[F14CRAZY]

I've been wanting to take my Forester up to the Silver Lake sand dunes (by Mears, Michigan) since I bought the thing but never got around to it. My birthday was this week though and I declared that would be my birthday activity.

I went up to my brother's the night before and came up with a mounting bracket for the flag (10', required for entry to the dunes). I aired the tires down to 12 psi, which are actually like-new Bridgestone Blizzaks (the Forester is now my winter-beater basically and isn't driven in "summer").

My fiancee and I brought along her brother. My best buddy, who happened to buy a Suzuki X90 a short while back, was able to scramble and get the engine work done that he needed to do and was able to come up as well. My older brother, who's been wanting a 4 door Wrangler since they came out, bought a new one this year and brought that along too. This was at the top of "test hill," the biggest one there.

An idea of what the place is like

I made it up pretty much every time but the X90 had some trouble. We figured it was due to a lack of power...poor thing only has a 1.8L. He had to use low range while I was making it up in 2nd gear. It's a mix of having enough momentum and traction

 

[F14CRAZY]

Away from the hills are a number of big pools of water. I hit one a bit too hard/fast that was a bit too deep and almost hydrolocked the boxer...it bogged a bit but fortunately I didn't break any rods and didn't have to pull the spark plugs. This is me with a very wet air filter though

 

[F14CRAZY]

I'd suggest turning up the youtube quality...

The X90 successfully making it up

The Forester from inside

And an edited video my fiancee put together which has the big hills from the beginning of the dunes to the end

For perspective, here's the X90 going up as seen from the bottom

 

[GHull3]

When I lived in Ohio I always vowed to take my ATVs there but never got around to it.

 

[F14CRAZY]

We were all pretty impressed with the Forester's performance up there. A little more power (like with an XT) would have been handy at some points but its Symmetrical All Wheel Drive is the real deal. The only other "crossovers" I saw up there were a Pilot and a Patriot, which were both not doing too well on flat sand. The "heavy duty, raised" suspension was great too, as my buddy and I both felt that it rode more like a Buick in comparison to the X90. It bottomed out a few times but took it well. I only got stuck to the point of needing a tow once because I stopped at the top of test hill too soon and got hung up on the peak. It was kind of funny seeing lifted diesel trucks having to back down and try again while passing them in a Subaru

 

[F14CRAZY]

My fiancee took a couple iPhone panoramas

 

[Smaart Aas Saabr]

that's seriously fun, I didn't even know there were sand dunes in Michigan (?!)

 

[F14CRAZY]

that's seriously fun, I didn't even know there were sand dunes in Michigan (?!)

The Lake Michigan coast has tons of sand dunes and smaller sandy beaches

 

[LetsRace]

Very nice! Pictures of the Jeep? How did it do?

 

[F14CRAZY]

Don't have any photos of the Jeep specifically but it did well. It's an automatic Sport though if that helps.