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The Rooster May 2016

Another Great Dumont Trip April 21-25 By Jim Kastle

I arrived at Dumont around noon Thursday, and looked for Steve Sturm, who had posted that he would be there by 9:00. I looked around, and couldn't see him. There WAS a LazyDays motor home, but a gold diesel pusher was parked next to it. I knew Steve Porter couldn't make this trip, so I figured Steve had been delayed. I proceeded to set up where we did last year, near restroom 10. I was almost set up when Walt arrived and asked why I didn't camp with Steve and Chuck. I said "Chuck? He didn't post about coming." I felt really dumb that I hadn't checked out the LazyDays motor home. Walt and I got in my truck and and drove the half mile or so to Steve and Chuck. I explained my error, and instead of having me move, they said they hadn't set up, I and would move to where I had set up. That was really kind, as I had set up in the wrong place. After setting up, we went for the first of many fast rides. There were only one or two other groups, and NO tracks. We had a great ride and rode till sunset. We agreed to ride at 8:00 AM Friday. We had a campfire, and John soon arrived. Barry

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Whats New

The weather is warming up and another dune season is ending. What are your summer plans? Share them with the group by writing a newsletter article.

Coral Pink is Next

When you dune in July, the season never really ends. There’s still time to plan on this year’s Coral Pink trip from July 6-15, 2016.

Flags are Available

Both Janice Petersen and Dana Marin (Schellinger) have come through with flags. Read about them and check out the pictures on page 5.

THE ROOSTER A monthly update from the Inland Empire Offroad Association


arrived around midnight, well past my bedtime! I had texted him about the 8:00 AM ride. P.J. arrived Friday night around 9:00, neither John nor I greeted him as we has no cell service and didn't expect him until later, and we were watching a movie we had started during last October's Dumont trip.

Friday morning, by 8:15 all of us were on another fast ride. All the rides this trip were quite fast, with lots of 4th gear and maximum speeds around 70 miles per hour. I won't go into detail about each ride; instead I'll mention highlights, or low points, I remember.

On one ride a car joined in, as often happens. It was unusual in that he stayed with us and even took a break with us. His name is Dave, and his cousin, Robert, was riding with him. As the ride continued, Robert became a little carsick, and Dave radioed us he was dropping out. We invited him to join us again, and he did on several rides. Robert sat the rest of the rides out. They both joined us for our now traditional Go Pro video night Saturday. A neat thing about this trip was an impromptu carne asada burrito potluck, coordinated by chef John. The burritos and company were great.

As always happens, there were a few problems. The one that stands out in my mind was when my steering locked up as I was making a U turn back towards the oncoming cars. It wasn't that close, but certainly got my attention. John and Barry quickly took over the repair and found the pinion gear in my rack and pinion had broken a tooth. They removed the piece, and I said "I'd just

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Upcoming Events

• April 10: Sand Sports Super Swap Meet at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

• April 22-24: Dumont Trip. Let’s close out the season with a fun trip to Dumont.

• May 8th: Mother’s Day

• May 27-30: Memorial Day Weekend

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take it easy and head back to camp." Well after a few minutes, I couldn't detect any difference in the way it was steering, and decided to resume normal activities. I hope I remember to replace it before the next trip!

Another frustration was when John broke one of his 7 month old, high quality CVs. In typical John fashion, John had us return to camp and get his spare axle. He was up and running in just over an hour. Shortly before John broke the CV, P.J. also broke a CV and the loose axle damaged a five link bar mount. Barry towed him back to camp in spectacular fashion. As is typical, the CV broke in a most inconvenient place. Barry's car is a very

capable tow vehicle, and because of the terrain, he had to go pretty fast. We have GoPro proof that Barry's car actually got air towing P.J. Without the yellow trailer, P.J.'s car was out of commission. Not a big problem as it happened Saturday afternoon, so he only missed one ride.

On one ride John's car lost a cylinder, much like it did earlier this season at Glamis. John quickly diagnosed it as a stuck injector, the same as at Glamis. Always prepared, John had two spare injectors in camp. He soon had the offending part replaced, and only missed part of one ride.

Before this trip I finally bit the bullet and bought a mobile

radio with 15 times the power of the hand held I used previously. It worked great on the first few rides, but then mysteriously developed a bunch of static when I transmitted. None of us could figure out what had changed, and still don't know what happened, but with John's and P.J.'s help we found that by repositioning the antenna wire away from the push to talk wire, the radio was again crystal clear. It worked great the rest of the trip. I'm glad I finally stepped up.

Sunday while we were on the ride P.J. stayed back and began packing up. Before loading the car we were able to remove the transmission for some maintenance. Steve and Chuck also packed up and Walt and I went with them and P.J. to the Mad Greek for lunch. Walt and I returned to camp and we all went for an uneventful ride. We finished the day with a very windy campfire.

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Around 4:00 AM I awoke to the sound of rain and thunder. I had to cover my car, and as I want outside, John and Barry were also covering theirs. Back inside the trailer I was cold enough I turned on the furnace. I found out later John did too. It's hard to believe that during a late April Dumont trip we used the heaters, and not the air conditioners.

Back in bed I figured the morning ride would be canceled. But when Barry came to my door shortly before the 8:00 AM scheduled ride time and invited me to share breakfast at John's, and the informed me the ride would be delayed. This worked out well, as it gave time for my seats to dry. My 4:00 AM covering job left lots to be desired.

Earlier in this report I said I wouldn't give details of individual rides as they were so similar. Well, the Monday ride was among the best ever, and it deserves special attention. The wind that preceded the rain smoothed out the dunes, and the rain solidified it. There were truly no tracks, and the sand was as smooth as any of us had ever seen. During the night, Barry had seen a lightning strike, and led us to the area where we hoped to find evidence of the lightning. We couldn't find any evidence, but since Barry was leading us anyway, I suggested he lead the ride, and lead he did. The combination of smooth sand and good lighting conditions made for a very fast, smooth ride. John referred to it as a "twenty year ride," meaning we get one like it once in twenty years. I'm not sure they happen that often! It's the only ride ever on which I used mostly fourth gear. On our breaks the only tracks we could see were ours and they covered every part of the dunes. We did see on other small group, but only saw their tracks once, but not from our vantage points on the breaks. On our last break John reported his GPS had recorded 127 miles since being reset sometime Sunday. We all used at least 30 gallons of gas during the trip.

After over two hours of high speed, smooth, fun we headed back to camp. We all packed up and were ready to head out within 10 minutes of each other. We extended the trip by caravanning to the Mad Greek for more great food and company.

We plan to continue the tradition of starting and ending the duning season with an October trip this fall. We plan on another carne asada burrito and GoPro video night. Keep watching the website and newsletter for the date.

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Flags are Available As we mentioned last month, we have new club flags available. Both Janice Petersen and Dana Marin (Schellinger) have been able to get flags made. Take a look and contact either Mike Bacon and/or Janice Petersen to pick some up.

Drone Invasion By Paul KastleAs many of you know, I like gadgets, electronics, and anything with a radio in it. My latest obsession (as if I needed another hobby) is remote control quadcopters. These multi rotor aircraft can be built from parts available online and can be big enough to carry a GoPro camera. I first took one of these to Coral Pink last year, and had some brief flights before crash landing in the wind. With practice, and better versions of the toys, I have gotten some interesting video and pictures over the dunes this past season. At Dumont brought out my latest acquisition, a hexacopter (6 rotor) that I picked up on eBay. It uses a GPS to control where it goes, and to hopefully help hold its position in the wind. I was able to get some

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Janice contacted a local business in Riverside and had them sew up double sided flags with multiple rows of stitching. They are quite heavy duty, and are look very similar to what we have had in the past, but the direction is reversed so the red looks like a pennant. These flags are available for $45 each, and Janice has some available now or can get more with a few weeks notice.

Dana (Doug and Kris Schellinger’s daughter) has a company that makes the same type of flags for golf courses. They are made from a double layer of heavier nylon(?) fabric, with a blue border and the club logo embroidered on both sides in color, and reinforcing bands all the way around, double stitched. These should last a very long time. They are $30 each. Contact Mike Bacon if you want some of these and he’ll get them to you.


neat high altitude shots of camp and the dunes, despite it being a little windy. Eventually I did crash it as well, but the damage was relatively minor and I will have it fixed soon. The pictures below show some of what I’ve been able to capture so far. I am looking forward to capturing more from Coral Pink and trips next season.

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This month we’d like to thank Jim Kastle for writing his article about Dumont. This really has become one of the best trips of the year, and this year’s conditions were perfect. If you have more to share, please write it up and send it in for use in the coming months. As we move into the summer months it is nice to keep up on what fun activities everybody is up to. The next newsletter will be out in late May, and other than looking forward to CoralPink we don’t have any more trips to cover, so please send in your articles. -Paul, Melissa, Allie, and Marshall.

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