My group and I were up at the Oregon Dunes last week (July 10-16th).

Didn't have any Ranger / Sound issues (I think the Ranger was even staying at the Oregon Dunes KOA too!)

Anyways, we stayed at the Oregon Dunes KOA - Drive to the dunes wasn't bad but, not real good for the kids since they couldn't just get on their quads and ride. But, all the kids in the group had fun. They spend a lot of time down at the playground and the little lake. By bed time my daughter's blue-jeans were usually brown from all the dirt she was playing in.

I had the worst luck. But, still had a great time.
Drove most of the way Friday night then finished the drive Saturday. Good thing because I got the Sharts something fierce Saturday morning. Kept me up most of the night until my Wife came back from town with some of that Immodiam stuff. I've never had anything like this and those little pills did the trick.

So, I was able to ride a short time on Saturday. Hit a little dip in the sand as I was coming down a hill and turning and the front outside tire caught and the bike flipped and over I went (crash #1).

Next day I burnt my leg on the exhaust - This one is going to take a few weeks to heal and the Doc said it will leave a nice scar. That's on the left lower calf.

I then came over a jump a day or two later and my right foot came off the foot peg and dragged until the bike stopped (well, flipped.) From then on I was known as Elephant Foot (yep, swelled up pretty good.) So, I'm walking as slow as my 100 year old Great Grandma did now. My Right calf is pretty sore from being driven over by the paddle tires. I had my helmet cam on for this one. It is amazing how quickly it happens and how little action the helmet cam catches of the rider. Unfortunately, (oops, I mean fortunately) no one in front of me crashed when the helmet cam was on them.

Then just for grins, I got stung by a bee on my right quad (upper leg) as I was taking the drive back to the KOA. They have some big black bees up there. At this point all I could do was laugh at it.

Oh, there was a 3rd crash in there somewhere too.

On the last day my clutch cable broke off at the actuator. I finished out the family ride without a clutch, got back to the KOA and called the trip done!

As for the dunes, well this was my first trip to Oregon and I did enjoy climbing in between the trees. I had a tougher time on some of the tight trails - probably because of my +1 forward A-arms and the smaller front tires I have. One of my riding buddies brought his YFZ and left his Shee at home. After the first ride I told him I understood why. I would still bring an extra bike but, the trails there definitely seemed well suited for the YFZ. When we got on the trails that were more open or wooped out I would take the lead but, on the curvy ones I would stay back and not push myself.

So, now the plans start for next summer's trip to St. A's. Due to school schedules it will probably be an early / mid july trip for us.

We had 7 trailers / family's in our group so we had a great group for the trip.

Sorry I wasn't able to hook up with some of you while we were there on your dunes.

 

Oh, weather was perfect. Rode in shorts and t-shirt with jersey over most of the time.

Beach does have a 25mph limit. Luckily, I don't have a speedometer on my quad [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] I may just have got to that when I was W.O.T. in 5th gear at about 7200 RPM with my 16/38 gearing [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img]

Oh, almost forgot. . . Wife got lost and freaked out pretty good. Had about 5 of us looking for her for about 40 minutes. She was pretty happy to see me when I found her.

 

nice weather up in northern michigan this weekend, gonna be wearin my white beater!

 

Wow, sounds like you had a tough time up there from start to finish. Hopefully you have better luck next time. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] Weather was perfect when we were up there too.

Sean

 

I feel sorry for your family while you had the sharts while you were driving. Sometimes it only takes 1 thing to throw the whole balance in life off, I think you found that 1 thing. It sounds like you made the best of it. We did get a good story out of it. Did you ride with the compound guys?

 

Rode with my group (mostly non-forum members). One trailer / family from Reno - buddy I work with and the rest are all people that we've met that live in Elk Grove, CA and ride. We've really got a great group. There are a few others that sometimes join us from around the Sacramento area. Not too tough for our group to get up to about 10 rigs.

 

How long was the drive?

 

9 hours (without the Sharts).

Would have been a good 15 if the Sharts would have come on sooner [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

 

Sounds like a nice group, lots of riders. That is half the fun being around people with the same interest. Most of the time I can't find anybody by me that wants to ride, I have to go have way across the state to ride with a group. The last several times I went to Silver Lake I went by myself, that get's pretty boring.

 

Yep.

A good group makes a trip.

We had a number of rides with about 6 guys. 4 is a good number but, gotta love the thunder of 6 thumpers going by.