Date:
Thursday, February 20, 2020 to Sunday, February 23, 2020Johnson Valley Adventure 2-21-20 thru 2-23-20
Submitted by Bob Marshall on Mon, 02/24/2020 - 09:49
Run:
Johnson ValleyJohnson Valley Adventure
Attendees: Bob Marshall and guest Pete, John Labbett, Dwayne Wilson, Paul Rourman, Norm and Pat Taylor, and Mike Dobry.
Good turnout for the Johnson Valley adventure. The weather was mild, little wind (during the day), a little threatening on Saturday, but no rain.
John and Dwayne arrived on Thursday, and found a good site. On Friday, we had the whole area practically to ourselves.
On Friday, we gathered discussed various options, then started out, first looking at the remains of Hammer Town, and the race track that had entertained thousands just weeks before, then we headed onto the track and over the mountain for what had been the finish of the race, taking a quick look at Backdoor, to get a feel for the difficulty of the obstacle. Then, we headed across the valley floor, up and over the “big dune”, at the top of the dune, Paul’s brakes were not responding, so he headed back to camp for a quick fix. The rest of the group headed out to Boulder Dash, Upper Big Johnson, and Claw Hammer. Each was very challenging, but everyone did fine, as we worked our way through each obstacle. At the waterfall on Claw Hammer, from the parts, and melted aluminum, it appeared that some vehicle had recently caught on fire, maybe during the race.
We had lunch at the top of the trail, and Paul radioed that he was on his way to meet us, then he called back and said he ran out of gas. So, we worked our way back towards the entrance to Claw Hammer to help Paul. Dwayne went back to camp for some gas, and after filling Paul’s tank, we discovered the problem, a cracked fuel line. With some duct tape, and a hose clamp, we were able to make it back to camp.
On Saturday, we added Mike Dobry, but Norm and Pat decided to pack things up. The group left for Sunbonnet, which of course sounds very pleasant, but is located on the backside of the mountain. The trail starts off with Hells Gate, then Devils Slide, all to get to Sunbonnett. All of the trails were great, we did break out the winch a few times, overall everyone did a great job of working through the obstacles.
On Sunday, John, Dwayne, and Paul, went on Turkey Claw.
During the weekend, I was using the 2018 map from the Everyman Challenge, so it was great to see how the racers were challenged, as we crawled through each trail.
No real breakdowns. Paul had brake and fuel line issues; Dwayne had a broken side reflector, and torn rear fender cover; Mike started to have a clicking sound in his Terra Flex low range.
Thanks again to everyone.
Submitted by,
Robert Marshall