Here is a quick rundown of the day........

Benchmark squeezed in a quick day trip to hang out and ride with some fine folks at Glamis, Wash 22. I had planned on having my 09 Teryx Sport ready to go but never had enough time to get it completed (custom turbo install). So, I decided to show up with our new Polaris XP900. :ride:
At 5am Saturday, I finished installing a prototype exhaust and a Dynojet PC-V. I crashed out for 2 hours sleep and then headed for Glamis. :nuts:


From Ramona, I headed out through Julian to encounter fresh snow falling and some wild turkeys.




Down though Banner Grade, Scissors Crossing, and then Ococtillo Wells where a light rain was falling. Apparrently a lot of water came down through the night as this is what I came upon next.



Upon finally arriving at Wash 22, I found a camp full of friendly off road enthusiasts, some old friends, and some new faces. Shorty after unloading, we took off on a ride to Oldsmobile Hill with Steve from DASA Racing at the helm. It had to have been one of the longest UTV train rides I have ever seen or heard of. Great job to everyone for keeping such a large group together! Here we are lined up on the South Ridge at Olds.



From there a group of us headed out towards Comp Hill. Here is the group pitching in to help with one of our member's tire leaking at the bead.



Just after getting going again, AZ Amsoil encountered a soft face that tried to swallow up his Teryx. This happened immediately in front of me so I got the complete play by play. Bob didn't panick and was able to get it to flop onto the driver's side, instead of tumbling to the bottom. After making sure he was OK, some more comaradery of the group assisted in dragging it around ang getting it flipped upright again.

Next we start heading back to camp so we can eat some grub and raffle off some prizes. On the way, we get flagged down by a truck and alerted to the fact that Sand Junkie was in an unfortunate accident with a buggy. Thankfully Jim is OK and his Teryx will live to carve another dune. Here we're loading it up at the base of Olds.




Who says you don't need a winch at Glamis!


After making it back to camp, Chad59 raffled off some great prizes for some lucky ticket holders while Scmo777 (Schannon) and crew cooked up some great carne asada. Thanks for the good eats guys!!! :icon_thumleft:


Just before sun down, Myself, Desertdog615 (Marty), Vinnynewyork (Vinny), and another blasted across the desert to catch the end of the Gecko Sand Drags. We arrived a little late and while there was still a lot of spectators, the drags were pretty quiet. Vinny headed off to his camp and Marty and I proceeded to tear up the drags but we hade no takers that wanted a part of our challenge.

After dark, we met up with another part of the group that was looking for Vinny's camp. I split off to go visit ZackTeryx and 07fj who were camped at Gecko Pad 1.

After a long day, I said goodbye to some great friends, new and old, and headed back home. Hope everyone else had a great trip too! It was great to meet new friends, and put faces with names. For those that I didn't get to meet, see you on the next ride!

On a separate note, I was really impressed by the XP900!!!

This was my first chance to really put it through its paces and it left me smiling. The steering is not as heavy as some would imply. The power, for a stock machine, is unbelievable. The suspension is really good, but not quite as good as the engine.

I ran it without paddles, and had the Maxxis Ceros on MSA Diesels at 8psi. With the wet sand, I don't know that I was at any disadvantage. I ran it in 4wd the majority of the time. The only thing I DON"T like is the fact that it goes in and out of 4WD. This aspect makes cornering much less predictable. Sometimes it will carve a corner perfectly, and the next it will oversteer like crazy because it is only driving the rear wheels. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE drifting, but I want to choose when to do it.

The gas gauge seems a little suspect. A couple times while duning it showed one bar, almost empty. Then after shutting it off for a quick break, it showed half full at retstart. I drove it like a throttle jocky and it sucked the fuel down because of it. I couldn't help myself with all that power. :dance:

I saw an average indicated speed of 43 mph up Oldsmobile hill. At the sand drags, it ran near 70 mph at the end.

And the best, I raced a turbo RZR-S at Olds. The first run, he beat me by maybe 1/2 to 1 car length. I thought he was toying with me, truthfully. The second run, I beat him by the same amount.

Awesome recap!

It was a great time except for Sandjunkie's accident.

After Sandjunkie's accident

GOOD TIMES ..... great seeing you out there and the XP even WITHOUT PADDLES was running strong

i was at olds when you guys started to come down the hill.. that was soo awesome.. haha it looked like a invasion. hahah

i was there too, looked like a long teryx train and one xp

We saw you lined up at Old. That was a cool sight!

The wife and I did a "drive by" in our Jeep just to check them all out. I hope we did't creep you out.

Blake