3 Dune Challenge
LeeAnn’s been excited about our visit to Indiana Dunes State Park for some time, and with good reason. Her dad grew up in the town right next to the park, Chesterton. Being excited, she’s been reading up on the park even more than she normally does. Before we arrived, she told me about the “3 Dune Challenge.” Its pretty much what it sounds like: climb the three tallest dunes. I told her I wasn’t interested. I learned my lesson climbing a massive dune in California’s Imperial Dunes about 12 years ago. Climbing dunes is tough, and I was in much better shape then. She went on to tell me more. It was less than 600 feet of elevation gain, and there was a boardwalk. I didn’t see how this sounded like much of a challenge, but with that bit of knowledge I was interested.
So, this morning I decided to go complete it after breakfast. I loaded up all my camera gear (I carry it in a photographer’s backpack), put Barnie’s backpack on him, loaded it with water, and headed out. LeeAnn wasn’t interested in the challenge, but she decided she’d walk with us to the trailhead, since that’s where the nature center is and she wanted to check it out.
When we got to the trailhead/ nature center, a bunch of volunteers were working the flowerbeds outside the center. LeeAnn went off to talk with them, and Barnie and I set off on our challenge. It started off on a regular sandy trail, which I thought nothing of. The boardwalk probably doesn’t start until we get to the first dune. The trail turned left, and upwards. There was no boardwalk, no stairs, just sand and hill.
I was about halfway up the first dune when I started having second thoughts, but I tamped them down. The incline wasn’t too bad in pitch or length. Also, I could sense someone coming up the dune, and it’s a lot harder to quit when there are witnesses. Upwards we went as fast as I could without getting my heartrate too high. Barnie doesn’t wear a heartrate monitor, but I imagine it was fine. He was walking up the dune like it was flat.
I got on top of the dune and looked around. I noticed two things: This was not a dune of the 3 Dune Challenge. It was some little pre-dune. Also, the person coming up behind me was LeeAnn. I was pleasantly surprised. Once she caught her breath we proceeded to the first dune: Mt. Jackson. It was an absolute beast. It’s only 176 feet tall, but it’s a 31° max slope on very soft sand, and as far as I could tell, it was mostly max slope. At one point near the top I stopped and unpacked my tripod to use as a walking stick, because I had a very hard time with traction. I stopped whenever my heartrate climbed over 160 BPM, and LeeAnn stopped whenever I did, and then some. Barnie appeared unphased.
We took pictures at the top, drank water, watered Barnie, and rested a bit before pressing on. Going downhill was nice. We passed some people going up, and they were not having a great time. When we got to the trough, I looked up at the next climb. It looked a lot shorter. I thought this would be an easier climb. Wrong. Even Barnie wanted to bail near the top. He didn’t look over exerted; I just think he wasn’t that interested in whatever was on top of the hill. Near the top, it was so steep I thought I might have to crawl, but I didn’t.
This was Mt. Holden, the second dune of the challenge. Its max slope is 38°. At the top, I prepared the tripod for LeeAnn, Barnie, and I to get our picture with the marker when three shirtless dudes came up from a Lake-side trail right behind the sign. One of them, an Englishman, said something about photo bombing us, and I said come and join us if you want, so he did. After rest and water, we went down the slope.
At the base of the slope, one of the bail-out trails crossed our paths. LeeAnn decided she’d had enough, so she took the trail to the nature center. Barnie and I went on to our appointment with destiny. Turns out the appointment is up a flight of stairs. Yup, the last dune is 43° max slope, but it’s a climb up a tall flight of stairs, so it’s not the same as trudging through sand. I still felt like I was pulling myself up the stairs at points, but it was a nice end to the challenge. I honestly don’t know if I had it in me to climb that slope in sand. I also doubt I would have kept on if Barnie showed more reluctance. But none of that matters, because we got to climb Mt. Tom (named after a different Tom Brady) on stairs and Barnie acted like I was slowing him down. I’m sorry LeeAnn didn’t get to climb the stairs with us, but after we met up again at the camper, she sure sounded like she enjoyed the nature center.