Stories tagged: dunes

Sam and I went riding on friday. We debated going a few places, but ended up going out by Elberta. It's only about 30 minutes from Sam's house in Payson, so we figured we could get 3 or 4 hours of riding in before it got dark.

Sam was on his bike and I was on my Z. Unlike the Grizzly, the Z and a bike can fit into the back of my truck, so we were able to ride in 1 vehicle without a trailer which was nice.

We went there last year, but this year we stopped just after we got off the highway where we saw some tiny sand dunes. Did you know there were dunes in Elberta? Neither did I. Don't get me wrong, this is no little sahara. We're talking 1-200 yards wide and maybe a mile long, but boy was it fun.

There were no big dunes, and therefore no big jumps. We mostly found ourselves finding little drop-offs or bumps to jump off of. We found one little hill that we were able to double off of that was a blast. It didn't have much of a lip, so if you hit it too fast you would buck your back end too much, and if you hit it to slow you couldn't clear the second jump. When there is are no big jumps around I love finding little technical things like this. They may not give you the same rush, but there is a certain satisfaction you get from hitting a jump just right.

There was also a bit of a loop that ran thru the dunes then west into the desert. It had some long whoop sections which were pretty fun to cruise on, although they did get a tad tiring. It's hard for me to imagine doing a long cross country race with long whoop sections. After 2 or 3 times I was definitely ready for a bit of a rest.

Once I was cruising down a long whoop section in the sand that ended in a wash. Luckily I had gone that way earlier in the day and new the bottom was mostly flat, so I slowed down as much as I could and then just jumped off of it. Tearing through whoops only to see the trail drop off ahead of you is one of those moments where you have to pause just to let your heartbeat slow down.

Along the loop there was also an old gravel pit that people have been apparently using as a target range. It's too bad people left all their old junk there. I like target practice as much as the next guy, but there aren't many things uglier than old shot up cans, Computers and VCR's.

This pit did have a nice ledge we were able to drop off of in a few places. The landing was very steep, and therefore very short. Like most things do the first time I try them jumping off this ledge scared the crap out of me. Barely goosing it off the top and I landed just before the bottom. The picture doesn't really do the landing justice, and sadly the batteries died after that shot so I wasn't able to get another. Despite that I think the shot looks pretty good.

Overall this was a very satisfying trip. There are still plenty of trails for us to explore and it is relatively close so I plan on going again soon.

Next time you find yourself in Elberta. Look for some sand.

Last weekend I went to visit my parents in St. George and we brought along the quads for a short trip to Sand Hollow.

I forgot the camera again. I really can't believe I did. I went through a ton of effort making sure we got the camera to St. George, and that it had fresh batteries and enough room on the memory stick. Then I left it on the kitchen counter at the condo. Ugh. We managed to get a few videos with Jared's phone, but I expect the quality will make YouTube look like HD.

Our group of six consisted of my brothers, my brother in law, and myself. Ken rode my Grizzly 700. Joe rode his Brute Force 650i. Jason and Ben rode our uncles Raptor 700's. Jared rode my dads 400ex and I rode my z400.

The dunes in Sand Hollow aren't set up like they are in Little Sahara. From the launching area you look north into the lake, and south into a long hill of red sand. After the hill are some sand trails thru the red rock that always go longer than I expect them to, and then you get to the real dunes.

Forgetting the camera should have been a sign that things weren't going to go perfectly that day. At the top of the big hill on one of its dunes, and before the sand trails Keni flipped the Griz. He came over the hill a little too fast and the came over to 2 different transitions. One tire was on a steeper hill than the other and with his speed he couldn't maintain control. He hit the sand pretty hard, got back up to right the quad, then fell to his knees and blacked out for a few seconds. Joe was there to help him, and after a few minutes they got moving again.

We barely got through the sand trails when we noticed Keni had a flat. He and Joe went back to the trucks to try to pump it up, but it was no good. I think it is just off the bead and the dinky little pump they had didn't have enough power to push it back on, but I haven't had time to really look at it yet. We did have 2 trucks so they loaded the quads on the trailer and headed home.

After they left things went much better. I didn't have paddles so I did a little rock crawling which was a blast. We found a bunch of nice dunes and we all had fun jumping. Jason didn't jump much, but he enjoyed riding around. Ben was really getting into it, and he really liked the Raptor. We'll have to take him to Little Sahara with us sometime. Jared got to ride the EX and he says he quite likes it. He isn't super happy with how low the seat sits, but says it jumps and rides great.

For my part I loved every second of the trip and was sad when we had to leave. Ben kept trying to get us to go back to the truck but there was always one more dune I had to hit a few times. The Z is still treating me great. I still want to pipe it, but a pipe is pretty low on the priority list right now.

I wish Keni's trip wouldn't have been short and painful, but overall it was a good trip. It's the first time I've ever ridden with all of my brothers, and I hope we can do it again sometime.

Jared, Sam and I went to Little Sahara last weekend. This is the first time I've gone to the dunes in the middle of the winter. Sam rode his bike, and Jared and I switched back and forth on my Grizzly and my Z. It was a different riding experience than we normally have in the dunes, but it was still a blast.

The biggest difference about this trip compared to others is there were very few jumps. Snow on the sand, or poor lips, or old hard tracks from previous riders made big air non existent. We hit a few small jumps but mostly ended up just riding around. Since we had the grizzly in tow, this turned out great. No one felt bad not jumping and we were able to just cruise. We did a lot more exploring than we usually do. I think wintertime is a great time to see the places you rarely go to at the dunes. I think we might try one of the other campgrounds next time we go down.

Despite the cold (it was about 30 degrees the whole time we were there) I think the dunes are a great alternative to parking the quads in the winter. Your small quads and big quads can get in on the action and everyone will have about the same amount of fun. It might be hard for me to get people to go, since I know Jed and Sam would rather snowmobile, but I plan to make several dune trips this winter.

We got loaded up on Thursday and left the office by 5:15. Natalie and Megan were iffy up until the time we left, and neither ended up coming. Our crew ended up being Jim, Jed, Sam, Mike, Richard, and Jen and Christi (sp?) friends of Jed and Richard.

Counting gas and getting everyone loaded we left Spanish by about 6:15. Not bad compared to how long we usually take. About half way to the dunes we realized Jed who was gonna be an hour late had all the keys in his glove box. Ugh. Luckily this wasn't some kind of foreshadowing of the rest of the trip.

Once Jed arrived we hit the dunes. The girls didn't feel comfortable driving so they doubled with Jed and Richard. We found some pretty good jumps, and being this late in the day the weather was pretty good. Probably high 80's. We found a few cool jumps. I found a fun little step up but the camera wasn't around for it. Sam found a gap that looked way scarier than it ended up being. And we found one pretty nice jump that we all hit like 50 times, although we only got a few pictures and clips of it.

Once it got dark we loaded the quads in the trailer and headed over to sand mountain. With all our stock 400's sand mountain doesn't really excite me that much. But we had Byron's YFZ and Jims raptor so we decided we had to try em out. Besides, what else are you gonna do in the dark?

The mountain ended up being a more fun than I expected it to be. Don't get me wrong I won't be camping there anytime soon, but it was a fun night trip. We did a few drags with each other, and some kids from cedar city hooked up with us for a while as well. In our group the YFZ was the fastest. But the kid from cedar had a TRX450R that stomped us. Really most of the people who camped there could stomp us. Which brings me back to my reason for not loving sand mountain. If you don't have a built machine, driving up the hill maxxed out in second gear isn't all that exciting.

After riding an hour or two at the mountain we headed home for bed. I should comment on the crowds. There were none. When we got to White Sands and didn't see a soul. Usually we just look for the first empty spot to pick a camp spot. This time we actually had options and hardly knew what to do with ourselves. We only saw maybe 15 riders at White Sands the whole trip. And even though there were more rigs than that at the mountain, when we were there we probably only saw 15 guys riding.

We got up with the light, and were riding by 5:30am. The weather was great. High 60's. Early on we found a pretty awesome gap. Sam and I hit it several times before the runway got too messed up. We also found the jump where we got our nice group shot at last time. It wasn't wide enough anymore to get another group shot, but we got a few cool train shots.

Now the part I've been dying to type. Right next to camp there was a jump I wanted to hit. After we stopped one time for a snack and started to go again I told everyone I should it it. It was a big step up. Everyone said no. Punks. So I said I'd hit it later and we went to ride some more. After an hour I said it was time. Sam was pretty adamant I shouldn't do it. And everyone kinda agreed. But I was sure I could. So I did.

This was the biggest jump I've ever hit. Jim counted 65 feet from launch to landing. And the step was only 10 feet from the landing so it was a good 55 foot gap. After I hit it competitive mode kicked in for Sam and he cleared it also. It was so freaking awesome. We hit some other jumps and did some that were pretty fun but nothing could compare to this one. My head is still in the clouds and I've probably watched the video 100 times already.

All in all I'd say this was the best trip I've ever had. We ended up leaving by 11:00am because it started to get hot. It was high 90's by then. But with our night rides and early departure we probably rode as much or more than we usually do in a day.

Enough talk. Picture and video time. "Click here":http://atvcowboy.com/atvgallery/?g2_itemId=10388 for the whole album. "Click here":http://atvcowboy.com/atvgallery/?g2_itemId=10852 for the video compilation and "click here":http://atvcowboy.com/atvgallery/?g2_itemId=10390 to see the biggest jump Sam and I have ever hit.

Finally the stars aligned and all of the 4 wheeler cowboys were able to go on this trip. It started out to be a huge camping trip. But now that families are the most important it ended up only a few could stay overnight. Jed, Rich and I loaded all of the quads on Friday. Later that day Jed and Rich headed off to the dunes and I headed north to spend the evening with my in-laws. I was about 10:15pm before I arrived at the dunes because of all the things we all forgot to bring. When I arrived Jed and rich told me that they had waited in line for more than 40 minutes at the entrance of the Dunes. So as usual we got the camping spot nobody wanted.
The people at camp consisted of our cousin Aaron, his budddy Rick, Katie, and Trent. So we chilled around the camp fire for a while and tried to make things exciting by making a stream of old mixed gas on the dunes and then light it on fire. Lets just say it was very retarded! So we all decided that it was time to retire. Rich and I pumped up my huge air bed and Aaron couldn't seem to understand why I needed to have such a sweet bed for camping (Its the only way to go!). After sleeping for a few hours I woke up in a rage after the sound of a piped fourstroke screamed by our trailer. Some loser was riding at 3:00 am. So needless to say the sleep wasn't as good as it should have been. I was the first to get out of bed (6:30ish). I started the chain of everyone slowly getting out of bed. We ate our healthy breakfeast of cold cereal. By this time the sun was just coming over the mountains (quite the view). I started warming up the bikes and sorting through my gear. We decided that we would go for a quick ride before everyone else showed up (John, Dave, Jim, Doug, and Dan) . I started out riding my CRF250x because the sand still was a little wet from the dew which makes the sand harder and easier to ride on. I was happy when Katie jumped on Mike's decked out TRX400ex. This meant I could switch her when needed (thankyou Katie)!
We crested the dunes and found some really good table tops. We rode around a bit, I laid my bike down on one of the big tables which wasn't the scary part. The scary part was that Jed was right behind my and missed me by a prayer.
By this time John and Dave were scheduled to arrive so we went back to camp and sure enough Johnny's Duramax was there so we fired up another quad for Dave and John was riding his CRF250x. After a quick ride and rad wreck by Rick on his pit bike. We again headed back to camp. Mike and showed up without Jim because he had left them because they weren't ready to go. We went on another ride this time finding even better jims and so I switched back the mikes 400ex to test out the new upgrades (also I'm not all that good on the bike yet). I tell ya mikes EX rocks. I was able to out jump everyone except Mike, but there were a few times that the EX flew a little better than the Z but most of the time mike was jumping further. Jim, Jed, and Rich were both jumping well also Jed seemed to really like the raptor 700. Rich probably would have out jumped us all but he didnt have paddleson the YFZ450. John was also getting vert with his bike which made me excited. It was Dave and Dan's first time to the dunes and they seemed to enjoy it. But I have to say the Mike's EX is one of the best flying quads I have ever ridden. The shocks are close to being perfect (thanks to the 450R and GT Thunder rebuild). We really found some sweet jumps we had a ton of people so the riding was a little slower but all the riders were awsome so it was way fun also no one was hurt. You will have to check out the pictures.

So since we took Jeds digital camera this time, instead a crappy disposable like usual, we got a ton of pictures. We also got some video footage. A first for us on a dune trip. They were real short clips, but being video they were pretty hefty in size. So instead of just uploading all 347 megs worth or trying to compress all the different vids, I threw together a little vid in iMovie.

I think it turned out alright. It's just under 17MB and just under 8 minutes long. I had the camera most of the time, and Jed did a lot of jumping, so most of the footage is of him. Everyone got a lot of camera time still. Way better than the old disposable days, where we are lucky to get 2 or 3 pictures each.

It was a good trip. We got an early start getting to the dunes around 9:30. It was pretty cold. Probably 45 when we got there, with frost still on some of the dunes. It has been so wet recently that the dunes were weird. It was the greenest I've ever seen the place. Every bowl or half bowl had something growing at the bottom. Sometimes it was hard find a trail between dunes without riding over stuff.

The recent rain also made the sand kinda weird. On the tops of some dunes it wasn't smooth at all. There were big divits in the ridges. Also because some of the sand was harder than other places you could easily get stuck. Not because it was softer than normal, but because in some places is was kinda hard so you let your guard down, then 10 feet away it got as soft as it ever does.

It was Charles' first trip to the dunes and he did really well. He started off reallly small, but after he got the feel of things he started catching decent air. Joe made sure he never rode the Z, so next time it can be his turn to ride it the whole time. We'll see about that. Jed is really comfortable on his bike now. he caught some good air and we have some awesome pictures. I rode the Z, and got a few good jumps in as well.

We were thinking about going again this weekend, if Sam had gotten a deer. But since he didn't, and i've gone riding the last 3 weekends in a row, my wife thinks its time to clean out the office. This may mean we had our last 4 wheeler trip of the year, but there is always snowmobiling. Besides, if I do end up getting a new grizzly soon you know I'm gonna ride it somewhere.

Today was a great day. Jason and I woke up early so we could be to Wade's house by 8:00 am, thinking we could get to the dunes by 9:30 or 10. Promptness just wasn't an option it seems. After getting all their gear ready we were and moving the cows from one pen to the other we got in the car and were ready to go. Little did we know that after grabbing a new flag so we had enough for all the quads we would drive by the house to notice some calves were out. We spent another 20 minutes or so chasing the calves. To sum a long story up, we got to the dunes around 12:30pm.

Who went? Me, Jason, Will, Harrison, Burke, and Wade. Kindof an odd crew I know. It was Jason's first time to the dunes, and while he was a little hesitant he had no trouble getting around. He says he had fun, and I hope he can go again with us sometime.

It is UEA weekend so the white sands area was pretty packed. We ended up camping way north in some grassy field. This put us a ways away from the dunes, but since we arrived so late we figured we would only do one real trip anyway.

After not too long Will found a pretty sweet jump. It was a bit of a table, so if you didn't jump far enough the landing was a hair rough. He caught some awesome air and did a heal clicker that I think/hope we got on camera.

There was also a small jump next to the big one Will and I were hitting that Burke caught some sweet air on. He just kept hitting the thing and getting braver and braver until he hit the end of his landing zone and did a little bit of a nose dive.

After that we did the usual dune riding hitting anything small we could find searching for the next big jump. We found some bowls and a half bowl that Jason really liked. He said doing bowls was his favorite thing to do in the dunes.

We did find one more big jump. We didn't quite go as high as the other, but it had a great landing, and was a ton of fun. I think I should have mb tried hitting it in fourth because I had it pretty much pinned in third and just wasn't jumping as far as I wanted. Even though I did get some good air. This is when Will decided he was ready to give the quad a try and he got some serious air on Jason's 400EX.

I see all these posts on forums all over and everyone bags on 400's. "They cant jump at all." "No Power". Man, I love 400's. Sure the 450's are nicer, they are also more expensive. And on a 400 I can jump as far or further than I'm comfortable with. What does it matter if a 450 could jump further. It can't with me as the rider.

Anyway enough with that rant. After this jump some random kid asked if he could hang out with us a bit before he went back to his camp. That sounded fine to us. He had a z400 with a pipe. Well he hit that jump a bit with us, not catching much air, but more than Burke and Harrison were.

So we travelled pointed our quads in the directly of camp, because we were all starting to get thirsty. On the way there we found an awesome step up. I wasn't even thinking of using it as a step up as we drove up to it, but after jumping a little further than I planned and barely clearing it w/ my fronts, I decided it might be cool. It was =-). Will and I must have jumped it 20 times each.. It's hard to describe how cool step up's are. But they are probably my favorite thing at the dunes.

I told you about this kid who was riding on the z400 right? Well he decided to try it. Nope not quite far enough. He hit it 5 or six times, in just the wrong spot. Fronts barely clearing, backs slamming into the second lip. He could have had it easily, he had the speed, but he would always let off that gas right at the top of the jump. After I told him to pin it all the way up like 4 times, with him slamming the wall each time, he finally left. Poor guy.

Sounds like an awesome day right? It was, but I haven't told you about the best part. Right after that kid left, Harrison shows his stuff. He'd been jumping ok today, sometimes beating Burke sometimes not, but nothing spectactular. We're talking about this kid thinking of leaving the spot and Harry goes to do the step up. We think he's gonna do it like he and Burke have been doing, just a small jump so they land before the step. Nope. Harry clears it! It was the coolest thing I've ever seen. Here comes Harry jumping with the big boys.

It was an awesome day and I can't wait to go again.

Well our latest trip to the dunes was pretty fun.
Most everyone went down on friday night, but I wasn't able to get there till saturday morning. We had a big crowd. Jed invited 2 friends who brought girls. Jim invited 3 girls. Mere came with her boyfriend. Then there was Me, Jared, Doug, Katie, Will, and Sam. Putting our initial number at 15 people.

Jeds 2 friends both had YFZ450's with paddles which I was really hoping they would put them to the test, so we could see how good they are. However, they aren't as good of riders as us, so we weren't able to get a real comparison. Maybe someday.

I gotta say, Will is amazing. That kid has the perfect combination of wight, nuts, and talent to get some awesome air. He jumped the highest and the furthest on pretty much everything. Jed is getting tons better on his bike. His skill and confidence are both improving enough to = big air. He's not on the same level as Will, but he's still fun watching.

The only other notable thing that happened was that I wrecked. I was hitting this pretty big stepup, and hit it at the wrong angle. So i caught my back left tire, and started bouncing all over the place. I think I could have pulled out of it, except after one of the bounces I was kindof doing a handstand on the handlebars, and my front tires caught a lip in the sand which threw me off and flipped the Z over. Luckily the handlebars acted as an anchor in the sand so it didn't smash me. The damage amounted to some bruised and bloodied knee's on my part, and bent handlebars on the Z.

I wish we could have had the wreck on film, but at least we did get some good pictures of the day which should be up soon.

Pictures are up

Mike

Absolutely incredible, the best two words for my first trip to the dunes with a few of the other four wheeler cowboys. Jed, Mike and myself. Also Harrison and Burke, and last but not least Jed's new girl friend. (by the way this is Jared). Well although Mike and Jed were a little disappointed with the sand it was pretty hard and the peaks had some pretty huge drifts so it was tough to find the perfect jumps, that Mike and Jed were accustomed to. But the riding was still great, and the weather was pretty good too. We found a jump that Jed and Mike liked quite a bit pretty early off, but after hitting it for a while we drove around for a long time couldn't find anything to awesome.

After taking a quick break for water and rest we headed back out and we found a pretty good jump that everyone enjoyed. We were catching pretty good air, not too high but we could fly pretty far. Jed was the only one who had a real hard time jumping, he rode his bike the whole time which wore him out. After completely hammering the lip off of that jump. Jed and Melissa headed back with Burke. So Harrison, Mike and I stuck around for awhile and we found a pretty awesome Step up jump.

We were flying at least 40 feet up the step up it was pretty awesome, and the landing was awesome too. We got a few good pics, hopefully at least one decent one of me, took me pretty long to get used to the sand. Although my mishap off of a lip by the step up was probably the best jump of the day. I was cruising over to hit the step up one more time and took off the lip in 4th. I had no Idea it was such a big lip and big fall! But I caught pretty big air. In a whole the trip was great, I had a blast and I think everyone else enjoyed it. And nobody was injured. Cant wait till next time!!!!

Jared

Wow what a great trip. We had a good turn out. Sam, Sarah, Jed, Katie, Jim, Eric, Joe, Micah, and Me. That trailer of Jed's is awesome. We got 8 Quads in it. And by putting His bike in the back of the truck we were able to carry all the quads and gear in 1 vehicle.

We camped at White Sands like usual; although there were a lot of people so we had to camp clear down the road. It wouldn't have been a great camp spot, but since we slept in the trailer and didn't have a fire, it was pretty much perfect.

There is 1 handy thing about camping in the dunes. There is always some crazy person who wakes up early to ride. So there is no need to set an alarm. Around 7-7:30 there are always a few quads tearing around, to wake everyone up.

Sam and I were in charge of the food which is always a mistake. Jed was in charge of the dishes. We ended up with 1 gallon of milk and some Marshmellow Mateys. The dishes consisted of bowls and cups. Everyone ate their Cereal out of a cup. I think the highlight of our meal time dilema's was when Jed walked up to us around lunch time and said "These things have so much sugar they aren't that bad with just water." Yuck!

We started riding at about 9:00am and after about the second jump I went of kinda sideways and had to bail. Thank heavens for helmets. I ended up w/ a sore left hand and a bruise on my lower back. The quad landed on all 4 and coasted to a halt about 5 feet from me.

We returned around 11:00 to pick up Joe and Katie (they didn't camp over with us, and Jed picked them up at the front so they didn't have to buy a pass. When we got back to camp we found some guy and his 12ish year old daughter and 6ish year old son building a jump right next to our camp. It was pretty cool. The dad and daughter both had z400's and the son had an eTon Viper. It was funny to watch them hit it. They invited us to try it as well and I was very pleased with how impressed they were at how much further I jumped that them =-).

The next few hours we cruised around and found a few good jumps. Jim and Micah wanted to go to sand mountain, so we split up. Much to my dismay we found a huge table top and realized Jim had the camera. The Z Really performed. It has a lot more power than the EX's. I was the only one who had the power and suspension to clear the table. I love being the one who jumps the furthest, even if it is only because I had the toughest quad.

Around 3:00pm we returned to meet up with Jim and Micah, and then Joe, Jed, Sam, Eric and I set off for the Last Hurrah before we closed shop. Amazingly, we found more good jumps in that last hour than we had the whole day. Which was good, because we still had about half a roll of film left.

We wrapped up around 5:00pm. And headed home. Just in time too, it started sprinkling right as we got on the highway towards Eureka.

It was great for me to be able to ride with one of my brothers. Joe loved it. I think he's hooked. I'm excited to take Jared and Jason some time.

You can find pictures here.