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Had an interesting trip out west recently. I always wanted to ride on sand dunes and we needed to visit some family out west, so we loaded up the RV and chased the sun. My wife picked the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park as the sand dune destination and our first stop of the trip.
Knowing the Alta would do exceptionally bad in the sand as far as range, I brought with my CRF450X to use as my primary bike. I couldn't not bring with the MXR though and try it, after all, it had to be awesome in the sand for at least a little bit, right?
The dunes did not disappoint, probably the most fun I had on a dirt bike. I ran sand knobbies on both bikes instead of full paddles, if doing it again I would definitely go full paddle. The Alta lasted about as long as I had expected, 20 minutes
, but it was the best 20 minute rides of the day! You can not ride slow in the sand, the key is to keep the speed up and moving or you will burn more gasoline or electrons starting and stopping. The Alta was awesome, no time lost shifting, and where my 450x seemed to be tapped out of power, the MXR just pulled and pulled. It was magic!
Unfortunately my riding was cut short. Only two days into riding and about an hour after having a conversation with the park ranger on how deceptive the dunes can be at certain times of the day, the dunes got me just the same. The ranger informed me during our talk that even after 14 years of working at the park, he himself was recently caught off guard by a "witches eye" and broke multiple ribs in an ATV crash. My wife an I even had a "ride briefing" before the ride. Sometimes you just can't help but screw up I guess.
Anyhow, where I thought I was going up over the crest of one dune transitioning into another line I thought I had already rode, I ended up sending it off about a 25' dune and flat landing my pig heavy 450x in about the least sandiest most solid area one could find in the whole place. Picking myself off the ground after impact I could feel my right collarbone was really broken. I could feel the bone poking up and I had to feel to see if it was wet as I feared it might have broken the skin. Fortunately it didn't and by this time the wife had found me. Pain had not totally set in yet and my wife wanted to get me out of there before it did. I managed to get myself back on the bike and place my right hand on the throttle and I slowly dug myself back to the RV. It was not an easy ride back to say the least!
The closest hospital in Kanab was only about 20 minutes or so from the dunes, they x-rayed and braced me up. The people there were fantastic. Probably the best hospital service of my entire life. The doctor confirmed that it would need plated and he made all the calls and had me scheduled for surgery the following day at a larger hospital in St. George. I thought to myself "great, pro motocrossers race after about two weeks after having their collarbones plated... maybe I could at least ride after a week or so?". After a rough night of attempted sleep we got an early start on the 2 hour drive to St. George. We got there early and they took me in right away, again, better service than I ever got back east. By noon I was on my way out. The surgeon had informed my wife that my scapula was also broken and I had what was known as a "floating shoulder" and that it would not have healed properly without surgically stabilizing one or the other, so it would seem that I would be out of commission for awhile. So much for riding anytime soon.
We salvaged to trip and ended up doing things we wouldn't have done otherwise, southern Utah is fantastic, coming from a life on the east coast the lack of humidity was pure bliss compared to one of the worst years I can remember as far as rain and humidity back east. We did some parks in Utah and headed north to Yellowstone instead. Million dollar views everywhere. My conclusion is "West is best", we are now looking to potentially relocate and are currently looking into the details.
At any rate, here is a 6 minute clip from one of my Alta rides. It's a 360 degree VR video which is fairly new and doesn't play on all browsers, so if it looks psychedelic, it's not displaying properly in your browser.
And here is the result of all that fun...
Knowing the Alta would do exceptionally bad in the sand as far as range, I brought with my CRF450X to use as my primary bike. I couldn't not bring with the MXR though and try it, after all, it had to be awesome in the sand for at least a little bit, right?
The dunes did not disappoint, probably the most fun I had on a dirt bike. I ran sand knobbies on both bikes instead of full paddles, if doing it again I would definitely go full paddle. The Alta lasted about as long as I had expected, 20 minutes
, but it was the best 20 minute rides of the day! You can not ride slow in the sand, the key is to keep the speed up and moving or you will burn more gasoline or electrons starting and stopping. The Alta was awesome, no time lost shifting, and where my 450x seemed to be tapped out of power, the MXR just pulled and pulled. It was magic!Unfortunately my riding was cut short. Only two days into riding and about an hour after having a conversation with the park ranger on how deceptive the dunes can be at certain times of the day, the dunes got me just the same. The ranger informed me during our talk that even after 14 years of working at the park, he himself was recently caught off guard by a "witches eye" and broke multiple ribs in an ATV crash. My wife an I even had a "ride briefing" before the ride. Sometimes you just can't help but screw up I guess.
Anyhow, where I thought I was going up over the crest of one dune transitioning into another line I thought I had already rode, I ended up sending it off about a 25' dune and flat landing my pig heavy 450x in about the least sandiest most solid area one could find in the whole place. Picking myself off the ground after impact I could feel my right collarbone was really broken. I could feel the bone poking up and I had to feel to see if it was wet as I feared it might have broken the skin. Fortunately it didn't and by this time the wife had found me. Pain had not totally set in yet and my wife wanted to get me out of there before it did. I managed to get myself back on the bike and place my right hand on the throttle and I slowly dug myself back to the RV. It was not an easy ride back to say the least!
The closest hospital in Kanab was only about 20 minutes or so from the dunes, they x-rayed and braced me up. The people there were fantastic. Probably the best hospital service of my entire life. The doctor confirmed that it would need plated and he made all the calls and had me scheduled for surgery the following day at a larger hospital in St. George. I thought to myself "great, pro motocrossers race after about two weeks after having their collarbones plated... maybe I could at least ride after a week or so?". After a rough night of attempted sleep we got an early start on the 2 hour drive to St. George. We got there early and they took me in right away, again, better service than I ever got back east. By noon I was on my way out. The surgeon had informed my wife that my scapula was also broken and I had what was known as a "floating shoulder" and that it would not have healed properly without surgically stabilizing one or the other, so it would seem that I would be out of commission for awhile. So much for riding anytime soon.
We salvaged to trip and ended up doing things we wouldn't have done otherwise, southern Utah is fantastic, coming from a life on the east coast the lack of humidity was pure bliss compared to one of the worst years I can remember as far as rain and humidity back east. We did some parks in Utah and headed north to Yellowstone instead. Million dollar views everywhere. My conclusion is "West is best", we are now looking to potentially relocate and are currently looking into the details.
At any rate, here is a 6 minute clip from one of my Alta rides. It's a 360 degree VR video which is fairly new and doesn't play on all browsers, so if it looks psychedelic, it's not displaying properly in your browser.
And here is the result of all that fun...
