Trip Report: March 5-7

[dunefreak]

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

 

 

 

 

 

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! 

 

[joblo]

All the wind Dumont is getting has her looking SOOO SOOOO GOOD. 

Sucks your car broke but getting out and enjoying a weekend away is still winning!

[IrnBear]

Great ride report as usual 🙂   Bunch of awesome folks able to do those kinds of repairs out there..  I bet if you had a crate engine you all would have installed it out there as well

Great pics

Thanks for sharing

 

IrnBear

[tmerrell]

Great trip report Pete I had a great time even getting struck was fun got home and sucked out about 15 pounds of sand out the seats 

[dirtflickarooster]

looks like an awesome time. we have all had those weekends where everything seems to go wrong.

[Agricon]

Had a great time, dunes where awesome, too bad couldn't remember how to drive. No seat slider couldn't reach the pedals or the steering wheel. Put 3 coats behind my back and that helped.  Those butterflies just kept distracting me.

[dunefreak]

11 hours ago, Agricon said:

Had a great time, dunes where awesome, too bad couldn't remember how to drive. No seat slider couldn't reach the pedals or the steering wheel. Put 3 coats behind my back and that helped.  Those butterflies just kept distracting me.

 

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).

 

[Adrenaline Jackie]

The giant, inflatable balls were so funny!  It was too dark to catch a pic though.

[Jakster884]

Love these Dune reports. Any weekend in the Sand Box is a good weekend. Great pics. 

[dunefreak]

16 hours ago, Jakster884 said:

Love these Dune reports. Any weekend in the Sand Box is a good weekend. Great pics. 

 

Thanks Jack. We miss ya buddy.