Chill Weekend at Dumont Dunes

Thursday night we headed out to Dumont for a nice quiet weekend in the sand. When we pulled in the river was flowing really fast but it was easily passable.

There were only like two other camps out there besides us. With no moon, it pitch black out and the sky was lit with tons of stars. It was so dark you could even see the glow of Baker.

Friday morning I woke up as the sun was coming up.

The wind was blowing pretty hard, so hard that my collapsible trash can decided to go duning. It rolled out of camp at about 20 mph and went up and over the dune. It was gone. I ran after it but I gave up when it flew over the finger dune. So I jumped in the buggy to go look for it but it was nowhere to be found.

The dunes were super funky. Some areas were super smooth, but for the most part they were still wet and had some ripples at the tops.

Back at camp we were still waiting for the others to show up. The surrounding mountains had some snow on them.

Anna was still sleeping and I was itching to take my new bike out. I geared up and cruised down to the Sperry Wash.

After my little ride, camp was still quiet and Anna was still sleeping. I was super stoked with the new bike and couldn’t sit still.

So I headed back out and rode to the north end. I followed the perimeter fence north on the old T&T Railroad berm. I was taking it easy because this was literally the bike’s first time out and had no time on the motor. I still had to break it in.

I decided to keep on riding since I was pretty close to the north pole. I made a quick stop out there.

Might as well keep on going and make it a full lap around Dumont, so I took the back sand highway towards Comp Hill.

I ended up at the South Pole. It had been quite a while since I had been out there. I was happy to see the pole is still up and the military mailbox is still there and in great shape.

I circled around the south end and headed back to camp.

At this point I was extremely happy. A solo morning ride has been on my to do list for a while. I love quiet weekends like this where I can go out and appreciate the dunes and have them all to myself. To top it all off, I was able to do it on my new bike too. There was literally nobody out there the whole time. It was awesome. Back at camp, I sat and relaxed with a water & sandwich. I was happier than sh*t.

Lou finally showed up late morning with little Sophie.

Tourists are fun to watch.

We just hung out for a good part of the afternoon before deciding to ride the bikes out to the mines at Little Dumont.

Leaving the mines I spotted a memorial in the desert. We stopped to check it out. There was a broken motorcycle dash and mirror on the ground so I figured it was a motorcycle crash that took this dudes life.

Back at camp, Steve & Becky showed up.

We were still waiting for Chad to arrive and fill the empty space in camp.

Sophie and Hot Rod were having fun.

Lou made a fire and we all kicked back and hung out.

Saturday morning we took the buggies out. The dunes were ok, but we had to watch those tops. They were all rain rutted and nasty! We duned out to the north pole. Steve headed back for breakfast while the rest of us hung out for a few minutes. I was a little concerned about a noise in my trans. I decided I would drive it until it broke. That way I would know what it is. 😉

On the way back, the trans noise grew louder and louder. When we got to Comp I decided against the whole “drive it until it breaks” idea. I stopped and watched Chad, Cody and Chris play around on the hill and then putted back to camp. I was a little bummed because I really felt like duning, but it wasn’t going to ruin our weekend.

Cody, Chris and I headed for a ride on the 2 wheelers. These kids love to jump. I didn’t have a paddle so that was my excuse for not going big like these kids with no responsibilities. haha

Anna and I still got some duning in. She rode with Lou and I rode with Chad. Lou and Steve led some great runs!

When we stopped to take a break in the dunes, Cody scouted out a jump. This kid lives to jump. He’s getting pretty good too.

My buddy Tom was in the area and stopped by on his GS1200 to say hi.

The sun went down in typical Dumont fashion.

After that we had some shots around the fire and then watched Supercross. Good times!

Sunday I went out for one last ride at the south end and then swung by to visit Bert’s memorial up on the hill. I counted about 20 camps total.

The weather was good all weekend, but it improved each and every day. It was about 65 degrees on Sunday afternoon…absolutely perfect. I think one more week and those dunes will be pristine again. This trip was great. Makes me want to go right back out next weekend!