dunefreak

Late Friday night (around midnight/ 1 am) I saw lights on the face hill which looked like some sort of accident. Then not long after that two girls pulled up to our camp with a truck and empty flatbed trailer pretty distressed and crying. They were lost & looking for the dirt road to go meet the ambulance at the highway. They said someone was run over. I'm assuming in their group. We guided them out and they met up with the ambulance. Then the helicopter landed but left very quickly after touching down. The ambulance left fairly quickly too. I posted it on our Facebook page and some people in the comments confirmed the guy passed away. So sad to hear about this. Apparently it was a hit & run and the person driving never returned. It was also on the coroner's page. On Saturday, April 3, 2021, at 12:36 PM, officers with the California Highway Patrol and San Bernardino County Fire Department personnel responded to the Dumont Dunes Recreation Area to investigate the report of a pedestrian being struck by an off-road vehicle. Upon arrival, Roman Jose Lugoaceves, a 47-year-old resident of Long Beach, was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:40 PM. The California Highway Patrol is investigating the incident. [04032021 1921 JL]

Sandcar: absolute best dune experience, plush ride, fastest dune experience, will do just about everything you want it to do if setup properly SXS: fun for most people, will give you plenty of fun duning experience and will go just about everywhere you need it to go, plush ride, not the fastest, but fast enough for most, also more versatile- can go on desert or offroad adventures Jeep: Not the best vehicle to enjoy the dunes. Comfortable yes, but heavy and dangerous in some situations in the dunes. A sandcar or SXS will ride much better. Good for exploring & playing in the sand every once in a while, but not the most ideal to go to the dunes with if it's your only dune toy.

It's a spammer in Russia. They've already been banned. Unfortunately they sent out numerous PMs to members so I'll be getting messages from many more to come that haven't opened it yet. Normally you hit the report button so admins can look into it asap. Just delete it though. 👍🏻

Looks like we'll have some warm weather finally. https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/USCA1133:1:US

Alot of the area around Dumont is not open to OHV travel, but there are some trails that are open. You just have to stay on trail. Nothing really that great for a dirt bike, but it's still fun to go out and explore. Like raspadoo said, Sperry Wash- you'll see it when you pull in. Also, there's trails on the other side of 127 but they're mostly wide dirt roads. Somewhere out there, there's a cabin. I have yet to find it yet.

Who's planning on heading out? Last trip I blew my motor but I just got it fixed (new motor) so Easter will be my shakedown and test trip. Hoping she runs strong with no problems. Vendors! If you are going to be there please post up as well.

It wasn't too far for many of them on Halloween weekend. Either way. I don't doubt the duning there sucks. That's not really what I'm getting at here. I just hope it doesn't get shut down. 1) because it'll possibly cause more people to come to Dumont. and 2) I don't ever like to see any place get closed for OHV use. Once they take some, they always try to take more.

It's a sad day for Pismo and OHV. 😦 California just keeps getting worse and worse! From Friends of Oceano Dunes... This raises some concerns for me. How will this affect Dumont? Remember Halloween weekend and how insanely crowded it was? Yes, part of the reason was because of COVID and everyone was finally allowed to do something fun plus it was the season opener, but much of the crowd were first timers from Pismo. At the time, Pismo was still shut down because of the pandemic. This drew a large gathering of duners to Dumont. I wonder if these people will flood Dumont for good once Pismo is closed off to OHV.

Thanks Jack. We miss ya buddy.

That's very disappointing to see. And many people think dumpsters solve trash problems at Dumont on holiday weekends. This is a prime example of what would happen. They get overfilled and cause an a bigger trash problem. Just haul out what you brought in.

Welcome to the site, Emi. Easter is never super busy. There will likely be plenty of people there, but nothing like the bigger holiday weekends.

Awesome turnout! Looks like you all did a great job. It's good to see how many people still care about Dumont. Thank you guys and thanks for posting this up Jodi. I wish I didn't have to miss it but work and other commitments didn't allow for it this year.

Did you ever leave? 😆

Great weekend Ben. I heard you mentioning to someone about your sweatshirt/jacket mod to reach the pedals. hahaa Your the only guy I know with a complete second setup (buggy, truck/RV).

We rolled in Thursday night. The weather was breezy at times, but it was really nice. So nice we hung out around the fire until 2AM. I was excited to get my car back out after some recent suspension and tire upgrades. Plus I acquired another new toy...a couch! Polaris Sportsman 700. I took the couch, also referred to now as Pedro, out for a morning cruise to see how it did and check out what mother nature had groomed. Then we headed out for our first buggy run and Josh's spindle decided to break in half. We pulled it off and took it back to camp to get welded up in order to get the car back. Theron and I stayed and played security guard with the help of some cold beers in the cooler. We got it all back together and we headed back. Josh was convinced the spindle wasn't strong enough to drive on anymore, but Theron made sure to give him that push to weld it up on the inside as well so he could dune the rest of the weekend. Everyone came together to help out. On the way back to camp from the spindle incident, we made a few rips up comp hill. I noticed my car was falling on its face over 4000 rpm. I've been dealing with an issue all season and I was getting pissed off I haven't figured it out yet. So long story short I took it out to test a few things and I blew up my motor. 😥 I had excessive blow-by coming out of my breather and one or two cylinders were not hitting anymore. I kinda felt like this was going to happen, but not on day 1 of this weekend. I was really bummed. Luckily I had friends to cheer me up. I hopped in Theron's car and Anna rode in Dan's so we could all go up to Sunset Hill. Saturday morning it was really gusty at times, but the W finally calmed down. I took the couch quad out again and ended up all the way across HWY 127 exploring some ohv trails in Anvil Canyon. Along the way I spotted an old memorial up on a hill between Little D and Big D. The message in the concrete read LOVED THE DESERT. Quickly realizing I didn't bring any water or supplies, I decided to head back. I was pretty far out there. You can barely see little Dumont in the distance in this pic. I got back to camp and found out the guys still hadn't returned from their buggy run. Gary and Josh came back but it was to get a pully for Gary's car. On the run, it fell off. Ben stopped to get it as it was rolling down a hill, then got stuck! Then Theron hooked up to him and got stuck and then one more buggy got stuck. They had 3 buggies tied together with tow straps so tight they had to cut one off. LOL It's this was our first dune trip of something. After fixing Gary's car and then bringing out a floor jack, everyone finally got Theron's car extracted from the earth. LOL VID_20210306_135334615.mp4 Later that day everyone else went out while I cruised around taking dune pics and managed to snap some of the crew. Looks like Greg's car is Pacman and eating the buggy in the distance. haha Josh and Greg had a little more fun for the camera. Sunday we all packed it up and headed home. I have a ton of stuff to fix. First a buggy motor swap, then some more upgrades to switch over to 5 lug front wheels from spindle mount wheels, then fix my water heater and furnace which BOTH decided to take a crap in the same weekend. It's always something! Duning is constant work but so worth it when everything is clicking and working right. I was really bummed I couldn't take full advantage of those amazing dunes this weekend. They were so epic while my car lasted. Just not the same on an old man quad. haha Big thanks to all my friends that made a sh*tty weekend still a super fun one. Saturday night we had ATC races, giant human ball fights, guess that crappy 80's song, and lots of fun around the fire. Time to get to work and get back out before summer hits. I'm not done yet!

glad you haven't changed. Hi Bob! mafakaaaaa!

Post a picture of the satellite map showing which dune or ridge it's on. I'll look for it this weekend. We'll be out there.

Thanks for posting these, Justin! Times sure have changed out there. I love seeing all the old trucks and campers.

Sounds like a relaxing day with good food and drink!

It wasn't just a coyote was it?

Unfortunately there was a fatality this last Saturday when a side x side rolled at Comp hill. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene and the passenger had injuries. I always hate hearing about these accidents. I don't know exactly how it happened, but it's always a reminder to always play it safe out there and wear proper safety gear. Coroner Press Release On Saturday, February 20, 2021, at 8:32 PM, Bradley Scott Mowdy, a 62-year-old resident of Corcoran California, was the driver of a UTV that rolled over in the Dumont Dunes Off Highway Vehicle Area near Baker CA. Mowdy was pronounced dead at the scene. The Barstow office of the California Highway Patrol is investigating the incident.

A legend was lost today. Bruce Meyers, creator of the Meyers Manx dune buggy in 1964, revolutionized how we dune today. He started it all. His creation of the dune buggy became an icon of our culture in the sand and off-road community. Legends like this are few and far between. He will be missed! Bruce was 94. Meyers died of a blood disease called myelodysplasia, which is similar to leukemia. photo cred