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♦ Christmas / New Years was a long fun trip spread out over almost two weeks since New Year’s day fell on a Wednes-day. The crowds were relatively light, which made for a quiet week in the dunes.

♦ The next Glamis trip is already almost here, since the MLK dune cleanup weekend at wash 6 is from Friday January 17th through Monday January 20th.

♦ Many club members are headed to check out the shopping in Quartzsite AZ following the MLK trip. It makes the rest of us look forward to being retired.

♦ There will be another 10+ day trip to the dunes for Presi-

dents Week, starting the weekend before Presidents day. Members will be out there all week, allowing others to do back to back weekends.

♦ Utah has changed the reservation system for individual campsites to a revolving four month reservation window from your arrival day. This means that individual sites for next year’s Coral Pink trip may be reserved starting on March 11th.

By Mike Bacon & Lisa Shea Lots of stories from eight days in the dunes, however I can't remember most of them! Here are some highlights though!

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January 18-20: MLK Weekend at Glamis,

Wash 6. Also Mike Bacon will

be leading a group at Ocotillo

Wells with the RZRs.

February 7-17 : Presidents Week at

Glamis, Wash 6. Plan on mem-

bers arriving the weekend be-

fore and staying through Presi-

dents Day Monday or later.

March 11 : First day to call for indi-

vidual Coral Pink reservations.

March 30: Sand Sports Super Swap

at the Orange County Fair-

grounds in Costa Mesa.

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One day we took the RZR's to explore the mines south of Ogilby Road. We stopped at the Ogilby Graveyard first though, then vis-ited the American Girl mine.

We then headed back in to the mountains where we came across an old pit mine. We were able to work our way down to the bot-tom where we found a small lake had formed. Unfortunately, no one wanted to go swimming.

After leaving the pit mine we came across an old rock house fur-ther back in the hills. This appeared to have been built to support

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a small mine that was close by.

We rode every day often stopping at the flag pole and Hill 3. There is a new monument at Hill 3 dedi-cated to the fire fighters killed in Arizona earlier this year.

While out riding one day, on our way back from the flag pole area, we came across a Rhino that had shed its rear wheel. They were lucky though as the hub nut was still in the wheel's center cap. Not want-ing to leave anyone in the dunes we stayed to help them fix it.

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On a ride that ended up at Hill 3 we stopped for a break and Janice detoured off behind us. Anyone want to guess what she's doing out there???? While walking up a dune at the hill I came across this dan-gerous little creature. His tail was up and his stinger was out so I guessed he was going to be unfriendly. We had a great time, with great weather, and even greater friends. Can't wait for the next trip!

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Shirley had sent me this picture while we were at the dunes for Thanksgiving, and I missed it in my e-mail. After she asked about it, I went back in my messages and found it. I figured it was definitely worth sharing with the group. That is some soft sand, and it looks like Ray is hanging on for dear life.

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New Year's 2014 by Jim Kastle

After spending a great Christmas at P.J. and Melissa's along with Nancy, John ,Anna, Matthew and Courtney, I arrived at wash 6 around 11:15 Bobby Amador, along with LuAnne; the Fords; the Tranthams; Mike Bacon, along with Ashley; and Walt were all asleep. I must have been pretty quiet as I unloaded the car and went back to GDS to get the RZR, and set up the mast and strobe without waking anyone up. Thursday we spent time setting up camp, and Mike led a leisurely RZR ride on which Ashley drove Shirley's RZR. Kris and Doug and grandson Dylan arrived, as did Steve Porter. Walt and I installed a high lift jack on my sandrail, in hopes of never again getting stuck for as long as I did on the Thanksgiving trip. Time will tell. While we were working on my car, a young girl, probably a middle schooler, rode into camp and explained to Steve she was lost and asked for help. Steve sent her to to Kris, who arranged for her and Ashley to take her on a ride through the washes looking for her camp. It was her first time at Glamis, and all she knew was that they camped near a restroom, and they were in a truck camper, and a nearby camp had a trailer with graffiti on it. Despite their efforts, they could not find her camp. Kris made a 911 call, and was connected to the sheriff's office, who had already received a call from her camp. The sheriff's office gave Kris the camp's phone num-ber. Kris called and arranged to meet them at the restroom by wash 6. Ashley and the girl met them and they were very appreciative when they came to our camp to pick up the quad. It surprised us all that the girl had stopped at two camps before ours and both refused to offer any help. P.J., Melissa, and Allie arrived after dark. Friday Mike led a great seven RZR ride to the mines below Ogilby road and the railroad tracks. We covered 50 miles, and even went to the bottom of an old open pit mine, which had a lake in the bottom. We found a long-abandoned stone cabin and wondered why it was built so close to a creek bed. A good time was had by all. When we got back to camp Chuck Grossman soon arrived. We had a well-attended campfire at which Allie convinced each and everyone of us to go "on stage" and sing and dance a song from the new movie Fro-zen. I would have bet money she wouldn't have convinced any of Steve Porter, Chuck, Jerry, or me to attempt to dance and sing, but we ALL gave it a try! I don't think there were any cameras, thank God! Saturday I awoke to see a new, nicely detailed purple sandrail. I took a look, and it turns out it was Barry's nine year old car. He fi-nally decided the bugs had been worked out, and he took it com-pletely apart, painted it, and had it wrapped with a very attractive purple design. It was a tremendous evolution, as indicated by the name on the wing. We went on a pretty long buggy ride that included a little time in the big dunes and then a ride to Gecko road where we stopped it Bob Amador's sister's camp. We added two buddies from that camp and went on a pretty fast ride just south of the northern closure. After a break we broke into two groups to allow time to at-tend the lunch at the RZR event. Not wanting to eat lunch so close to dinner, Kris, Walt, P.J., and I went for a short ride, Kris's first club buggy ride in a couple of years. On that ride I heard a strange noise from the rear of my car and decided to head back to camp. Back in camp I found that a Universal joint on my rear axle had

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broken. I wasn't too worried because I had a spare U joint in camp. Several of us went to Mama Jeannie's for an early dinner at 4:00 o'clock in an attempt to avoid the crowd. It turned out there was no crowd, with only two other groups sharing the restaurant with us. We returned to camp for a campfire, and then five of us went to Olds. There were very few people at Olds. Sunday I decided to stay in camp and get some Grandpa time with Allie, and then work on my car. Allie was a lot more fun than working on my car, as I found I did more damage than I thought, and needed parts that were not available in Glamis. I ended up driving the 440 mile round trip home to get the needed parts. While I was playing with Allie and working on the car, P.J. led a buggy ride. On that ride, which I hear was pretty good,

Barry had an A-arm failure that required removing the part and taking it back to camp for some welding. Dave Huggard, P.J., and I made the repair, and I fol-lowed the buggies in my RZR to install the repaired A-arm, before heading home for parts. As I type this paragraph, I just got back to camp, and it's now 12:30 A.M. Monday morning! More to come. Later Monday I got up early and P.J. and I installed the axle part and installed the axle on the car. We went for a ride with several buggies. Just past Olds, Chuck lost the steering on his sandrail. We made a quick stop where we reattached the steering shaft to the steering box. Shortly after restarting the ride Chuck reported his shifter broke. A ball on the end of the shit cable broke. As it has happened before,

probably five of us mentioned that Justin usually has a spare on the car. Chuck repeatedly said there were no spares on the car. We decided to go to the flats for parts. While waiting for Chuck to get the part, several of us had ice cream, after all we had to make the best of the situation. We regrouped after ice cream and install-ing the part, and for the first time in years made the run from the flats to Comp. This set of dunes flows very smoothly and it was a lot of fun to take the new longer travel cars on this path. The ride continued through the dunes well past Olds, and we made an uneventful return to camp. Tuesday's highlight was the annual spaghetti potluck. We had a great variety of food, and plenty of it. I don't think anyone went away hungry. We had a well-attended campfire before some of us went to Olds to view the crowd. It turns out we WERE the crowd. It was the fewest cars at the hill for New Year's that any of us could recall. We still enjoyed the warm fire and good conversation, and were able to return to the campfire for the stroke of midnight. Again the fire-works show was the mildest we've ever seen for New Year's at Glamis. The Inland Empire midnight contin-gent was the biggest in years, however, with close to twenty of us at the campfire to welcome 2014. I should mention that while we were doing buggy rides, Mike Bacon was busy leading RZR rides. I missed most of these rides because I wanted to be with P.J., so I went on buggy rides. New Year's Day started a little late with only a five buggy ride. On this ride the

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buggies met the RZR's at Hill 3, then again at Hill 5. After we returned to camp people started leaving, as many had to work on Thursday. Mike led a long RZR ride Thursday morning. As P.J. had gone home, I drove the RZR on this ride and really enjoyed it. Don and Jerry drove the RZR's on this ride, as Mike had worn out Linda and Shirley. Shawn and Brandy and friends had arrived Wednesday evening, with both of Shawn's sand rails and Brandy's sandrail in tow. Because Mike Bacon went home Thursday, Friday morn-ing Walt led a long RZR ride all the way to hill 5. Don and Jerry joined us again. Ray and Janice joined us on this ride, after deciding to extend their stay a few days. Walt did a great job of keeping the ride mild enough that it was lots of fun for everyone. At one point on the ride I men-tioned on the radio how smooth the sand was. It was the smoothest sand we've seen all week. Sure enough, a minute or two after my comment we found we were on the wrong side of the closure. None of us had seen where we entered the area. It sure has me looking forward to the eventual removal of the closures. Walt found a great line from Hill 5 back to camp. We were in the dunes, but east of Hills 3, 4, and 5. I had never gone that way before. Shawn, Brandy and Evan, driving Shawn's yellow Subaru powered rail went on a buggy ride. They later reported the cars were great on the first part of the ride, then Shawn's car started dropping cylinders. When we got back to camp Brandy and Shawn were trying hard to diagnose the problem. They were using Brandy's laptop, and found which three cylinders were dead, but no one knows why. With them trying everything they could think of, the rest of us have noth-ing to add. It's frustrating to the rest of us, I can only imagine how frustrating it has to be for Shawn and Brandy who have been chasing a similar problem for two years. Saturday morning Walt led Jerry, Don, RAY, and me on another great ride. We went as far south as Hill 4, and as far north as Highway 78. While we were on the RZR ride, Shawn, Brandy and, Bob Amador went on a fast ride, to satisfy Bob's need for speed our regular rides don't fill. Bob broke a microstub, requiring a return to camp in Shawn's car to get tools and parts. When we returned from the RZR ride they were still in the dunes. The Fords, the Tranthams, Walt, and I made the traditional trip to Mama Jeannie's for Saturday dinner. Even though we were half an hour later than last Saturday, we still had the place to ourselves for a good part of the meal.

Sunday morning we awoke to find lots of wind, by far the windiest day of the trip. That only riding was Jerry and me taking the RZR's to look for firewood. We lei-surely packed up in preparation for a Monday departure. The wind died and we had a campfire with all 6 of us in at-tendance. Monday morning it was warm and calm, making the final packing easy. We said our goodbyes, and will be back out in ten days for the cleanup.

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The crowd at the campfire on New Year’s Eve

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By Paul Kastle Evolution can be defined as the gradual development of something into a complex or better form. This clearly fits the Baker family sandrail, which debuted over the New Year's trip to Glamis with new paint and graphics, marking the pinnacle ( a t least so far ) in evolution for a project that was started almost 10 years ago. After not having much luck with his newly built four seat car, and progressing from VW to Subaru power, Barry decided to start a massive project. He planned ( in about late 2003 ) to build a V8 powered, mid-engine five seater which would be closely modeled after Kris and Doug Schellinger's beautiful new blue Dunn Tech car. Kris and Doug allowed Barry to take measurements, and Barry and Dean Carver began construction of two cars completely from scratch at Fontana High school. These weren't the first cars to come from that shop, as John Cole and Dean had previously built a pair of Stainless Steel cars, but this would be a new venture into the ( r elatively new ) world of long travel. Over time Barry acquired the pieces to build the new car, and he and Dean continued their projects. In January of 2005, we started a third

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The Baker family sandrail exemplifies the evolutionary process

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This month we’d like to thank Mike Bacon and Jim Kastle for submitting articles. We keep experimenting with different things in the newsletter, and we’d like to hear your feedback and contributions. As always, please feel free to send in your articles and if you do, we will gladly include them in the next newsletter. The next one will come out after the Presidents Week trip to Glamis, so look for coverage of another week in the dunes. -PJ, Melissa and of course Allison

similar car to be built at Fontana High School, which was for me with tubing that the guys gave me for my birthday. Over time Dean's car became John's, Dean built another copy, and after finishing my car we built another for my Dad, but Barry's car was one of the originals. A significant milestone in its evolution came in April of 2006, when Barry's car made its debut trip to Dumont. It worked well, and had only minor issues so that it was ready for Coral pink that summer. With changes in careers and having to relocate to the middle of California ( and therefore far too far from the dunes ) Barry didn't get to spend as much time working out the details of the car as he had hoped, but the evolution continued. Once Barry was back in Southern California, the car project moved to the front burner, and he made plans for

teardown, paint, and some enhancements over the summer of 2013. In addition to stripping the car down to a bare frame, Barry also fabricated a second generation wing radiator that uses an off the shelf aluminum radiator for easy replacement. He also completely re-wired the car with planning help from John. He painted the entire frame, rather than powder coating it, to allow for future modification and easy repairs. A finishing touch was the graphics wrap, which was designed and applied by GatorWraps in Ontario during the short time between

Thanksgiving and New Years. This made for an even more spectacular debut when the baker family finally made it out to the sand for the New Years trip. The car is powered by a 5.7 liter LS1 all aluminum V8 mated to a five ( y es five! ) speed Mendeola transmission. It has a number of custom touches, ranging from front disk brakes adapted from a trailer brake setup to an Intellidash electronic dash. Power is transferred through Extreme U-Joint drive axles to 17 inch wheels with a narrow 5 bolt pattern, since there was no need for anything VW on the rear of this car. If you take a close look at this car, you can see a number of little details that make it an impressive and capable car. Evolution is never complete, however, and Barry has plans for the future to continue the evolution of this car as he gets to spend a whole lot more time in the dunes with it. -PJ

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