I’m back on the East Coast from attending King of the Hammers, and I think my brain is still attempting to process the whole entirety of what went down.
Since I’m a little jet-lagged and still hurting from the junk food and cheap beer consumed – consider this the preamble to some more comprehensive (and photo-heavy!) recaps from several days spent in and around Hammertown in Johnson Valley, CA.
Beautiful Johnson Valley – as seen from “Chocolate Thunder”
Let’s start with what it is like rolling into the event – turning off the county 2-lane paved road to the dirt access road, you are immediately overwhelmed by your surroundings. There are thousands of RVs, toy haulers, pre-runners, rock crawlers, UTVs, dirt bikes, dune buggies, Jeeps, Toyotas, and other “toys” everywhere. The scene is unbelievable.
Scenes from our Camping Spot
The Johnson Valley OHV area is massive, and folks are spread out camping for miles and miles, getting more and more concentrated around Hammertown. We found a pre-existing fire ring and claimed our campsite that we would call home for the next 3 nights. We circled the 3 trucks, 1 enclosed trailer, and a toy-hauler to establish our site and home-base for the next several days.
Exploring Johnson Valley
The next 3 days were filled with a mix of trail riding on the massive OHV network in Johnson Valley, exploring Hammertown (and gawking at toys), mingling with old a new friends, and chasing the race on Friday. Our campsite crew was predominantly on dirt bikes, while myself and brother-in-law had a Polaris RZR to get around, which in my mind is the perfect runabout for the desert – so much fun.
Hammertown – Just a Taste
Don’t even get me started on the incredible capability of the Ultra4 cars – I’ll save that for a race recap and photo-bomb coming later this week!
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