A evening walk along the dunes as the sun set... It wasn't nearly as romantic as it sounds. I was really pooped after this.

The next morning. More walking? Screw walking.... I'll drive, thanks.

The nearly deserted desert. Well except for those people way out there... "HEY GUYS CAN YOU HEAR ME? IF YOU CAN, WAVE!!!" They never waved.

The wind is blowing quite heavily. Those reeds are pretty much how my hair looked... Hey can you spot the people in the background? They're three dots way off in the distance (you'll have to load the big version the picture to see this)

Freakishly strange. Sand. Then all of a sudden, forest. It's not very often you can see two entirely different ecosystems side by side. You can spot a couple houses in the background on the left... You can also see a haze along the ridge of the sand dune in the foreground. That's the wind carry sand particles over the ridge...

When I said these dunes at the Umpqua Dunes trailhead were big, I wasn't kidding. You can see the couple in the background huffin' and puffin' their way up the dune. These are your wussy parking-lot speed-bump-sized dunes, we're talking about big dunes. This dune is one of the smaller ones in the area...

I checked into a campground just outside Florence, Oregon. After making myself a quick dinner, I decided to relax by taking a stroll along the sand dunes that are next to the campground. Perhaps "stroll" is not the correct word to describe the workout I was about get...

In the movies, they always show you lost guys wandering the desert for days--you can tell they're supposed to be pretty tired and thirsty. But, as an audience, we have little appreciation for how hard it is to actually walk around on sand. I'm not talking about the pansy hard-packed sand you see at the local beach...I'm talking about loose, deep sand you find at the desert.

First of all, you can't walk in deep sand nearly as fast as you walk on pavement (duh!). The sand seems to hug your feet, sapping you of all energy and speed. Walking on deep sand feels like you're wading through molasses. Given that I normally walk at a fairly fast pace, it's frustrating to walk so slowly.

Second of all, climbing sand hills and dunes is an extremely tedious process. When you climb a steep dune, the sand yields very little support and starts to slip away. As you take two steps up a dune, the sand slips you down one step...

"Pictures of an ATV, wheel spinning, upside down, pinning my puny body, my arms quivering, flashed briefly through my mind. I shrugged and signed the agreement anyway."

After walking around the dunes for about thirty minutes, while carrying about fifteen pounds of camera equipment and my metal tripod, I felt pretty beat. Stumbling back to camp, I took a hot shower and went straight to bed.

Before I knew it, it was 6:30am.

I decided to skip breakfast and get a early start onto the road. It wasn't until I drove out of the heavily wooded campground that I realized that the sky was heavily overcast. Hmm...not good weather for pictures. I hoped that it was just morning fog/clouds that would burn away in the afternoon.

Several miles down the road, I passed by a sign that advertised a place that rented ATVs (all-terrain vehicles) so you could drive on the sand dunes. Seeing how the weather was fairly poor for pictures, I decided to drop in and kill some time (and hopefully not somebody).

Twenty minutes later, I was watching a safety video on how to properly drive an ATV. I signed over my credit card, read an agreement that basically stated that if I died/got injured as a result of an accident, while using the ATV, I was solely responsible for my own idiocy, and that no one could sue the rental agency. Pictures of an ATV, wheel spinning, upside down, pinning my puny body, my arms quivering, flashed briefly through my mind. I shrugged and signed the agreement anyway.

The rental operator continued with the safety messages, "Make sure you go straight up a dune and straight down...don't go parallel to a dune, as you can tip over. Do not drive outside the perimeter, we have several workers out on the dunes, to make sure you don't go too far. Also, don't stop on a flat area or on incline, as you can get your ATV stuck in the sand. If you do get stuck, one of the operators will come and pull you out. When going over a dune, make sure you watch for dropouts or sudden drops...if you speed through the coned area, you will be fined $30..." I stopped listening to the operator, as I squeezed my head into a supplied brain bucket and slipped on a pair of goggles. I suppose I should have listened more carefully, but it was hard to hear him through the helmet and over the noise of the engines.

I examined the ATV. Fairly basic operation: throttle, brake and handle bar for turning. It ain't rocket science...that's for sure. Apparently the reverse gear had been disabled, so this thing could only go forward. After leading me through a wooded trail out to the dunes, the operator sped off back to the office. I was free to drive around (under the supervision of some operators off in the distance). At first I was fairly timid with the throttle, but after 20 minutes the boy-racer spirit within me, took over. Speeding up and around dunes...I was having a blast. While speeding over a sand bump, the size of car, the ATV slammed into my body upon impact. I decided, from then on, to stand while driving over bumps. Hmm...this is how it must feel to drive in the Paris-Dakar rally. (Just for the curious, the Paris Dakar rally is an annual motor race where motorcycles, automobiles and even trucks race from France to Dakar, Senegal. The race itself, takes about 21 days to complete and is considered the ultimate endurance rally and is famous for grueling stages through sandy deserts that punish both driver and machine. If you're a rally nut like me, you can watch coverage of the race on the Speedvision network.)

I had been having so much fun, that I had hardly noticed that the weather had cleared up in the past half hour. I headed back to my car and picked up my camera. The hour passed quickly. After getting stuck in the sand twice, while stopping to take photos, I returned to the main lodge. I peeled off the goggles, as my eyes were watering and screaming for air. Getting my deposit back, I headed to my van and pulled out onto the highway again.

Yeah I tried to do something artsy and took five photos at the top of a sand dune at the Umpqua Dunes trail, and then I digitally stitched them together, except it didn't turn out that well. Oh well...

By late morning, I was at the Umpqua Dunes trailhead. This short trail winds through a bizzare forest and sandy transition environment that seperates the coastal dunes and the inland forest. The dunes at the foot of the trail have been measured to be the highest ones in all of Oregon. As I mentioned earlier, some of the dunes can be up to 500 feet high (30 storeys). So, if you have the energy to climb one of the beasts, you will be rewarded with a nice panoramic view of the surrounding area.

"No wonder those Mafia guys always bring bodies into the desert."

I climbed up a fairly steep dune and walked carefully along the ridge. I took off my shoes and socks and grimaced from the pain: Ow. Hot. Sand. Hurts. Feet. Ack.

As I sank deeper into the sand, the cool sand underneath the hot surface smothered my feet and brought relief. Ahhhhh... Tiny grains of cool samd squished between your toes feels really nice.

One thing that I did notice was the amount of winds blowing in this area. Quite literally, it took only a few minutes for the wind to pile sand over my footprints. No wonder those Mafia guys always bring bodies into the desert.

That reminds me of a good movie quote from the Martin Scorsese film, Casino. The character, Nicky Santoro, played by Joe Pesci, offers this tip: "A lot of holes in the desert, and a lot of problems are buried in those holes. But you gotta do it right. I mean, you gotta have the hole already dug before you show up with a package in the trunk. Otherwise, you're talking about a half-hour to forty-five minutes worth of digging. And who knows who's gonna come along in that time? Pretty soon, you gotta dig a few more holes. You could be there all f**kin' night."

Chapter 5 >>