Some Observations from Buttercup

[quadrider]

We have been riding in Buttercup about every 2nd or 3rd week in a row now for the last 3 months. We were there for both Halloween and Thanksgiving weekends and have now just returned after Christmas.

We have met several who frequent this site and made many friends and enjoy getting together to ride and hangout. It is amazing how many people we have met from the Chandler/Gilbert area that go to ride at Buttercup.

I feel compelled to vent about a couple of things that we have witnessed over the last several months in the dunes.

Trash: This is completely out of control. I can not believe the amount of trash stupid people are leaving on the sand for someone else to pickup or run over. As an example this last weekend in the area where we were camped I found enough nails to erect a small house (coming from burnt pallets), piles of broken glass, three foot pieces of rebar, cans, tools, small propane cylinder and assorted bike parts. I wish I had taken a picture of the pile of debris from this one trip for you to see. I do not understand why people cannot be responsible enough to maintain and dispose of their trash properly.

You should have seen the base of Comp Hill the Saturday morning after Thanksgiving. It was nearly impossible to ride the area with out hitting all the trash. It appears to me that most of the trash at Comp Hill is coming from the hordes of pickup truck hell raisers that are there to get drunk and have absolutely no respect for anything or anybody. Someday hopefully pickup trucks will not be allowed back at Comp Hill, as has been done in Glamis. This is too bad for the people who are responsible.

Second: If you want to know why big brother wants to place an age limit on kids under 16 years of age riding quads, come with me to Buttercup one weekend. You will see countless unsupervised kids riding small & full sized sport quads, 4WD trail quads, golfcarts, etc. And, there is not a parent in site. I am talking "little" kids that are in no way in control of the bike or aware of their surroundings. We personally watched 3 accidents alone this weekend where "little" kids were involved in either running in to (or over)something or another bike, and somebody had to go search for a parent. I am sure these will be the same parents that will be the first to raise hell with an age limit law and can't understand why the government is getting involved. Once again it is too bad for the parents that are responsible.

We have met people over this 3 month span that have been coming to Buttercup for many years. They are all saying the same, the piles of trash and complete disrespect for the dunes is the worst they have ever seen. And, the parents of unsupervised "child-riders" are risking their kids lives with no concern at all.

My main concern is that we are running out of places to ride. I think we need to work together to make sure we don't lose the dunes because of trash and careless people. Anyway, this is just from my experience and I feel better now.

Safe riding and Happy New Year!

quadrider

[desertsandrider]

If you are not already a member......join the ASA www.americansandassociation.org ....it is the best way to pass info, help out, and help keep the dunes open.

"Disco" Nick

400ex
1996 Lifted GMC 1/2 Ton Truck
2003 Trail Boss 6X12 enclosed trailer
Whiplash # 156
"Nut Buster Racing"
Sponsors: Got Huevos?, Blo ME, Liberty Motorsports, Weller Racing

[Sandrider]

And, set aside and hour or two EVERY trip for you and your camp to do a "Mini Cleanup" in and area. A lot of the time, if you hand out trash bags, you can get many other people who are sitting at the hill to help too.

One time, I used my long bed Dodge pickup and had it filled over the cab height with trash bags from a "mini cleanup" at Buttercup Comp Hill.

Unfortunately, people like us, who care about our riding areas, MUST cleanup after the pigs who don't care, or we can lose our riding areas.

By the way, there is an ASA info meeting on January 10th in Chandler, if you want to see what the ASA is about and voice your concerns. The ASA can not control the BLM, but we do talk with them and have had positive results. Here is the address for more information on the ASA meeting:

http://www.americansandassociation.org/news/index.html?view=article&article=157

I know the BLM trys to enforce all violations and knows there a litter problemm. The sand dunes, Imperial Dunes Recreational Area, is only a small part of the 1.2 million acres the El Centro BLM's area of responsibility. One of their problem is they only have 2 full time rangers assigned to the sand dunes. The BLM brings in "imported" rangers to help out during the major holidays, but they are much busier with idiots then too.

T. Wight
Mesa, Az.
Help protect your right to recreate on public lands,
JOIN THE
American Sand Association
free membership

[RathrBdunin]

We go out on "pick-up" walks every outing. We pick up bags full of crap that people pitch or is blown out of the camps and always tons of fire pit garbage -( nails, bottles ect...) We never see anyone else doing this & people buzz right by & just look at you. But, it makes me feel better and you never know what goodies you can run across...:)
I have been a duner for 23 years now & it's been the same story -
A few people picking up after lot's of slobs....:( Same goes for when we are at any of the lakes..... Or up in the woods.....
The ASA is the best sand duning site there is for info. and support of keep what dunes we have open. We could end up the the Pismo sand dunes ---- Ride responsable, clean up, stay out of the closures --- Be decent to other riders & campers.

RathrBdunin

[The Wedge]

this is under that un supervised lil kid part,

my last trip out to Gordons on Thankzgiving weekend, i was with a good size group riding past the drags at round 3, and saw the site of alll sites,


as were riding past were the guys launch onto the drags, we see this lil kid(couldnt have been more then 10) driving around a v8 long-travel buggy he could barely reach the peddles, and was even stretching to see over the dash tubes, we stop and watched this kid drive around in circles, and then rode out of there as quikly as possible

04'YZ450F - Mine
00'Yz125 - Mine
94'RM125 - Mine 89'Yz250wr - Dads
03' KFX400 - Mom's 02'Blaster - Sis's

[660RS27]

I just returned from Buttercup today, firt trip this year. Base of comp hill is a mess of trash. Also the dunes west of there were full of beer bottles and other broken glass.

I also noticed a lot of trucks in this area, and to the south. I don't remember seeing this traffic before. I don't see
the ATV's and buggies with ice chest's like the trucks, maybe this is the problem.

Anyway, it sucks. I just started going to Buttercup last year and was amazed at how well everone there took care of the place. It only takes a few to ruin a place for everyone.

Mark

[Arizona Griz]

Quadrider, everything you mentioned about Buttercup I saw this past week between Gordon's Well and Ogilby. The trash is really starting to build up at "Test Hill" and I saw a youngster ride a golf cart by my trailer and I was just praying he would not loose control (he just barely could reach the gas pedal).

Arizona Griz
"Just another day in paradise"

'03 Yamaha Raptor
'02 Yamaha Grizzly
'00 Polaris Trailboss
'98 Yamaha Big Bear 4WD

[quadrider]

Thanks for sharing your individual stories and suggestions. I looked into the ASA Web Site as a couple of you suggested. It is a great site for dune riders to get information and I plan on joining their organization.

In fact if we don't go to the dunes January 10th, I plan on attending the ASA meeting at Richard's ATV in Chandler.

These are unfortunate situations that I am afraid are going to impact our sport.

On another subject: Based on information on this forum, I feel many additional people from the Phoenix area are going to be forced to turn to the dunes for their riding "fix". With all of these riding area closures that are occurring in the Phoenix area I don't know where people are going to ride?.

Can you image walking into a dealership right now and being a "first-time" buyer thinking you are going to buy a sport quad to ride in the Phoenix area? Makes me wonder what the dealerships are telling people if this subject comes up.

Happy riding and hope to catch up with some of you in the dunes...

quadrider

[mhoffman]

We were at Buttercup first part of the week. Witness a young kid (I would guess 10 or 11) dragging a hopped up Banshee that he could not control. Needless to say, he wiped out about 2/3rds the way up Comp Hill. It rolled on him and pinned him. He was OK but shook up. Saw many more unsupervised young kids on quads that they did not belong on.[V]

Mark 02 DS650
Ruth 03 300ex
Brock (15)
Haley (12)
Nicole (3)
Tanner (1)

[b12jared]

I hate trash, and trashy people. It seems every where I go I take out more than I pack in, and I see people doing the stupidest things. Riding without helmets is one big issue, I have had a couple of close calls in my life, and swear by helmets.
People seem to think someone else is going to pick up their trash, or the wind will just take it out of sight. The old saying out of sight out of mind seems to fit.
We make sure at glamis we use only wood without nails, even take an old washtub for a fire pit. The guys camped two spots down on Thanksgiving had stacks of whole pallets burning in a campfire, lots of GLASS beer bottles, and didn't sleep till 4 in the morning. We cleaned up part of their camp when we left, and some felt bitter about it, but we all have to do our part. Wish there was a designated STUPID PEOPLE area so we wouldn't have to deal with them.

22 years or riding in AZ.

[DuneRebel]

I've made the same observations, there has been alot of talk, both here and the ASA web site, yet the pigs and morons just multiply. I've participated in clean ups, but I believe we need to stop the problem before it starts, not only do we need to pack out more than we bring in we must ALL speak up, If you see a rider on a quad he/she can't handle, speak up, glass bottles, trash, ect., speak up, as a group we can make a difference, even finding and insisting a LEO take action.
If we let the knuckleheads take over, the enviro whacks have more ammo to shut it all down.
SPEAK UP AND SAVE YOUR/OUR RIGHTS, SAVE OUR DUNES!

D. Rebel



"We have enough youth, how about a fountain of SMART!"

01 400ex w/all kinds of good stuff

[RathrBdunin]

We go to Gordon's & Buttercup a lot. You know, it never ceases to amaze me what peole are [or not in this case] thinking when they burn pallets & wood full of staples & nails. We all including them will be driving in & out of the area every trip to the dunes & for many, every trip from camp out to the dunes - those "old" firepits are now nail pits that can't be seen in most cases. Nails & tires don't mix - period. So, why burn nailed wood in a sand riding / driving environment - Dip Shi!$ . We have burned pallet wood before when I did not have good log wood. But, before we went to the dunes I cut the ribs out so there were no nails & saved the rib parts for the fire pit at home. Glass bottles thrown in the fire ---- That's a whole neather stupid people story ---- :(

RathrBdunin

[Shannon]

Quadrider and all,

You have raised a very important issue facing our sport, both at the dunes and here locally on the trail. Trash is a double whammy! Not only does it pollute the riding area it also strains the land managers who are asked to keep these areas respectable. They do not have enough resources to continuously clean these areas, so the areas look worse and worse. As we have all seen, their solution is to close those areas, clean them and be done with it. Problem solved.

I agree we have to take a more active stance; promoting pack it in and pack it out, actively educating as we recreate to let those who do not care know the consequences of their actions, which includes closed riding areas, and lastly picking up these areas ourselves.

On the last point, I believe we need to do a better job of letting land management know we are lending a helping hand. Organized cleanups, no matter what the size, are good for that specific reason. They communicate to land managers that us OHVers are concerned enough about our riding areas that we are taking an active stance in the up-keep of the area. A simple call to the land management for the area to be ridden to let them know your riding group will pickup trash when you get to the area is good. Another call after you have left the area to let them know you did pickup trash and how much is also good. We want them to know we are involved. The more they hear from us the better. Invest 30 minutes of every trip picking up trash and another 5 minutes making calls. It will be time/money well spent.

Just my .02 cents.

Mr. Shannon (Shannon@RidingArizona.com)
President - Riding Arizona.com
2001 Honda 400EX - Yes, I ride it like I stole it!

[RathrBdunin]

So very right you are. :) It's the few that pick up after the many that can keep all of use from looking like the "Bad offroaders". I have had rangers come by & comment on how much they appreciate us picking crap up at the dunes. The only thing I disagree on is - Make it an hour of picking --- ;) A simple hour total for a w/e is nothing... :)

Damn, it keeps me busy just picking up beer cans & bottles out here on dog walks.... With Recycle day I don't have to carry them far at least with everyones bins sitting out.

RathrBdunin