmm, not bad,” I declared. “Ittastes like rabbit.”

I told my wife Doris this story

when I got back from vacation. Idon’t think she entirely believed me.Then, about two years ago we werewatching the Food Network togeth-er; they had a program about the tenmost disgusting food dishes in theworld. Sure enough they mentionedthe fruit bat soup (I think it was num-ber two).

Vindicated at last!

Photo Vacation.comFruit Bat soup


Thor

The Rescue of ThorDr. John Goddard (#507)

Throughout my career as a profes-sional explorer I have enjoyed ad-

venturous, travel through many of themost remote areas of the world. By pre-senting lectures on my expeditions andconducting motivational seminars ongoal-setting throughout the U.S. I amable to make a living and finance eachone of my overseas projects.

One of the most memorable andsatisfying experiences of my annuallecture tours began one bone-chillingDecember day as I was driving fromChicago, where I had just given a lec-ture on Africa at the Field Museum,to Wichita for my next appointment.

Whenever I have ample time toreach my next destination, I avoid themain interstates and seek out lesstraveled roads that will take methrough the more colorful rural areasof each state. This of course extendsmy long drives between cities, butmakes them much more interestingand enjoyable. After passing throughKansas City, instead of taking theheavily traveled turnpike to Wichita, Iworked my way to Route 169, headingsouth to Chanute in eastern Kansas.

I drove for miles past fields andwoods, with only a few widely spacedfarmhouses and no vehicles in sight.As I was cruising in the early after-noon of that frigid day, observingflocks of crows and starlings silhou-etted against the gray overcast, I spot-ted a dark, unusual looking animalwalking along the right-hand ditch. I

drove for several seconds before itfully registered that I had just seen afull-grown Doberman Pincher, one ofmy favorite breeds!

With mounting excitement I quicklyturned the car around and raced back,my mind filled with questions:

What is a dog like this doing in suchan isolated area? How did it get here?Where are his owners? Is he vicious?

I knew from experience that “Do-bes” are one of the most intelligentand loyal breeds of the canine world,and that they can be trained to beaggressive guard dogs or affectionatecompanions. But in all my domestictravels I had never before seen a Do-berman on a farm or in a rural area.

As I caught up with the dog, hestopped walking and stood looking atme with a curious expression. The Do-berman was a pedigreed young maleand would have been a handsome ani-mal, except he was so shockingly ema-ciated that each one of his ribs stoodout in sharp detail. His ears had beencropped so that they stood erect andalert. There was no collar around hisneck, and his black and brown coat wasdusty and full of burrs.

I parked on the grassy shoulder ofthe road and began talking to him insoothing tones as I opened two cansof tuna from my box of groceries onthe floor. Slowly I opened the door,emptied the tuna on a newspaper andset it down on the ground next to thecar. Once the dog caught the pungent


Thor

scent of the fish it took only a littlecoaxing to get him to cross the roadand come to the snack.

The famished animal gobbled up thetuna in a flash, then looked at me withpleading eyes for more. It was apparentthat he hadn’t eaten in days, but ratherthan overburden his stomach with toomuch food all at once, I decided to try toreunite him with his owner. When Iopened the car door he jumped in with nohesitation, and when I petted him he re-sponded by licking my hand. He then laiddown next to me with his head on my lap.We became instant friends and I decidedto call him “Thor.” Heading north, I drovefor several minutes to reach the farmhouseI had passed earlier. A young woman cameto the door when I knocked, and at myquestioning told me she had never seenthe Doberman before and had no ideawho might own him. A farmer told methe same story when I stopped at his homemiles to the south.

I continued down # 169 until, justbefore sunset, I arrived at a road-sidecombination gas station and cafe. As“Hank” the owner filled my tank Ishowed him “Thor” and explained thewhole situation. I demonstrated howgentle he was as I stroked his head andsaid: “ This is really an exceptionallyfine dog that has somehow gotten lost.He is basically in good shape exceptfor being underfed. In fact I wouldadopt him myself except for being on along lecture tour and already owningtwo dogs back home.”

Hank gently petted Thor for awhile

than gave me a real thrill when hestood up and announced, “Well I’vecome to a decision I think you willlike. We could use a good family dogfor our three kids and would haveplenty of good food from the leftoversof our restaurant. So I’ll take him withthanks to you for the chance.”

I suddenly felt a deep pang of re-gret at having to give up Thor, butfelt elated at finding such an idealhome for him. With considerable re-luctance I handed him over to his newowner and, after a hug and a whis-pered farewell, drove to Wichita.

Thor was often in my thoughts dur-ing the months to follow. I wonderedhow he was getting along with his newlife and whether he was happy withthe family that had taken him in. Justa year after I had found him, I was againlecturing in the Midwest and decidedto satisfy my nagging curiosity.

Though it was a considerable de-tour from my next engagement,which was in Topeka, I felt a irresist-ible compulsion to find out howthings were with him. What a reliefit was when I found “Hank” on dutyat his station and heard him say, “ youwouldn’t recognize Thor now. He hasfilled out to become a real beaut of adog. The kids love him more than anyother pet we’ve ever had and theykeep him from getting fat by playing“fetch” with him all the time.”

With this heartwarming news I wasable to drive on with all my worriesabout Thor peacefully laid to rest!


What’s Happening...What’s Happening...Allan Smith wins John Muir Award

Outgoing two-term presidentAllan Smith has been awarded

the prestigious John Muir Award forDocumentary Films at the YosemiteInternational Film Festival. The awardwas for his production of Rescue Men– The Story of the Pea Island Life Sav-ers. He was unable to be present forNOHA because he was at the FilmFestival to receive his award

This is another in a string of awardsfor this exceptional documentary.Congratulations, Allan, for this fineachievement!

Orange County Register HonorsWalt Ehlers

Walt Ehlers (#1119) was featuredin an article in the Orange Coun-

ty Register written by Michael Mello.As a reminder, Walt’s citation reads:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidityat the risk of his life above and beyond thecall of duty on 9–10 June 1944, nearGoville, France. S/Sgt. Ehlers, alwaysacting as the spearhead of the attack, re-peatedly led his men against heavily defendedenemy strong points exposing himself todeadly hostile fire whenever the situationrequired heroic and courageous leadership.Without waiting for an order, S/Sgt. Eh-lers, far ahead of his men, led his squadagainst a strongly defended enemy strongpoint, personally killing 4 of an enemypatrol who attacked him en route. Thencrawling forward under withering machine-gun fire, he pounced upon the guncrew andput it out of action. Turning his attentionto 2 mortars protected by the crossfire of 2machineguns, S/Sgt. Ehlers led his menthrough this hail of bullets to kill or put to


What’s Happening...

Editor’s Note:Each month we will feature recent activities ofmembers and friends on this page. Please sendyour material along with any photos to the Editorby email or snail mail. Designate it for “What’sHappening....”

flight the enemy of the mortar section, kill-ing 3 men himself. After mopping up themortar positions, he again advanced on amachinegun, his progress effectively coveredby his squad. When he was almost on topof the gun he leaped to his feet and, al-though greatly outnumbered, he knocked outthe position single-handed. The next day,having advanced deep into enemy territory,the platoon of which S/Sgt. Ehlers was amember, finding itself in an untenable po-sition as the enemy brought increased mor-tar, machinegun, and small arms fire tobear on it, was ordered to withdraw. S/Sgt. Ehlers, after his squad had coveredthe withdrawal of the remainder of theplatoon, stood up and by continuous fire atthe semicircle of enemy placements, divert-ed the bulk of the heavy hostile fire onhimself, thus permitting the members ofhis own squad to withdraw. At this point,though wounded himself, he carried hiswounded automatic rifleman to safety andthen returned fearlessly over the shell-sweptfield to retrieve the automatic rifle which hewas unable to carry previously. After hav-ing his wound treated, he refused to be evac-uated, and returned to lead his squad. Theintrepid leadership, indomitable courage,and fearless aggressiveness displayed by S/Sgt. Ehlers in the face of overwhelmingenemy forces serve as an inspiration to oth-ers.

Photo cypress76.biz

Gary Hareland has active pen

Gary Hareland (#1138) is one ofour newer members, although he

has been attending Club events forquite some time. He lives in ChinaLake, a 2.5-hour drive or more, buthe regularly attends Club meetingsand events.

Gary is a prolific writer, whose ar-ticles have gained exposure not onlyin the Ridgecrest News Review, butalso nationally in several marine-re-lated periodicals.

His most recent article was aboutClub member Bob Gilliland (#888),SR-71 test pilot, who made a presen-tation at China Lake

Photo compilots.com

Photo RAF

SR-71

Bob Gilliland


As this yearcomes to a

close, we bid afond farewell toOutgoing Presi-dent Allan R.Smith (#1069).I did not know

Allan very well before he becamepresident, but in the past two years Ihave come to admire him for his com-petence, his leadership, and especial-ly for his personal friendship.

On the morning I had scheduledto load my rental truck for mymove to Washington State, withoutwarning or fanfare, Allen showedup at my place with several Clubmembers to help my loadout. It wasa gesture of friendship I will neverforget. And a hearty thanks to thefellows who showed up. I won’t listyour names so that I don’t acciden-tally leave out a name, but each ofyou have my gratitude!

A remarkable sidebar to Allan’s ten-ure is that he managed to lead twoexpeditions, complete a majoraward-winning film project, as wellas lead the Club on two outings.

I had not expected to be at NOHAthis year, but due to some generouslyapplied frequent traveler miles fromRick Flores, and some extra miles driv-en by Steve Peterson to drive me frommy hotel to NOHA and back, I wasable to be there, and to share wonder-ful fellowship with many of you.

THE THRAWN RICKLE From the Ancient Scottish: thrawn = stubborn; rickle = loose, dilapidated heap

Thrawn Rickle

Robert G. Williscroft #1116 – EditorI mentioned last issue that we are

updating our membership book. Thisis the loose-leaf handbook that con-tains all the members’ photos andbios. I have received only one inputthus far. PLEASE send any updatesdirectly to me at my official email ad-dress: [email protected]. Include anew photo if you wish, and updateyour bio to reflect what has happenedsince your original bio. If you are anew Club member with no bio pagein the handbook, then be sure to lookover some of the earlier ones and thenwrite up something about you that wecan include in the new edition – andemail it to me, of course!

A couple of members wrote to me,although I’m not certain they intend-ed their letters to become Letters tothe Editor. The more of you who ac-tually write intended letters, the moreactual feedback you can read in theNews. It makes this magazine morelively and interesting.

I have been receiving a stream ofmaterial for the News. This is good.A hearty thank you to those who havestepped up to the plate. Now, keep itup! The rest of you have stories totell. Please share them with us. Anddon’t forget the photos. Just email methe highest resolution photos you can.I’ll take it from there. And tell me whodid the photography. I want to creditthe proper person.

The password for the online full-color edition is “acla1012”.


Book Review - Mines of the San Gabriels

9

BOOK REVIEW –MINES OF THE SAN GABRIELSAuthor: John W. Robinson, La Siesta Press, Glendale, CA, 1973 (72p; 8.5 x 5.5 softcover),ISBN: 910856-52-4. Republished by Gem Guides Book Company, Baldwin Park, CA, 1990, ISBN978-0875054162. Review adapted by Robert G. Williscroft (#1116 – Editor) from materialsupplied by the original publisher, and an online review by Tom Sneath, a Los Angeles basedoutdoorsman.

When one thinks of gold miningsuch places as the Mother Lode

and Death Valleycome to mind. Yet,the first recordedgold strike in thestate of Californiaoccurred in the SanGabriel Range, lo-cated just to thenortheast of LosAngeles, four yearsbefore John Mar-shall found nug-gets in the millraceat Coloma innorthern Califor-nia. Even today,Los Angeles Coun-ty ranks among thetop gold producersin the state.

Many of theseold mines, such as the Red Rover andthe Governor, are within sight of theLA freeways. Others, such as Placen-ta Canyon and the Big Horn, may bereached by short walks or hikes.

This book gives more detail to thehistorical excerpts in the author’sbook, Trails. It includes much of theinteresting historical background formany of those hikes. Robinson fuses

together old miners tales with histor-ical reference.

John describesthe San Fernandoand the Santa Ani-ta placers, the goldmines of theSoledad region andLytle Creek, aswell as the lodemines on the upperSan Gabriel Riverand on the slopesof Mt. Baldy.

While gold min-ing is no longer oneof LA’s major in-dustries, many“recreational min-ers” still putteraround these gold-bearing rivers, whilemany others just

like to explore the ruins and traces ofthose olden days.

Robinson has hiked the San Gabri-els for many years, and has extensive-ly researched the lore of these moun-tains. He has written several bookson similar subjects

Mines of the San Gabriels is availableat recreational outlets, many bookstores, and online from Amazon.com.

December 2010 ADVENTURERS’ CLUB NEWS

Election Results / Letters

10

Club Election ResultsThese are the certified election results for 2011:

OfficersLarry Schutte – PresManny Gomes – 1st VPMike Gualtney – 2VPRobert Demott – SecretaryJeffery Goddard – Treasurer

Board of DirectorsMarc WeitzDave YamadaMartin BloomJeff HolmesPierre OdierBob Walters

Past PresidentAllan Smith

LETTERS TO THE EDITORTo the Editor:

It was good to see ya at the NOHA. I was reallysurprised that so many people attended. It was myfirst time at one, but am curious if the others wereso well attended?

I am sending along an article I wrote about BobGilliland that was in our local newspaper andthought you may enjoy it.

I just wrote the a book review for our localNews Review, but since Einar was one of ourpast speakers you might want to use it for theClub News. I hope that your Thanksgiving wasa very good one and that you didn’t scarf uptoo much turkey, like I did!

– Fredrick Gary Hareland #1138

To the Editor:I do not know if you received any of the

information about our own Bill Morse. Henow lives in Cambodia, having left the US toassist his “hero” Aki Ra with the landmineremoval program.

We can support this by voting for Aki Ra inthe “Heros” competition. We should be proudto have him as a fellow member and alsofriend. – Steve Bein #1057

This was the best attended NOHA in quite sometime. It looks like we finally discovered aformula that seems to work. Cudos to DaveFinnern and Steve Lawson.Thanks for the article. We’ll run it soon. – Editor

The voting went through Nov. 18.On Thanksgiving the winnerwas announced: AnuradhaKoirala. She is leading thefight in Nepal to prevent thesexual exploitation ofwomen and children. Weare all proud that Aki Rawas one of the tenfinalists. – Editor


Minutes – October 14, 2010

THURSDAY NIGHTS AT THE CLUB

11

October 14, 2010Marc Weitz (#1144)

Returning from adventure:

know Heidi). It’s on YouTube. Justsearch for “Sir Glen of GlenwoodHeidi the dog.”

Ric Flores #1120 – went on a 9-mile hike to mount Pinos. It was an8,000-foot elevation gain. Atop theyencountered astronomy enthusiastswith their expensive telescopes.There were also quite a few hunters.

Chuck Jonkey #1026 – went toTijuana

Roger Haft #1098 – Returnedfrom New Guinea and New Brit-

ain. He met the mutilated and tat-tooed tribesmen mentioned in the“Headhunt Revisited” lecture fromSeptember 9.

Dave Finnern #1065 – He hadbeen looking for a shipwreck offDana Point for a while now. Some-one recently beat them to it. Daveand his friend Steve followed this guyout to the wreck and dove downthemselves. Steve became slightlybent from the dive, but rather thango to the chamber he took a nap andsome aspirin and that did the trick.

Jeffrey Goddard #1010 – returnedfrom the Shanghai Expo. The twomost popular pavilions were Chinaand Saudi Arabia. Per Expo rules, theChina pavilion had to be the largest.450,000 people attended the expoeach day. He then traveled up theYangtze River and through the locksat the Three-Gorges Dam, where heate Beer Fish (and highly recommendsit).

Dan Young #683 – trekked inScotland

Jay Foonberg #1126 – went toChicago for his 57th [that’s not a typo]class reunion.

Allen Feldstein #1094 – His dogHeidi had an acting gig as mean dog(that is good acting for all those who

Leaving on Adventure:

Bob Zeman 878 – Off to Ugandafor two weeks to the place where

the Israeli Raid on Entebbe tookplace. He will also visit Kampala, Jin-ja (where the source of the Nile islocated), Murchison Falls, and a lake.

The Virtue of Risk

Talking about his life and his ad-venturers as a filmmaker and

cameraman, risk-taker Dave Banksbrought his effervescence and joie devive to the Adventurers’ Club onThursday night. As if his day job as acameraman for the Tonight Showwith Jay Leno wasn’t exciting enough,Banks traveled to Afghanistan to ac-company U.S. Soldiers on a missionand crawled into hot and cramped

Photo Dave Banks

(Minutes continued on page 12)


(Minutes continued from page 11)


12

tombs in Egypt and Israel to film forthe TV show Tomb Raiders on the Dis-covery Channel.

Dave Banks, a large guy with glassesand a friendly disposition, took thestage and began telling us about hispast by showing us the various cam-eras he’s used throughout his life.Told as a child that he was incapa-ble, it turned out thatBanks was just dys-lexic and actuallyquite intelligent.Without success inschool, he got an8mm camera and be-gan filming hisfriends in homemademovies. Banks,showed us clips of these films, whichincluded car chases, shootouts, py-rotechnics and battles with Nazis.One shootout scene was shot at thelocal airport, an impossible thing todo today.

Next Banks showed us his betacamera. After 9/11 he was sent toAfghanistan by ABC News to accom-pany four U.S. soldiers in Afghanistanas they went on a mission to arrest alocal Al Qaeda leader. It begins withthe soldiers describing who they are,why they are in Afghanistan, and theirmission. The story then follows themas they travel by car to the villagewhere the Al Qaeda suspect lives.Tension follows them every step ofthe way. At one point their car be-comes blocked by another car in a

village, rendering them sitting ducks.The soldiers nervously exit their carand sternly tell the traffic in front ofthem to move. The situation is re-solved without incident and theymove on. They reach the suspect’svillage and are at first misled by thevillagers as to his location. Eventu-ally, the soldiers track down the sus-

pect and arrest him.Upon leaving, thesuspect’s son followstheir car down theroad till they have tothreaten him to de-sist through thetranslator.

Banks pointed outhow he, as the cam-

eraman, was invisible to the story.The story was about the four U.S. sol-diers and not him. Banks lamentedhow modern reporters feel the needto put themselves in the stories theyare covering, behaving like celebri-ties. Banks said filming this segmentwas the proudest moment of his ca-reer.

Next, Banks showed us his workon the TV show Tomb Raiders on theDiscovery Channel. The show fol-lows archaeologists through ancienttombs, often millennia after they’vebeen looted by tomb robbers. Banksshowed us a clip of the show that hefilmed and then a behind-the-sceneslook at that same segment. The be-hind-the-scenes portion included sub-titles with Banks’ witty remarks about

Photo Dave Banks


Minutes – October 14 & 21, 2010

October 21, 2010Bob Zeman (#878)

his predicaments that mainly con-cerned getting his large self into thesmall spaces of the tombs.

The first Tomb Raiders clip fol-lowed an Egyptian archaeologist intoan obscure pyramid that had beenrobbed 2,000 years before. The ladyarchaeologist gave Banks strict in-structions not to film her butt. Thesegment involved Banks crawling onhis knees and elbows while trying tofilm. In one scene, he is crawlingthrough a dark tunnel towards a lightand remarks that this is what peoplemust see when they die.

The second part takes places in anIsraeli tomb where the archaeologistlaments to Banks all the ways hecould die in the tomb and to watchout for a particular spider. Unim-pressed by the warnings Banks urgesthe archaeologist to get a move on.There is more of Banks squeezingthrough ancient tunnels too tiny forhim and plenty of wry comments.The third part, also in Israel, foundBanks and his producer seeing whocould fit into the tiniest space andcomplain the most.

The parting shot gave us three cam-els being led across along a hilltop infront of the setting sun — the glow-ing, orange sun silhouetting the cam-els and creating an iconic Saharanimage. All the while two men onwalkie-talkies are giving stage direc-tions to the camels. “Okay, turn thecamels around. And hurry up, the sunis setting.” “Roger that, camels don’t

turn on a dime.”Dave Banks put

on a great show andinspired the audi-ence’s love of ad-venture. He wouldmake a fine additionto the club.

Photo Dave Banks

We had special guests in EthanGoddard, son of Jeffrey God-

dard and grandson of John God-dard. Ethan told of his hitchhikingtrip from Los Angeles to South Da-kota. He was gone for a month and ahalf stopping in Las Vegas, SiouxFalls, Omaha, Kansas City, MO, Tex-as and New Mexico on his round trip.It got cold at times.

President Allan Smith attended afilm festival in which his movie “Res-cue Men” won the audience awardand grand prize. He was accompaniedby Chuck Jonkey and Roger Haft.

Jeff Holmes traveled to Taiwan.He saw few western tourists but someunusual sights.

Dave Finnern #1065 went divingoff of Malaga Cove on Bob Meistrel’s72-foot boat. He found a Chineseanchor. There have been reports ofthese but their origin has not beenconfirmed. Bob and Bill Meistrel de-veloped the wet suit with their com-pany Body Glove.

Steve Bein is going to Missoula,MT, at the end of November.




14


There will be a Wings, Wheels andRotors show on October 24th at LosAlamitos.

Bob Gannon is in Denver withLucky Lady Too.

Bob Zeman leaves November 10th

for two weeks in Uganda. He hopesto get to Jinja, often called the sourceof the Nile, Murchison Falls and afew birding spots.

London Steverson has written abook called “What You Don’t KnowCan Hurt You.” It covers social se-curity, disability and supplementalincome.

Roger Haft beat his post card backfrom New Guinea.

The Club still has copies of “Offthe Beaten Path” for sale at $35.

Amalty, Kazakhstan, with a photo ofa wooden church. Kazakhstan is thelargest and richest of the Stans be-cause of its large oil and natural gasreserves, and will stage the upcom-ing Asian games. He showed bronzestatuary and the eternal flame com-memorating the soldiers of WorldWar II.

He then drove to Bishkek in Kyr-gystan. He then flew to Osh wherehe viewed burned out businessesfrom the recent civil war.

The group then drove the PamirHighway in two vehicles along theborder of Afghanistan. Two of thepasses were above 14,000 feet. Offin the distance were Mt. Commu-nism, Mt. Lenin, and Mt. Stalin.

Along the way were uranium minesworked for a time by the 30,000 Ger-man prisoners of war. The food dur-ing this leg was not very good.

Bill arrived in Khorog, Tajikistan,home of a university. UNESCO hasoffices in this city.

The group stayed in a nice Hyatt

The 5 Stans of the former SovietUnion

Bill Altaffer #1095 traveled withhis father when growing up. He

was sponsored into the Club by JohnGoddard and has been an adventurerever since.

He started his presentation in

Amalty, KazakhstanPhoto Pamandgrev.blogspot.com

Anti-Government protests in Bishkek,Kyrgyzstan

Photo TheStatesman.com


October 30, 2010Bob Zeman (#878)

15

Minutes – October 21, 2010 & 30, 2010 (NOHA)

Hotel in Dushanbe.

Photo Panoramio.comKhorog, Tajikistan

Ships cemetery in Muynak near AralSea, Uzbekistan

Photo cempaka-green.blogspot.com

Ashgabad is the capital and largestcity in Turkmenistan.

The final Stan visited was Uzbeki-stan home of Samarkand with itsbeautiful architecture. Nearby isBukhara which was destroyed byGenghis Khan. According to Bill, theAral Sea has lost 90% of its waterdue to a poor plan to divert it to thecotton fields. The project did notwork out. There are many boat skel-etons along the old shore of the Sea,a reminder of the collapsed fisheries.

Night of High Adventure

A large crowd of more than 200gathered at the Hacienda Hotel

for Night of High Adventure(NOHA). Organized by David Fin-nern and Steve Lawson, membersand their guests were treated to threeexcellent presentations, a fine meal

with wine andmuch camarade-rie.

Jason Finnernentertained withhis guitar ar-rangements as allmingled. Bagpip-er Greg Elliotturged all to theirseats. Host DaveFinnern then

welcomed all and made the introduc-tions. The traditional toasts were giv-en:

“To adventure, the shadow of ev-ery red-blooded man,” by our young-est member Marc Weitz.

“To the Game,” by our oldest mem-ber Bob Benner.

“To every lost trail, lost cause, andlost comrade,” by our newest mem-ber Raul Fereira.

“To gentlemen adventurers,” by ourlongest member Bob Zeman.

Unfortunately, a few members whohave been members longer than Bobsuch as John Goddard, Bob Silver andFrank Haigler had not yet arrived.


Photo R Williscroft



16

Minutes – October 30, 2010 (NOHA)

David Dolan then gave the invo-cation.

First vice president and programchairman Vince Weatherby filled infor president Allan Smith who wasin Yosemite receiving the John Muiraward at its film festival. Vince want-ed to highlight the many great adven-turers in the room but there were somany it was difficult to salute themall.

In absentia, a flag was returnedfrom Allan Smith for his documen-tary film of the Colorado River in-cluding its history, geological chang-es and Indian activity.

Pierre Odier returned a flag fromhis trip to Pakistan, Afghanistan,Kashgar, Kashmir and northern Chi-na. Pierre attached a scarf that he wastold to wear to the flag.

Pierre was elected Adventurer ofthe Year by his fellow members forthis trip, one to Cambodia, and otherexploits.

Photos Charles Carmona

Bob Iannello,Bob Walters &Civil AirPatrol PilotPam Madden

Photos R Williscroft

Rosaly Lopes& Editor

Jerry Robinson,speaker ZacSunderland &Editor

Patti Balian& Editor

Speaker &member DonWalsh, Editor

SpeakerBrian Binnie

Editor’s note: If youguys had submittedmore photos, I wouldhave appeared inless!



17

The Spaceship One on this, the company on December17, 2003, decided to compete for theX Prize of $10 million awarded to amanned space-plane carrying 600pounds into space and returning,twice in two weeks.

The flight plan was to launch themother ship, then boost the spaceship into space, rotate for reentry andglide in for a landing.

The first test flight using a fifteen-second burn for the boost went ac-cording to plan, but Brian crashed thespace ship upon landing. ThoughBrian was not hurt, the craft was dam-aged. Brian resolved to do better andread numerous books.

So other pilots flew the next testmissions, each one going higher andhigher.

In October, 2004, the first of theactual flights for the X-Prize was com-pleted. Brian was called upon to pi-lot the second and final mission ofthe prize.

There were 25,000 persons in Mo-jave on hand for the flight in whichthe booster was to burn for a minute


Brian Binnie is a Program Busi-ness Manager and Test Pilot. He

has twenty-one years flight test ex-perience including twenty years ofNaval Service in the Strike-fightercommunity, having logged more than4,600 hours of flight time in fifty-ninedifferent aircraft. He is a licensed Air-line Transport Pilot.

Brian grew up in Scotland. He par-t icipated in Operation DesertStorm while in the Navy. Brian re-ceived a poor fitness report from aCommander Orr during his Navycareer. To improve, Brian volun-teered for the lousy operations of-ficer jobs that became available andperformed well.

Brian left the Navy after twentyyears and joined Scaled Composites,a Mojave firm headed by legendaryBurt Rutan. Burt’s philosophy to notbe afraid to try and not be afraid tofail.

Brian flew the Proteus 50,000 feetup to study weather patterns. Based

Spaceship One in flight

Photo Scaled Composites

WhiteKnight & Spaceship One in flight

Photo Scaled Composites



18


and a half. This would take the spaceship to 200,000 feet high and itwould then coast another 200,000feet.

It was successful. And Brian waspresented with an award by the pres-ident of the National AeronauticalAssociation who was none otherthan Bud Orr who had given him thepoor fitness report.

He was able to make repairs andsailed to New Guinea. He circledaround to the south to head to Dar-win but the Torres Strait was in theway. A number of outcroppings, a16-knot current and boats forcedhim to stay awake to avoid a colli-sion.

He left Australia for the IndianOcean. Piracy is a concern here andhe was followed by a menacingboat. He called for help and a lo-cal Australian plane came out andbuzzed the intruder which turnedaway.

Zac then sailed to Cocos (Keel-ing) Islands because his tiller armhad broken. He had it repaired andsailed to Mauritius. A storm snappedhis forestay and he lost his Genoa.He pulled into Rodrigues Island forrepairs and then Mauritius where hewaited for a sail to be sent from HongKong.

Reaching Durban, South Africa, hewas able to view some elephants. Healso met Mike Perham who was also

Youngest Solo Circumnavigator

Zac Sunderland was born in 1991into a sailing family. Prior to his

sailing around the world, he had livedon Catalina Island and sailed in Aus-tralia, England and New Zealand. Hewas inspired by Robin Graham whohad circumnavigated in the late1960s.

Zac saved up $6,000 to buy a boatcalled the Intrepid, which he thenstripped down and built back up forhis trip.

On June 14, 2008 he sailed off toHawaii. His next leg was to go 2,100miles to Port Moresby but rain squallsforced him to detour to Majuro in theMarshall Islands.

Zac on Intrepid Photo Sailmagazine.com

Girls Zac met in Mauritius

Photo LA Times online



endeavoring to sail around theworld. Perham was younger thanZac and better financed. He did suc-ceed but Zac held the record forthree months as the youngest be-cause Zac finished first.

Cape Horn was beautiful but Ta-ble Mountain was covered with a fogcalled the table cloth. This portend-ed bad weather which was true.

After sailing around the Cape ofGood Hope, Zac headed northwestfor St. Helena which has a lot ofcliffs. His satellite phone did notwork for twenty-eight days.

From there he headed to Grenadaand then Panama. He cruisedthrough the canal with another boatand headed up the Pacific Coast. Heran into a hurricane off of PuertoVallarta but survived.

Zac cleared customs in San Diegoand after thirteen months and twodays and 28,000 miles he returnedto Marina del Rey on July 16, 2009.

He has future visions of a sailacross the Northwest Passage andmaybe a motorcycle ride through theDarien Gap.

Trieste, 50 Years Later

Zac’s Round-the-World Route

Don Walsh served in the Navyfrom 1948 to 1975, mostly in

submarines during his 14 years at sea.He retired with the rank of captain.From 1959 to 1962 he was the firstcommander of the Navy’s BathyscaphTrieste and was designated U. S. Navydeep submersible pilot #1 in 1959.

Don had talked with superiorsabout the possibility of going to thebottom of the Pacific Ocean but eachhad passed him on. Finally, he metwith Admiral Arleigh Burke who gavethe go-ahead.

The Trieste was brought to San Di-ego in late 1958 and modified for deepdepths. Since Guam is only 200 milesaway from the Marianas Trench, itand the 14 people on the project weremoved there in late summer 1959.

In November the Trieste dove to18,600 feet. In early January it doveto 24,000 feet.

Interestingly, in January, 1960 the(Minutes continued on page 20)

January 1960: The bathyscaphe Triesteswings on cables at Apra Harbor inGuam prior to its historic dive to thedeepest part of the world ocean.

Photo Thomas J. AbercrombieNational Geographic Society.



20

Navy had been experiencing a num-ber of failures in its Mariner projectresulting in bad publicity. So only LifeMagazine, National Geographic and areporter from the London Daily Mailwere aware of the historic dive.

The Trieste and its data were laterused in the development of Alvinwhich has made 4,000 dives.

At present only four countries –Russia, France, Japan and China –

have submersibles that can go diveto 20,000 feet. Topographically, thedepth of the ocean to 20,000 feetcovers 97% of the area. The otherthree percent is in the deep trenches.

Don has since dove on the Titanicand the Bismarck.

The Japanese developed a deviceto reach the bottom of the MarianasTrench but then lost it. Woods Holehas developed an autonomous un-tethered vehicle but Don believes thata trained person with a trained eye isneeded to explore at those depths.

The Marianas Trench Image gov.gu

Deep diving submersible Alvin

Photo Woods Hole Oceanographic Institutions

The evening ended with a raffle ofthe many items donated by membersand friends.


Forthcoming ProgramsPrograms

November 18, 2010 – Larry Schutte – Mi Vida LocaNovember 25, 2010 – Thanksgiving – Club DarkDecember 2, 2010 – Robert Sternfels – shot down over Ploesti, RomaniaDecember 9 2010 – [OPEN]December 16, 2010 – Annual Christmas Party – Members & invited guestsDecember 23, 2010 – Holidays – Club DarkDecember 30, 2010 – Holidays – Club DarkJanuary 6, 2011 – Kim McCoy – Pianosa: Science, crime, and hard labor on an

Italian prison island

Update of Adventurers’ Club RosterWe are in the process of reviewing individual Club member Bios in order to upgradeour loose-leaf Adventurers’ Club Roster. We can only do this with your individualcooperation. Please review your bio, and send us any corrections as soon as youcan. If we do not hear from you, we will assume that we have your permission toreprint your current bio exactly as it is. We wish to complete this project in the nextcouple of months, so please send us your corrections right away. New members,please review several bios to see how they are done, and then email your input plusa quality photo to [email protected]. Thank you for your cooperation!

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