Buggy/landboard locations

[joshgubler]

So with all the lakes turning back into lakes (and very cold ones)...has anyone found good places to do this on land? UKB's site mentions dry lake beds. Is this just a rumor, or have people found actual spots on the map?

[Mark Johnson]

I use to go just north of the grantsville exit, but they put up a gate to keep out the nudist. A real cool place with miles of flat area. It is not white and salty either like the salt flats that make for a hard time to spend as much time in the sun. You might still be able to hike in. Just do not forget to bring water with you . You can end up miles away in no time. A long hike out if the wind dies. There are areas though not as good of a wind spot a bit farther west on the exit by the old tore down gas station sorry I forgot the exit number and name. I think rowley dugway exit. Then look kind of south west kitty corner to the station and this is a place I rode once. There is a big kite buggy thing coming up soon near Las Vegas. There is a link somewhere on windzup.com. I was thinking of riding also today with these light winds I think landboarding would be the call. If you make it out anywhere post a report.

[mike loeser]

If you're looking to landboard or buggy try out Burmester near Grantsville. I think there is a landboard post from last fall that might help you. I tried to get out there today, but got skunked. I hadn't been there for a while and wanted to check out the surface conditions. The sand is still a bit soft, but rideable. Just watch out for the really soft spots. You can ride for miles out there.
To get there get off the Grantsville exit and take a quick left onto the frontage road. Head towards the train tracks where there is a building. Follow the tracks east until there aren't any more trains. Grab your stuff and walk over the tracks. I haven't much figured out the wind. You can just check the mesowest here: http://www.met.utah.edu/cgi-bin/roman/meso_base.cgi?stn=urm
Hope that helps. Give me a call if you ever want to head out. I've never seen anyone else out and that is a spot that could handle tons of people.
Mike

[Mark Johnson]

This is the spot I was typing about. This place rocks. This place has possibilitys of a landboarding or kitebuggy land speed record.

[btjsfca]

I feel like I'm constantly pitching for Burmester.

Here's the thread from last year about it:

http://www.utahwindriders.org/phpBB2/vi ... highlight=

This is a great place to ride, and I'm glad to get a report that it's drying out. I'm excited to get out there again. It's been a long winter, and there wasn't quite enough snow for the pain to go away completely.

Burmester is a great spot, and Mark gave good directions, but I should add that there's a turnout next to the train tracks just north of where you'd get onto the frontage road that you should use. It'll fit about 4 cars and it won't block the access road for the train workers. No sense in pissing them off if we don't have to.

On the point about speed records, I'd have to disagree. The thing that makes this place unsuitable for really high speeds is what makes Burm one of the very best places to landboard in the country: the surface is soft and forgiving. Falls on this stuff (although they still hurt) are friendly in a way that a dry lakebed is not. If you wreck, you're likely to leave an impression on the surface, and not a streak of skin.

It's also huge. I'm guessing 4 miles east to west at least, and I have no idea how much north/south distance you have to play with. I've made it my mission on several occassions to get to the lake, but gave up because I was getting too far out for comfort. (Barring one exception, I've always ridden solo.)

Another gotcha to keep an eye out for, especially this early in the season is that when it's wet, the mud is slick and might throw you if you hit it at speed. If you see a dark patch, think about steering around it. Also because this mud is tenacious. There's still globs of it on my board that I can't get off with a wire brush. Although, my kite stays remarkably clean.

Summertime at Burm isn't great, but it's consistent, and may be the only game in town if we're under high pressure. Consistent north winds in the 10-12m foil range. I find north wind to be the cleanest wind, but some people have had good days on a south. I don't recall many good south days.

I'll start heading out there on the weekends soon, so if you see a landboarder on a Peter Lynn kite, that's probably me. Stop and say hello.

-J

[Rick McClain]

This sounds like a great place, but I'd hate to drive unneeded miles looking for it, so I've got further questions. Is the "Grantsville" exit mentioned the one we also use to go to Tooele and Rush or further west on I-80? Where does the name "Burmeister" come from? Is there signage with that name on it somewhere?
You also said, " Follow the tracks east until there aren't any more trains."
I'm not sure I understand that statement. Can you clarify for me?
Thanks,
Rick McClain

[Rick McClain]

Oops!! I got that error message, too. Sorry!

[Mark Johnson]

It is not the first exit but the second exit. You will see some train cars parked there and a small building. You can get a glimps flats as you cross the overpass. As you take the exit and you start looping around you will see a turn off to the north onto the dirt road. This road will go west. The name bumeister is on a sign somewhere I think on the silver switching station near the gate. This is where the trains switch to go through grantsville or to continue on twards SLC. The gate is to the west of the trains. This is wher I would cross the tracks then head east till you pass the trains to the east and it opens to the flats. By the other directions you might have to stay on the south side of the tracks and head east first. I am not sure how to acsess it now that the gate is up. You might be able to just cross the gate and go straight north also if it is not to wet. I hope this helps.

[lesvierra]

Mark, my father-in-law who was at rush the other day and his buddy want to give buggying a try. They also have dirt bikes. This could be a good combo out there if you want to let them try your buggy. Maybe dirt bikes out there would be bad for access or cause trouble. Anyways, I'm itching to get out there. Maybe when rush turns to mud.

[btjsfca]

Sorry about the unclear description.

I thought that the grantsville exit was 99, but you can also identify it because it's past the salt ponds. Also, if you go to the link for the wind meter

http://www.met.utah.edu/cgi-bin/roman/m ... nit=&time=

you can click on the map in the upper left corner and it will take you to a topozone map that you can zoom out from to see where it is. Burmester is the name of the train station as Mark said, and it's also the name of the road that you get onto when you leave the highway.

When I say "Follow the tracks east until there aren't any more trains", I mean that there are always trains parked at the station. So, once you loop around and get to the tracks, just keep on driving east, and right near where the parked trains end, there's a turnout (you'll have just driven over an abandoned track). That's the best place to park, since you only have a 50 ft walk to get around the trains and across the track. It is basically directly across from where you pulled off of the offramp to get onto the frontage road. As far as I've heard, it used to be possible to get across the tracks by car, but because of some ... ahem ... sunbathing activity, they blocked it off; so now we have to go across on foot. Not much of a burden. It's about 100 or 150 yards to where I rig from the turnout.

If you're thinking of heading out, I'd think twice. I went out, and it wasn't good yet:

http://www.utahwindriders.org/phpBB2/vi ... php?t=2182

NABX is next week, so I'll try to get out there the weekend after. I'll leave a post when I think the surface is rideable again if no one else leaves a message to that effect first.

Ciao.

-J

[windzup]

Soon as its good we should all rally out one weekend... I have a plethora of boards and buggies for folks to borrow. At the end of the day we can clean up by hitting the sunset session at Rush.

Just got back from the dry lakes of Vegas at NABX, and I'm in the dirt mode now that summer is gone and the water is cold. Guys were hitting 60mph plus in their bugies and 30 plus on boards.

Windzup,
Brian

[Marty Lowe]

At the end of the day we can clean up by hitting the sunset session at Rush.

Windzup,
Brian

Isn't clean and Rush in the same sentence an oxymoron???

-Marty

[Jon Manwaring]

Brian
sounds like a good time. Winds here were really up and down. I thought you initially misspoke about the end of summer and meant winter, but after the snow, black ice and winds in P.C. this morning, maybe you're right and summer is over. Kinda like Wyo. 2 seasons winter and JULY
Lets plan a Buggy Bash here.
JonMzee

[btjsfca]

This sounds like a great idea, Brian. I'm all about it. Too bad about the rain. Now, it'll take a bit longer to get set up. It's rainy and cold this week, but maybe it'll warm up next week and stay dry. So, I'm not hoping for anything before the weekend of the 21st. But, I'm hoping hard for that.

I'd say if it's dry next week, we can risk it, but we might end up mud boarding. Could be fun.

-J