Report from the southern Oregon Dunes

[Ol'fogasaurus]

It rained during the night so things were damp. The wind came up out of the North about in the mid-teens in wind speed.

The other guys here went out and finally made it to the ocean by going all the way to the Spinreel entrance. As I said there is a lot of moisture in the ground so the sand is "heavy"; e.g., wet. You could hear some of the rigs that have loud exhaust climbing the dunes but the engines were lugging badly and they were having to down shift where normally they wouldn't. Heavy sand!

It clouding back up now after a mostly sunny day.

Its supposedly supposed to be nicer tomorrow.

Lee

[Leatherneck]

I thought with the wet sand you would have better traction. hmmm guess not.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

The idea is to get in top of the sand not sink into it. With all the water in the sand it is more if a drag,,, no pun intended. Kind of like that I posted, just not as bad.

Changed "egg" to "get". Darn spell check. I missed that one.

[madmitch]

I remsmber a time when camping at Dumont dunes a storm came up in the afternoon. We were inside the camper watching sleeping bags pillows and tents blowing past. Then it started blowing wet sand as it was starting to rain. When it died down the wet sand was stuck to the sides of our motorcycles like a sand sculpture. We fired the 3 wheelers up and went out to check the conditions. It was the best ever. The dunes were like glass and 4th gear was amazing. The paddles were singing on the smooth wet sand.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Yes, the wind and rain do pack down the dunes and blow them smooth. All the tracks go away quite quickly in a storm or two. Those types of storms also put ridges in the crests of the dunes that can be dangerous if you don't notice them. I've had them collapse on me from being on the ridge when it broke away ending up, very quickly, at the bottom of the dune.

I got caught in a dune collapse years ago where, when approaching it, the left side had collapses making a nice soft ride to the top but the middle and higher other end were still there. I was heading up in the middle when some people went riding across the ridge after coming up the side causing the ridge to collapse on me. I almost tipped over side ways riding it and almost got buried but the turning brakes saved me by pulling on both handles locking the diff up so I got traction to both wheels. The slide ended up covering about 30 of so feet from the entrance to the face of the dune.

Wind and rain can be good... or bad.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

We've been down here for a couple of days now. The trip took longer because of a two-car wreck where they had to cut the top off one of the cars to get the people out.

Good weather on Friday, heavy winds the day before which smoothed the dunes out from what I was told. The next day was misty all day; not rain but you could barely see the moisture in the air; you could more like feel it on bare skin (hands and face) than see the moisture hit in the mud puddles as you walked around and the ground was wet.

I almost forgot: the water table is still high so some access points are still flooded and there are a lot of low spots to try to get through. Ma Nature is still having fun tormenting us.

Since this is a holiday coming up the campground either are full or look to be overflowed. Those SXSs are getting to be a pain (I haven't been out on the dunes but the rest if the group has and the idiots are going through the packed areas as fast as the SXS will go. Very dangerous to say the least! Most of them look to be newbies based on sparkling clean and in-marked toys.

From what I am hearing that the Horsfall area has had changes make to the riding area and limiting idiots to where the trains run along the edges of the dunes. Even though the trains go very slow here people seem to have a want to ride up to or over the tracks and ignore the trains (when there or when moving). Its always been a problem but from what I am hearing it has gotten worse.

Have a great holiday guys and girls.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

It was windy in the afternoon here, maybe in the 18 mph range. Blowing sand and a smoothing out of the dunes somewhat. The wind where we are was low (on the ground) then would rise and the ground would be fairly calm but the tops of the trees would still be very noisy then, in a while the wind would be back on the "deck". Some of the trees here are in the 80' in height... and up range.

The parks and staging areas are full based on what we can see from the road and rigs were still coming in as of Saturday.


right now it is overcast (on shore flow) with a mild wind out of the north; where we are at least. The weather can be way different even within a couple of miles here. In North Bend/Coos Bay you could have wind and less than 10 miles away it can be sunny and calm or a nasty storm acting up... or... visa-versa.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Ii just got back from town getting some bolts. The one camping spot I can see from HWY 101 has thinned out quite considerably. I suspect that that also might be true for some of the others. Call first as there are also a lot of rigs in tow going north and south.

The Coos Bay itself has white caps and the bay just to the north of North Bend had water streaking and the start of white caps. The area 10 miles north-ish now has winds getting close to 20 mph.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

The wind has come up so hard from the North that you either have to wear a cowboy style of scarf over your nose and mount below your goggles, wear a balaclava under your full face shield helmet or stay in camp.

Otherwise, blue skies with some light overcast.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

So far the weather has been calm in the morning but the wind has come up a bit before or after noon then getting into the high teens and low 20s going into the night hours before dropping off... if so. The good part of it was that the mosquitos weren't able to get off the ground. I have only one swollen, itchy area on my neck to show for the trip down.

Last night the wind did drop earlier than it has been... but after dark. I am not sure how the fireworks shows were in the near by towns (if the wind dropped off enough to allow the show to go on) but it was low enough for some local fireworks. Not many but powerful enough to rattle the windows at times .

The Spruce trees (many in the 80' to 100' in height range) are top heavy with cones many of which at now on the ground along with branches both dead ones and some broken off so another cleanup will be necessary today.

The dunes are soft and fluffy from what I have been told and a lot of the tracks are now covered over. The crests of the dunes have had the moisture blown out of them so they are soft and could crumble some when you crest them (got stuck?). The ground water level has dropped some but from what I have been told many of the ocean beach access trails are still difficult to maneuver around/through.

I suspect that everyone is going home today happy and tired.

Hope you had a good 4th.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

The day is dull, overcast and no big winds; the big winds died early last night and went to almost nothing about the same time everyone left so maybe it was all just from people farting around out on the dunes ( ); so quiet now. I suspect that there are a lot of sick people limping home after the 4th (don't honk!).

There were fireworks set off out on the dunes but by and large the messes are all pretty much cleaned up now. The locals are pretty good at that just not sure of others.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Overcast in the AM but it burned off in the afternoon. There is an overcast sitting offshore for tomorrow.

The wind is up a bit but not as bad as it has been

The next bunch of riders have started to arrive for the weekend.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Just got back from the dunes. Passed a lot of people dragging toys towards the coast.

When we left the weather was clear blue sky and zilch wind. Not sure what it is like now.

A long drive and a lot of slow downs making the normal trip much longer and using a lot more fuel.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Heading down to the dunes early this time mostly due to the potential freeway problems caused by the eclipse. There are concerns on the news that both I-5 and HWY 101 could be blocked by people suddenly stopping to watch the eclipse. Keep your eyes open and be alert for this silliness on the eclipse day.

Also, make sure your eclipse glasses are not the fake ones being sold as the real thing.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

At the dunes now. The sun is out, the wind is up and not a whole lot of people seem to be here... yet.

The weekend is supposed to be windy maybe up to 25 knots by Sunday (1.15077945 so you can add it up better then I can... hopefully). When we went into town about an hour ago there are the start of white caps in the bay which means in the high teens to low 20s. You could feel it when you drove.

Unless you have a full face helmet w/balaclava then I would recommend having a bandana to wear over your lower face to protect you from the sand blasting your skin and lungs.

Lee