March 18-20, 2016 Trip Report

[dunefreak]

It was a great weekend of duning out there with some nice, warm weather. It got a tad warm during the middle of the afternoon, but it was too bright to dune that time of day anyways so we just cranked the AC and took naps. Other than then, it was perfect temperature in the morning and at night.

We were up and at it both days though getting in 2 morning runs before noon. It's nice to drive the buggy in shorts and a t-shirt and not freeze your butt off. Then we got 2 more runs in later in the day, 1 late afternoon and 1 sunset ride. Almost every dune run was a really good, fast one. Leading most of the rides, I tried keeping things interesting by switching things up from my normal lines. The dunes were pretty smooth on Friday with a small amount of tracks and then Saturday they became fairly tracked out. They weren't rough though. They were fast, easy to navigate lines.

My car ran great all weekend and we only had one breakdown on Saturday. Steve B busted a lower heim on the front of his (or his wife') buggy. No other issues to report other than the sun in our eyes at times and a few beers got warm. haha

The pics

Friday we arrived around noon and relaxed for an hour or so. Lou & Lindsay B and I decided to test the dunes out even though it was a tad bright out. Anna stayed behind and read a book and relaxed.

We drove by Banshee Hill on our way back and notice things were getting set up for the FSA races.

Back at camp a few more arrived: dentboy & family, Tom, Ben, and we were waiting for raspadoo to get there after fighting traffic near Barstow. A motorhome rolled over and slowed traffic for a bit.

It was a lazy afternoon

We headed out for a cruise and found a nice spot to sit for a while as the sun went down. The temperature was perfect and it was really nice to just kick back in the sand and hang out.

Friday night around the fire we all agreed to a 7:30 driver's meeting and 8AM dune run so we decided to call it a night about midnight.

7:30 happened and only a few guys thought I was serious! Wake up fuggers!

Sophie & Turbo got acquainted

We finally got everyone up about 8 and managed to hit the sand shortly after. Again, it was gorgeous out.

Duning snapshots by Anna

Late morning came around and we decided to squeeze another one in!

By the time we stopped it was after noon. The sun was high and the shadows were getting short. It was getting warmer and warmer by the minute as you can see us trying to take advantage of every inch of shade.

More duning snapshots by Anna

On the way back was when Steve busted a lower heim. He was done at that point because it also put a hole in his sidewall. Bummer! So he 3-wheeled it back to camp and packed it up.

I barely grabbed a pic of the drag racers at Banshee as I drove by. Not much of a turnout over there on Saturday.

Back at camp, everyone retreated to their RVs, cranked the A/C up and took naps for a couple hours. It was much needed and felt great to do.

Saturday late afternoon we jammed out and hit the dunes again, this time with crazy legs Lou B leading. It was a great, fast run but at that hour it ws still warm and a few of our cars needed a little cool down. We took a short break and headed back to camp. I was running low on fuel and raspadoo hooked me up with a few gallons so we could cram one more good one in. His buddy Tom gave me a 12 pk of BL because his wide bought him the wrong beer on accident. So I left his place with race and and beer! Not a bad deal! haha

Sophie & Anna played around for a few

The sun was going down quick so we hopped in our cars and went for one more quick one.

The skies were incredible. It's like Dumont was blessing our last trip with one last badass sunset.

It was actually well past sunset when we left so it was like a night ride with a colorful sky.

We stopped to watch the last bit of light fade to the horizon.

It was at that perfect moment we watched that RZR jump at Banshee Hill and crash badly. The details were already discussed in the other thread so I'll leave it at that. It did hamper our mood a bit that night seeing that, but we still managed to have a good time. We cooked up some carne asada and had some drinks around the fire. It was a pretty late one when we finally called it quits...probably about 3AM. That's how you close out the season!

So that's gonna do it for me for the season. We managed to squeeze in a ton of awesome trips and I think this one included some of the most consistently fastest buggy runs of them all. I was in 4th gear alot.

Thanks to our awesome group of friends who made it out and it's too bad the rest of the crew couldn't make it.

Next trip...Dune In June!

[ItsWeeks]

Looks like a great finale. Awesome write up as usual.

[Dent boy]

What an awesome trip. I hope it's not the last one of the season. I guess the weather will determine that. Probably some of the fastest runs we have done all year. Dunefreak and loub led some awesome runs. They were definitely pushing it. My car told me so by going into limp mode 3 different times because it was getting hot. That's the first time all season that has happened. Great trip report and pics.

[raspadoo]

Good Times!

[Landsandcrab]

Really nice report! What a way to end a great season at DD. Wish I could have made it out there a day earlier to meet ya. Arrived 9am Monday....you guys get any wind? Man, it was windy like a mutha most of the day Mon and then kicked up big on Tuesday evening as I was leaving.

[dunefreak]

Thanks dude.

Yeah we got some crazy wind but it was in the middle of the night. I don't remember if it was Friday or Saturday night.