From Street Racing to Rock Crawling: A Journey with Alan Johnson

Join Big Rich Klein as he sits down with Alan Johnson, President of the Rubicon Trail Foundation, in an engaging conversation about his adventurous journey from street racing to becoming a new We Rock rock-crawling competitor. Alan shares his personal history, the influence of his family, and how he transitioned from a life centered around fast cars to one focused on the off-road lifestyle.

Key Topics Discussed:

• Early Life and Influences:
  Alan's childhood moves from Phoenix, Arizona, to various states due to his father's job. 

         His early exposure to cars and racing through family, especially his grandfather. 

• Transition from Street Racing:
  Alan's experiences with street racing in his early 20s, the challenges, and eventual realization that led him to change paths.

         His first off-road vehicle and the eye-opening experiences that followed. 

• Off-Road Adventures:
  Alan's journey into rock crawling and his first competitive experiences, including participating in CalRocs and We Rock events. 

        The story of acquiring and preserving a significant 4Runner with personal and emotional ties.

• Leadership and Contributions:

        Alan's involvement with the Rubicon Trail Foundation and his progression to becoming the President

        The importance of maintaining and enhancing trail access for the off-road community. 

• Personal Life:
  Alan's family life, including his two children who share his love for off-roading.

         Balancing his career as a mechanic with his passion for rock crawling and family adventures. 

Closing Thoughts: Big Rich and Alan discuss future plans, upcoming events, and the importance of community involvement in preserving off-road trails. 

Transcript

[00:00:05.100] 

Welcome to Conversations with Big Rich. This is an interview-style podcast. Those interviewed are all involved in the off-road industry. Being involved, like all of my guests are, is a lifestyle, not just a job. I talk to past, present, and future legends, as well as business owners, employees, media, and land use warriors, men and women who have found their way into this exciting and addictive lifestyle we call off-road. We discuss their personal history, struggles, successes, and reboots. We dive into what drives them to stay active and off-road. We all hope to shed some light on how to find a path into this world that we live and love and call off-road.

[00:00:46.360] 

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[00:01:12.420] - Big Rich Klein

My guest today is an off-road Enthusiast, President of the Rubicon Trail Foundation, and a new We Rock rock-crawling competitor. Alan Johnson, how are you doing today?

[00:01:24.420] - Alan Johnson

I'm good. How are you, Rich?

[00:01:25.760] - Big Rich Klein

Doing fantastic. Let's get started right off. We've worked together a little bit with the Rubicon Trail Foundation. Now that you're President, I guess we'll be working a lot closer together. So I'm looking forward to that. But we'll get into RTF and to rock crawling and all that in a little bit. But let's start off with the easiest question, at least for me to ask, where were you born and raised?

[00:01:53.320] - Alan Johnson

So I was born in Phoenix, Arizona. Okay. We were only there for for maybe eight or nine months. Then we moved to Salina's, California. That was where my dad was born and raised. We went back there. I'm not quite sure when we moved from there to Sacramento. We were in Sacramento for a little while. It's about, trying to think when we moved from there, probably in '95, '96, we moved to Oregon, to Roseburg, Oregon, or actually Winston, Oregon, a little bit south of Roseburg. We were there until about 2001. Then my family moved to Reno, Nevada, and I've been here ever since.

[00:02:42.880] - Big Rich Klein

And the reason for so many moves, was it chasing a job?

[00:02:47.400] - Alan Johnson

Yeah, it was my dad chasing a job that he just followed everywhere.

[00:02:52.220] - Big Rich Klein

Cool.

[00:02:53.180] - Alan Johnson

He did manufactured housing stuff, and his uncle was the owner of the company, and just followed him around.

[00:03:04.050] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, cool. And what's the first place that you can remember truly being home? Typically, when you're about six or seven?

[00:03:21.140] - Alan Johnson

Yeah, it was in Sacramento or better yet, Rocklin, before Rocklin turned into Rocklin. I lived right off of 80 in a little trailer park that you can see. I see it every time I drive by Rocklin off of 80 there. We lived in a little trailer park, and I just remember riding bikes around the trailer park and throwing bread to the geese in the little pond they had there.

[00:03:51.660] - Big Rich Klein

When life was innocent.

[00:03:54.340] - Alan Johnson

Yes. Oh, yeah. Life was innocent, and that was better.

[00:04:04.420] - Big Rich Klein

Unfortunately, that's what happens in Metropolitan areas. It just gets swallowed up, and things change.

[00:04:12.500] - Alan Johnson

Yup. Now, when I go through there, Luckily, right there off the freeway is the same, the little talk about, and there's like an Arby's right there, then the trailer park.

[00:04:23.640] - Big Rich Klein

Do you ever drive through the trailer park?

[00:04:27.020] - Alan Johnson

I do. Yeah, I do drive through the trailer park, and I go go back to where we were. But the mobile home we lived in, for some reason, we took... We owned the mobile home. We were just paying the space rent there, but we took the mobile home with us to Oregon.

[00:04:45.380] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, wow. So it actually had a trailer hitch.

[00:04:48.960] - Alan Johnson

Oh, yeah. Yeah, it had a trailer hitch. And yeah, we moved it up to Winston, Oregon, and put it on. We had like 80 acres. Oh, wow. So And lived up there for five or six years before we came to Reno.

[00:05:04.640] - Big Rich Klein

And was it Winston is where you started school?

[00:05:08.520] - Alan Johnson

Yeah. So I went to, I think it was just called Winston Elementary. Okay. Because when we moved to Reno was when I went into seventh grade. So it was middle school up here. But yeah, so it was elementary school down there. And it was right down the street from the Wildlife Safari. Oregon somehow had some crazy zoo there with like cheetahs and everything in green Oregon.

[00:05:39.120] - Big Rich Klein

I guess the African animals were Probably a lot of transplants, like a lot of transplants. Like, what the hell is this?

[00:05:49.040] - Alan Johnson

Yeah, what is this? Rain. Yeah.

[00:05:54.060] - Big Rich Klein

It's not the monsoon season. What's going on?

[00:05:56.760] - Alan Johnson

Yeah.

[00:05:58.380] - Big Rich Klein

So what was What was it like jumping around and moving around as a kid and chasing the job with your parents? And did you make friends easy?

[00:06:12.920] - Alan Johnson

Yeah, I feel like I did. In Oregon, it was a little weird because we were so far from our neighbors. But I remember having friends in school and stuff, but out of school, there wasn't a whole lot of neighbors our neighbor kids to go play with. So we just rode our bikes around on the property. We had an '80s 110 Honda three-wheeler that we, I swear, we'd go through a tank of gas a day on that thing, just hot laughing the thing around the property.

[00:06:49.380] - Big Rich Klein

And when you say we, you have brothers, sisters?

[00:06:52.320] - Alan Johnson

Yeah, I have two younger brothers.

[00:06:54.360] - Big Rich Klein

Two younger brothers, okay. So you're the oldest?

[00:06:58.140] - Alan Johnson

I am the oldest.

[00:06:59.680] - Big Rich Klein

So So all of the responsibility of anything happening fell on you?

[00:07:05.100] - Alan Johnson

Yeah, I was the horrible example.

[00:07:09.380] - Big Rich Klein

Are you still the horrible example?

[00:07:15.040] - Alan Johnson

No. I'd say me and my youngest brother pulled our head out of our asses, I should say.

[00:07:22.840] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. So then what did you guys do as a kid and family things?

[00:07:32.230] - Alan Johnson

We did a lot of camping. I would definitely say that's where I got my love for camping and just the outdoors. My dad worked a lot, so whenever he had free time, he would definitely take us camping, and we'd go meet up with family. We had a lot of family in Sacramento, so we'd meet up and go camp by Shasta and stuff, a bunch. Grant's We'd go all the way down to like, is it Rollins Lake? Rollins Lake? Yeah. Yeah, we'd try to meet up at different places and go camp in a bunch. We did a lot of... My dad was really big into NHRA.

[00:08:22.440] - Big Rich Klein

All right.

[00:08:23.420] - Alan Johnson

So we'd go to a bunch of, probably three events a year. We'd go to like Sanoma and Vegas a couple of times a year, do that for the weekend. Yeah, he was really big in the NHRA, and we followed it around for a while. I guess when I got my license or became a teenager, I didn't want anything to do with it. Him and my mom would just go.

[00:08:55.920] - Big Rich Klein

What was it about drag racing that you weren't interested How did you get interested in it?

[00:09:02.260] - Alan Johnson

It's not that I wasn't interested in it. I vaguely pay attention to drag racing still. Just who won events and stuff and the times. But I don't know, I think it was when I got my driver's license, I just didn't want much to do with that stuff anymore. And unfortunately, I got into street racing pretty bad. Yeah, I was a pretty big troublemaker with the street racing stuff for a while and finally pulled my head out of my ass and traded my last boxbody Mustang for my first rock brawler. And It's definitely... I wouldn't say it's a cheaper hobby, but it's a lot harder to get in trouble with the law for rock crawling.

[00:09:56.240] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, understood. So My dad was a drag racer, and I can remember the first Cedar City Arca event back in 1999. My dad came out to see it, and My son was, I don't know what grade he was in then, eighth grade or something like that. He must have been older than that. He must have been in high school. Anyway, he He couldn't understand why people would build something to go slow. He goes, I just don't understand this off-road thing that you're doing that you like. I don't understand why you'd build something and spend all your time building something to go slow. And I said, Dad, it's not about how fast it goes, it's where you can go and how you can do it. And then he saw the first event, his first event, and he was hooked. He was like, okay, I to get it now. Let's build one of these. We could do this. And he was coming up with all sorts of creative stuff because he was an engine builder, but back in the '50s and '60s, drag racing. And he got into it.

[00:11:14.940] - Alan Johnson

Yeah, definitely rock crawling is a different thrill, I should say.

[00:11:21.240] - Big Rich Klein

So how did you go from... Well, let's explore the street racing a little bit first. Okay. So that was Nevada then? You were in- Yeah, in Reno. In Reno at that point. So was Hot August Nights a thing then?

[00:11:41.320] - Alan Johnson

Yeah, Hot August Nights was a thing. That's one thing I do remember about when we lived in Sacramento and Oregon as well. So my grandpa was the one that got me into just cars in general.

[00:11:54.980] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:11:56.000] - Alan Johnson

He was a GM tech for forever and was always in the cars. And he had a bunch of old cars growing up. The one I remember the most that I helped him work on the most, and what I learned to drive in was his 54 Chevy pickup I think at that time, it was like, I don't know, I think at those times, it was before like LT1s and LS's, so it probably was just like a 383 Stroker or something in it. And yeah, we would go up to Hot Oaks Nights. He'd take me to Hot Oaks Nights with them and we'd hang out, steal the old cars and do all that. So I would probably blame my grandpa more for the street racing thing, getting me into the fast car stuff.

[00:12:44.800] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:12:47.900] - Alan Johnson

But yeah, no, we had Hot Oaks Nights up here, and in the summer, the summers up here get pretty hot, just like Sacramento. So the nighttime scene is pretty heavily. And that was when I started driving and had Mustangs and stuff, it was right after a couple of the Fast and Furious movies. So the import scene was starting to get a little more popular, a bunch of Hondas and stuff. So the scene up here was pretty big for the street racing. It was three nights a week. There'd be the Friday and Saturday, and then there'd be a middle of the week, like invite-only things like, Hey, let's go meet out here by the warehouses and get some runs going.

[00:13:39.600] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. And started driving then around the Fast and Furious. So you're under 40?

[00:13:50.580] - Alan Johnson

Yeah, I'm 38.

[00:13:52.260] - Big Rich Klein

38, okay. I've only got 30 years on you. So then you're going to school there in high school and stuff in Reno. Yes. Were you a good student, or were you one of those that Looking out the window, wanting to go do something else?

[00:14:18.120] - Alan Johnson

Yeah, I was a horrible student. Yeah, I just skipped a bunch of school and hung out with older dudes with fast cars. Yeah, not a good student. I was good in automotive and welding. That was about the only classes I paid attention to and was good in.

[00:14:43.420] - Big Rich Klein

Well, at least you had an automotive shop then.

[00:14:47.480] - Alan Johnson

Yes, we did. We had a pretty good automotive class. I actually still talk to my old automotive teacher. He now teaches at TMCC up here, the community college. He's awesome. And while it was an automotive, even we went to... It's called Skills USA. Just like a trade competition thing. And I did it for small engines, and we went to Las Vegas for it. And you're just competing against other schools and states. And then if you win state, you go to nationals, softball and everything. So, yeah, we went to Vegas for Skills USA. I didn't win in small engines. I got third place or something like that. Then, yeah, just did the automotive thing for the four years, did a metal class for a couple of years, did the woods class for a year. Then I I knew a bunch of automotive stuff because my grandpa and just tinkering on stuff on my own.

[00:16:06.460] - Big Rich Klein

When you started working, how old were you and what did you do?

[00:16:14.400] - Alan Johnson

My first real job where I got an actual paycheck not paid under the table was Roundtable Pizza as a delivery driver.

[00:16:28.300] - Big Rich Klein

And what were you delivering pizza in?

[00:16:32.540] - Alan Johnson

Oh, man. I had an '89 Cadillac DeVille that I bought from my next door neighbor. It was pretty mint. The first thing I did was cut the exhaust off of it, and he was pretty bummed.

[00:16:52.880] - Big Rich Klein

The neighbor was?

[00:16:54.480] - Alan Johnson

Oh, yeah. The neighbor was pretty bummed. Got the exhaust off of it. So it was just this loud, underpowered front wheel drive V8 thing they put in those cars. It wasn't even an Orstar. It was like a 4. 5 liter V8, just a turd. Yeah, that was my Because that would have been my second car because my dad gave me for my first car, his pickup that he's had for a long time. It was a '73 GMC Sierra. And I drove it for a week, and I just eared for my life so much that I was going to ruin my dad's truck, going to beat my ass. So I was like, Hey, no offense. I don't want this as my first vehicle. I don't want to ruin it and mess it up. So he's like, Okay, so I'll go Here's a limit. Let's go. What do you want? We'll go buy it. Actually, the Cadillac was my third vehicle. My second vehicle, we went out and found this '67... I don't even think it was a Jeep. It was an AMC Gladiator. It was a '67 AMC Gladiator and had a 327 AMC motor in it.

[00:18:23.400] - Alan Johnson

It needed a little bit of work, so we were working on it. Over the winter, the bed filled up with snow, and we didn't know that during the snowmelt, there was holes in the bed. Somebody drilled something into the bed, and they drilled holes through the bed into the gas tank. Oh, wow. So when it was the snowmelt, I think we were waiting for an intake manifold or something. It had a crack in it. And those 327 AMC motors were horrible to find any parts for because they're different from the Chevy's. So we got the intake manifold, and I think we were just taking it for the test drive in it. It hydro-locked the motor. I think it bent a rod or something, and it got pushed aside and was going to be a project. We never even did anything with it. Ended up just selling it. The little bit I did get to drive it, it was pretty sweet. It was on 35-inch TSLs. It was freaking horrible to drive. But it was super cool. It was just a It was a man's truck. I don't even know if it even had a lift.

[00:19:49.260] - Alan Johnson

It was just on 35s, leaf springs, just some bias clay, rotted out tires from probably the '70s.

[00:19:57.160] - Big Rich Klein

A man's truck. I love that. Yes.

[00:20:01.600] - Alan Johnson

But never got to actually drive it more than a few times. Never got to finish it or anything, to fix it back up.

[00:20:16.700] - Big Rich Klein

Then the Cadillac came into your life.

[00:20:18.820] - Alan Johnson

Then the Cadillac bought it from the next door neighbor for $500 or something. Had it for a year.

[00:20:27.120] - Big Rich Klein

Did you always have the exhaust cut off the whole year?

[00:20:30.180] - Alan Johnson

Oh, yeah. It was freaking horrible. Looking back on it now, I'm like, Man, that is... I can't believe I did that. It was like, I cut it before the cat, so it was It might have had two feet of exhaust on it. It was horrible. And the car was slow, so it didn't just make a bunch of noise and didn't go anywhere. Yeah, I had that car, I've got a favorite pizza for roundtable. I think I smoked the transmission in it. I don't even remember what I did with that car. Somebody bought it off of me. I don't remember who bought it off of me, but then I bought a T-Top Camaro.

[00:21:20.100] - Big Rich Klein

There you go.

[00:21:21.560] - Alan Johnson

Like a 92. So it was like the i-Rock, but it was an RS. It wasn't even the cool i-ROCK. It had 305 with a manual five speed. And I remember the thing was so underpowered and the first gear was so long, you couldn't even get it to do a burnout, you couldn't do donuts in it. It was a turd, but it looked cool.

[00:21:47.600] - Big Rich Klein

What color was it?

[00:21:49.560] - Alan Johnson

Unfortunately, it was Rader colors. It was black and silver. That was the only thing I didn't like about the car.

[00:21:59.400] - Big Rich Klein

You didn't get custom plate that says Rader Suck or something?

[00:22:04.000] - Alan Johnson

No, that would have been awesome. I don't even know if I ever registered that car. I think that car didn't last very long. I drove it back and forth to work. At this time, I was working at a casino as a bus boy, so I literally made enough money and tips and everything to pay for fuel in that car back and forth from home. I wasn't even into the street races or anything then, nothing like that. That car, I think I lost What did I lose in that car? I think the transmission or something went out in that car also. I had issues with transmissions, apparently. Traded it straight across to some guy. I don't know why the guy did it for my first five liter Foxbody Mustang.

[00:23:02.240] - Big Rich Klein

Really?

[00:23:03.660] - Alan Johnson

Yeah. What was that car? That car was red. It was red and it was a convertible. It was such a weird color combo. It had a white top. It was red with a white top.

[00:23:21.980] - Big Rich Klein

And what was the interior color? Red?

[00:23:24.460] - Alan Johnson

Yeah, it was like a dark red, though. It wasn't because the Mustang itself was like a fire engine red, and the interior was a burgundy red.

[00:23:34.180] - Big Rich Klein

Wow.

[00:23:35.040] - Alan Johnson

And then a white top. It was five lug converted already, had cobra wheels on it. I don't know why the guy traded me straight across. But then I think at that time was my first automotive-related job. I worked at a quick lube place in South Reno. I ended up working there for four or five years. And working there was when I got in the street racing thing, of course, after I got the Mustang. I think within my time working at this quick lube, I ended up towards the end, I was the assistant manager. I got my smog license. I think by then I had three or four other fox bodies I'd gone through already. I had a '90s power wagon Dodge that was horrible. That was honestly, that was my first time wheeling, I should say, not even wheeling, but smashing dirt roads.

[00:24:47.620] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:24:48.660] - Alan Johnson

Try to go take the thing snow wheeling and stuff, and all you would do is get in the foot of snow and just bury the thing. I didn't know anything about wenches or recovery gear. It was like, all right, wrap this chain around this bumper that's held on with four bolts and just tug on it. It was horrible.

[00:25:08.240] - Big Rich Klein

Did you know about airing down, at least?

[00:25:11.000] - Alan Johnson

No. Yeah, I didn't know. I think I'd bald tires on it. I didn't know any of the off-roading stuff. I knew airing down rear tires for drag racing, for drag radials. That was about it. I guess I had never put two two together about doing it for off-roading. Okay. Yeah, I got in a lot of trouble street racing.

[00:25:38.920] - Big Rich Klein

That was going to be my next question, and how many tickets or points did you get on your-Oh, yeah, let's just say in my 20s, I probably didn't have a driver's license for three or four years because it was suspended. Did you ever get caught driving on a suspended license?

[00:25:56.560] - Alan Johnson

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I I was so horrible in my 20s. I think a couple of times I didn't even go to court. I could go to warrant, and then I'd get pulled over. They'd take me to jail and pound my car, and I'd be out the next day. And go get my dad would go get my car out of impound and have a talk with me, and it just in one ear, out the other.

[00:26:25.760] - Big Rich Klein

Were you living at home at that time?

[00:26:30.000] - Alan Johnson

I think I was off and on. Yeah, I was off and on, living with friends and stuff. I was horrible in my 20s. I didn't pull my head out of my ass until my very late 20s. But yeah, 18 to 25, 26, it was just street racing and dumping money in the Mustangs.

[00:26:57.400] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, just I mean- So what got you to the point where, like you said, you pulled your head out of your ass? What was that moment when you said, All right, enough is enough?

[00:27:14.640] - Alan Johnson

I think the moment was probably the last time I got arrested. And I think the judge had... He had it. And I think I stayed in jail for like, it was like 10 days, but it happened. It was like I missed Christmas with my family.

[00:27:34.520] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, wow. Okay.

[00:27:37.060] - Alan Johnson

All right. This is pretty stupid. I was like, Yeah, this is pretty dumb. And Made it through the holidays. Obviously, no street racing going on in the winter up here. If the weekend wasn't snowy or super cold, there'd be little meetups and stuff, but there wasn't really any racing going on. So I think I went to a couple more of those, and I was like, Yeah, I should probably grow up. Seeing a couple of guys at the street races that were much older than me And I'm like, Man, I don't want to be like that guy because that guy is a loser. And my buddy just happened... He was living in Portola, and he was commuting every day, and he had this Jeep Cherokee, this lifted Cherokee on... I mean, it was on 31s, and it had these huge Bushwackers on them. The thing was pretty freaking hideous, but he randomly just asked me, he goes, hey, I need You want to sell your Mustang? He's like, I need something that's going to be a little better commuting, better fuel mileage than this freaking Cherokee. I ended up trading them straight across my last box body.

[00:28:57.260] - Alan Johnson

It was pretty stock. It That was my daily. Traded them straight across for this Cherokee. And that had been '06 or '07. Because the first time I ever actually four wheeled the thing, there was this run up here in Reno that Trent Fabrication put on. It was like the hollow wheeling thing. It was a freaking nightmare. We ran a trail called Steve's Loop, and there was probably 70 rigs that showed up to it. And Grand Fabrication advertised it a little too soft. They made it sound like it was a stock run, which now Steve's Loop is pretty easy, but there was a Durango. This guy, nick, brought his Bone Stock F-150, and it turned into a nightmare. It had to then to get everybody through. I think it was like a 12, 13 hour day. And the trail itself, I swear, from the actual Rocks to the end of the rocks, an average person could throw a football from the start to the end of So 40 or 50 yards. Yeah. And that was my first time actually four wheeling, and I didn't know anything. It was open diff. I didn't know about airing down.

[00:30:44.760] - Alan Johnson

I didn't even have hook points to put a strap. At every freaking rock, they literally had to wench me through the whole trail, and they just wrapped. They're like, Oh, you have nowhere to hook up to. And they just hooked it to my front axel and like, tug me through. I was like, Wow. I was like, This was pretty eye-opening. And after that, it went downhill. I got linked up with a guy who was doing fabrication work on the side on a old forum called Reno 4x4. Dylan, his screening was Deluxe, and he was doing all this fab work on the side for people, like bumpers, sliders, all that cool stuff. So I linked up with him and he built me some sliders and pointed me in the right direction. Started hanging out with him a lot. I ended up living with him. I still talk to him to this day. That run and him building stuff for me and helping me get in the right direction. I got lockers in the Jeep. I think I ended up going up to 37s for a while on a day in a 30. Oh, my Cherokee was a unicorn.

[00:32:15.360] - Alan Johnson

Before it got scrapped, it was on 42s with a name of 30. Really? Yeah. Stock gearing still had 355s in it.

[00:32:25.760] - Big Rich Klein

How did you get the thing to even move?

[00:32:28.480] - Alan Johnson

That AW4 was hurting. Somehow, I have no idea how that thing even freaking moved. It drove great on the... Like, fourth gear was not a thing. I don't understand how that thing lived. The Dana 30 was outliving the rear because I ended up swapping a 44 out of an XJ into the rear because it had a Chrysler 8. 5 in it that was welded and I broke that when it had 37s. Then I went to the XJ 44, and it had chromos in it. I don't think it had a full case locker. It had an Aussie locker or something in the back, but I was twisting chromo shafts in the rear. I was breaking ring gears in the rear. Somehow the Dana 30 was... The Dana 30 had stock shafts in the front, 355s. It It's got a Spartan locker in it. On the U joint caps, it was actually before this company, I think it's Iron Rock off road now, sells them. These little weld on caps that go over the U joint caps. I was doing that because that's where I was finding the failure was that the caps were cracking and spitting the caps out.

[00:33:57.740] - Alan Johnson

I was welding plate over the end of the U joint caps and grinding it down so it didn't hit the unit bearing bolts. They were somehow living. I think per four or five times the rear-end was breaking, I was breaking something in the front.

[00:34:18.300] - Big Rich Klein

Wow.

[00:34:20.080] - Alan Johnson

Yeah. Chevy one-ton steering, hydro assist, and 42-inch irox that I bought off my buddy's ultra four car.

[00:34:28.060] - Big Rich Klein

And the 30 was living.

[00:34:30.000] - Alan Johnson

The 30 was living. The transmission somehow was living. If you went to go check the trans fluid and you went to go smell it, it was like you're smelling salts because it was so freaking burning. It was weren't. I would change a fluid. Every other month, I was just draining and filling the trans just to try to keep the thing alive.

[00:34:57.260] - Big Rich Klein

How long did you have that Cherokee for?

[00:35:00.000] - Alan Johnson

Oh, man. So let's see. I had to have gotten the Cherokee 07, 08. I got rid of it shortly after My first son was born in 2015.

[00:35:18.080] - Big Rich Klein

Wow.

[00:35:19.920] - Alan Johnson

So, yeah, I had it for a while, and it wasn't caged. I have no idea how any of the... I competed in Cal Rocks with it the first year of Super Crawl that Jesse Haynes did up at Wild West. I got to compete in it the first year because that was before Jesse had a cage rule in the stock class. The next year, he changed it because the first year, there was a Comanche that rolled and completely flattened it. Needless to say, the rules changed the following year. Yeah, Calarox, I got to compete in it somehow. It was a pretty hefty waiver that I did sign, I believe. If you die, nobody can sue us thing. Because When I competed in that, I was on 40s. Because of the tire size, I had to compete in the unlimited class. It was pretty crazy. I didn't roll it or anything. I definitely flopped it and gave the roof in pretty good. This was an Orville, so a lot of that stuff was the manmade concrete stuff. Oh, yeah. A bunch of ledges in the tubes. The one course that I refused to do was the huge wall tube thing they have in the back.

[00:36:50.380] - Alan Johnson

There's no way I'm trying that. I will die. I did try. They had the one pipe in the middle. I didn't think I was even going to make it up it. So I was like, Yeah, I'll try it. There's no way I'm going to make it. And somehow I made it and I got to the top and I'm asking my spotter like, Dude, what do I do now? I was not expecting to get up here because the other side is just a drop.

[00:37:15.100] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, yeah, I remember.

[00:37:16.920] - Alan Johnson

It was freaking gnarly. And somewhere on YouTube, there's still a video of it. It just carried the rear tires down the whole way. It could not accelerate fast enough to not have the rear end trying to pass me. But somehow I made it down. I'm sure I finished dead last in that, but it was tons of fun. The Jesse Haynes Super Crawl one, that was the last hoorah for the Cherokee because I knew it was going away. I bought another Cherokee. I was starting to collect parts. I was going to build another Cherokee. So I was All right, cool. This is the last hoorah for this thing, and then I'm going to scrap it. Part out any of the good parts, sell it, scrap it. I was going to do bigger axles under the new one. Yeah, I went to Super Crawl. We had to put 35s on it. So I found the cheapest 35s I could on marketplace, and there were some klapped out first generation MTRs. So they were like, oh, one, oh, two day codes. The first day, I think I tore up two of the tires, so I was just like, borrowing people's spare 35s.

[00:38:40.280] - Alan Johnson

Blew the coolant line, the last course on the second day, and I was like, Oh, whatever. This is the last time it's ever going to be out. And I ran the rest of the course with it pegged at like 260 degrees. Just pissed. Somehow the motor didn't lock up, finished the course, parted it out and scrapped it. And I was going to start working on the new Cherokee. And one of my buddies hit me up, Kenan, and he was like, Hey, you should buy this forerunner. So a little history on the forerunner is the forerunner I have one of mine and Kenan's friends all the way back from middle school, Matt Barnes. He was the original one that started building the 4runner. We took it to Rubicon in, I want to say, 2012. 2012, and it was July when we went. I'd say shortly after that, Shortly after that, Matt was diagnosed with cancer lymphoma. And yes, he was diagnosed in August, and he passed away October 14th, so just a couple of months later.

[00:40:19.480] - Big Rich Klein

Wow.

[00:40:20.780] - Alan Johnson

Yeah. But Matt was the original one that started building that. I think it had one locker. It had some sliders and some armor and everything on it when I got it. But Kenan bought it from Matt's parents, and he had it for a few years. Yeah, he had it for at least two years because Matt passed away in '13, and I think I got it from Kenan in '15. So Kenan bought it from Matt's parents. He had it for a little bit. Kenan had a bunch other crawlers going. So he didn't have enough of himself to drive all these crawlers all the time, so he hardly used the 4runner. So he made me a smoking deal on the 4runner that I couldn't pass up. At that time, the prices of Toyotas were crazy, and I got it for half of what it was worth. So it would have been stupid for me not to take it. So sold all the Cherokee stuff I had, bought the Toyota, and just put another locker in it, change the wheels and tires. Just did little stuff to it here and there. Kept it clean as long as I could.

[00:41:45.190] - Alan Johnson

I was pretty good for the first year. Those things are pretty narrow. The axles are pretty narrow, so it's hard to keep it off of stuff. But I felt like I did a pretty good job for the first year, trying trying to keep it clean, not piss off Matt's parents or Matt's brother or anything. Every once in a while, I actually still talk to them. His brother sees me every once in a while, and he'll message me and just tell me Glad to see it still going. Looks like you're using the crap out of it. So that's reassuring because when it was getting body damage, it definitely was... I felt bad. But, yeah.

[00:42:36.960] - Big Rich Klein

So do you still have the furerunner then?

[00:42:40.740] - Alan Johnson

I still do.

[00:42:41.640] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, nice.

[00:42:43.020] - Alan Johnson

Yeah, that's the tin can I have. The top and doors somehow still fit on it so I can still snow wheel. I'll have to get a new windshield in it. I smashed the windshield at We Rocks at Moon Rocks last on. I'll wait till it starts to get a little colder. I don't want to put a windshield in it now and go break it again on four dice or Rubicon or something. So I'll wait, wait until it gets a little colder. Then I'll pop the windshield out and pull the A-pillar out and stab another, stab another windshield in there with a bunch of glue.

[00:43:20.360] - Big Rich Klein

So let's talk about that We Rock event. It was the first time you'd come out to We Rock, but you We wheeled Moonrocks before, obviously, if you're a Reno guy.

[00:43:34.540] - Alan Johnson

Yeah, Moonrocks is the stomping grounds around there.

[00:43:38.620] - Big Rich Klein

Right. So what did you think of the We Rock event?

[00:43:43.020] - Alan Johnson

It was freaking awesome. It was way different than we were expecting a bunch of us local guys that came out. We were talking about it ahead of time, and we were like, What can they possibly do for the stock class out there that we haven't already done? Like, We're like, Man, there's stuff out there that we do that if you don't live out here and know the line, can be gnarly in the stock class. So, yeah, we were totally expecting it to be super easy, and we were expecting it to be at the total other end of where they had the event. So we show up Friday, and we find out where our courses are, where the C courses are. And I'm like, oh, they're over there. I was like, I don't even know what's over there. There's one or two obstacles over there that we run. All this other stuff, there's cones all over. I'm like, I've never put a tire. I've never walked over here on my feet. Never even put a tire over here. What the heck is over here? And they did a fantastic job there. There was some pretty gnarly shit for the stock class over there because they were sharing some of the, I believe it was a second day The Sportsman B class was running the Cs, and those things are trail buggies.

[00:45:09.580] - Alan Johnson

So we're pretty much doing the same course as the trail buggies we're having to do. And some of the bonus lines were pretty crazy. There's a couple of them where I was like, the bonus line looks crazy, but I think the bonus line is easier than doing the regular gate, and we're going to get some bonus out of it. So we tried to do as many bonuses as we could just for fun. We were just out there. It was me, us local guys in the stock class. It was me and my forerunner. It was my buddy Jesse in his Comanchi, and then my buddy Mitch in his new Bronco on Portals. Yeah, it was just the three of us. And we were trying to figure out just a, I like to say friendly, but wasn't really friendly. We were trying to do some bet where it was going to be something pretty stupid about like, losers have to do something for the winner or something like that. We never even I don't end up locking anything in, of course. Me and Mitch were for sure were like, yeah, I mean, whatever we're going to pick, it's going to be us because Jesse, he races Ultra 4.

[00:46:26.860] - Alan Johnson

He's got a stock car, an Ultra 4, a ZJ that he finishes every year. He would win if it wasn't for those freaking Broncos in stock class. He has the Comanchi and he competes in it a bunch. He went He like Cedar. He did well. He won the Super Crawl events. He's good. The thing's got front dig. Yeah, he's seasoned. He knows what he's doing. And he broke the first day, luckily for me. Yeah, it was just a friendly... I was not going there thinking I was going to be competitive because some of the other guys there in the stock class, I'm like, These guys drove all the way here from Arizona. They have to be pretty dedicated. And they're talking about running New Mexico. They went to Cedar City, Bagdad. They're talking about all these stuff they're in. And two of them I was like, Oh, yeah. Whoever does better in this event wins the points. I'm like, Oh, I got nothing for these guys. I wasn't aware that in the stock class at We Rock, you could have stickies, you could have dig. I did not know you could have all of this.

[00:47:46.180] - Alan Johnson

I guess I didn't look at the rules very much, but I was afraid. I did my cage tie-ins really quick before the event. I added a second fire extinguisher just to meet the rules. And yeah, I show up in these guys, front dig, stickies. I'm like, I got nothing for these guys. I'm just competing against the Comanchi and the Bronco. And after the first day, I think I finished three out of four courses. The one course I didn't finish, I fell pretty hard in the crack and I couldn't get out of it. And it was just trying to cave in the side of my rig. So I timed out on that, got winched out, did Did okay on the other courses, did bonuses, trying to get some points, just trying to beat my buddy's command sheet. That's literally all I was trying to do. And the next morning, We Rock posted the points, and I'm like, Oh, holy crap, I'm in second place. What? I'm in second place, and I haven't even been paying attention. I'm like, Oh, I think we're doing pretty okay. We might be beating Jessie. It's all I cared about. I mean, between courses, we're hanging out, watching other people drinking beer.

[00:49:10.020] - Alan Johnson

Not that serious about this. I mean, drinking waters.

[00:49:17.830] - Big Rich Klein

Thank you.

[00:49:22.100] - Alan Johnson

So then, yeah, the second day, I'm calling my spotter, and I'm like, Hey, did you see we're in second place? He's like, We are? I was like, Yeah, we should probably take this a little bit more serious today. I was like, Let's just try to stay consistent. Be cool to get a trophy. I was like, The trophies are cool. That would be cool. So, yeah, the second day, So in between the two days, I had to run back home. So Friday after everything was done, I think I got home at like midnight on Friday night. And the next morning, I had to wake up to run down to Sacramento for my uncle's celebration of life. Oh, wow. So we ran down to Sacramento. I think we left there about two o'clock, bombed home. I left my rig on the trailer, hooked up to the truck out front of the house. We bombed home. Before we even went in the house, I crawled underneath it with some wrenches. Was just checking bolts, just doing a once over real quick, jumping I jumped in the truck, ran back out to Moon Rocks. The whole way out there, it was raining.

[00:50:34.870] - Alan Johnson

We were getting the afternoon thunderstorms. Windy, rainy, just crap. I didn't know what they would do And I was like, Are they going to cancel it? Are they going to postpone it? Are we going to just run in the morning? What are we doing?

[00:50:50.970] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, hell no. We've wheeled in the snowstorms.

[00:50:55.160] - Alan Johnson

Oh, man, I was not looking forward to that. No top, no doors. I think I was I don't even know if I brought a sweater. It was like a 90-degree day that day. So I was not prepared for the weather, and it just kept raining. And I heard they were like, oh, okay, yeah, we're going to It was postponed at 30 minutes. The weather is supposed to clear up. And I'm looking around, I'm like, Where? This looks horrible. It stopped raining as hard. It was like a light sprinkle. I think the first minutes of the first course, it was just a light sprinkle. But the dirt out there at Moon Rocks is really good at absorbing the water. Because I wasn't afraid of the rocks being wet because Moon Rocks does have a lot of traction. I was more afraid of the dirt getting on tires and then the dirt being spread all over the rocks.

[00:51:51.080] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Carrying it across the rocks. Yeah.

[00:51:53.300] - Alan Johnson

Yeah, across the rocks and causing that. So with the weather being like that, me and my a lot, or we're like, Yeah, let's not try any of the bonuses. Let's just try to get through the gates. Let's just try to finish courses. Let's try to stay consistent. And we did. We didn't do any bonuses until the very last course of the day because we felt the first bonus, I was like, The first bonus doesn't look that bad. I feel like it's easier. It lines us up better for the second gate. So went up the first bonus, got it. It lined us up perfectly for the second one. It then dropped the last gate. The last bonus gate was just a pretty good drop. And I don't think we hit any cones or anything on that course and still had four minutes left. Did good. Had no idea. We went and turned in our cards. Definitely had no idea. I was like, we stayed consistent. I don't know. Unfortunately, the other guy that was in first place, he was in the other group, so I hardly got to watch him. The times I did watch him, he seemed to be doing pretty good, so I wasn't too sure.

[00:53:09.940] - Alan Johnson

And Jesse, the Comanchi guy, got fixed, and he was killing it the second day. I think he got way better scores than me on three of the courses. I think I did better on the last course than him. So I knew... I was like, Jesse might have creeped back up because I think So after the first day, Jesse was in like, fourth. So he wasn't that far behind even with the breaking the first day. Yeah, had no idea. Didn't hear anything until super late because they were doing the shootout. They're doing the shootout. And then the guy in the other Toyota, the blue Toyota pickup, who was the guy that was in first place, he came up to me I believe his name's Tony. Yeah, Tony. He came up to me, walked up to me, and he goes, Hey, congrats. I was like, Congrats on what? And he's like, You beat me. I was like, Oh, okay. I was I beat you. I got a better score than you? He's like, Yeah, you got first. I was like, What? He's like, Yeah. He's like, I didn't finish the last course. I was like, What? I was like, I beat you?

[00:54:27.320] - Alan Johnson

I got first place? He's like, Yeah. I turned in my card and I was talking to Caleb and, Yeah, you beat me by... I think he got a total score of 95, and I got a total score of 69. I was like, Holy crap. I was like, How the heck did I was like, You have dig. I was like, You have Dig and you do this. You can peak. You follow the series. How the heck did I just beat you?

[00:54:59.140] - Big Rich Klein

Nice.

[00:55:00.440] - Alan Johnson

I didn't even know there was a cash purse or nothing. They gave me a trophy. Were you there when I spoke?

[00:55:08.120] - Big Rich Klein

No, I was down at the gate.

[00:55:10.660] - Alan Johnson

All I was doing was quoting Talladega Nights. I was like, the car handled well. It was great. It was freaking awesome. And yeah, they were like, All right, go see Caleb and get your gift card in your cash. I'm like, What? Walk up there and they gave me a gift card for four old parts and gave me a lot of cash. I was like, All right, cool. This pays for the windshield.

[00:55:40.520] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. So are you hooked coming back next season?

[00:55:47.700] - Alan Johnson

I mean, for Moonrocks, for sure. I'm not going to lie, I got home and I was like, Where's Bagdad, Arizona? And I looked it up. So I have a grandma that lives in Kingman, Arizona. That I go and I try to visit once a year, and I make a wheeling trip out of it at the same time. Two birds, one stone, because there's awesome wheeling in Arizona.

[00:56:11.240] - Big Rich Klein

Yes.

[00:56:12.400] - Alan Johnson

So I'll usually haul my rig down there and meet up with some of the local guys and go hit some trails. So like, Bagdad, I think, is only like an hour away from Kingman. So I'm like, maybe I can make a trip out of this and visit grandma for a little bit and then go and do the Bagdad race.

[00:56:34.200] - Big Rich Klein

Bagdad's pretty cool. It's going to be the largest crowds you'll see at an event.

[00:56:40.640] - Alan Johnson

Oh, wow.

[00:56:41.740] - Big Rich Klein

I mean, we're talking 2,500 to 3,000.

[00:56:49.700] - Alan Johnson

Oh, wow.

[00:56:51.200] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. Four food vendors, five food vendors that sell out. Yeah, it's pretty crazy.

[00:56:59.300] - Alan Johnson

Yeah. So I'm thinking about that. I couldn't find anywhere where they had any dates for it next year. I don't know when they post dates.

[00:57:10.020] - Big Rich Klein

Dates will be coming up shortly. We tried to get them out by the beginning of November, end of October. Figure it's going to be either the last weekend in February, first weekend in March. It really depends on when the typically It depends on when the Wickenberg rodeo days are, because we always do it two weeks after that. So they do a parade in Wickenberg, and we use that for advertising. And then two weeks later, we do the event. Okay. It gives people that went and spent all their money at the rodeo in the fair to be able to get It's their next paycheck and have money to come to the event.

[00:58:05.600] - Alan Johnson

For sure.

[00:58:06.620] - Big Rich Klein

But it's a really good turn out there.

[00:58:09.620] - Alan Johnson

Okay. Yeah, if it's February or March. I definitely think I could swing that. February, March sounds like the best time of the year to go to Arizona, too.

[00:58:19.720] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:58:20.840] - Alan Johnson

I think I usually either go to Kingman October. There's a group there that does a Rocktoberfest thing, where they do a March Madness event. So I usually go either October or March.

[00:58:34.220] - Big Rich Klein

Perfect.

[00:58:35.740] - Alan Johnson

So, yeah, that could work out and go down there and go get whipped by those guys because it'll be their home territory.

[00:58:46.460] - Big Rich Klein

We'll see, won't we?

[00:58:48.460] - Alan Johnson

They were trying to talk. All of them were like, All right, now you got to come to New Mexico.

[00:58:52.660] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, for nationals.

[00:58:54.120] - Alan Johnson

Nationals. I was like,.

[00:58:56.060] - Big Rich Klein

That's a lot like...

[00:58:57.780] - Alan Johnson

I was like, This was fun and all, but man, I'm I don't think I can drive all the way to Mexico. New Mexico.

[00:59:04.600] - Big Rich Klein

New Mexico, the Farmington area is incredible.

[00:59:10.480] - Alan Johnson

It looks cool. It's on a bucket list of places I want to go wheel. Cool. But I was like, Yeah, I don't know if I can swing that. When is nationals?

[00:59:19.080] - Big Rich Klein

It's the weekend after Memorial Day, or Labor Day.

[00:59:25.960] - Alan Johnson

So a canteena for the com?

[00:59:27.560] - Big Rich Klein

Yes. So that's out.

[00:59:30.000] - Alan Johnson

Maybe that's why I was like, Yeah, I can't swing that.

[00:59:32.430] - Big Rich Klein

That's why I don't make nationals anymore. So let's talk about that. Well, let's move on to, what's your career now? What do you do for work?

[00:59:46.340] - Alan Johnson

I am a mechanic for a construction company in Reno.

[00:59:50.520] - Big Rich Klein

All right. So you're working on heavy equipment?

[00:59:55.040] - Alan Johnson

I mean, I wouldn't call it heavy equipment. We have a bunch We got a bunch of caterpillar equipment, nothing crazy. We got a bunch of 239 little skid steers, so 8,000 pound skid steers, a bunch of 306 cat excavators, so 13, 14 1,000 pound excavators. We have a couple loaders, like some 930 cat loaders. So that's about the biggest thing I get to work on. We do foundations for homes. So we'll dig footings, pour slabs, stuff like that. So we're not crazy dirt work.

[01:00:34.480] - Big Rich Klein

All right.

[01:00:34.960] - Alan Johnson

We're just digging footings and putting rock and concrete back in it and pouring a slab so they can build a house on it.

[01:00:41.280] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. And go ahead.

[01:00:45.800] - Alan Johnson

But, yeah, I mean, I'm the only mechanic there. We've got about 30 trucks, a bunch of Duramax, some Gasser Chevies, all newer stuff, some panel trucks and just some other random things. We've got about nine skid steers and five excavators, two loaders. We've got two transport semis, a double semi for Rock, a Super 10. We've got some equipment, but luckily, like I said, a lot of it is Like I said, a lot of it's newer and we try to keep our stuff newer and in warranty with all of the emissions crap lately. I don't do anything super major. I think I've done a transmission and stuff like that here and there, but it's not like I'm doing huge engine overhauls on any of the equipment. If it's anything too crazy, it just goes to the dealer and it's usually under warranty.

[01:01:57.560] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, sounds good.

[01:02:00.000] - Alan Johnson

Same thing with all the pickups. We got a bunch of newer 10 speed Dermaxes and those things are... We cycle those things into the dealer for training issues.

[01:02:11.540] - Big Rich Klein

Perfect.

[01:02:12.760] - Alan Johnson

Yeah.

[01:02:13.220] - Big Rich Klein

As it should be.

[01:02:14.960] - Alan Johnson

Hey, don't buy a GM 10-speed.

[01:02:18.620] - Big Rich Klein

Don't worry, I wouldn't.

[01:02:21.380] - Alan Johnson

Stick with your 200,000-mile raptor.

[01:02:24.360] - Big Rich Klein

300, 297,000, almost 298 now.

[01:02:29.140] - Alan Johnson

Oh, man I know.

[01:02:31.720] - Big Rich Klein

And it's been... It really has been bulletproof. It's crazy. And I'm not easy on it either.

[01:02:38.180] - Alan Johnson

That's a first-gen raptor, so it's got the 6,2? Yep.

[01:02:42.600] - Big Rich Klein

2012.

[01:02:43.920] - Alan Johnson

Okay. My last pickup was a 2011 F-250 with the 6. 2 that I bought from work because it was getting replaced for a newer truck. And then when I sold it, that truck had like 270K on it. And that thing was bulletproof to me. And I had my big old cab over on it hauling my 4-runner around, just overloading the shit out of that thing. And it did good. Got six miles a gallon, but it did it.

[01:03:10.720] - Big Rich Klein

I just took my adventure trailer. Well, been moving my adventure trailer a lot. It's about a 7,000 pound Black Series HQ-15. And that thing is, I've had it two years now, a year and a half, and it's got a lot of miles on it. And been up to Canada.

[01:03:37.270] - Alan Johnson

That was, I think, 7,000 pounds.

[01:03:39.220] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, loaded with everything in it. Oh, yeah. It's got a huge, heavy frame on it. It's made to abuse.

[01:03:47.340] - Alan Johnson

Yeah. Okay.

[01:03:48.280] - Big Rich Klein

That road where it turns from pavement to dirt going into Moon Rocks, I don't even slow down at that transition or across the gravel road. I'm still doing 55 miles an hour, towing that trailer across there.

[01:04:07.380] - Alan Johnson

When you were there for the W-Rock thing, you did that? Yeah. Holy crap. That road, that was the worst. I feel like that was the worst that road has been in a long time. I lost a trailer tire leaving Saturday in there. I got to the concrete and we were like, Oh, hey, something's smoking, and it shredded a tire.

[01:04:26.620] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I've got a It's a set of the Maxx tires on it. Same thing I do on the truck, just a different size. E-rated, and it's got an independent suspension. It's a badass It's a nice little trailer, but it's heavy, and it's the max- It looks cool.

[01:04:49.450] - Alan Johnson

I've seen it at Moon Rocks I saw it, and then I saw it up at a Sierra track a couple of weeks ago.

[01:04:54.570] - Big Rich Klein

It's a great trailer. It really is. It's one of the best investments I've ever made besides the pickup.

[01:05:01.080] - Alan Johnson

Yeah.

[01:05:02.480] - Big Rich Klein

So let's talk about RTF.

[01:05:06.460] - Alan Johnson

Okay.

[01:05:06.860] - Big Rich Klein

When did you get involved with the Rubicon Trail Foundation?

[01:05:13.120] - Alan Johnson

So the RTF. So I got onto the RTF in 2021 to a workday they were having on the property. I don't remember how I even heard about the work day or even got involved at all. I vaguely knew of the foundation. Maybe one of my other friends was going there maybe for the work day and invited me, and I was like, Yeah, that'd be cool to go do some work on that property, because that was right when the Granite View Loop was first getting open. I was like, Yeah, I want to go check the granite view loop. If I can do some work on it, that'd be cool. So, yeah, we showed up and we ended up doing all the arrows, all the arrows on the trail. I know how it got involved in it is because I was still part of Naxia, which Naxia's North American XJ Association. Cherokee stuff, even though I had a Toyota for seven years at that point. When I had my Cherokee, I was part of Nacsta, and I just stuck around hanging out with all the Nacsta guys because in the very beginning of wheeling, those were the people I wheeled with and made great friendships with a bunch of people there and just kept hanging out with them.

[01:06:46.760] - Alan Johnson

I was on their board of directors. I was the vice president for the chapter. And that's exactly how we got involved, because we had a couple of fundraisers and we raised money and we gave the RTF $4,500 or something in 2020. And we got invited to do their workday. So, yeah, that's how we got up there. It was a bunch of the Snackster guys. We went up there, and I believe it was Ken, it was Tyler, Total Metal Innovations was there, John Arns. I'm trying to think what other directors at that time were there. I think that was it. But there was, I don't know, total, there had to been 35, 40 people there to do work. So Snash to Guys, we got to go with Ken, and Ken's literally just following me on a map on his phone off of like, Onyx. I think at the time, it was fully mapped, as detailed as it is now. We were like, he was looking at a map and we were looking for yellow or pink ribbons and trees.

[01:07:58.440] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[01:08:00.040] - Alan Johnson

Over the granite view loop was. We had a cordless roto hammer that we bought with... Natchda bought and donated to the RTF for this little arrow party. We went around the whole loop and we put arrows everywhere. All the arrows you see on the granite view loop was all the Nacsta guys. If you've ever seen the arrows, Total Metal Innovations, Tyler, he We cut out these metal arrows off his plasma, and we drill a hole in the granite, put a poxy in it, stick the sign in the hole, spray paint it yellow, move on to the next one. We had it pretty down. We did all the arrows on the loop in six hours.

[01:08:46.860] - Big Rich Klein

Wow.

[01:08:48.200] - Alan Johnson

Yeah, we had it pretty down. And yes, we got involved with that, and we got back to camp, and the RTF made dinner and everything. Like Tri-Tit beans, Hawaiian rolls, like best you're going to eat on the Rubicon for free.

[01:09:09.860] - Big Rich Klein

Well, you worked.

[01:09:11.620] - Alan Johnson

I worked. Oh, yeah, I did work. Tyler and Ken were talking about the RTF with me and John Larson, who's on the board as well. Me and John were both Natchita guys. I believe John, I don't know what he was on the BOD at that time. He might have been President because I was Vice President of the chapter. But they were talking about RTF to both me and John And then we talked a little bit after that workday about our TF stuff. And we were like Humming and Hon because they had a couple of seats open on the board. We were Humming and Humming and we didn't really give Ken a straight answer. We were like, humming and Hon, but we were definitely leaning towards joining. I don't know where John went camping. It was fourth of July. I don't know where John went camping. I went camping at White Rock Lake with some buddies up by Fordyce, and there's no service there. I'm coming out, and I have a voicemail from Ken. I still have the voicemail saved on my phone because it's just so funny. And the voicemail is Ken congratulating me on being voted in as a director.

[01:10:36.540] - Alan Johnson

All my email, here's your email, here's your password. Get me all set up with everything. And I'm like, what the hell just happened? I didn't say yes. So first person I call is Larson, and I'm like, Hey, did you get a voicemail from Ken? And he's like, Yeah, I talked to Ken. We're in the RTF. I was like, Yeah. And we're like, All right. I don't know how we feel about this. We weren't 100% on board, but we definitely... Our foot was starting in the door for sure. We're like, All right, I guess we're just going to roll with this. We got voted in. We have emails. Let's just roll with this. I will say Ken and Tyler did a great job selling it because it was like, Oh, it's like, check your email every once in a while. It's not very much. And oh, man. And when we first got on board, it was like, When there's a bunch of stuff going on. And it was definitely like, holy crap, man, this is way more work. This is way more involved than we were. We were sold. Ken's a great salesman. I'll just say that.

[01:11:59.200] - Alan Johnson

And So we get on the board. Things are going good. John Larson, I believe, he took on Cantina for the Con. I think Diane was still Cantina for the Con share, and John was helping her with it. So he was getting involved because the following year, John did take it over. And he was doing all that. And then John got He hit his head and had all the crazy health things going on. So he dropped out of Cantina and I took it over. This year will be my second year running Cantina. In this whole mix, in the beginning, I got on the property board because that was what I was most interested in. After being to the property and running the granite view loop, I was like, I want to be on whatever committee is involved in the property because I'm very much I'd like to be involved in the property because the property is amazing.

[01:13:08.220] - Big Rich Klein

Yes.

[01:13:09.940] - Alan Johnson

So did you run the granite view loop yet, Rich?

[01:13:12.120] - Big Rich Klein

I have not run the granite view. I just got out to the property a few weeks ago.

[01:13:18.760] - Alan Johnson

That's right.

[01:13:19.700] - Big Rich Klein

John Arts and I went out there, and it was a good trip.

[01:13:24.120] - Alan Johnson

Yeah. I mean, did you guys go down to the storage sheds? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Even the driveway into the sheds is cool.

[01:13:32.460] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, it is. I was expecting something more difficult from the photos that I saw and things that people were talking about. But I do drive a built XJ on little tiny tires, but it's a very capable vehicle, as you know XJs can be. I do have a little bit of experience driving. Not a whole lot, but just 40 years, 40 some years of it.

[01:14:07.900] - Alan Johnson

You definitely would have thought the drive way in would have been pretty rough about three years ago before all the work project. All the work? Yeah. The bottom of trash can build the concrete we did in there a couple of years ago. This past June, we did Hours Hole with concrete.

[01:14:27.700] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[01:14:30.000] - Alan Johnson

And that made that a lot better for the shorter wheelbase guys. Trashcan Hill was really bad a couple of years ago. We did 200 bags of concrete in the bottom of that. It was getting really tore up. But yeah, Hauer Hole, we did 70 bags of concrete, and it's much better for the shorter wheelbase guys to be able to get in and enjoy the FOTR area.

[01:14:59.480] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And it's a great piece of property. I suggest anybody going out on the Rubicon, go down at least to the sheds and enjoy. I The water down there, the creek that comes out of, was it the mini Rubicon or whatever they call it? Little Rubicon? That comes out of Buck. It's really nice.

[01:15:28.840] - Alan Johnson

Yeah. And that The water is flowing year-round.

[01:15:31.680] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. A couple of nice little pools in there, and the water gets warm because all the granite is so hot, and the water is going across it and it warms up. It's pretty nice.

[01:15:43.100] - Alan Johnson

Yeah, the water is Awesome there. And yeah, that whole area is just awesome. And with the driveway being maintained, anybody that can make it through the Rubicon can get down to the FOTR camp area and enjoy the property. That was the whole thing about the driveway, as we call it, to the property, to the camping area or the FOTR area, is we wanted to make the driveway to where anybody can get down there and enjoy it. The granite view loop, we will never pour concrete on.

[01:16:22.880] - Big Rich Klein

Nice.

[01:16:23.640] - Alan Johnson

Good. Every time I've ran the granite view loop, I'm like, Oh, this is different. Oh, this is tore up. Oh, yeah. Now we have to take a totally different line. That's how I want the granite view loop to be. Now I'm the property chair, and that was how Ken envisioned it also. I believe all the directors envisioned it also was the granite view loop was, unless something crazy happens, there'll be no crazy maintenance It's all on it. There's Lynch points at the hard spots. Everything is... There's arrows, there's spray paint on the rocks everywhere that tell you where to go. You can get through there fairly easily at night. You won't get too lost. You can run it clockwise, counterclockwise. It's all on on X, so it'd be pretty hard to get lost out there. And you can make it as difficult as you want out there.

[01:17:28.280] - Big Rich Klein

And you have just become President as well?

[01:17:32.020] - Alan Johnson

Yes. A couple of months ago. I jumped in as Vice President last election. Jeff Blewet was President. He was the former Vice President behind Ken Hauer. He jumped in, got President. I jumped in as Vice President. Jeff had some health issues going on, didn't have the bandwidth to stay as president in the RTF, so I stepped up and we got Greg Castro in now as a VP. He is freaking awesome. Greg is awesome. He's a great VP. We have a meeting coming up in a couple of days. When does this podcast come out, Rich?

[01:18:30.200] - Big Rich Klein

After the meeting.

[01:18:32.020] - Alan Johnson

Okay, after the meeting. So we just had a meeting for a new secretary. We'll see who we get in. I'm hoping Diane Hawk steps up. She is awesome. She'd make a great secretary. And we can just keep the wagon going and make some progress. And the Adopt the Trail stuff is starting to starting back up again.

[01:19:00.560] - Big Rich Klein

We got a good relationship with the county, El Dorado County.

[01:19:04.460] - Alan Johnson

Yeah, good relationship working on that.

[01:19:06.860] - Big Rich Klein

And my goal is to... I'm trying to work on everybody I can to help force or encourage the Placer County Commissioners to accept their RS 2477 rights.

[01:19:27.280] - Alan Johnson

Yeah. Yeah, That will definitely be... It's at the top of my list of things to work, to get accomplished before the reroute starts next year.

[01:19:44.540] - Big Rich Klein

That is the key to keeping the trail open all the way through.

[01:19:51.440] - Alan Johnson

Yes, absolutely. I have the easement established, both sides of the trail. Yes. Yeah, it'll make it way harder for them to close the trail, at least.

[01:20:07.840] - Big Rich Klein

Correct.

[01:20:08.270] - Alan Johnson

Legally, we'll have to jump through more hoops to actually get it closed. Correct.

[01:20:15.100] - Big Rich Klein

So what is in the future for Alan?

[01:20:23.800] - Alan Johnson

I mean...

[01:20:28.580] - Big Rich Klein

You got two kids?

[01:20:30.140] - Alan Johnson

Yeah, I do. I have two kids, a 10-year-old and a six-year-old, Logan and Blake. They go wheeling with me all the time. They love it. They've been both wheeling since they were each six months old.

[01:20:44.120] - Big Rich Klein

Nice.

[01:20:45.520] - Alan Johnson

So, yeah, they love it. We were just on Slick Rock this past weekend, and yeah, they absolutely love it.

[01:20:53.160] - Big Rich Klein

That's a trail I've never done.

[01:20:55.640] - Alan Johnson

Oh, you're missing out.

[01:20:56.840] - Big Rich Klein

That and Doosy are two on my list.

[01:21:00.000] - Alan Johnson

Yeah, the Doosy is on my list as well. I just have never made it because it's a drive from Reno.

[01:21:06.520] - Big Rich Klein

Yes.

[01:21:08.080] - Alan Johnson

But, yeah, we were... A few of us, actually this weekend, we're talking about trying to run the Doosy next year.

[01:21:14.760] - Big Rich Klein

And you have a significant other?

[01:21:17.760] - Alan Johnson

Yeah, a girlfriend. But yeah, she likes wheeling, too. She's into it. She's got a bunch of friends that are into side by sides, and I've taken them out on a couple of trails. And my example of an easy trail definitely isn't easy in the side by side, apparently, I've learned. A couple of them are like, You said this was easy. I was like, To me, it is.

[01:21:51.140] - Big Rich Klein

They were expecting a dirt road?

[01:21:54.640] - Alan Johnson

Yeah. They're not expecting some rocks, but they Both guys, even after getting mad at me at running Steve's loop, they let me take them on another trail. And a couple of them, they're like, All right, yeah, this is... Our machines do it. We can live with it. We can live with the scratches and the deans. Perfect. She's all about it. She comes with me as much as she can. Sometimes she needs a break. She took this past weekend off as a break because we've been out every... August is very dizzy. Every single weekend, we got something going on. We did Sierra Trek, we did Rubicon before that, did Slick Rock this Last weekend, next weekend, we're going to Rubicon for Boobash. The following weekend is Labor Day. We're going down to... Her parents live in Smith Valley, so like, Yurrington, Wellington. We're going down there. Her parents got some property, and everybody just brings her trailers and toys down there, and we go riding down there. There's tons and tons of stuff to do down there, riding and cool stuff to see down there. So we're doing that for Labor Day. And then the following weekend is Cantina for the Con up at Rob's Resort.

[01:23:24.600] - Alan Johnson

Then maybe a week or two of some breaks, and then go do something for my birthday.

[01:23:31.080] - Big Rich Klein

Cool. My goal was to do Boo Basch. I've been trying to get to that for a few years now, and every time something comes up this weekend. I've got to go to LA, San Diego, and then to up to Vegas. It's Walker Evans' Celebration of Life. Oh, yeah. And I was asked to appear there. So I'm looking forward to saying goodbye to Walker and along with all the friends that he had. What a great guy.

[01:24:13.800] - Alan Johnson

Yeah.

[01:24:15.960] - Big Rich Klein

And he was the guy to win the first Cal Rocks series.

[01:24:23.020] - Alan Johnson

That's right. You were telling me... I think you were telling me that story at CRTREC. Yeah.

[01:24:29.080] - Big Rich Klein

2002 was our first full series, and Walker won that.

[01:24:35.020] - Alan Johnson

That's awesome.

[01:24:37.620] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. And he always wanted me to remind everybody that not only was he a desert racer, but he was a champion rock Crawler as well. So there you go, everybody. Well, Allen- I'll let you know what Boo Bash is like.

[01:24:55.600] - Alan Johnson

This is my first time. I've heard some stories, not I'm not exactly sure what to expect.

[01:25:01.780] - Big Rich Klein

Make sure you find Stan Haynes and say hello to Stan. He's the owner of Branic. They make great parts. Been a supporter and sponsor of our Rock Crawling series for years, and even our racing when we were doing Dirt Riot. And I was really hoping to get up there to see him this weekend as well. But it just wasn't meant to be. So But say hello for me when you get up there. See him.

[01:25:33.060] - Alan Johnson

Okay, will do.

[01:25:34.400] - Big Rich Klein

And I want to say, Alan, thank you for spending the time this evening and talking about your life and your experiences and All of it.

[01:25:47.680] - Alan Johnson

Yeah, thanks for having me on, Rich.

[01:25:50.360] - Big Rich Klein

Thank you. All right. You take care. Have a great evening, and I'll talk to you at the next meeting.

[01:25:59.200] - Alan Johnson

Sounds good. Thanks Thanks, Rich. All right.

[01:26:00.940] - Big Rich Klein

Bye-bye. Bye. Well, that's another episode of Conversations with Big Rich. I'd like to thank you all for listening. If you could do us a favor and leave us a review on any podcast service that you happen to be listening on, or send us an email or a text message or a Facebook message, and let me know any ideas that you have, or if there's anybody that you have that you think would be a great guest, please forward the contact information to me so that we can try to get them on. And always remember, live life to the fullest. Enjoying life is a must. Follow your dreams and live life with all the gusto you can. Thank you.