Sand in the crack.

[Blusmbl]

So, the shitty Michigan weather's been getting me down, the thought of spending $10k plus on my Charger-eee isn't exactly giving me a warm fuzzy, and I have to work a midnight shift at the wind tunnel tonight.  So... what's the appropriate course of action?

Going to Silver Lake on the last open weekend of the year, of course!  I woke up at 4:30, hopped in the shower, and rolled out of the driveway at 5, headed west.  Got to M31 right at sunrise.... took it as an opportunity for some photography, even though my poor DSC-70, now every bit of 5 years old, is on it's last legs.






It didn't turn out too well, but it's 29* out and there's a fog over Silver Lake.  Dunes in backround, crazy ducks with nothing better to do besides sit in freezing water in foreground.

Make it to the dunes entrance at 9 am, bolt the flag up, let air outta my tires, and proceed to be the FIRST PERSON OUT ON THE SAND.  This is monumental, I've never been the first guy out there before.  The access road was perfectly smooth, and even more incredible, the dunes were frozen.  All types of traction from the sand- I stopped halfway up test hill, laid into it, and made it to the top with no problem at all.



Amazing.  Frozen sand, NO fresh tracks (all leftover from the night before), and the sun still low in the horizon.  Good day to be alive, for a change.



The heat from the tires un-froze the sand and stuck it to the sidewalls!  At the top of Test Hill.



After making 2 laps, finally saw the first traffic out there- some quad behind me.   Pulled back into the parking lot and met my coworker Rich there, and his two buddies.  They brought quads, a huge 35' travel trailer, and a diesel Ford dually.  Rollin' in style!



The 3 of them, me following along.

We rode around for most of the morning.  Stopped for hot dogs, chips and soda for lunch, then went back out.  Rich then proceeded to strip the output shaft on his Raptor, ending his day... so he spent the remainder of the time riding around with me.

By mid-afternoon, the wind picked up to the point where it was changing the dunes every single time you'd come by.  10 minutes later, peaks were different, drop-offs were worse, etc.

On one of our breaks back at the parking lot, a guy came back in a newer S10 Blazer, with the flag bracket bent up and the front tire blown out.  Upon closer inspection, the hood and doorjambs didn't line up anymore, and the grille was sitting cockeyed.  We asked him how hard it hurt, and he replied back with "Not too bad, but I did hit my head on the windshield!".  Oops.  I should've gotten pictures of it.





The guy next to me is stuck, by the way.  Most trucks weren't even bothering to climb test hill anymore, it was so bad.  Later in the day, I got stuck pretty good at the top, and a guy pulled me out.  I proceeded to get stuck in the same spot again!  Nobody came by to give me a tug (rightfully so, I suppose), so Rich and I spent a half hour of our time, getting pelted by some very nasty sand, digging it out.  But, we got it out, and mooned the guys at the bottom who didn't help. 
The view sure was nice, though...



Around 5:30, everybody had enough, and frankly I was a sandy, dirty mess... so we decided to surrender for the evening.  Took his travel trailer to the campsite, filled the tires with air on the Ram, and went to dinner at the new resteraunt located above the BP station.  Had a decent steak, some Lienenkugels Amber, and sundaes for dessert.   It was glorious. 

Turned out to be an absolutely awesome day.  I gotta vacuum out the truck, and I've taken two shours already to get the sand outta my hair, but the beautiful 60* and COMPLETELY sunny weather was worth it.

I needed this weekend. 

[golden73]

Cool, that looked like a lot of fun!

I've always wanted to do something like that..... guess I need to go buy a 4 wheeler or a truck

[PocketThunder]

My buddy that goes to Moab all the time told me about this place in Michigan.  That sure looks like a sweet time!

[Ghoste]

Who says Hemi's are only good for straight lines or long sweeping left hand turns?

[Blusmbl]

Yep, Hemis are good in the dirt, too. 

I've heard that Pismo, Dumont, and Glamis are 100x the excitement Silver Lake ever will be.  Hopefully one year I can make it out west to tour some more sand.

[Spartan]

Cool!  Haven't been there in a while.  I go to Manistee more (actually where I bought the 69).  We have some old footage on 8mm of my dad and some buddies drag racing on the frozen sand in Ludington in the late 50's. Its pretty cool.

Silver lake is a fun place.

[Spike]

That is the least amount of people I have ever seen at Silver Lake  Nothing like having the place to yourself Nick 

[dart3404]

Wow! That looks like an awesome day... Thanks for sharing.

[472 R/T SE]

Oregon Dunes Rock, tallest dunes on US coast.  Winchester Bay, Or. is where "Sandfest" is.  There's some wicked widow's peak's there, DAMHIK.  Their emergency services are quick and know what they're doing.    Almost like they've done it before.

That was a cool little story using the pix and everything.

A buddy of mine was with TRICK Racing.  They set the record going up Competition Hill 2 years in a row, something like 80mph going up hill with a Banshee motor in a trx250r frame  He used to say as the turbo built, it got faster going uphill.   A turbo and like 80% alcohol.  They have several other bikes running nitrous.  Crazy sh''t man, out on the flats he'd open that thing up and you could watch the rear paddle tires poof up like the top fuel rides when he opened it up.  I miss riding....my buddies are trying to get me back out in an Odyssey or something, GOOD TIMES.
He ran at the track with it too, mid 10's.

I need to find some pictures of it.

[Big Lebowski]

   Cool weekend dude, i like to to hang out at the top of the Palomar mountains, so i also know how to get a 2500 ram stuck in the mud & snow. Here's my view, the great Palomar observatory is on the other side. Look closely in the middle of the pic is the observatory.

[41husk]

I need a weekend like that, I spent the entire weekend working on the Challenger, I need to get it in primer before winter hits.  Wrestling season starts next Monday and being a High school coach I am fixing to get real busy.

[4402tuff4u]

Nice country out there! Thanks for sharing. That looks like very, very fine sand, how do you keep it out of the tranny and brakes, etc..

[BrianShaughnessy]

Beautiful pics Nick!
Home sweet home!
Looks like fun.   

[cudaken]

 Great looking PIC and glad you had fun. Some times a person needs a weekend like that.

                                                       Cuda Ken

[AirborneSilva]

I prefer Rocks and hills but it's all good fun  

[Blusmbl]

The rocks hurt worse when you hit 'em. 

Might as well share this- from last year: http://caintmakit.com/SLSD4.mpg .  Check out the hot Mail Jeep action.  Warning: 71 mb.

It's actually kinda coarse sand.  Isn't too bad.  Not the greatest for brakes, but I've had various cars out there for years and years, never had a sand related problem... provided you don't drive through the water.

A bunch of the guys with buggies and quads take things seriously out there.  I've seen turbocharged VW engines, nitrous'd VW engines, smallblock Chevys, etc.... all in sand rails.  It's insane.  Check out the one in the video above, it was powered by an LS1.

It was definitely awesome.  Makes up for the crappy day I had at work today, LOL.

[472 R/T SE]

blusmbl, I checked out your site a while ago.  Good Stuff.  I used to pipe in over on 'parts.


Here's one of the alcohol bike's.  It's not pretty, but wicked FAST!  He has all the money in the world but he won't purdy it up cause they're always changing stuff.  At Glamis on Thanksgiving they're there with a tractor trailer with a complete shop so they can open the motors every nite.
I can't remember how far over on the swingarm but you can see it's a bunch.