Buttercup is great right now. I went out on Saturday and had the place to myself for a bit. Later on two other trucks showed up but left before me and eventually two other trucks pulled in just as I was leaving.

The place is beautiful right now. A few tracks still left right near the parking area but you can get photos of virgin dunes while standing in the cul-de-sac.

Watch out though! The dunes are nasty! Lot's of razors and some very soft spots. I didn't even want to risk the top of comp since when the dunes get like this there's usually a nasty lip to deal with up there. I noticed the few tracks left on the hill all turned around at the top as well which is another great sign to WATCH OUT!

Here are two mini-panoramas I snapped at Buttercup last saturday. First one showing the clean untracked dunes visible from the parking lot stitched from two normal snapshots:

http://hitesman.com/jason/sanddunes/trucknclean_sm.jpg

And then a shot taken on the sandhighway leading back to comp taken from inside my rail. Stitched from three 73 degree fisheye images.

http://hitesman.com/jason/sanddunes/inrail2.jpg

How HOT was it down there? I wish we could keep the dunes that smooth during the "cool" season.

when are you going out to play again jhitesma....

As Slappy would say: Dem be some beautimus dunes!

I think it was around 110 saturday. I was only out for about two hours and drank over 2 gallons of water and still lost about 5 lbs. from sweating.

The first hour is was brutal - I drank half a gallon of water before I even got the rail off the trailer. But the second hour it cooled off and was pretty enjoyable out!

Not sure when I'll be heading out again. 2nd gear in my buggy is hurting BAD and that's really the only gear that has a usable ratio in my tranny. But right now 2nd won't do anything over 4k RPM and my motor dosen't make any power until 3500RPM so I've got about 500RPM of the very bottom of my power band and that's it

Whichever of these events happens first will decide when I head out again:

1) I get a new tranny (May happen before August)

2) My business partner finishes his new rail (Could happen very soon. It just needs a trip to the scales and then a few more days in the shop for final suspension adjustments before it's usable.)

3) A night ride happens.

what bout a sunday mornin cruz... get there ohh say sunup... ride till gets hot... i just wanna go do a lil exploring.... hard for me to get places with knobs so the soft stuff gotta avoid..

Hey, Any of you guys want to hook up and go riding in the Buttercup area, lemme know. Ill be flying in from NJ on July2. Im bringing my banshee too. WEll, maybe we can ride July 4 or any other day after that. lemme know! THANKS!

I could be talked into an evening run ISBB, but I am NOT a morning person! Heck last sunday I didn't even wake up until 2PM

In college I held the dorm record for sleeping in by not waking up until 5PM on a sunday once!

Sundays are my day to sleep, and if I wake up in time take a quick trip to the river to hang out with some friends.

Heck even on weekdays it's pointless to call me before 9:30 in the morning and if you want a reply that makes sense I'd recommend waiting until after noon

COOOOL... ok so you talkin say a friday evenin... show up to your area bout 6ish ride till a lil after dark and head home... (NEVER RIDDEN THE DUNES IN THE DARK)

ISBB...So your talking about a SUnday Morning Cruz? Hey, maybe I can tag along with you, if you dont mind since i dont have anyone to ride with?! I just got home from dropping off my quad to be shipped to ARizona. Thanks! Lemme know!

own224 where at in AZ are you gettin your quad shipped too... and i live in the valley so i wouldnt mind a run maybe from glamis to buttercup or something... just haulin down da sand highway... I can go to either spot.. i live in el centro .. if you can make a friday run that would be cool that way we get jhitesma out there too... just lemme know... hell ill ride with a knobbie still.. or maybe by then ill have the paddle...

Okay, I am getting my quad shipped to Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. I'm picking it up on July 3rd. And by july 4th Ill have it all put together and ready to ride. TO ship the quad i had to take off the back wheels/rims and front shocks and handlebars. Well, i ordered new SAnd Sharks with rims so they should be in Yuma by July 3. Also, i had to remove the oil and gas so im gonna have to go get that stuff. I also need a flag and a sticker to ride in the dunes. ANYDAY is fine with me, as long as I get out there and RIDE! And have fun! Lemme Know....You can email me at Own2424@aol.com Thanks!

well im short on the sticker they gave me a red one for my thumper but there usually isnt many blm out in the middle of the summer especially at buttercup or gordons.. so ill take a chance.. as for the whip... its a bike its the summer we are gonna be the only peeps out there.. so i dont see the point in having it on there..

Whats the case with the sticker anyway? How much and where can i get one? Do i even need one, cuz im gonna be considered an AZ resident. Well, ive been talking to MANY Yuma local riders. And they are setting up an evening ride on Saturday night i think. Email me and ill let you know. THANKS!

hit up blm and get a outta state pass... thats what i think they call em... saturday huh... this saturday....

Nah, Saturday (july 6)

jhitesma

What the health is that place just after 32nd av.. you can see it from the highway looks like it was an old resivoir at one time now it has some jumps and stuff in the bottom of it like people have used it to play around in...

Own2424
the 6th might be doable if im not hungover still..

Friday evening (tongiht) I can't make it. But tomorrow evening and/or next saturday I may be up for it. I'm just not very motivated since 2nd gear is so bad in my buggy right now.

As for a sticker, if you already have a plate or registration from NJ you're set. If not then you just need an out of state sticker which is $20 at any local bike shop. KD should be able to hook you up and if not I know that Off Road buggy a few doors down from them has the stickers (But they charge an extra $1 for them)

Just to play a little Devils Advocate with you ISBB not having as many people out could be a good reason to run a whip/sticker. If they do come around there's no picking you out of a crowd

And I do see BLM guys cruising through Buttercup occasionally in the summer. Lots of Border Patrol down there too. They even helped me find my way back in a sandstorm one night when I was lost.

The place you're talking about off 32nd street (not Ave, big difference in Yuma. Streets to west-east ave's go north-south. Heck I live on "w. 21st street" and one block south is "w. 21st lane" and one block past that is "w. 21st trail" it's supposed to make it easier to find places but confuses the crap out of me) I don't know the history off other than everyone calls it "The pit" it's apparantly on Bureau of Reclamation land and is maintained by the City - I've yet to find anyone official who says you can or can't ride there.

There's also the area just south of I-8 at ave. 3E (where the old closed Dairy Queen is) which I've also never been able to get a straight answer about. I've been told it's BOR land as well but a few years ago someone built a berm there to try and keep people out. Two stories about that are that either it was Carey Meister (Local eco leader) and some friends to try and keep riders out or a farmer who's land goes up against that area and got tired of people cutting through his fields to get there.

There's also some good riding down by the river in a few areas. And my favorite testing area "Jackrabbit Pass" which is on Ave A. if you go south until you pass the Border Patroll station then it's on your right. Some sand and trails there but lots of broken bottles and trash from local kids who just go out there to party. Jackrabbit is BOR land operated by the city for sure and riding is allowed there. However Carey Meister has taken the Yuma Audobon society out there several tims to build berms to try and keep people out since the city refuses to outlaw riding there.

i wonder what blm would do for outta season sticker with no one out there.. as for the whip im working on a mount i just gotta get off my lazy ass and make it... kinda like the one seen in the two wheel tech a while back.. I will have a whip if i go or not... so... it wont be tomorrow.. .my day is packed... but probably the weekend of the 6th... i still dont have a paddle so you guys are going to have to take it easy on me... that soft stuff and a knobbie... YIKES..

I've got the paddle off my friends 1980 YZ250 sitting in my garage right now. And there's no sign of him making any progress on that bike anytime soon. I know he dosen't want it anymore because you can tell some of the paddles are starting to dry-rot.

I've got another friend who apparantly just got a used YZ490 with no paddle who's been wanting to take it out...but dosn't like going out in the summer and wants a paddle.

Right now I'm not up for any long or far rides because of my tranny problems and because I don't trust my current motor. I spoke with Kurtis (RaceDesigns on here) about my new motor this week though and things are looking good there, I guess he was pretty sick for awhile is why no one has heard from him.

But the nice thing about Buttercup is there is a lot of fun stuff literally right at the paved parking. In some areas the dunes start about 50 feet from the pavement. That spot I was jumping my rail was no more than 150 feet from the pavement! Right behind it was a decent sized set of bowls and comp is just a little further in from there.

If you go west off the top of comp there's some tame booring bits followed by some really fun bowls that flow into one another really nicely and have that one big bowl at the end which is kind of set apart because it's almost inside a bigger but more shallow bowl. Further west than those things die off quickly and turn into just whoops and trails through the brush. There's a lot of camping over there though and eventually the bridge to the north side.

Further south from that last big bowl things start to get a lot softer. Probably because that first set of dunes has been traveled for years - it's the area the first plank roads went through and has been built up to support the modern highway. And at the western edge you'll quickly hit the path that marks the mexican border. It's always well tracked but recently graded thanks to the border patrol. It's also marked with small monuments every couple hundred feet.

the eastern edge goes much further towards Mexico but I haven't done much exploring over there yet.

so you saying the north side of the road..... sounds like a plan looked like you could get to the top of comp pretty easy from the highway no visual signs of a bowl or big lip at the top but then again thats from the highway... but we will have to see.. tell you buddy i rode in glamis with a knobbie it wasnt bad just let the air outta the tire if he wants to take it for a ride ill go out with him on my knobbie and show him it aint that bad.... well let me know whats up.. jhitesma question bout how much voltage will a 600 watt amp pump out... im curious... well later all