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New Articles: Custom Discovery Roof Rack August, 2012 - Sierra Backpacking July 22nd, 2012 - Hiking in Santa Barbara July 15th, 2012 - Valley of Fire May 5th, 2012 - Afton Canyon April 28th, 2012 - Devils Playground Alpine Tripod Convict Creek Trail January 2012 - Mustangs January 3rd, 2012 - Heart Lake August 7th, 2011 - Kelso Dunes August 5th, 2011 - Lundy Canyon Hike August 2011, Mammoth Archery Birds in the garden June 4th, 2011 - San Gorgonio May 29th, 2011 - Sequoia National Forest April 23rd, 2011 - Living Desert April 2nd, 2011 - Death Valley March 8th, 2011 - Mountain Palm Springs February 13th, 2011 - Iron Smelt Blacksmithing November 13th, 2010 - Mojave October, 2010 - Mammoth Android September, 2010 - Mammoth September, 2010 - Duck Lake Trail Backpacking Red Iron bloom forging August 28th, 2010 - Mt. San Jacinto OSM Import: US Designated Wilderness July 25th, 2010 - Mojave Mustangs July 17th, 2010 - Mojave Exploration Bloomery furnace iron smelting Open Street Map: Mojave Project June 13th, 2010 - Mojave June 6th, 2010 - El Cajon Trails Wolf Mountain Sanctuary Carrizo Gorge March 28th, 2010 - Salton Sea March 21st, 2010 - South Main Divide March 13th, 2010 - Anza Borrego Wildflowers March 7th, 2010 - CSULB Japanese Garden February 2010 - Mammoth GeoRSS AISlib OpenStreetMap Dakota and Asha Celebrate Christmas, 2009 November 21st, 2009 - Mojave Road November 14th, 2009 - Anza Borrego Exploring The East Mojave: The Afton Canyon Area Broken flex plate Remote Image Serving Astro/night photography in Inyo National Forest Wild Mustang Sightings RSS September 26th, 2009 - Night Photography In Frazier Park Whiskey Brandy August 15th, 2009 - Catalina dive trip Astrophotography Sensornet January 24th, 2009 - Mojave Exploration July 2008 Mammoth Vacation AIS President Barack Obama! Rachel Maddow Big Geek Barack Obama April 12th, 2008 - Wildflowers and Landmarks My Grandfather's Alfa Romeo Spider March 8th, 2008 - Carrizo Plain Bridge To Nowhere High Availability October 20th, 2007 - Big Bear Camping October 22nd, 2007 - Fire Scottish Highlands, Aug 7th, 2006 Scottish Highlands, Aug 6th, 2006 August 5th, 2007 - Duck Lake Trail May 26th, 2007 - Kelso Dunes Culloden Battlefield, Aug 5th, 2006 May 20th, 2006 - Irwindale Renaissance Faire Edinburgh, Aug 4th, 2006 The Clifs of Moher, Aug 3rd, 2006 The Burren, Aug 2nd, 2006 Bunratty Castle, Aug 1st, 2006 May 5th, 2007 - Mojave Truck Audio/Data Network 2007 - Master Bath Remodel Centrum: Exit The Ring of Kerry, Jul 31st, 2006 Nikon D200 Victory in 2006! Blarney and Killarney, Jul 30th, 2006 Dublin and Cork, Jul 29th, 2006 Dublin, Jul 27th & 28th, 2006 Married! What Can I Do? April 30th, 2006 - Anza Borrego New desktop: Intel 805 D Macro Photography Jan 7th and 14th, 2006 - Hiking Whiting Ranch Hiking Engaged! 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Jan 30th, 2004 Jan 28th, 2004 Encryption Ceiling Cargo Basket Front Bumper Version 2 Asha Exide Orbitals Land Rover Valve Jobs Spirits The Matrix: Revolutions Halloween 2003 Greg Davis CDL Linkage Ouzo Democracy Mom's Turkey Gravy Grandma's Guacamole Top Nodes Julian Pie Company DeCSS The KB1DIG 2-meter Halo Antenna Incomming searches Gardening is hard! Aug 13th, 2003 SQL and Perl Cancun 2003 Jul 9th, 2003 Aprs intelegence Jun 17th, 2003 Some People's Comments Dakota is a silly dog The Matrix: Reloaded Chris' Stage Bottle Harness April 23rd, 2003 Cracked Radiator! Vanessa Black Wednesday DVD Burning Under Linux My Satellite Phone Wind! My Near-Death Experience Laser Cannon Revival Front Bumper, Version 2 SpamAssassin The Critters Dakota Milton KPC 3 Plus and HTX-252 My House Moving, moving moving... Mobile 1 Portola Hills New new house Suse Linux Database images In Truck Dr. Pepper My Favorite Toilet Kelso Dunes Desert Trips Ifulmuh Late Thoughts: Dr. Pepper Cooler 265/75-R16 Tires on a DII Linux George W. Bush Rants Driving Reservations Horses Sep 14 2002 Sawdust Bellydancing 2002 Obsession August 17th Yukon Dives Less notifications My Custom Front Bumper Bracketless, Renamable Links Discreet Winch Welding Jul 28 2002 Day Trip My Firewall Jedi Group, my T1 and money A Bumperless Discovery! My Custom Rear Bumper Vanessa's 24th Birthday Jun 30th Dive to Long Beach Canyon PHP/PostgreSQL String Quoting Tonsillectomy, Uvulaectomy and Turbinite Reduction Searching functionality 240 Watt CO2 Laser Cannon My Workspace Dr. Pepper The Tulsa Rib Company The quality of hard disks these days Email notification of articles Email notification of comments erikburrows.com source code User Bios User Preferences Login feature Renisance Faire Jun 9, 2002 Computers hate me, and it is mutual. 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| While Vanessa was at a batchlorette party in Vegas, instead of giving The Paris some more of my money, I took off for the Kelso Dunes.
In high school, one of my biology teachers, Scott Smith used to take some of us kids camping out here, and let us loose on the dunes. He setup a competition to see who could make it to the top of the largest dune first. Of course it's insanely difficult, but a ton of fun. This time, it was deeper into summer, so quite a bit hotter than when I came here in high school. While scrambling up the largest dune on all fours, the sand was so hot that my fingers were turning bright red, and my feet were baking in my boots. Flys were buzzing around me, and would land on me when I'd stop moving, but not to bite, they would just hang out in the shade of my arms or legs. The biggest difficulty in climbing up the largest dune is that every time you disturb the sand, like by stepping into it, it starts a little land-slide, moving you back down hill a few inches and covering up your shoes with scalding hot sand. It's a two steps up, one step back cycle. Also, of course any time the wind blows, the sand kicks up. You get a mouthful of sand, sand in your eyes, sand in your ears, and a fine coating of it from head to toe, glued on by sweat. The last twenty or so feet is the worst, as the wind is always blowing, so it's hard to see, and still incredibly hot. This time, I had my head down, and didn't even realize I was close to the top until I reached up and grabbed the ridge. Hooray! I walked along the ridge a few feet up to the summit, the point where three ridges of sand intersected, high, very high above the desert floor. 
Once on top, the conditions are much nicer. The sand-blasting dies down (though never goes away entirely), the breeze becomes much cooler, and except for the wind and sand shifting, it's totally silent. This is one of my favorite places, so I rested, and soaked it in. After a while, when I had stopped panting and sweating, I sat up, closed my eyes, and meditated on the serenity of the place. When I opened my eyes, not two hundred feet from me was a large eagle, probably a Californa Golden, riding the air currents up, looking me over. He didn't flap his wings once, until he decided I wasn't interesting and turned away. Going down the sand dunes is a lot of fun, this time I scooted on my butt for a while, which causes the sand to vibrate and give off this loud, deep rumbling. If you get it going well enough, the whole mountain seems to vibrate. Then I just jogged down. An hour up, two minutes down! After the long walk back to my truck, I cleaned up with a jug of water I had brought, and prepared to get going back to Vegas. Just before I was going to leave however, a man jogging down the road came up to me to ask for help. He had gotten his Volvo stuck in sand a mile or so down the road, and had jogged the whole way in the heat to try to get my help before I took off. Good timing! I pulled his car out, and he and his girlfriend were nice enough to share some food and ice with me. On the way back to Vegas, instead of taking Kelbaker road, I took Cima road, which runs along some train tracks, so I got some opportunities to take some train pictures. 
One last interesting thing: While driving back I found a long, flat and straight piece of road and decided to see how fast I could go. 95 mph. It took my truck a good minute to make it up from 70 mph, and once it got to 95, it just sat there. No amount of time or smashing of the accelerator pedal would budge it. Plenty fast for me though, at that speed the whole truck shakes and it's a little scary! | ||
