Glamis Sand Dunes Thanksgiving 2000
| Glamis Sand Dunes | ;) |
August 15th, 2006
By: Staff report
;)
We headed out Saturday the 18th for our week-long adventure at the largest sand dune area in America, the Imperial Sand dunes, better known simply as Glamis! Even with the poorly marked dune closures, approximately 80,000 people found plenty of action, from wide-open dune rides to insane action at Oldsmobile Hill. The weather was perfect! Cool at night and warm during the day.
Sunday morning we woke up to find all of our fellow duners had;)
arrived from their destinations. We had 5 people from Wisconsin, 5 from Washington, 3 from Oregon, 3 from Texas, 1 from Pennsylvania, 1 from Arizona, and 6 from California all parked in one big circle. It was almost an all Honda camp except for a couple Banshees’ and one Suzuki.
;)
After saying hi to everyone and eating breakfast we did a little prep work on the quads, like mix gas, tighten chains, and repack silencers. We geared up for our first ride, a mellow ride to Patton Valley. Patton Valley is a steep wall of sand (on the north side of the valley) about a mile long. We had a few friendly races to see who was the fastest and did some side hilling. Side hilling is very challenging here due to the small bumps on the hill. Cruising along in 3rd gear leaning uphill and hitting a small bump causes you to catch air and land about 10 feet down from where you were all while losing speed. It makes for a good adrenaline rush!;)
and we geared up for our next ride, a real dune ride! The people from Wisconsin had only rode the dunes at Silver Lake in Michigan and wanted to check out some real dunes! We headed into the dunes and hit a few steep razorbacks and big half bowls. They were amazed at the size and steepness of the dunes. A couple people had to head back to camp due to some minor mechanical problems but the rest of us continued on our ride. At the end of the ride we had about half the people that we started with, most headed back to camp before the ride was over.
That night by the fire we all got to know each other pretty well. After a few beverages we were all speaking fluent “WisKAWNsinite”. We had homemade apple crisp cooked in a Dutch oven all prepared right next to the fire. All in all an exciting “learning” experience.
Monday morning was a kiddy ride to Patton Valley. We loaded up the women and children in camp and made our way to the valley. We played for a few hours and watched a few jeep’s and sand rails racing up the hill.
That evening we made a run to Test Hill (aka Comp Hill right by Interstate 8). The hill was dead! No one was there except us. After a few races we headed back to camp. On the way one of the ATC’s in our group noticed that his kick-starter was popping out. Upon further investigation he noticed his oil drain plug bolt was missing! This is where ingenuity kicked in! Fortunately, one of the female riders had an extra tampon to plug the hole! It worked great to keep the sand out of his motor while being towed back to camp. His ATC ran flawlessly the rest of the week.
official on Wednesday we figured we should get our last long dune ride in today. Three Sandbros (Mike, Jay, Aerik)and one sand cousin (Guido) packed our backpacks with snacks, filled camel backs with ice water and loaded up extra gas cans in front bumpers and 6-pack racks. We were riding, through the dunes, from Patton Valley up to the Glamis store. Making our way north on the eastern side of the dunes, we hit the 3 valleys north of Patton Valley. All of which had very steep and soft sand walls to climb out of. About an hour later, after a few dune breaks we found ourselves at Hill 5, then Hill 4 until we eventually got to the huge bowls that the northern end of the Glamis sand dunes has to offer. I can’t think of any better feeling than being pinned wide open in 6th gear, flying around a bowl that’s ¼ mile from side to side, going so fast that your eye’s are being squeezed shut and your body is being compressed to your seat from the G-force. PURE ADRENALINE!!!!!!;)
We finally made it to the Glamis store at almost dark, to find our friends waiting for us in the trucks with extra gas and water. I used almost 6 gallons of gas and drank about a gallon of ice water. After we topped off all fluids we (about 10 of us) headed to Boardmanville for a rest and an ice cold beverage. Boardmanville is a place with a lot of character. The walls are covered, inside and out with dollar bills that people have signed and stapled to the walls. After a quick rest, 6 of us rode the very long (20+ miles) Ted Kipf Road back to camp while some went back to the Glamis store to drive the trucks back.
the south side of Patton Valley, burning gas and making muscles sore. When we got to the point that we could not hold on to the handlebars anymore we headed to Patton Hill to watch some of the racing action before heading back to camp.
Thursday we got up and a few of us headed off for a dune ride before the big dinner. We kept a pretty good pace through the dunes and worked up a big appetite!
;)
Back at camp people were preparing for the big Thanksgiving dinner. We had a large deep fat fryer, which we cooked a turkey in. A 15-pound turkey was done in 45 minutes, crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. Without a doubt the best tasting turkey I have ever had. We also had another turkey and a ham cooking in the Dutch ovens along with an oven full of stuffing. We had all the trimmings to go with the dinner; mashed potatoes, green beans, broccoli salad, cranberry sauce (made fresh from the can J ), etc. etc. What a feast! For dessert, those of us that could fit it in had apple and pumpkin pie! Everyone was very full! I myself felt about 6 inches bigger around and could hardly breath after the feast. It took a long time sitting by the warm campfire for me to be able to walk normally again. We even had a belly contest. Who do you think won?
After our food settled we decided to head over to Test Hill for some night time action. We arrived to see people zooming up and down the hill, people standing by huge bonfires keeping warm and just all around a good atmosphere.
;)
where all the action was. Six quads and a truck full of cheese heads, along with coolers and an EZ-up canopy, headed over to Oldsmobile Hill where we saw a large crowd of people at the bottom of the hill watching the action (about 10,000 people). We saw lots of racing, including jeeps, sand rails and quads. Oldsmobile Hill is where everyone gathers to watch the action and claim king of the hill. We saw girls in bikini’s riding around showing off and one girl racing on a highly modified Banshee wearing a very skimpy outfit. She was winning every race she ran by 8-10 quad lengtht. This girl was definitely Queen of the Hill!!! I am sure she had many marriage proposals before the day was over. A small plane buzzed the valley and we saw a hot air balloon crash! What a sight! Oldsmobile Hill the day after Thanksgiving is one of the largest gatherings of duners known to mankind.;)
I had borrowed a GlobalStar satellite phone from Qualcomm Inc. It proved to be very handy as we decided to call a few friends on the east coast that were not able to make the trip and rub it in. We called friends in Connecticut and Minnesota to tell them about all the action they were missing. They were jealous and in not so many words told us to “be quiet”.