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Coos Bay/Oregon Sand Dunes Run


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Today we leave from Simi Calif to Coos Bay Oregon sand dune trip.

We're giving ourselves 3 days to get there and 3 more to get back. Motelin' it.

We'll hit the in-route tourist stuff like the Museum of Barn Yard oddities, Seal Caves, gravity hill,, etc.

Flags, hemets, keys,, the rest I can fake when we get there.

I understand no self serve pumping at the Oregon Gas Stations.

So I'll take some extra gas cans to save that hassle.

CoosBayOregon001.jpg

CoosBayOregon003.jpg

Hope to report back at the dunes with some videos and pix if we can figure out the Mac Book.

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We arrived in Coos Bay yesterday evening.

Heading over the Golden Gate bridge was hairy.

Not for my driving, but the tourists in rental cars weaving drifting in and out of their lanes while gauking at the views.

Avoid it.

A few hours light left yesterday so we just drove over to check the dunes out.

We'll shoot some pix and a video today.

Seems like a super place with year-round duning.

Temps have been in the mid-60's.

Staying at the Mill Casino/Hotel located right on the water.

Owned by the Coquille Indians.

Their language was easily romanized and would be relatively easy to learn compared to most I'd wager.

Fantastic room with a killer view through a massive 14' x 14' window overlooking Coos Bay.

Huge oversized parking, and security rode right up and got our name so they can prevent any thefts.

Oregon has all kinds of Blue Laws still in effect.

No kids in the casino, at all, not even walking through.

You'll have to wait until 10 AM to get that Bloody Mary.

Evidently the tribe got a rule change on being able to carry your drink around the casino. It was a goofy issue at one time we're told.

Gas is pumped by attendants, and they are all helpful and friendly.

They recommended where to stage at and ride from, and to avoid the extreme North parking near Florence because of vehicle break-in's.

The locals all say start at Boxcar.

It's an excellent set-up.

The dunes start right at the edge of town, parallel Highway 101 for about 50 miles North according to the map at the visitors center.

3 major dune areas, all accessible from the 101.

The Rzr S is all the rage in the duning circles up here. I have a few suspension questions I should be able to get answered.

OK, if I can get the sleepy headed wife up, we'll be back with pix and videos.

Edited by yfzdad
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We tried Spinreel Tues and it was the perfect day on the dunes.

This is just raw, un-edited, crummy footage from my pocket camera.

It has no image stabilization so can you see how important that feature is if you buy one.

This place is fantastic.

We traveled down 10 mile rd and you can see the trails that venture off for miles and miles in all directions

The people are like Dumont in the early days. Easy going and friendly.

If Dunefreak was here he'd be beside himself and like in those cartoons where the mice land on the moon and find out it's made of cheese.

If you ever know anyone renting ATV's here be sure to tell them to rent from a place that has paddle tire equipped quads.

Felt kinda sorry for all the first time rider/renters stuck on the dunes with knobbies. I'd wager it was all of them.

Today we'll hit a stretch of Dunes called Horseclip.

I'll do a proper, mostly steady video when we get back:

Edited by yfzdad
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Yesterday we went to the Lighthouse dunes.

If ya notice the trails that lead off into the dark forest, it's amazing soft deep sand on the trails.

No rocks or mulligans, just really nice trails.

Remember, it's 50 miles of what I'm showing in this video.

Everyone up here dunes.

Tiny kids to way old fossilized senior citizens,, everyone dunes.

This video is mostly me following my wife on her KFX 700:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfdgXPCfyhY

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One day I was riding the wifes KFX 750 and made it to the backside of a good sized razor.

At the bottom of the razor and surrounding most of the dune was a bay of water and lillys, no way out but up.

The dune collapsed under me like quicksand and I found my self at the mercy of the sand, almost slipping into the water near the bottom of the razorback

The only way out was up the face of the Rzr, and the KFX isn't exactly a technical quad for this kind of situation.

I struggled for quite some time and NFW was it gonna happen.

The Razor was straight up.

I decided to climb out, and walk back to camp, perhaps winch the KFX out with the Rzrs winch and some extra tow straps.

I was a good 200' down.

Finally, outta nowhere, I mean outta the blue,,,, this kid comes flying down the Rzr on a built Honda 250 2 stroke.

He jumps off, helps me position the kfx, he jumps on it, hits full throttle,, heads towards the lillys & water,,, spins the beast around on two wheels and makes it all the way up the dune to flat sand.

An incredible feat.

It was spectacular.

I have to find who this was.

I'm a C+ duner.

C for average, and the plus from some experience,, and this feat beat all.

We later came across a couple that was stuck pretty bad with their Rhino to the frame in a nasty ditch.

Oh brother were they stuck.

I winched them out.

I always try to help.

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One day I was riding the wifes KFX 750 and made it to the backside of a good sized razor.

At the bottom of the razor and surrounding most of the dune was a bay of water and lillys, no way out but up.

The dune collapsed under me like quicksand and I found my self at the mercy of the sand, almost slipping into the water near the bottom of the razorback

The only way out was up the face of the Rzr, and the KFX isn't exactly a technical quad for this kind of situation.

I struggled for quite some time and NFW was it gonna happen.

The Razor was straight up.

I decided to climb out, and walk back to camp, perhaps winch the KFX out with the Rzrs winch and some extra tow straps.

I was a good 200' down.

Finally, outta nowhere, I mean outta the blue,,,, this kid comes flying down the Rzr on a built Honda 250 2 stroke.

He jumps off, helps me position the kfx, he jumps on it, hits full throttle,, heads towards the lillys & water,,, spins the beast around on two wheels and makes it all the way up the dune to flat sand.

An incredible feat.

It was spectacular.

I have to find who this was.

I'm a C+ duner.

C for average, and the plus from some experience,, and this feat beat all.

We later came across a couple that was stuck pretty bad with their Rhino to the frame in a nasty ditch.

Oh brother were they stuck.

I winched them out.

I always try to help.

This exact thing happend to me on my Raptor.

We dug a flat area on the hill so I could at least get a flat launch ramp.Climbed all the way to the top where the front tires crested the razor and the rears just dug in...I thought I was going over for sure it was so damn steep.

The sand drop offs by the water are steeper than anything anybody can imagine.The wet sand lets the sand stack extremely steep.

I cant wait to go there again.

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This exact thing happend to me on my Raptor.

We dug a flat area on the hill so I could at least get a flat launch ramp.Climbed all the way to the top where the front tires crested the razor and the rears just dug in...I thought I was going over for sure it was so damn steep.

The sand drop offs by the water are steeper than anything anybody can imagine.The wet sand lets the sand stack extremely steep.

I cant wait to go there again.

Yep.

The guy that helped me said he was stuck there once a while back and always passes by to see if some poor fool like myself is in a pickle,, - and helps them out.

--- --- ---

I tried a trick from my saltwater boating days.

I sprayed all un-painted/un-coated aluminum surfaces on the quads and Rzr with LPS to protect from the salt air corrosion.

Seems to help.

Doesn't help much on the very hot surfaces, but the rest of the machinery seems to keep it's luster.

Chatting with the locals in the "staging areas", they seem to call the riding areas different names than what is officially listed on the signs and literature.

Horsefall on the signs, the locals call Boxcar ect.

This was the first time I was really able to put some time in with the Rzr S.

5 psi is the recommended tire pressure and it's excellent.

I tried 3.5 psi and it became an entirely different machine with awesome abilities.

But, at 3.5 psi the tires felt like and sounded like I had wet tennis shoes on that were 10 sizes too big.

They were really flopping about, and thoughts of wheel and tire damage were entering my pea brain, so it was back to 5 psi.

Spare tire, lugs, tools and never dune alone is the rule from now on.

Edited by yfzdad
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