*Due to efforts of the Apache County ATV Roughriders Club and the forest service, the Saffel Canyon OHV Trail has now been widened to 60”! Because of this change, there will be no limitations for side by sides less than 60” on any of the organized ATV trail rides this year. If your vehicle exceeds the 60” width, please talk with our ride leaders Tuesday afternoon for suggestions for trails allowing wider vehicles.

*Due to the condition of trails created by the 2011 Wallow Fire like windfall, flooding, and erosion, trails are being reviewed and adjusted continually. The safety of our riders is absolutely our first concern. Ride Leaders will be assessing trail conditions until the very last minute before this year’s jamboree and new rides will be added as they are made available. Please continue to watch the website to get all current trail offerings for the 2012 jamboree.

Our authentic Mountain Man Camp will be set up again this year dishing up amazing treats on the trail. Outlaws and lawmen are still fighting over territory and holdups on the trail are always fun. Discount Tire is gathering awesome door prizes again and gearing up for the Rubber Duck Races! RideNow is ready again with prizes for our Card Shark Night on Thursday night! CanAm will be here again this year and demo rides will be available. We have also hired a live band to play on Friday night. So plenty of great music and dancing if you’re not too tired from riding! Saturday night after the fireworks show we will have cake and ice cream (thanks to Bashas) in celebration of Arizona’s 100th birthday! Another great ATV party is about to take place in beautiful Eagar, Arizona!!

Don’t miss out on all the fun! Register today!

So many of you have called or emailed your concerns concerning the devastating news they are hearing from the news channels. Hank was able to drive to Hannagan Meadows and back on Sunday to see first hand the devastation of the fire. The good news is that much of the forest is still intact and will survive! Please see the pictures of Horton Creek taken last Sunday, June 5th after the Wallow Fire ripped through that area. Once the monsoons hit, the forest will green up and our mountain will start to heal.

Clifford Qotsaquahu, our good friend from the Hopi Tribe, just forwarded an email from the San Carlos Apache Tribe being sent to all of our Native American friends in the southwest. Hank and I broke down and sobbed from the kind, humble, faithful words of our good Native American friends. Please join us all at 7 pm tonight in prayer and meditation for the safety of all our firefighters and for the much needed rains we need. What a great reminder that we are all truly brothers and sisters and that in times of severe trial, we will pull together and make it through.

Email from Dorothea Stevens, San Carlos Apache Nation forwarded to Cliff Qotsaquahu, Hope Tribe:

Hello everybody – as you can probably see on the news the Wallow fire in Northern Arizona is still uncontrollable and spreading. The fire has destroyed everything in its path. If you have a local tribal medicine man please have them join us in a tribal prayer to help the firefighters and all involved. Pray so the winds stop and the rains start (without lightning please) We want to pray for the safety of all, put the wall up to protect our land and animals from fire. All the choppers, manpower, planes, and bulldozers are not enough, they need our help. We are one Nation as Natives and our traditional prayers to the Creator as Natives can be pretty powerful; not only is our tribal lands at stake (White Mountain & San Carlos Apaches, possibly Zuni, and some Navajo areas), but our non-native friends also need our help. Please lets all connect our minds, hearts and our prayers across the miles and pray. If we can join together at 7 pm Arizona time, Thursday evening 6/9/11, wherever you are and whatever you have plan please stop for a few minutes and raise your hands to the Creator to ask for help.

 If all of you can forward this message across the Nations to all the rezs we can reach many thru phone and internet. Please start forwarding asap to reach as many as we can.

 Thank you, Dorothea Stevens, San Carlos Apache Nation

 the plan is to get the local medicine men to do a prayer with all of you across the nation at one time 7pm Thursday. Please if your spiritual preference is not traditional – pray with us in however way you talk to the Creator. Thank you. Dorothea

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers and concern! We will make it through this and WE WILL BE FINE!

Hank & Debbie & The Apache County Roughriders

The 2011 Arizona ATV Outlaw Trail Jamboree WILL GO ON!

The Wallow Fire affecting the Apache National Forest and impacting Hannagan Meadows, Alpine, Nutrioso, Eagar, Springerville, Greer, Sprucedale, Beaver Creek Ranch, and many other outlying communities – has been a devastating disaster that has deeply affected us all. Many of us feel the pain as intensely as if one of our family members was suffering. Our beautiful forest is just that – a part of our family! The attached picture is of our six boys at Terry Flat on the top of Escudilla Mt. where our family went to celebrate the safe arrival home from Iraq of Hank, Jackson & Wes. Now this favorite family spot is in danger of fire.

We have received many calls, emails, etc. of concern about the area and the jamboree. Please know that the 2011 Jamboree will take place as planned!! Hank has talked with the forest supervisor briefly and he was very optimistic that the jamboree will not be impacted too significantly. We have talked with other forest service personnel and even offered to take out jamboree riders to plant trees and do any erosion repair work that might be needed. We will not know for sure until after this fire is out the impact on all of our trails, but we will continue on with our plans! Hank has also talked with Bill Nash, CEO of RideNow Powersports and Chad Emehiser with Discount Tire and they both strongly voiced their support and insistence that the jamboree must go on. To quote Chad, “We promise to make this the best damn jamboree ever!! Whatever we have to do to make it even better, we will!” With support like this we know that everyone can be promised another great year! I will say this: the communities listed above have never needed your support more than they do now. Once the fire is over and the summer rains come to green the mountain up, we need all White Mountain lovers to come back and visit us! The local businesses will depend on that and we will do everything we can to support them!

Hank was able to take a drive through the burn areas all the way to Hannagan Meadows yesterday. As devasting as the fire reports have been, he really didn’t know what to expect. There are areas south of Alpine that have been devasted by the fire, but from what Hank saw firsthand, the fire has stayed on the ground burning the understory in a huge percentage of the forest. The trees have been spared in many areas and he came home very optimistic. We are by no means done with this fire, but we feel better that not all is lost! Things will green up, we will plant trees, and the jamboree will go on!!!!

We are encouraging everyone wanting to attend the jamboree this year to go ahead and register. After the fire, we will determine what rides will be open and then have jamboree staff call personally everyone that has registered and discuss their ride options.

Please remember us in your prayers and pray for an early monsoon season.

Sincerely,

Hank & Debbie & the Apache County ATV Roughriders

P.S. Just received notice that an immediate evacuation for Greer is in place. The fire line that was in place between Rudd Knoll & Pat Knoll has been crossed causing this evacuation for Greer. Eagar/Springerville are also on pre-evacuation notice. For more info on the fire, you can visit the following: