sand chick

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!

The Sand sprites are pissed at the damage done to their dunes! At this rate MLK sand is going to be amazing! It hasn't stopped since yesterday! View full dune report

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...

Well you know what they say.... A rainy day at Dumont is still better than any day at work! The rain came rolling through at 12:20 am, and didn't stop until 5:30 am. This apparently signaled our dog pack that it was time to get up!! So if you are heading out to Dumont, just turn around... It's all wet! ;P Currently it's just cloudy and cold and freakin early, but not raining. A few more camps rolled in, in the night. There's probably about 20 or so out here now... 3 New ones that I can see from my window. Hopefully the rain is done for now. Time for more coffee! View full dune report

That is awesome!!!!

Man what a GREAT weekend!!! It started out a little later than anticipated. Was hoping for an early start. But was truckpooling with some friends. Mike didn't have room in the hauler for my Pork Butt Maverick, so I was going to drive out solo. But my friends decided to join in the fun as well and they had a flat bed, so the thought was to put both vehicles on their flat bed and share the ride out. When they pulled up, I knew both vehicles were not going to fit on that trailer. Even with the quad side ways! We jiggled and twisted, yeah.... NOPE! Then it was throw the quad in the bed of my truck and squish into my truck. They had all of their stuff and I also had my big old lady lab mix. OH WAIT!?! We have no ramps to get that beast into the bed of my truck! So I back into my driveway, to the low spot. We can muscle this beast, KFX 700, into the bed. We tried this, we tried that, we tried hoisting it with straps. DAYham! That is one heavy b*tch! Well poop! we'll just have to take two vehicles. But that was just not satisfactory! So my friend Shaun eventually muscled the front end of the quad up, one of us girls holding the brake the other helping hold it up. We carefully walked it down the driveway on its back tires and dropped the front into the truck. Then picked up the rear and slid her on in! WHEW! Strap her down. Unload the Maverick, transfer the trailer to my truck, reload the Maverick, then food and fill up with gas! Finally a couple hours later we were on the road! We arrive in camp ready to kick back with some beers! My friend Shaun is also my backpacking, Pacific Crest Trail, trail brother. He is family to me. He is hilarious and always finds the best beers. He is always sending me photos of obscure beers, hey check this out, have you tried this? Some of them are so funny! But I have found some of my favorite beers through him, b*tch Creek, Ash Tray Heart to name a few. So it didn't surprise me in the least bit, when he pulled out some brown ale to start off our weekend! And when he handed me that beer, I KNEW we were in for a fun weekend full of laughs! sh*t was really good too After a couple beers and hanging out by the fire for a minute and whooping it up in the hauler, it was time for bed. We had riding to do in the morning! Up before the sun rise, Mike and I took the dogs out. Shaun and Angela made breakfast, while I made coffee. Right after breakfast, I snuck over to Adam's trailer and borrowed his ramps. I was chuckling to myself, wondering how long it would take him to realize they were gone and think someone stole them. We unloaded Pork Butt (Maverick) and unhitched, unloaded the KFX 700, so much easier with ramps. I put the ramps back into the truck and waited for the "someone stole my ramps" He actually didn't notice until Sunday when he was getting ready to load up and someone who knew what was going on, pointed out that someone had stolen them. We let him stew for a minute before we told him. Gassed up and immediately went on a JoeDuner's daughter Sarah run. From east to west, covering all of the dunes possible. We took a quick break, prior to heading to the North Pole. Chilled at the pole for a bit. Then it was back to camp for lunch. While at the North Pole Mike had been talking about driving one our friends CanAm X3's, while our friend drove the rail. Apparently that ride was happening the second we got back to camp. We rounded up our group and refueled. Angela jumped into a rzr, it was going to be a fast run. I just assumed Mike was going to lead. Well because Mike usually always leads. I was looking forward to one of his fast, swooping, long runs. As soon as we took off, I realized that Mike wasn't leading, our friend Spenser was leading this run in his X3! OK Here goes nothing, i thought! Well apparently I wasn't the only one who wasn't ready for this, as parts of our group started jumping in line after cutting across the dunes to catch up to our run. It was craziness, but we all got into a line eventually. We hit up the big dunes, behind comp, hauling ass, I was keeping up! Shredding some serious sand and keeping up with the big boys! This run was so intense, my hands were shaking when we finally stopped at the North Pole. We went from the backside of the big dunes behind comp, up and over the top, to the front side and then back, up and over the top to the backside, !! I think I was screaming holy sh*t the whole way! and kept it going all the way to the North Pole. EPIC!! The wife of the guy driving Mike's rail, got a great shot of me keeping right up with them. Took me a minute or 10 to catch my breath! When I unbuckled and got out, there were high fives and holy sh*ts all around, what a great ride! Back at camp for a quick lunch and visiting. Not too long though before the next ride was announced! I barely got buckled in, when our Utah crew was already taking off! Oh my gosh! What the heck! You didn't even make sure everyone was ready! Freaking Adam was leading this run! Mike was in the rail, pushing him right along! A little shop competition! It was fast and twisty, turny, like a combination of a JoeDuner run and a Mike run. Super fun! When we arrived at the North Pole, I realized I didn't have time to fill up before we left. Damn! I am out of gas! See ya! I am slinking away on the flats! By the time I returned it was time for a spectacular sunset! And a DDR dinner. Carne Tacos! YUMMY!!! Watched part of the fights, then hung out with our Utah crew in their hauler, then off to the small campfire in front of JoeDuner's hauler. I knew it was going to be an early day tomorrow, so I was happy we made the most of the day with 3 great and epic rides! Again I was having so much fun I barely took and photos! Maybe I'll get more pics on our 6 day Dumont Christmas Vacation! A BIG THANK YOU to Pete for all the hard work in putting on this awesome event. I didn't get to make one of the epic buggy runs. But it was still a great weekend and a fun camp!

See ya this evening!