Tell me all about Johnson Valley

andy29847

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Feb 14, 2019
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Howdy all! I am a 50 year dirt biker and a 2 year Jeeper. Most of my wheeling is on forest roads in the Smokys. I've done a few things that were great fun once I got through, but basically I am a weenie wheeler. I watched KOH for the first time this year and it looked exciting. It seemed like Burning Man and racing all at the same time. I'd like to hear about regular wheeling weekends in Johnson Valley. Tell me some stories please. Share pics too if you got them.
 
@mrblaine is the expert on JV, he is there multiple times a year. I have only wheeled there 8-9 times but it's really something. Very scary in some spots, breakage will happen on the more difficult trails unless you have a well built Jeep and know how to drive. Most of my stories only involve my breakages or being told to stop driving by braille lol.

Here are a bunch of photos I've taken over the years... fascinating place for sure. The guy in the red parka (it gets COLD out there) and in the blue work shirt spotting drivers is none other than mrblaine. :)

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As Jerry said it's a fascinating place. If you are planning on doing any serious wheeling there, you will want to have a rig that is built to handle that stuff. The trails are challenging and beyond challenging for a rig not built to handle that terrain...think gearing, lockers, aftermarket axles, good suspension, 37" tires min, etc.

Fun place. If you've never driven stuff like that it is hard to believe it is even driveable. My understanding is a lot of work went into building those tails and it's most impressive that anyone even thought of driving that crazy terrain.

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Good pictures. That looks really hard. I love the Hammers sign.
Hard is relative. What most miss about wheeling out there on most of the trails is the chess match you are playing with the rocks. It is very common on most trails that folks are used to running elsewhere to have obstacles spread out so you can set your rig up on the line after you've run on some easy part of the trail for a bit. Lots of sections on the trails in JV are such that you have to set up your line for the next section while you are trying to get over the one you are on.

Sure, you may miss that diff hanger you're right on top of, but if you don't miss it just right, you will be stuck on the next one or two, or three in a row. A trail like Aftershock is littered with dug out places in front of all the obstacles because folks tend to drive down the middle of the trail. If you try that, you're just going to be in the same holes everyone else dug before they backed up and put tires on the sides to get moving again.