Pat McHugh has been ATVing since 1995, when he took up the sport to avoid the pain that came with falling off his dirtbike. In the past 15 years, he has been involved with a number of ATVing clubs and can be found enjoying the trails in the Okanagan region of British Columbia. McHugh also enjoys taking his Kawasaki KFX 700 south of the border to ride the sand dunes in Oregon. This summer, he made his first trip to the neighbouring state of Idaho, to experience the sand dunes in St. Anthony. McHugh said that Idaho's dunes were a much more difficult ride.
"The Oregon dunes tend to be between 30 to 60 metres (100 to 200 feet) high," said McHugh. "They’re more rolling and there’s lots of room between them to thread your way through, if you don’t want to climb them. In Idaho, they were (between) 90 (and) 150 metres high, and very steep with sharp razorbacks at the top and big bowls between them. So, it was far more challenging and there's less room for error."
The Idahoan weather might have discouraged some riders, but not McHugh. He said that it has taken the better part of two and a half years to get to St. Anthony, and heat and blowing sand wouldn't stop him from doing the things on sand that are more difficult to do on other surfaces. McHugh enjoyed performing the twists, turns and climbs on sand that are impossible to do on dirt without tipping.
To document his ATVing trips, McHugh recently mounted a camera on the front of his quad. Every 10 seconds, his camera takes a photo—resulting in thousands of pictures being taken within a few hours.
"It’s a visual image of where you’ve been," he said. "You can sort through it and pick out the better stuff and show someone what it looks like from a rider’s perspective."
McHugh said that many riders often come back with changed attitudes and expectations after riding in sand and seeing the development of ATVing trails and areas in the United States.
"We’ve gone from the utilitarian farmer’s and hunter's machine, and now they’re becoming more and more sport-oriented machines," said McHugh. "(Once riders) experience the thrill of the faster type of riding, I think we’ll see more of that up here."
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