Pismo Dunes - March 21, 1998
This was the first weekend the Dunes had opened for several weeks. El Nino kept the stream too high to cross, so the Rangers closed the dunes. There were very few vehicles in the dunes, because there were very few people willing to risk the stream crossing. All of the Toy trucks with us crossed without incident...even the totally stock ones. Chris, Eric, and I even crossed the stream at it's deepest point, without problem. Upon crossing a 2nd time though, I got stuck in a BIG hole created by a Chevy that had chose to sit and spin his tires, rather than get a tug out. He ended up getting a tug anyway...as did I.
Due to all the recent El Nino wind, the sand was EXTREMELY soft in areas...usually the east side of the crests, since the wind comes at the Dunes from the west.
How's
this for stuck? :-) This is a perfect example of what goofing
off can get you into. I knew I wouldn't make it over the top of the dune,
but stayed on the gas, to see how close I could come. I didn't take into
consideration just how SOFT the sand was on the east side of the crests.
Within seconds I sunk it nearly to the frame. Even after digging it
out a bit I couldn't move it. I ended up having Brent give me a tug,
and it popped right out of the hole.
This
picture show how soft the sand is....
Here
Chris and I didn't communicate well...he came up out of a bowl that
I was going down into. I locked it up, and backed up as quick as possible,
while Chris 'went high' to avoid me. We never did get very close to each
other, because we both reacted well. He ended up a bit off camber, not
usually a big deal....but the soft sand that we had to drive in this day,
was unpredictable, so we played it safe. I strapped his front end, and
let him pull straight....then we unhooked and he just back down the hill.
Here
Brent trys to climb the same area Chris was stuck in...on the east side
of a dune. The soft sand just let him sink to the bottom.
This
was SO fun!! Brent found a bowl with a smooth bottom, where we could
get some speed, and then get a little air coming out. As you can see, even
after the truck leaves the ground the dune is not level...but still rising.
This made for a really soft landing.
Other pages with pictures from this trip:
Chris Geiger's page
Ken Emanuel's
page
Brent Freeby's
page
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HERE to go BACK to the MAIN PAGE
Created 3/26/98