: Actually, I'd like to know how they climb out and back up to the top of those
: dunes lugging a boat along. You'd get less trips down the slopes than with
: a $200 ski-lift ticket at Sierra Summit around here.

I would, too. I live on the west side of Lake Michigan, and there are some huge sand dunes here. I've climbed the tallest one at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, and it was a pain in the butt just hefting myself up without a kayak in tow. You take a step up, but 2/3 of you progress is eroded away as you just push sand down the dune with each step.

The view you see here is of Sleeping Bear Dunes. In the background are the North and South Manitou Islands (Manitou is Algonquin for 'spirit'.) They're 10 and 8 miles offshore, and a shipping lane cuts between them and the mainland, so not many kayakers try to make the crossing. Those iron-ore tankers can MOVE! There are ferries out to the islands, and they'll haul your kayak out there if you want to paddle around them.

If you look very closely at the far right of the dune -- the uppermost part -- you see a little black horizontal thing. That's a lookout platform, to give you some perspective. I think it's about 500 ft. down to Lake Michigan. I've put in at the upper right part of the picture, paddled around the point, pulled ashore, then climbed the dune, ran back down it, and kayaked back. Heckuva good workout.