Pismo Dunes - May 30, 1998

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I had to put these pictures first to get back at Brent for those beatiful shots he took of me high centered on dune last time (ha ha!). We hadn't been wheelin' more than 10 minutes on Saturday before Brent parked his Land Cruiser on top of a dune. Personally I think he just wanted to prove he could stuff those 33" tires all the way into those fender wells. We were all to lazy to get out our tow straps, so a few of us just got behind him and pushed him over the top.....I think it would have been easier to get out the strap. (ha!)

This was Tim Mann's (and girlfriend Jen's) first time wheelin' in the dunes. He and I had installed his 3" Rubicon Express lift just a month or two prior. Right now it rides on 31" ATs. Here he is spashing through stagnent water. Mmm Mmm good!

Is he stuck, or is he showing off that front wheel travel? He's stuck! But boy does that front end travel. I hear Tim is working on getting 3.7 gears and a Detroit in his Cherokee right now....I guess he didn't like being the only open rear diff vehicle with us!

The only thing this bowl was missing was that people eating sand monster from Return of the Jedi!! I've NEVER been in the bottom of a dune this hard to get out of. I made it through this same one earlier in the day, but that was the other direction. After trying to get out on the steep end, I tried to turn around and get out the shallow end, but this bowl was a bit too small, and I couldn't manuver. I radioed for help, and Chris came to the rescue.

Whenever we needed a rest from wheelin' we headed for the creek to watch people get stuck. I don't know how this Toyota stuck himself.....he was plenty tall enough to cross. If I remember right he actually crossed too slow, and sunk in.

Eric and Tracy, coming up the side of the creek. As usual Eric no problems in the creek.......when he remember to put it 4WD!!

Whenever it got borring at the creek, we'd all jump in our trucks and start wading around. That was usually enough to give those potential crossers to confidence they needed to attempt....then things of course would liven up again because people would cross to fast, waterlock their engines, and be stuck in the middle of the creek.

I pulled out my fair share of people from the creek when the tow company wasn't around, or when I was asked......but I've learned my lesson about loaning my time and tools. I loaned my tools to a bunch of rude hicks is a Wrangler I pulled out (of course I didn't know they were rude hicks till after I loaned my tools), and got the box returned to me full of salt water. It seems they had set it on the sand and didn't pay attention to the tide coming in. I lost about 20% of my tools to rust, and spent HOURS getting the surface rust off and oiling the rest.

Tim's Cherokee did ok in the creek, but I'll be he can't wait for that locker!