Frank, Chasity - Prinville, Or

Hello,

My name is Frank Begley and I live in Central Oregon. I have Christmas Valley, about 85 miles from my house yet I would rather drive 230 to 240 miles one way to ride the Oregon Dunes. Why? For my family and I there is no better place to ride than the Oregon dunes. We have many friends and regularly make the trek to the coast with approximatly 10-15 people in our group. The memories and joy we experiance are priceless for us. The many hundreds of pictures we have from high on the tops of dunes to the surf of the beach, and the smiling faces in them, make the dunes priceless for us. I implore you to please keep the trails open as well as the hillclimbs and all of the other aspects of the dunes that make it such a pleasure for our family and friends. When my wife and I started going to the dunes about 8 years ago, we found a piece of our lives that was missing. We now make about 12 trips a year to the coast. We enjoy riding Florence, Winchester Bay, and Coos Bay from Boxcar to Spinreel. I dont think there is much of the open riding area we havent covered. We now are going on our third straight year of the Oregon Dunes being our family vacation meeting place. A place where we get together with some of our dearest friends, who travel all the way from Boise, to spend 12-14 days of fun on the sand. We attend Dunefest every year, as well as Sandfest. We have also attended the NW Raptor Rally for the last three years. this is in addition to the other times we go to the dunes including all the holiday weekends as well as any other weekend we can sneak away. The dunes are so important to us that we have even made day trips to ride Florence, leaving about four in the morning, driving to the dunes, riding for 6-7 hours then heading home after stuffing out belly's at one of the areas wonderful restrants. We are not the ony ones that feel this way about the Oregon Dunes. One of my best friends daughter just turned three. you ask her where she wants to go and her answer is "the beach!!!"  Being a "sand rat" or a "duner" is something that gets into your blood. It is incomprehenceable that there are people out there wanting to close down the little area we have to enjoy. I dont understand how people can be so selfish that they want to close down an area so many people use and enjoy. I ask that you please take our passions and the wonderful bonding and fellowship time we have while at the dunes into consideration when making your decision that effects so many families that use and enjoy the Oregon Dunes, not only for recreation, but also for bonding with their families, bonds that are not easily broken!

Sincerely,

Frank and Chasity Begley

Prineville Oregon