Pliny
Well-Known Member
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Winter 4x4 Jamboree
This was a trip of firsts for us. It was our first time attending an organized trail event, first time attending the Jamboree, and first time offroading in the SW corner of Utah. I'll try to cover the things we learned as first timers, in case anyone else might consider attending in the future.
This post is going to be somewhat light on pictures / videos. I was busy driving and really couldn't just stop any time I wanted to to get out for the photo opportunities. My wife took a lot of photos where the camera focused on the dirt / bug splatters on the windshield, and several videos of us approaching obstacles only to then put the phone down so she could hold on with two hands.
The majority of the trail rides are held in the BLM Sand Mountain Open OHV Area. Flags are required, and having an air compressor is going to make things easier. We had great weather, lows in the lower 30s and highs in the lower 60s. Road tripping to the event may not be practical for a lot of people, given the unpredictability of winter weather. As I'm writing this up:
The Jamboree website has that CB radios are encouraged, but on all four trails that we did the trail leader used GMRS. Fortunately I have a MXT275 installed, but I wish I would have also brought the handheld that I have.
The registration information has that masks are required at the drivers meeting, but that is left over from the 2020 and 2021 events.
The registration packet that you get has the lane numbers for the trails you've signed up for, but don't count on them being correct. On our second day we pulled up to the assigned lane, but the name of the trail was wrong (a 7 rated trail versus the 3 rated that we signed up for). Had to get back over to the registration area and find out what lane we were supposed to be at.
The daily attendee sticker that you get is also your day pass for the Sand Hollow State Park if you want to drive around in there / use the facilities. Only on our last day did the trail end inside the State Park.
It tries to be a family friendly event. There were kids, dogs, and dogs with their own social media accounts with thousands of followers. No alcohol is allowed.
The 8:00 trails have the drivers meeting at ~7:45. Vehicles start rolling out right about at 8:00, one lane at a time, takes about a minute per lane. Note from my wife to any of your passengers is that if they do pay a visit to the port-a-johns by the exit of the lanes make sure they take a good look at the vehicles at the exit of the lane that you are in. The exit side of the lanes doesn't have the lanes numbered or with names of the trails. She came back while the drivers meeting was going on, so there was no one to ask which lane was which. A real life game of "Where's Waldo" trying to find our Gobi JTR in essentially a sea of Wranglers.
Day one: Milt's Mile Lite
This day had the fewest vehicles signed up, ended up with 10, plus the trail leader, tail gunner, and then one mid-gunner. One of the participants had switched their trail registration that morning at the registration desk. They had inadvertently signed up for the 7 rated Milt's Mile instead of the 4 rated Lite. We were the only Gladiator on this trail. Drove from the fairgrounds to the "trailhead" stopping short of the Waddy's Corral staging area (as it was full of vehicles for several other trails). Turned left off the pavement onto the sand, aired down and then we were on our way. There was a minor mechanical issue where an LJ was having trouble shifting the transfer case. Turned out the shifter was coming loose from the floor and it got sorted out pretty quickly. Milt's Mile and Milt's Mile Lite share some sections of trail and run close to each other in places. We got to see vehicles run two obstacles that are on Milt's Mile. The first was "Hard Right Turn" and I think the second was named "Hard Left Turn" but I could be wrong about that. We got to a point where the trail leader said on the radio that if we were following along on OnX or Gaia it might still show that the trail went won and off to the right, versus the way we went which was across to the left. Said recent rains (I'm guess the remnants of hurricane Priscilla last October) made the old way impassable. We were stopped on the trail waiting for the mid-gunner to guide the rest of the group down a steep descent when the trail leader took this picture of us.
Day two: East Rim
This was the easiest trail that we did and it had great views. There was another Gladiator on this trail with us. There was the opportunity for two challenging obstacles along the trail, though I didn't attempt either one. They did point out on the radio one particularly big washout that had a vehicle roll there during Trail Hero last fall. Our Gobi JTR:
1975 CJ5 when we stopped for lunch:
Owner said he did install a limited slip in the rear, but he drove most of the trail in 2WD. We saw him get out and lock / unlock the hubs a couple of times to get up some steeper sections. It was good to see how a vehicle so light and nimble could easily get up things that a couple of the wranglers had issues with.
Lunch was at the Flintstone House:
After I had taken these photos a guy asked me if I was okay being in the photos he was taking. I assumed it was some sort of weird passive / agressive behavior and he wanted be to move out of he shot so I said I would just move out of the way. He said no, that having me in the image gave it a scale reference. A little more conversation ensued and it truns out that he works for the BLM (which I might have guess based on the BLM logos on his shirt and hat) and that he was documenting the current state of this site as the BLM was discussing putting a fence around the Flintstone House to try to protect it. Seems that SxSs have been driving on top of it for the photo opportunity. He then was off to refill the toilet paper supplies in the composting toilets that have been installed in the area.
When we were airing back up at the end of the day, we got our first duck after three years of ownership. We are not pro-duck or anti-duck, we are just not duck people.
The Jack-o-lantern is significant in that it was on Halloween 2020 that the woman who gave it to us got the double organ transplant that gave her a new lease on life. Just a reminder to all of the duck haters out there, that it might actually be something meaningful to the person giving it to you. We're going to keep him, he won't live on the dash but he may get to ride up there on special occasions.
Day three: Michael's Loop
This trail was a change of pace in that it was not in the Sand Mountain OHV area. From the fairgrounds we hopped on I-15, cut across the north part of St. George and then headed up the next valley to near the Gunlock Reservoir / Gunlock State Park. The tail gunner was driving a Gladiator and we had an FJ Cruiser with us as well. A lot of dust on the well graded road as we headed in. There was a tight spot for our JTR as we wiggled through the trees, only a 3 point turn required, as we headed to the site with the petroglyphs.
At the site:
Some of the petroglyphs, lower left looks to me like a trash can, and the other things might be shields?
Didn't want to hike up any higher and risk twisting an ankle or knee on the way down.
At lunch, the owner said this was a 1946 FJ-2A:
We had unplanned stoppages due to it overheating once, and then once when the carburetor flooded. I didn't see what was under the hood, heard that they had swapped the carburetor onto it the night before after dealing with wires for the fuel injection shorting out on the previous days trail. Did have one wrangler that had a tire go flat before lunch, so they put the spare on. I lent my torque wrench to the effort.
Day four: West Rim
This trail had a pretty full sign up, so they had two-mid-gunners in addition to the leader and tail-gunner.
There was another Gladiator on this trail with us. Shout out to Eric and Jane wheeling their stock 3 week old Mojave:
Still had the temporary tags, but no hitch skid:
We were slow getting started after airing down. There was one stock Wrangler that had gotten into the lane for the West Rim trail instead of the West Rim Lite trail and no one caught it. Executive decision was made to air them back up, lock the vehicle and leave it there, the two occupants then got to ride along with the mid-gunners and we were finally on our way.
I had expected the first day to have the most difficult trail. I was wrong. The Jamboree has West Rim rated as a 4. Their trail ratings have a 4 with "rock steps no higher than 18". Whereas the trail description for the West Rim trail has the second obstacle "The Funnel" as 'a rounded 30" step' whereas the West Rim Lite description has this: Almost immediately after The Steps, the trail comes to “The Funnel,” which is a 36-inch high ledge with no bypass. I did not get out to measure, but I definitely dragged the hitch skid a bunch. It wasn't long after we cleared the funnel that progress was halted. A wrangler was having problems getting into 4 wheel drive. After a while, driver decided that it was something electronic that was wrong, they were just going to punt and turn around and head back on their own.
We stopped before entering the obstacle called the toll booth to allow everyone to catch back up. Asked the trail leader if I was going to have any issues with it (thinking about length) and he only asked if I had wheel spacers or wider axles. I got through no problem (the H2 Hummer had to drive around) but it was after the fact that I realized our JTR (and the JTM) have the wide track axles, which I don't know if the JLR/JLURs have. Further on the H2 Hummer had to part ways with the rest of us given that it wasn't going to fit through some of the places we were headed. They coordinated where they would meet back up with the rest of us.
We stopped for lunch at a spot called "The Lunch Room". Chomping on my sandwich (technically my wife's sandwich, I grabbed the wrong one out of the cooler) I noticed something unnaturally shiny on the ground. Walked over to pick up the trail trash, and it was a ~3/4" steel ball, out of someone's CV joint. Showed it off to the vehicle next to me, and the driver said "A CV joint ball". I saw the light bulb go on over his head, he asked me where I found it, said right here, and he said that it was from the Hummer that was with our group. Earlier in the week, the Hummer was on a different trail that went through the lunch room and had broken his CV joint. They wheel the Hummer with a spare front axle shaft, swapped the spare in on the trail, went and bought another spare at O'Reilly's and were ready for the next day. He said that the Hummer driver would want the ball as a souvenier. Tossed it in the ziploc bag from the sandwich.
Vehicles from the next trail to stop for lunch at the lunch room started to arrive, so we all were encouraged to get into our vehicles and start moving. I was following the JTM through the exit from the lunch room, which is a narrow slot ending in a ledge that you need to climb up. The stock JTM did not have enough ground clearance to get over the ledge. Rear lockers engaged, three tires spinning away. The lunch room had filled up with vehicles from the other trail, so the rest of our group really couldn't back up to get out of the slot to let the JTM back off the ledge. Ended up getting one of the mid-gunners to circle back and put a strap on the JTM. Only took a little tug and they were on their way.
Caught up to the H2 Hummer when we stopped at the top of the world and gave him his souvenir.
After top of the world it was a quick trip over to one of the composting toilets before we all headed down the dune. I shifted to 4H at the top, I was directly behind the H2 Hummer as we all played follow the leader down the sand towards the reservoir. I had noticed the red Wrangler in front of the hummer driving a little more exuberantly than the rest of us, the driver was opting for the "fun lines". Think she decided too late that she wanted to go over the little dune to the right of the line the group was following. She ended up stopped on the face of the dune at a 45 degree angle towards passenger side to the ridge of it. As she was attempting to back down, someone behind us who knew her by name got on the radio to get her to stop. She had her wheels cranked full driver and if she had kept going she apparently risked rolling. Suitably chastised she cranked her wheels full passenger, backed down, and then proceeded down the rest of the way at a much more subdued pace.
Our exit from the OHV area was through the tunnel under Utah 7, one more drag of the hitch skid an immediate hard left and we were into a staging area where we could air back up.
Overall we had a great time and are likely to go back. I'll try to do a better job of photos / video clips next time.
If you have any questions, just ask.
(I accidentally uploaded the image below twice, and I cannot figure out how to delete it from the thread.)
This was a trip of firsts for us. It was our first time attending an organized trail event, first time attending the Jamboree, and first time offroading in the SW corner of Utah. I'll try to cover the things we learned as first timers, in case anyone else might consider attending in the future.
This post is going to be somewhat light on pictures / videos. I was busy driving and really couldn't just stop any time I wanted to to get out for the photo opportunities. My wife took a lot of photos where the camera focused on the dirt / bug splatters on the windshield, and several videos of us approaching obstacles only to then put the phone down so she could hold on with two hands.
The majority of the trail rides are held in the BLM Sand Mountain Open OHV Area. Flags are required, and having an air compressor is going to make things easier. We had great weather, lows in the lower 30s and highs in the lower 60s. Road tripping to the event may not be practical for a lot of people, given the unpredictability of winter weather. As I'm writing this up:
The Jamboree website has that CB radios are encouraged, but on all four trails that we did the trail leader used GMRS. Fortunately I have a MXT275 installed, but I wish I would have also brought the handheld that I have.
The registration information has that masks are required at the drivers meeting, but that is left over from the 2020 and 2021 events.
The registration packet that you get has the lane numbers for the trails you've signed up for, but don't count on them being correct. On our second day we pulled up to the assigned lane, but the name of the trail was wrong (a 7 rated trail versus the 3 rated that we signed up for). Had to get back over to the registration area and find out what lane we were supposed to be at.
The daily attendee sticker that you get is also your day pass for the Sand Hollow State Park if you want to drive around in there / use the facilities. Only on our last day did the trail end inside the State Park.
It tries to be a family friendly event. There were kids, dogs, and dogs with their own social media accounts with thousands of followers. No alcohol is allowed.
The 8:00 trails have the drivers meeting at ~7:45. Vehicles start rolling out right about at 8:00, one lane at a time, takes about a minute per lane. Note from my wife to any of your passengers is that if they do pay a visit to the port-a-johns by the exit of the lanes make sure they take a good look at the vehicles at the exit of the lane that you are in. The exit side of the lanes doesn't have the lanes numbered or with names of the trails. She came back while the drivers meeting was going on, so there was no one to ask which lane was which. A real life game of "Where's Waldo" trying to find our Gobi JTR in essentially a sea of Wranglers.
Day one: Milt's Mile Lite
This day had the fewest vehicles signed up, ended up with 10, plus the trail leader, tail gunner, and then one mid-gunner. One of the participants had switched their trail registration that morning at the registration desk. They had inadvertently signed up for the 7 rated Milt's Mile instead of the 4 rated Lite. We were the only Gladiator on this trail. Drove from the fairgrounds to the "trailhead" stopping short of the Waddy's Corral staging area (as it was full of vehicles for several other trails). Turned left off the pavement onto the sand, aired down and then we were on our way. There was a minor mechanical issue where an LJ was having trouble shifting the transfer case. Turned out the shifter was coming loose from the floor and it got sorted out pretty quickly. Milt's Mile and Milt's Mile Lite share some sections of trail and run close to each other in places. We got to see vehicles run two obstacles that are on Milt's Mile. The first was "Hard Right Turn" and I think the second was named "Hard Left Turn" but I could be wrong about that. We got to a point where the trail leader said on the radio that if we were following along on OnX or Gaia it might still show that the trail went won and off to the right, versus the way we went which was across to the left. Said recent rains (I'm guess the remnants of hurricane Priscilla last October) made the old way impassable. We were stopped on the trail waiting for the mid-gunner to guide the rest of the group down a steep descent when the trail leader took this picture of us.
Day two: East Rim
This was the easiest trail that we did and it had great views. There was another Gladiator on this trail with us. There was the opportunity for two challenging obstacles along the trail, though I didn't attempt either one. They did point out on the radio one particularly big washout that had a vehicle roll there during Trail Hero last fall. Our Gobi JTR:
1975 CJ5 when we stopped for lunch:
Owner said he did install a limited slip in the rear, but he drove most of the trail in 2WD. We saw him get out and lock / unlock the hubs a couple of times to get up some steeper sections. It was good to see how a vehicle so light and nimble could easily get up things that a couple of the wranglers had issues with.
Lunch was at the Flintstone House:
After I had taken these photos a guy asked me if I was okay being in the photos he was taking. I assumed it was some sort of weird passive / agressive behavior and he wanted be to move out of he shot so I said I would just move out of the way. He said no, that having me in the image gave it a scale reference. A little more conversation ensued and it truns out that he works for the BLM (which I might have guess based on the BLM logos on his shirt and hat) and that he was documenting the current state of this site as the BLM was discussing putting a fence around the Flintstone House to try to protect it. Seems that SxSs have been driving on top of it for the photo opportunity. He then was off to refill the toilet paper supplies in the composting toilets that have been installed in the area.
When we were airing back up at the end of the day, we got our first duck after three years of ownership. We are not pro-duck or anti-duck, we are just not duck people.
The Jack-o-lantern is significant in that it was on Halloween 2020 that the woman who gave it to us got the double organ transplant that gave her a new lease on life. Just a reminder to all of the duck haters out there, that it might actually be something meaningful to the person giving it to you. We're going to keep him, he won't live on the dash but he may get to ride up there on special occasions.
Day three: Michael's Loop
This trail was a change of pace in that it was not in the Sand Mountain OHV area. From the fairgrounds we hopped on I-15, cut across the north part of St. George and then headed up the next valley to near the Gunlock Reservoir / Gunlock State Park. The tail gunner was driving a Gladiator and we had an FJ Cruiser with us as well. A lot of dust on the well graded road as we headed in. There was a tight spot for our JTR as we wiggled through the trees, only a 3 point turn required, as we headed to the site with the petroglyphs.
At the site:
Some of the petroglyphs, lower left looks to me like a trash can, and the other things might be shields?
Didn't want to hike up any higher and risk twisting an ankle or knee on the way down.
At lunch, the owner said this was a 1946 FJ-2A:
We had unplanned stoppages due to it overheating once, and then once when the carburetor flooded. I didn't see what was under the hood, heard that they had swapped the carburetor onto it the night before after dealing with wires for the fuel injection shorting out on the previous days trail. Did have one wrangler that had a tire go flat before lunch, so they put the spare on. I lent my torque wrench to the effort.
Day four: West Rim
This trail had a pretty full sign up, so they had two-mid-gunners in addition to the leader and tail-gunner.
There was another Gladiator on this trail with us. Shout out to Eric and Jane wheeling their stock 3 week old Mojave:
Still had the temporary tags, but no hitch skid:
We were slow getting started after airing down. There was one stock Wrangler that had gotten into the lane for the West Rim trail instead of the West Rim Lite trail and no one caught it. Executive decision was made to air them back up, lock the vehicle and leave it there, the two occupants then got to ride along with the mid-gunners and we were finally on our way.
I had expected the first day to have the most difficult trail. I was wrong. The Jamboree has West Rim rated as a 4. Their trail ratings have a 4 with "rock steps no higher than 18". Whereas the trail description for the West Rim trail has the second obstacle "The Funnel" as 'a rounded 30" step' whereas the West Rim Lite description has this: Almost immediately after The Steps, the trail comes to “The Funnel,” which is a 36-inch high ledge with no bypass. I did not get out to measure, but I definitely dragged the hitch skid a bunch. It wasn't long after we cleared the funnel that progress was halted. A wrangler was having problems getting into 4 wheel drive. After a while, driver decided that it was something electronic that was wrong, they were just going to punt and turn around and head back on their own.
We stopped before entering the obstacle called the toll booth to allow everyone to catch back up. Asked the trail leader if I was going to have any issues with it (thinking about length) and he only asked if I had wheel spacers or wider axles. I got through no problem (the H2 Hummer had to drive around) but it was after the fact that I realized our JTR (and the JTM) have the wide track axles, which I don't know if the JLR/JLURs have. Further on the H2 Hummer had to part ways with the rest of us given that it wasn't going to fit through some of the places we were headed. They coordinated where they would meet back up with the rest of us.
We stopped for lunch at a spot called "The Lunch Room". Chomping on my sandwich (technically my wife's sandwich, I grabbed the wrong one out of the cooler) I noticed something unnaturally shiny on the ground. Walked over to pick up the trail trash, and it was a ~3/4" steel ball, out of someone's CV joint. Showed it off to the vehicle next to me, and the driver said "A CV joint ball". I saw the light bulb go on over his head, he asked me where I found it, said right here, and he said that it was from the Hummer that was with our group. Earlier in the week, the Hummer was on a different trail that went through the lunch room and had broken his CV joint. They wheel the Hummer with a spare front axle shaft, swapped the spare in on the trail, went and bought another spare at O'Reilly's and were ready for the next day. He said that the Hummer driver would want the ball as a souvenier. Tossed it in the ziploc bag from the sandwich.
Vehicles from the next trail to stop for lunch at the lunch room started to arrive, so we all were encouraged to get into our vehicles and start moving. I was following the JTM through the exit from the lunch room, which is a narrow slot ending in a ledge that you need to climb up. The stock JTM did not have enough ground clearance to get over the ledge. Rear lockers engaged, three tires spinning away. The lunch room had filled up with vehicles from the other trail, so the rest of our group really couldn't back up to get out of the slot to let the JTM back off the ledge. Ended up getting one of the mid-gunners to circle back and put a strap on the JTM. Only took a little tug and they were on their way.
Caught up to the H2 Hummer when we stopped at the top of the world and gave him his souvenir.
After top of the world it was a quick trip over to one of the composting toilets before we all headed down the dune. I shifted to 4H at the top, I was directly behind the H2 Hummer as we all played follow the leader down the sand towards the reservoir. I had noticed the red Wrangler in front of the hummer driving a little more exuberantly than the rest of us, the driver was opting for the "fun lines". Think she decided too late that she wanted to go over the little dune to the right of the line the group was following. She ended up stopped on the face of the dune at a 45 degree angle towards passenger side to the ridge of it. As she was attempting to back down, someone behind us who knew her by name got on the radio to get her to stop. She had her wheels cranked full driver and if she had kept going she apparently risked rolling. Suitably chastised she cranked her wheels full passenger, backed down, and then proceeded down the rest of the way at a much more subdued pace.
Our exit from the OHV area was through the tunnel under Utah 7, one more drag of the hitch skid an immediate hard left and we were into a staging area where we could air back up.
Overall we had a great time and are likely to go back. I'll try to do a better job of photos / video clips next time.
If you have any questions, just ask.
(I accidentally uploaded the image below twice, and I cannot figure out how to delete it from the thread.)
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