2009 Rockin’ XJ Jamboree
November is here so that means it’s time to head to Johnson Valley again for the Rockin’ XJ Jamboree!
Read more below!Every year I head out to Johnson Valley in November to play in the rock and spend some time with good friends around a campfire, we call this the Rockin’ XJ Jamboree and it’s more fun than a barrel of demented monkeys! I got my Jeep together and started the 140 mile trek on Friday night, I arrived at the lakebed at 1230a.
This means the it’s time to have fun.
Finally there! Click to see it bigger.
Saturday morning I was slated to lead the Clawhammer run, this is the moderate-hard run by NAXJA’s standards. I had a group of nine rigs with me and we left the lakebed at about 930a to go play.
We stopped along the way to let Critter get some dune play out of his system while Terry looked at a minor mechanical issue on his XJ.
After that we continued on to Clawhammer. Once we got into the rocks that start the trail the fun started and the participants started dropping like flies! Right away one of the two Samaris that came along was having a slipping clutch issue so wisely decided to head back to camp. I pulled forward a little ways and started spotting people through the more tricky spots while Josh and Critter helped by spotting others. Here is Anthony’s driveshaft making love to a rock.
Shortly after this we had our first bit of carnage. Seems Paul’s rear axle yoke had been missing a U-Joint cap locator pin for awhile and it decided to give up right here on Claw. Luckily there was no secondary damage so Paul and Critter were able to make quick work of the repair using Paul’s spare parts.
While they were repairing Paul’s XJ I was spotting Julio up a small obstical that he was having a hard time getting traction on. Just as he was starting to make it his Jeep slipped and a rock took out his rear driveline. We pulled him back with Josh’s winch and Julio grabbed his trail spare only to find it was the wrong driveshaft. Once again Josh came to the rescue with the perfect size water bottle to cover the Julio’s stock 231 tailcone and Terry supplied some hose clamps and duct tape, after a couple of minutes work Julio was free to drive back to camp in front wheel drive. While this was going on I advised Anthony to turn back due to his dented driveshaft and one of Terry’s front brake hardlines broke while he was trying to secure it to the body so at least Julio had good company!
As we were getting this straightened out this YJ got himself a bit stuck and had to use his brand new winch to free himself.
After he freed himself he got hung up again, this time on his oil pan causing it to leak! We backed him off and Josh got him patched up by using a tire plug wrapped around his drain plug. Then he ended up hitting it again and putting an even larger hole in the pan! WE had to stop everything to capture the rapidly leaking oil until his pan was dry. Then we had him coat the damaged section in JB Kwik and ate lunch while it cured.
At this point we had the YJ going back because of the pan, Paul wanted to go back since his yoke wasn’t in great shape and Critter was going to escort them, all that remained was Josh and I so we decided to turn back as well. We got a total of 0.2 miles into Clawhammer, we didn’t even get to the first real obstacle (my front tires were touching it as I had pulled up expecting people to line up behind me). After this we went back to camp and decompressed for the dinner and raffle ahead.
On Sunday I decided to take it a little bit easier. As you may know I’m working on a new Maps and Trails section of this website, a big part of this section is Johnson Valley and I wanted to check out this long loop to Emerson Lake that I had plotted. Since this was a stocker type run I took James along with me in his freshly converted to 4×4 stock XJ. The only real tricky part of this run was one slightly steep very soft sandy hill. After ten or so tries James was still having trouble with it so I offered him my winch line and pulled him up so his clutch could cool down a bit.
My double locked XJ on 35″ Maxxis Bighorns and my dad’s spooled rear XJ on 33″ Bighorns made quick work on the softer right hand line.
After that it was mostly just a relaxing drive over to Emerson lake at the edge of the USMC base (The line runs through the center of the lakebed) with a lot of scenery.
Since James was new to the whole off roading experience I tried to teach him some important lessons. I showed him what a difference lower pressure makes, that you should carefully study your lines, how to play around in rocks, and, most importantly, that you must always park creatively.
All told it was a great weekend and I can’t wait to do it again! You can go through the rest of my photos here.
Sequoia
