Hump N Bump 2022

What’s Hump’N’Bump?

Hump’N’Bump is an internationally recognized, low-speed, three-day event, where participants are guided over existing trails of varying difficulty in and around the Logandale trails and Valley of Fire recreation area. The open nature of the scenic trails and very low speeds allow for larger groups with negligible impact to the environment.

Since 2009, Hump’N’Bump has been based at the Clark County Fairgrounds in Logandale, NV. The area provides an excellent venue for our event with a bandstand stage, tables, and bleachers. The location also provides hookups for up to 122 RV’s and there is a large grass area for tent camping.

The event includes three days of guided trail rides, vendor booths of various products, spectator events, training seminars, bonfire, and special events that change annually.

I had been planning to go to this event for a long time pretty much since I first heard about it back in April, I had even passed on Trail Hero in Utah to take PTO time for this event. I wanted to go up on Wednesday to be able to get a great camping spot, however, work, and other adult responsibilities came first.

In hindsight I am glad I did not go up on Wednesday since there was not a lot going on and I still got a great campsite by going up on Thursday, I was at the back of the grass area, and I was right next to the jeep and several genuinely nice bathrooms which are always great when you are in this case Glamping.

And yes, I was glamping I had brought out the whole shebang, the big tent, a new Queen Coleman bed, and even the camping coffee table and I am glad I brought along the cold-temperature sleeping bags since it was freaking cold at night low 40's if I remember correctly.

Camp for the Next 3 chilly nights

I had brought out the second tent since Steve and Patty will be coming up on Friday to camp out and run some of the trails, we had all volunteered to help during our time at the event and of course, Steve would be shooting a video for his YouTube channel Defiant Jeep he does an excellent job with his videos and I am impressed on how much his videography skills continue to improve. https://www.youtube.com/c/SteveZapparolli/featured

Steve and Patty were not due up till Friday, so it was just me and glamping setup for the first night and I had to be up early for the bitter springs run at 8 am. So, what is one to do? There was only one other tent camper in my area and the RV campers mostly kept to themselves, I did have volunteer duties on Thursday evening helping do the vehicle inspections at the front entrance so off I went.

It was slow there since it was already getting dark, but I did get a few cool pictures, and even got to see in the sky the launch of a Falcon rocket from Vandenburg airbase.

Sunset Over the Logandale Trails

Falcon Rocket Launch

Picture One

Elon is the man

Getting Ready for a Night Run

Falcon Rocket Launch

Picture Two

Impressive job Mr. Musk

Well, that rocket launch was a little scary because I and the guys at the front had no clue what in hell it was at first, we thought a plane but as you can see that is no plane, we closed the inspection area for the night so now time to do some exploring and find somewhere to warm up.

That looked toasty, it was a little quiet around the campfire, and I came to realize that it would be a little more active Friday night when the campgrounds would be fuller and the whole area would be more active.

After hanging around the fire for a bit I had to get back to camp and make some dinner, it would be a bratwurst night something simple not too crazy. I wish I had gotten pictures of the cooking, but it was cold, and I was exhausted, you would be surprised at how tired you get out in the fresh air setting up all the crap for glamping, so much stuff.

Another benefit of being close to a town cell service, I was able to watch some movies and enjoy dinner and of course, I had some cake for dessert. I called it an early night lineup for the Bitter Springs Trail was early 8:00 AM.

Ok, it's 6 am pop tarts, Brown Sugar, of course, is there anything better for breakfast and of course camp coffee to wash down the brown sugary wonder of the magical pop tart?

I cleaned up camp and headed to the bathroom to brush my teeth and can clean up a bit, now these bathrooms at the Clarke County fairground are not your run-of-the-mill Nevada pit toilet, oh no they are modern full fledge bathrooms, such a wonderful treat after freezing your ass off in a tent for 8 hours hot water and real toilets what else could you want, oh yeah Kevin and gang of Vegas Valley 4 Wheel have given the luxury of real hot water showers, this is a first for Hump N Bump, nice job Kevin.

Enough about all that time to get lined up for the trail run, we have about twelve jeeps today heading out on the early ride, now Bitter Springs is not anywhere near Logandale, and we have about a 30-minute drive south to catch the trail. And I just realized that there is nothing really holding my newly acquired flag to my new $10.00 pole, I guess we will have to wait and see.

After a quick driver meeting, we were off. I wanted to get some more pics for the start but missed the chance.

Somewhere on highway 15 southbound is my new flag, sorry DOT but one of the trail leaders was nice enough to give me one, and one by one we checked to make sure those that wanted to get aired down did and it was time to hit the trail.

I am running second to last because I was running a bit behind, moving a little slow hell it was cold out and I only had time for one cup of camp coffee.

Time to ride and to bring you along here is the latest @drtmonkey production.

I am sorry it took so long but these days I don't have so much motivation to make movies, it's a freaking lot of work, and I still have 50 hours a week of money-paying work but in the end, I think the new @drtmonkey video is good.

Now the fun part, I decided not to air back up since I had another trail run in the morning and I really did not go that low, so why bother it's not that far.

Hindsight bad idea!! as normal I watch the TPS gauge on the trip back I did make a quick stop to resupply my ever-dwindling horde of Monster Energy Drinks "Sponsorship Please" and all seemed well until about four miles in I notice the left front is losing air, slowly but still going down and since I only had 22 psi to start, I needed to stop and put more in. I was hoping it was a bad valve or and nail. After finding a truck pull-off, I aired them all backup and got back on the road hoping I would be good to get back to camp or that it would stop losing air, shit no luck it was slow but not good at all. I found a little tire place in Overton, and I made a beeline straight for it all the way losing a bit more air, I knew I could always stop and add air if needed so I eagle-eyed the TPS display and Jeeped onward.

By the time I got there I was back at about 20 psi at the spot I had started at, the guy's Valley Service Center (Sorry no Website for these boys) where great they quickly and expertly found the problem, and nope not a nail or valve the tire had a side wall crack and it was cooked. Ok now they did not have one and my spare is nonmatching which is dumb yes, I know that, but I am thrifty. Well, the tire dude said he would try and plug it, but I was going to need a new tire hellooo raffle tires, and two plugs later and a bunch of glue I was back on the road, but my trail time for this trip was over.

And in case you were wondering nope did not win the tires.

Slowly I limped back to camp, and I spent the rest of the day hanging out around camp, I think I might have even taken a nap, I am old I love naps. I walked over to the bonfire, and ran into Fred our fearless Desert Wranglers President we hung out by the fire watching the kids dance on the stage to the DJ while the old folks played Corn Hole and relaxed a fun time had all and the new fire pit Kevin had gotten was great nice a toasty, they even had smores for all the kids and they want to be adult kids at heart.

This year for Halloween they did a decorate up your jeep contest. These were my favorite ones.

I had done some more tech inspections that day while waiting for Steve and Patty, but they were running late so Fred, Gaye, and I spent time together, but it was getting late, and they had to drive back to town. So, I walked them to their jeep and discussed Fred's latest battle scars to his rock sliders, and then they were off just as they left my phone was ringing, and surprise Steve and Patty were there, we got them all registered, and they followed me back to camp.

We got them settled into the big tent, and all good to go, we sat and chilled out and talked we got to test out my new campfire wire mesh table, which we all thought would just burn thru and cause a fire, but it worked out great, and we did not torch the place.

They had an early morning run, so we called it quits and they went to the tents. I walked over and spent some time with the crew from Wild West Jeeps, Cameron,, and Jenna, Jay Bird, and his wife, Jenson the Overlander, some new peeps I had not met before, and of course the doggie Fielder. I watched them drink, laugh, and even dance but it was getting late, they were getting drunk, and it was time to call it a night.

I walked back to camp and watched a movie for a little while but got sleepy and I decided to call it a night.

Morning came quickly and it was cold, I got the coffee going, and Steve and Patty and I sat discussing who in the hell knows what camping and stuff I believe but they had an early run, and my runs were not too be this day. They had to line up by 7:45 so off they went I wandered around for a bit and visited with the Wild West crew. They needed more firewood, so like any good non-trail riding jeeper, I volunteered to get more wood.

I decided to run to Walmart up in Mesquite and also I had time to kill, after filling up on wood and a few more Monsters time to head back, so I thought, and there in the corner of my mirror drawing me like a moth to the flame I saw those words Casino Turn Left, so I off I went like a good little addict to lose more of my hard-earned money, but it was fun and I killed a few hours.

Driving back, of course, I watched the tire pressure the whole way, but the plugs seem to have done their job, got back, and surprise Steve and Paty were back, that was a short run, and they were a bit aggravated that it was so short, found out it had something to do with a broken jeep and fill-in trail leader but that is the way of the jeep life.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out around camp, I think I might have even taken a nap, I am old I love naps. Steve played with his new camera while Patty read the book about the history of Lovell Canyon, we had some lunch and walked around a bit looking at all the amazing jeeps and other offroad vehicles and the campers, I loved the Opus.

https://www.opuscamper.us/lite/.

We talked with the groups that had set up booths at the event like Leave No Trace, The Division of Forestry, and a couple of others, it was nice and relaxing a good way to spend the day, we got back to camp, and Fred and Dave and their wives showed up I had not expected to see Fred that day since he had mentioned he would not be back, but the call of the BBQ dinner persuaded him to make the drive.

Me and Patty and Steve skipped the BBQ and cooked out, we did not have a lot of time since it was raffle time and I needed to win some new tires, I could not believe all the prizes for the adult raffle I heard almost 70k in total. Now, the kids think it is a raffle and they win by chance, but a birdie told me that they shop for the kids like Santa and every child registered wins a raffle. A sponsor covers all the prizes for the kids, how cool is that?

It was quite the site to see all the support they got for this wonderful event, and the number of people and the amount of work involved seems a bit nuts, but it is for a great cause.

Everyone had a wonderful time, and the team and Kevin didhave a fantastic job, but in the end, no tires for this jeeper next year who knows?

I was ready to sit by the fire for a bit and relax, I helped a bit at the raffle, I feel that for this kind of cause my time helping is well worth it, to be able to help keep the amazing trails we have at the Logandale trail system it is worth every minute and I will be back again to help next year.

You wouldn't think that hanging out, running trails, and sleeping in a tent would wear you out but it sure does, it was time to relax, start up the fire and enjoy the cool night air and just chill. We talked and burned wood well into the night talking about what else Jeeps and Jeep upgrades, and even a few things about family and life a great night. We burned most of the wood, so it was time for bed and in the morning time to tear down camp and head back to life and back to SIN CITY.

I will skip telling you all the boring details on how I got a 14 ft tent back into 4-foot bag skills I tell Ya mad ninja tent packing skills4-foot.

Thanks,

Brian Solomon

Head Dirt Monkey