Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Christmas Valley Sand Dunes - Fatbiking

The unusually warm weather held through Sunday which meant there were outside the box opportunities for this time of year.  Christmas Valley Sand Dunes are east of Fort Rock in Oregon and as per the website are the largest shifting inland sand dunes in the state.  The dunes were created way back in the day when Mt Mazama blew her lid (creating Crater Lake).  The sand dunes are the pumice and ash from said explosion.

Another intriguing reason to go was the Lost Forest.  The lost forest is a little 'forest'...although forest is probably a bit of an exaggeration as it is not a 'thick' forest but more like a series of scattered ponderosa pines in an area that outwardly appears to have no water source.

Despite the geologic intrigue, the real reason was to get out there and dust off the fat bikes!  This time of year, the fatties are usually getting some mileage in the white stuff.  This was a little window to get out and play in the loose stuff.

After a 2 hour drive we got to the recreation area and were pleasantly surprised by how comfortable the temps were.  It was shorts weather!  and in January no less.

We quickly found one of the access roads to the dunes and saw that it was a giant mud-fest for a couple hundred feet.  The fatties handled the mud although it was that horrible clay mud that just stuck to everything.  The wheels and drivetrain quickly caked up and we did a little house-cleaning after we got through the bog.  Shortly after, we hit the dunes and had ear to ear grins on our mugs.  After riding for about 15 minutes, we stopped, took some pix, and deflated tires to around 4-5 psi.  This made a significant different in handling in the sand and made the riding just a little less challenging than it was before.

We spent a little over an hour pedaling though the dunes and kept having the pinch me moments of how it felt 'hot' in January, shortly followed up by....'where are we'!

What a great destination for a different kind of fat biking (different for us that is).  It would be fun to go back and do a little more exploring but it will definitely have to be during similar temperatures as I cannot fathom being out there in weather much warmer than what we were in.

Some pictures:















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