This last weekend I took a morning dune run out to the dunes in between Olds and Comp, it was a beautiful and smooth morning run. I was telling my passenger that the secret to duning out in the big dunes is to follow the tracks that are already in the dunes and to watch out for the tracks that might be only from 1 or 2 riders. Too bad I didnt follow my own advice...

We were heading out of the dunes somewhere around right-side of Oldsmobile hill when I saw a small "jump-able" lip of a dune, I figured it was slight slope on the other side and we could get a little air on. Well, after I jumped the lip I remember seeing nothing but sky and continuing to fall... when the rhino landed and sand came into view, I saw that directly in front of us was a wall of sand! I hit the brakes as hard as I could and we only slightly hit up into the wall of sand.

We had jumped off a razorback and directly into a witch-eye that could suck up a sandrail! My next thought was that we had a rider on a quad following us and his was going to do the same thing and jump into the back of us. I kept my eye on the rear view and sure enough he came over and jumped but made a hard evasive maneuver and missed us. It was a close call and with a little help from a guy that got out of his rail to help push the rhino out (and diff lock and low 4wd) we were free.

Here are some pics of what it looked like. In the first pic take a look at where we landed from the top of the razorback, rear tires came down first.

GOOD TIMES ....

Looks like your Rhino came out unscathed, that is a testament to the kit you have. Very cool.

Well at least you got out of it. Happy ending!
Thanks for sharing.

good think nobody got seriously hurt, if the guy on the quad was going any faster, it could have been a very bad day.

I will say it once, and I am sure I will say it a thousand times more, NEVER JUMP WITHOUT A SPOTTER!!!! or at least do a flyby and check out whats on the other side.

first!!!!!! holy crap you are lucky.....

nice blind jump.....glad I wasn't on the blind side when you came over. Duning 101.....

In the first pic, Look at the tracks in the sand, You can see how close that quad came to you. You guys are lucky. What's up mr.offroad, it's me daseahag.

^^^^^ No kidding.

And everybody complains about newbies buying a rail and endangering people's lives.


This post covers at least 2 of the worst newbie mistakes one can make. Also, following the tracks from larger groups thinking that they selected a better line is a flawed line of thinking. There may have been 3 quads following the best leader thru the dunes, and another group of 25 quads following someone who is essentially lost. Chances are the lost guy had 3 or 4 quads follow him into the witche's eye, just like your quad did.


In the pic below, the correct line is shown in the red ellipse. The wrong line is shown in the red rectangle. We can all learn from this, it could have been a lot worse.


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Lucky you! I wasn't so lucky, 6 miles in 3 hours to get out, but that"s the way it goes no one hurt lesson learned!

Thanks Steve, that just saved me some time photochopping.

dammit! i was gonna do that when i got home!!!

Last time I was at Gordons Well, we came upon a group of 4 bikers that had been playing "follow the leader" and jumping dunes south of Pattons..... first guy jumped a razorback, and landed in a witcheye, the 2nd landed on top of him, the 3rd on top of the 2nd, well you get the idea.... biker #1 was eventually airlifted to Yuma after USBP, BLM and some volunteers carried him about a half mile to a flat spot. No idea what ever happened to him...



Look before you leap!

i would of went faster and cleared the gap.

Yup, I agree it was a mistake that could have been disastrous in many ways. It just goes to show no matter how much dune experience you have and fun you might be having its never a good idea to never throw caution to the wind. I have been duning at Glamis consistently since 1983 so far have never been involved in anything worse than my old banshee pulling a wheelie too hard and bending the rear sub-frame.

I definitely didnt made a poor decision and should have at least drove up to the lip parallel before deciding to try to go over it head on. I wasnt trying to jump it in the sense of trying to launch the rhino, but it was more of a if I hit this bump right I can get the sensation of the tires off the ground a little. Heck, even if I attempted the correct transition method as illustrated it still would have been a very difficult one because of the angles on both sides.

This one goes into my LESSONS LEARNED FILE.

In regards to my comment about following other peoples tracks, I should elaborate on what I meant by that. When I am leading I usually stick to tracks that you can tell are a heavy-trafficked path. The probability of those types of tracks leading to a point of danger are much less than not following any tracks at all. Now, earlier in that very same run, I was following tracks from 2 quads and it definitely wasnt a good path to follow, they did hit witch-eyes, and 4 foot drop offs... I quickly began to look for a different route through the dunes because that one wasnt good. I just found it ironic that I was telling my passenger (whos first time to the dunes was this trip) that to dune safe you should follow paths that lots of people (not just a couple of quads) have visibly used through the dunes and then I later make my own path and end up off a razorback in a witch-eye.

If you took of the fifty pounds of lights on the bumper you might of not nosed-in....

didn't nose in, broke on the way out or at least the try out. lights are much smaller in person

im not sure i agree with any of that...

me personally i never follow anyones tracks...who knows if they knew what they were doing!!! well traveled routes can pose a danger as well. its not fun coming up on someone head on. when your out in the dunes, most of the time you cant see over the next ridge. so the best way to transition is from an angle. in the example below, i marked the correct way to cross over a dune, those tracks are from a very safe rider. even if im not leading, ill still come up to the ridge, and look over before i make the transition. this way you can see whats on the otherside, before you make the commitment.

im not tryin to bag on ya offroad, just trying to point out the safest way to do this!

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Just joshin' with ya!
It's all good

Dont worry, I am not getting butt hurt or anything and I appreciate everyones replies on my little incident.

I wholeheartedly agree with you, that is the best way to transition. its just like when you are out in the big bowls and you are going from one big one to another part of responsible duning is to not only see whats directly ahead of you but to take into account your surrounding dunes just in case someone is also hitting the bowls. Even still the worst mistake any of duners can make is to assume that we are the only people out in the dunes. Transitioning in the way you mentioned gives each driver the opportunity to take evasive action to avoid a collision or getting stuck in a situation like I put myself in.

With that all said, who is going to let me lead them on a ride through the big dunes!
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let's roll

I HIDE EVERY WHERE IN GLAMIS AND AS YOU CAN SEE I GOT ANOTHER ONE!

Shouldn't that read, "Ouch, Effer! You hit me in the Eye!

Good to see that this came out as a lesson learned with photo's and no injuries.

Also, MrOffroad has some thick skin and can discuss this with everyone so that others can learn from the mistake.

That said, since I've been out in the dunes since 1977, and having one of the founding families of the Imperial Dunes (Grandfather started duning with 6 others back in the mid 50's) I was taught early about the dangers of not doing side transitions of dunes. They not only help detirmine who is on the other side but what is on the other side. Back in the 50's, if you took a model a-frame "buggy" over the lip at the wrong place there was no Lifeflight to help you and aside from your buddies, no one to help.

Still if you have been in the dunes forever and a day, you will hit a witches eye, or at least nearly get bitten by one, even if you follow all the rules, sun and shadow can hide some things and then...poof..awww damn!!

As for following "established lines" I tend to take my own lines unless I know a route pretty well, or I'm trying to get from point a to point b a little quicker. You can run into some trouble, but I have found that you do run less of a risk hitting an obsticle than you do another vehicle, because a well traveled path is...well traveled and likely to have traffic from both directions.

TPR

yes...hats off to mr offroad for posting that pic in the first place!!!!!!

Hmmm... a couple of you have said you don't follow the heavily traveled routes. How is that possible? Unless the wind just blew nearly every dune is heavily tracked up. And since most dunes are shaped so that you go up, turn, and go back down -OR- go up, turn, and go over the ridge, then that's where the tracks will be. Most everyone takes the "fun line" like that, so how do you avoid it? Go in a straight line?

You know I am sure we probably all agree on this issue of paths and transitions ... its just that people all interpret how stuff is written differently. I do this all the time and mis-read what someone has typed.

This picture shows a well traveled path in the big dunes. I consider them to have a far less probability of getting into big trouble (like I encountered) if you follow a route such as this. In the picture you can see the path rides below the edge of the dune lip and only the fool hearty (such as myself) would made a mistake and go directly over the lip instead of following an already established path through the dunes.

Enlarge the pic for serious detail
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