ONSC Chat (11 Viewers)

[lt1fire]

There is very limited service out on the lake bed. Let me know where you guys are camping and I will come find you guys.

Ran into a snag yesterday finding a tent so we stayed at my family's cabin near big bear. Heading to get a tent when the store opens at 10 and will then be about 45 minutes from hammertown. Will text when on-site.
You or @custyota need any food, drinks supplies pickup?

 

[lt1fire]

Not a huge amount of pics on my phone. I got way more action pics on my camera but here are some till I get the good pics uploaded.

 

[lt1fire]

 

[lt1fire]

 

[lt1fire]

 

[lt1fire]

Great trip met. @GarnerFJ40 and I met up with @custyota (thanks for the bags Adam I hope the whisky I left in your 100 came in handy)
Sadly we never found @SFROMAN, we played phone tag with delayed voice mail and text messages all day as phone service for me was nonexistent and super sporadic for Del and Brian.
We left Saturday night since our Flys on our cheap tents blew off and then fliied our bags and the rest of the tent with sand. The. Spent some time visiting family... bumming around the mountains, went to stone brewing etc.....

 

[krzyabncanuck]

Aqualu is shutting down this Dec.....

 

[lt1fire]

Aqualu is shutting down this Dec.....

Well dang....

 

[BMThiker]

 

[lt1fire]

@custyota I couldn't tell if this was you or not... but it was about 1/2 mile away

 

[lt1fire]

So to recap, I had an amazing time, Brian @GarnerFJ40 and I borrowerd my FIL's explorer sport track and their neighbors new 4dr wrangler. I know lots of people are taken aback when they go by people just driving in every which way direction but that's how its done in the wide open spaces of California. Its the same at Pismo Beach, Glamis, or any number of large ORV areas in the state. Brian and I are already talking about next year and I may rent an RV and tow the bronco down. If I can get starlink service for a decent price I could go out all week and work during a lot of it in the RV.
@custyota glad we met up if only for a bit
@SFROMAN sad we could never seem to find each other
The only thing i'd add would be clear road or direction signs to all the main viewing spots and obstacles.... i've been out to johnson valley before and new the basic layout but with all the people and the dust in the air I was having trouble navigating to many of the spots. So after failing to find Jackhammer, Brian, my father in law and I just drove the jeep out into the middle of no where and tested out its abilities for 4 hours or so..... not a bad little rig, I was actually surprised it didn't stop in some of the really deep sand hills as it was pure highway tires on it.

 

[custyota]

@custyota I couldn't tell if this was you or not... but it was about 1/2 mile away

Not me

 

[custyota]

Hammers was a lot of fun and dust.

Glad I got to see Del, Al and Brian if only for a few mins.

I spent my time at Hammers with the Rusty Nail team in the main pits.

 

[SFROMAN]

We chased the sxs race, the every man challenge and the main race.

Luckily, I know a few things about land nav and was able to navigate through most of the race course area rather easily.

The race team that hosted me broke the sxs race car on sledgehammer and we got to go on the course late at night to recover it.

It was kind of a s*** show but we ended up bringing the race car down sledge and across the lake bed back to camp.

Over all the whole week was an amazing experience and I am most def going back, more likely next year.

The only negative part about the whole week was the behavior at back door and chocolate thunder by majority of the crowd and drivers out there.
Def not for the weak and honestly after Wednesday night I avoided both places. In reality it is just a matter of time before someone is killed out there. It is that bad. Spectators we’re literally running for their lives so they wouldn’t get run over by drunk drivers being idiots.

Some dude crawled his buggy from the top of the spectator section down to the trail.- yes. He literally went around the back side of chocolate thunder then came back around and dropped into the canyon above spectators. And that wasn’t the worst of it.
That’s when I removed myself from that situation for the rest of the week.

 

[SFROMAN]

This guy along with a bunch of other YouTuber “influencers” were camped across from us. Apparently if you are a certain type of clout chaser and you have lots of followers KOH wil let you race without qualifying

Raul Gomez from GBR two time and current king.
This dude beat the first race car to physically cross the finish line by 19 seconds on adjusted time.

Bomber fab chassis “trail rig”. $130k trail rig that is basically a race car

Gives you an idea of how washed out back door is.

I only saw one rig go up that didn’t have rear steer. The only rigs I saw make it up it were rear stear moon buggies.


And of course I took lots of photos of first gens because I like them.

 

[onemanarmy]

Are the organizers/promoters not cracking down on the mouth breathers drunk driving? One person gets killed and the event is over, the gov't will shut the area down for all recreation, year round. What is the motive for just standing around and letting the losers run free?
Is there not enough level headed people out there to publicly beat the idiots and disable the vehicles? Or is the majority idiots? What a douche fest.

Those 4wd first gen Yotas are super sweet though!

 

[NCFJ]

Cool movie staring Anthony Hopkins

World's Fastest Indian

 

[SFROMAN]

Are the organizers/promoters not cracking down on the mouth breathers drunk driving? One person gets killed and the event is over, the gov't will shut the area down for all recreation, year round. What is the motive for just standing around and letting the losers run free?
Is there not enough level headed people out there to publicly beat the idiots and disable the vehicles? Or is the majority idiots? What a douche fest.

Those 4wd first gen Yotas are super sweet though!

Law enforcement was out there. Had a whole army of cops. Plus DOD LE - (Johnson valley borders 29 palms), range control officers DOD) some sheriffs and K-9 units.

The events that happen out in blm land don’t technically have anything to do with the actual king of hammers.

It’s public land. You can go crazy out there.

And as for trying to stop folks?

Not going to happen. Completely outnumbered 1000 to 1 easily. Plus 1000s of vehicles parked on a side of a mountain.

Mountainous terrain, sandy terrain

Cold windy weather. Plus dust. You cannot see past 10 feet at night even with the best lights.

Yeah. It’s a s*** show. No other way to put it.

But KOH was a blast and I will absolutely go again.

I will just stay in camp at night. Problem solved.

 

[lt1fire]

Law enforcement was out there. Had a whole army of cops. Plus DOD LE - (Johnson valley borders 29 palms), range control officers DOD) some sheriffs and K-9 units.

The events that happen out in blm land don’t technically have anything to do with the actual king of hammers.

It’s public land. You can go crazy out there.

And as for trying to stop folks?

Not going to happen. Completely outnumbered 1000 to 1 easily. Plus 1000s of vehicles parked on a side of a mountain.

Mountainous terrain, sandy terrain

Cold windy weather. Plus dust. You cannot see past 10 feet at night even with the best lights.

Yeah. It’s a s*** show. No other way to put it.

But KOH was a blast and I will absolutely go again.

I will just stay in camp at night. Problem solved.

You beat me to it. Completely agree the KOH folks are responsible for public safety when it comes to KOH events. People putting their own rigs on public land after the days events are over isn't their issue really. From talking to some of my buds that have been there every year since the start, day time.is fine but towards dusk people do start drinking and it can get a bit wild. Same the world over for nightime wheeling trips. I've seen it at Uwharrie tons and many other 4x4 trail systems. Now mutiply the biggest 4x4 event youve been to by 100 (in terms of attendents) and you have issues pop up. It really did remind me of holiday weekends at Glamis due to the sheer number of people. A lot of the issue seems to be how close the spectators put themselves to the action. Loads of videos will show that problem.
I'm 90% committed to going back next year. It's dates and work load will dictate how much I can go and enjoy but if I work remotely off of starlink I could realistically go the whole week and then some to help with trail cleanup afterwards.

 

[NCFJ]

Singer-songwriter Marcus King wed Briley Hussey. Think that would have happened if he was a lineman for the electric company?