Closing Out the Dumont Season Properly

I rolled into Dumont Friday afternoon and it was 95° on my truck thermometer. I was a little worried it was going to be scorching this weekend, but it was cleanup and we were all locked in and going regardless. I was very surprised how nice it was though. There was a steady light to medium breeze most of the weekend that kept things pretty cool. It only felt hot for a couple hours in the afternoon if you were standing in the sun.

Enough of the boring weather. How about those dunes?? Holy crap they were perfect. I said it several times throughout the weekend, “These are the dunes we’ve been waiting all season for.” No joke though. The weather has been crap for most of the season and they just now dried out and smoother out and they are perfect. There was a nice balance of tracks and smooth sand to be FAST dunes as I call em.

So as soon as I got unloaded, Lou B & Mark were ready to dune. When we stopped to cool down we saw our buddy, Jason, was out there already too. He and a few buds stopped by and we chatted for a bit.

Back at camp my 500 was screaming to be ridden so I managed to squeeze in a ride just as the sun was going down. It was pretty epic!

I rode out to the south end as the skies turned purple. I was surprised how many people were actually there with the hot forecast.

The dumpster had already been delivered at the ranger station for the weekend’s cleanup event. That sunset was gorgeous.

Back at camp, I fired up the Pizzazz pizza cooker and made dinner. Quick and easy!

Saturday’s sunrise started out looking not much different from Friday’s sunset! I was up early to seize the day and get an early start.

Once everyone got moving, we went out for an early morning buggy run before heading over to the cleanup event. The dunes were absolutely perfect.

After our dune run, we wasted no time and headed straight over to the ranger station to sign in. It was perfect weather for the cleanup. I really expected to sweat like hell and be miserable. The morning was beautiful out there. We spread out and picked up some trash for a bit.

I headed out to the north end since that is the direction the wind is normally blowing out there. I was hoping to see a crazy amount of bloom like last year but it wasn’t quite a colorful. It was still pretty decent though!

I picked up quite a few of these sky lanterns that alot of people think fly up to heaven.

This little guy popped out to say hi. I was blown away how he just sat there while I took pics so close to him. I even touched him and he didn’t run away. I’m thinking he was playing dead.

Filling up my bag and enjoying the morning outdoors.

I cruised over to the other end of camp to hopefully find more interesting trash. I was hoping these chicks wouldn’t get mad that I was on their turf but they didn’t sweat me.

The hills were blooming over there too.

I had filled my bag up and then some so I ran over to dump it. My unique items included a little girls Christmas dress (weird), an ugly thermal shirt, a coloring book, and a timing belt. Was some sort of crime committed with these things? lol

I had about an hour before lunch was served so I went back to camp to grab some water and clean up. We then headed over to the ranger station. I was impressed how many people were there. It was nothing like the old days, but wow! Way more people than the last few years.

The cleanup went great! Lunch was awesome and the quick draw was really cool. It felt more like the old days than it has in a while. Jason (the new prez of FoDD) did an outstanding job just like Terry has done in the past. He’s a great guy and we are lucky to have him in that position.

Here are his words along with a photo Rose at the BLM snapped of Jason, me and Ed.

“What a great day out at the clean up Saturday! This photo says it all! Smiling faces and bringing everyone together. On the right is Ed who is the founder of the local Friend groups in the Socal area, a former CORVA President and a passionate OHV advocate. In the center is Pete who created and operates DumontDuneRiders.com who is a serious OHV user and practically lives at the dunes while keeping everyone informed of what’s happening out at Dumont. Then myself who began as a OHV user and now bridging the gap between the Dumont OHV users and the BLM to help make the area a thriving community again while having a great time with events like this hopefully all season long! This is just three individuals from different backgrounds, with different ideas, coming together and having a great time! Just imagine what the future will look like out at Dumont Dunes!” – Jason Ardenski

My full write-up from the cleanup is on Dumont Dune Riders…

After the cleanup I decided we needed to have a Dumont Beach party! haha We all cruised down to the creek and dipped our feet in the water to cool off. We had a blast watching the dogs play around and have fun.

One last dune run was in order for Saturday. We laid it down! None of the sandcars in our group ever run warm but this weekend we were all exercising our radiator caps. We had to pull off for a break and cool down sooner than planned several times. We were laying it down like the old days! Maybe it’s because I knew it was going to come to end and I wanted to get the most out of it. I don’t know. I was having fun as hell regardless of the reason.

We watched the sun go down and sat in the sand for what I think was another hour or so! It was so relaxing and we had no place else to be so we did just that.

So that’s a wrap! Until next year! …unless I get a wild hair up my ass and jam out there again, but I am ready for some other adventures!

Video

Comments

comments