sand chick

I like it! Makes a nice change.

YAY! Looks like it might be a fairly quiet weekend in the sand! With most out there shooting the hill!

@Mike @ GTP OFF ROAD will be heading out Thursday morning. Hoping we don't have another weekend of wet sand, it was supposed to rain on Monday, then wind advisory tomorrow and 30% rain on Thursday. Hoping that 30% doesn't happen!

It was a quick turn around weekend for us, since we had just been there for 6 days, home for 4, then back out for 3 more. The dunes were like night and day, amazing what 4 days and a bunch more people does to the dunes, especially when they are wet. But we figured that coming in and were mainly headed back out to spend time with friends. We got pulled over on Dumont Rd coming in, we were harassed, but not given any ticket. We had a light bar in the grill on coming down the rd, even though it is a dirt rd, going to an off road area, it is not legal until after the pay station. Rolled into camp and unloaded just in time for the fights! Up early the next day, got a couple runs in. Man that stuff was tore up and choppy! I was so thankful for my new power steering. Then we made the last sunset ride of 2016. It was back to camp to get our New Year party started! And it was a great one! Adam brought his DJ equipment out and we danced our asses off with our live DJ. Shasta had so much fun chasing the dj lights, she had a "light hangover" the next day. But man she was a happy party dog! There were tons of laughs and most made It until midnight. Sunday brought on a day of relaxing with the football games. And we tried to go on a ride, but there were so many people having a great time ripping Up the sand, that we couldn't get a good line and flow, so we went back to camp to try again later, for the first sunset run of 2017! And it was a good one! Sunday night the winds picked up and started howling. So we had a football party in our hauler and still had a great time. Monday the winds continued to scream, so we had a late breakfast and hauled ass through the packing up, before heading home to wait for two more weeks until we can return again for MLK. 1231162212.mp4 1231161947a.mp4

Hmmmmmm.... some of those dudes looked a bit familiar.... Yeah those cops were way cool! They didn't even get him out to see if he was drunk, clearly there was some drinking going on. And the lady officer that pulled us over for a light bar treated us like full on criminals, and we were being cool and corporative.

We got stopped for having an "off road light" on. Mike had a 30 inch light bar on in the grill. Apparently Dumont Dunes Rd is a public highway until the pay station. No off road lighting is allowed on Dumont Dunes Rd. We did not get a ticket, just a warning, but we were treated like criminals, with 10,000 questions that we asked and repeated and asked again, then asked again in a different way to see if she would get a different answer. When she came to my side, I rolled down the window, before she even came up, and I put both hands out the window open palmed, she still came in with gun unlocked and hand on ready, flash light to the face. I felt like she was searching trying to catch us doing something wrong. We were curtious and answered everything in a calm manner. I think they were just sitting down there catching people doing wrong things. We assumed that since it was a dirt road, going to an off road location, the light bar was fine, we were wrong, we apologized for being wrong. I think she was mad she got two old people and three dogs

Anyone heading out for MLK weekend? With all the wind over New Year's hopefully the dunes will be smoothed back out. We'll be there Friday evening the 13th - Monday the 16th.

Happy it came in. MLK is shaping up to be good. Would have still been torn up if it didn't blow for as long as,it did. Might even still be blowing!

Mine wasn't all perfect, but it was still pretty good. I still have my job, I still have a roof over my head, I still have a few friends that love me, I still have my family, even though they are far away, Shasta made it another year, just barely, Mike still keeps me around, maybe for the entertainment.. haha.. I have seen some beautiful places, went on a couple of awesome adventures. It wasn't all unicorn poop, I have had several set backs, disappointments and health issues. All I can hope for is the same in 2017. I will not be sad to see 2016 over, but will watch it slowly fade away into 2017. Keep on keeping on, it's not what happens to you, but how you react to the adversity. And of course I picked up my new baby in 2016!! Best purchase I have ever made!

And don't forget to add your best photo at the END to be your feature photo

Thank you Pete. It was a great trip. Everyone thought I was crazy to hike from North Pole to camp, but it was so peaceful. I wouldn't recommend it on a big weekend. But there's always the mines to hike at!

Just got back from 6 great days of duning, ok well maybe 5, since we were hauler bound most of the day on Thursday. We rolled into chilly Dumont on Tuesday evening around 6:30 pm ish. Woke up bright and early Wednesday morning to get our dune vacation started. There was maybe 8 other people out there. Our neighbors all had dirt tires, and headed out fairly early towards the little dunes, 4 quads and a regular truck? They were gone for the majority of the day. Not sure where they went, but it was an all day trip. But that's good, cause it meant they weren't in the dunes. Mike and I zipped on a early morning dune run at about 7:30 am and was it ever chilly! WHEW! It was like having an ice demon throwing little icicles at you through the whole run. Even my riding gloves weren't doing any good on my hands. But we were literally the only ones in the dunes! PERFECTION! The skies were cloudy and dark ones loomed on the horizon. We cruised until almost the North Pole and turned around to cruise back. My new found confidence and the sturdiness of the Maverick has opened up much more dune acreage to cover. Back at camp, Mike wanted to adjust his tune a little, so I headed out with Razor in my lap to see if there was any wood to scavenge. Place was either picked clean, or everyone took their wood home with them. Did manage to get a little bit to add to what we already brought. I wished I had brought my camera or my phone, because there was some dude hanging, haha literally, in the ranger area. He had his hammock strung under the canopy and a huge army type tent on one of the pads, not sure if he was hooked up to the electrical or not, but he had a big shop type light set up as well. We had actually thought there were rangers there when we pulled in. Nope. Just someone camping out. I also noticed that several of the camps, were just ghosts with no one around. Pretty brave! I wouldn't leave my stuff out unattended. Kind of surprising. No wonder we were the only ones in the dunes! After lunch we went on more runs, covering as many tracks as possible. We weren't in a huge hurry, we had 5 more days after all. The long trips are much more relaxing and take on a leisurely pace. We went on the sunset cruise and then back to camp as our friend's rolled in and set up. Once they were set up we had dinner and then checked out their new hauler. It still had that new hauler smell. We didn't have a fire that night as the breeze had started to pick up and it was a cold breeze, the kind that just cuts right through you. So we turned in early, especially since we were up so early. We snuggled in and found a good movie on the satellite. Just as we were getting into the deep sleep mode, here came the rain. And it came in with a blustery vengeance! Pelting the roof and side of the hauler at 12:30 AM before settling in with a nice pitter-pat pitter pat of a steady rainfall. It was nice to drift back to sleep to. I was awake early again Thursday morning. I get up and hit the gym at 4:00 AM during the week, so I was still not in vacation mode yet. I lay there listening to the rain the roof and when it stopped at 5:30 AM, our dog pack insisted it was time to get up, so I bundled up and quietly took them out. They ran around and played for a little bit, doing the new morning ritual of "dune hill climbing" were I run up and down the finger dune, to get a morning workout in. The dogs love it too and it's become there favorite morning game. Some photos from the day before's Dune Climbing routine... Soon it was time to retreat back into the hauler and post up a "Latest Condition" ONE WORD was really only needed.... RAIN! As soon as I completed my report, it started to rain again. I made breakfast, and another fresh pot of cinnamon coffee. Put on a movie and soon Mike was up. I text our friends and said it was looking like it was going to be a Mexican Train Domino and cocoa kind of day. If they wanted to head over in an hour, we'd be ready to start the tournament. Mexican Train Dominoes is pretty much an all day affair, if you play all 13 rounds. Which we did, I kept looking out the window, It doesn't look like it's raining any more and then a few more visible drops would make everyone else say, yes it is. So we settled in with drinks and snacks and peppermint vodka and cocoa, a bit of warm Christmas cheer. When we finally went through those 13 rounds, it was 2:30 PM and the rain had finally stopped. We made lunch and then ran out into soaked dunes. But wet dunes are better then no dunes at all. We made it to just passed super bowl, when our friend's razor lost the primary clutch. So we hooked up the Maverick to it and towed it back to camp to be fixed and sealed and set up overnight. Mike and I headed out on a quick sunset run. Mike took the opportunity to have some play time, but the lighting sucked to get any good photos. Shortly after we got back our California friends rolled up. We had some dinner and then made a fire, while waiting for some of our Utah Crew to show up. We stayed up a little later while waiting for the Utah crew to get there. Once they rolled in, they were tired from the long drive from St. George and were ready to turn in. We woke up a little later on Friday morning. I was smoking a pork butt for Friday's camp dinner, so I had to make sure that 8.5 lb monster was in the smoker by 8:30 AM. I made sure to get a group photo during the morning "Dune Climb" By the time I was done with that and had breakfast made, it was time for coffee and camp visiting. I had prepped the pork butt the night before, so I took it out and got it in the smoker. It was Aaron's smoker, so he said he would monitor it and get the temp set while we went on the morning dune run. Those dunes were weird, part dry and part wet. They had patches of both all through them. So it was slide, then stick, slide, no wait stick. We still had a blast ripping through them. We stopped at the North Pole and I grabbed my bags to collect the letters to Santa, but someone else had already taken them, it has become a tradition, to collect the letters and read them out load around the campfire, so I was kind of sad that someone else had already collected them I was not wanting to go back to camp, but I knew I needed to get back, it wasn't right for Aaron to be monitoring my dinner. Also Mike had given me a power steering unit for my Maverick, so they were going to install it, since I needed to stay in camp and monitor my butt Once they were done, and the butt was holding steady at 250, I was able to go test out my new power steering! AWESOME! How the heck did I ever dune without it?!??? Back to camp, more butt monitoring and camp visiting. Soon the butt was done and it was time for a delish group dinner. Smoked butt, baked beans, corn bread, and jalapeño poppers Then we hung out in the Utah Crew's hauler visiting and watching Sully before turning into bed. It was too breezy for a fire. The rains had returned in the night on Friday, with a forecast of 30% on Saturday. But when we woke up on Christmas Eve, it was cloudy, and partially sunny. So breakfast, coffee and morning run! On Thursday, our rainy day, I had planned to keep up with my exercise regiment, by being dropped off at the North Pole and hiking back to camp, with 2 gallon bags filled with sand in my back pack. Well since it rained all day, I still needed to make that up. Today seemed as good a day as any of them as Sunday was gearing up to be the best dune day, with no chance of rain and clear but chilly temps. So after the morning run, I geared up and had Mike drop me off at the North Pole. While Mike duned my Maverick back, testing out the new power steering. The sun came out, just as I was leaving. Duners are the nicest people ever! I had several groups stop to make sure I was ok. Yes I am, Thank you, I am just a crazy ass chick who's getting her exercise in by hiking back to camp from the North Pole! The dunes are a peaceful place to take a hike when there's barely anyone out there, it was almost surreal. 5 miles from pole to camp by br #3, just under 2 hours. By the time I got back, it was getting chilly and cloudy again and I had been trying to stay in front of a dark ominous cloud. I was ready for a hot shower and my Christmas Eve tradition of watching "It's A Wonderful Life" As soon as the movie was over it was time to make mashed taters and broccoli for our Christmas Eve dinner contribution. Smoked Ham, mashed taters, broccoli, brussels sprouts, rolls, apple and sweet potato pie! YUMMY! You just can't have Christmas without all the trimmings! After dinner, it was a nice enough night to have a big fire and Christmas cheer cocoa around the fir to keep toastier. MERRY CHRISTMAS! Christmas is chock full of traditions. And for us it's the same way. They are just different then your standard traditions. But I still like to keep some of my old family traditions, like watching It's A Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve. Christmas morning always brings a traditional breakfast of cheese blintzes. Crepe pancakes wrapped around a mixture of ricotta cheese, eggs and sugar. Then I warm up simply fruit jam and fresh blueberries in to a syrup and drizzle that on top and a light dusting of powdered sugar. Even though I am eating healthy, I still had planned to indulge in this tradition. There is also the tradition of staying in our Christmas pj's and santa hats all day. Even while duing! And we take a traditional Merry Christmas from the North Pole photo. Well because it's Christmas and there's something Christmassy about the North Pole. Christmas was a beautiful day. The sun came out and stayed out, at times we were even able to take off the sweat shirts and jackets. It was a more chill day of hanging in camp around a fire and visiting with our friends that are family. We only went on the breakfast run and the cocktail run. It is also my old dog Shasta's birthday, she's 14 and I am not sure how many birthday's she has left in her, so I wanted to spend the day with her too. It was a perfect day, with a perfect mixture of weather, fun dune runs, our campfire was warm, our drinks toasty and our friends full of laughter! And our neighbor's had a Christmas Tree! It was sad when I started packing stuff up before going to bed. But we were up and packed up ready to leave by 11:30 AM. Until next year Christmas week dunes... until next year...

I would say it was a B- over Christmas week, but Dumont got soaked with rain on Weds night, all day Thursday and part of Friday, so going out was actually better then going in, minus the puddles.

When we got up this morning to leave, there were 20 new camps that had developed over night and several more haulers rolling in and down the road. The sand was still wet and solid on last night's cocktail run. But the week looks cold but dry until Friday, so hopefully it will dry out a bit more. Looked like most of the groups that had rolled in where going to be there for the week with huge piles of wood. We are debating doing a 4 day turn around and heading back out. Dune Mart was already set up on Vendor Row. But generally there's only 4 - 5 vendor's out that weekend. It's just too slow.

It's perfectly toasty! Peppermint vodka and cocoa, good friends and Mexican Train Dominoes!

Annnnnd now it's raining again...