3N10 - John Bull East aka Little John Bull

ted amanios

1400

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 07/22/2023

Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

Keeps you alert.

Josh Noesser

Official Crew

130500

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 06/05/2023

Ran the trail with a good group of people. Overall the trail isn't any harder or pretty much anything has changed. PS - new trail guide coming.

Trail Review: 3N10 - John Bull East aka Little John Bull - Josh Noesser

Josh Noesser

Official Crew

130500

Open

Visited: 05/05/2023

Trails are officially open https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd1095216.pdf

Josh Noesser

Official Crew

130500

Temporary Closure

Visited: 03/18/2023

The forest service has deemed the San Bernardino Forest unsafe for public off-roaders to use until June 30th. For more information on this: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd1095216.pdf If you disagree with the complete forest closure, please call (909) 382-2682 and ask to speak to the head ranger. You can also contact the head office in Washington,DC, and voice your concern there. (202) 912-7055 Another person you could contact your senator and express your feeling - (949) 598-5850 (Alex Padilla) or (202) 224-3121 (DC switch board) If you are unhappy with this at all, please make sure you sign up for the local off-road collations (Cal4wheel, and Corva). Feel free to reach out to them and ask what you can do. Cal4Wheel - (916) 381-8300 CORVA - 916-710-1950

Preston Grove

700

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 10/24/2022

Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

little john bull will keep your blood pumping i ran this trail in my 18 Tacoma with a 3" lift on 33,s and made it just fine just take your time.

Josh Noesser

Official Crew

130500

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 10/07/2022

Ran the trail after allh the storms hit the hills. The trail is in pretty good condition and sort of hard. Should be a great trip for almost anyone.

Alvin Thai

100

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 10/07/2022

Pretty easy most of the way besides the 2 obstacles. I have have an overbuilt overlander which made it pretty easy. It's a first gen 4runner with 35's on long travel suspension up front. The hillclimb is a bit intimidating, but pick the right line and it's not difficult. Same with the V-Notch just get out the car and take note of where your tire placement needs to be. Dash Cam video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZLAGEPr414

Deadhead Dave

9900

Open

Rated 4/5

Visited: 07/30/2022

Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

A nice moderate rock trail, just like I like them. My Eagle struggled a little bit on one rock on the hill climb, different line worked. The v notch was not that horrible with good spotting. The bypass seemed harder due to a few boulders that were in the way. Pretty scenery. Good times.

Keenan Small

1300

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 05/01/2022

Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

Ran this trail from West to East with a group of 3; us in our 2011 JKU on 35’s with a 4” lift and 5.13 gears, another Jeep JKU Rubicon on 35’s with 3” lift, and a 2008 4runner on 32’s with a 3” lift. This trail was definitely lots of fun, but I would not advise this for a beginner unless you are with someone more experienced. With good spotting we all made it through with no body damage just some pinstripping from hugging the trees on certain lines. Definitely appears to be much harder going from west to east, the hill climb was pretty intimidating and very dug out but just take your time. Our JKU is a sport so no lockers and didn’t even disconnect on this and we made it through without getting stuck at all. As this is the first time I’ve ever ran this trail I am unaware of the normal condition but it appeared to be pretty dugout in most sections.

Trail Review: 3N10 - John Bull East aka Little John Bull - Keenan Small

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Paul Crawford

3650

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 12/12/2021

Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

Great Intermediate trail. Took this trail from East to West with 23 Gladiators. V-Notch was a little more dug out than usual, however everyone in out Gladiator group made it through without getting stuck, even the non-Rubicons. Just make sure you have a good spotter, as you can't see your lines going down. Bypass, not much better, almost everyone did the V-Notch. Going up (west to east) would be significantly harder. Samples here of the trail. Video of V-Notch starts at minute 10. Video of V-Notch from outside also on my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IgT1LTXhG4

Trail Review: 3N10 - John Bull East aka Little John Bull - Paul Crawford

Barry Dambrowski

1600

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 10/10/2021

Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

Ran this today after Gold Mountain. Most of the trail was easy but the hill climb and the steep down hill were fun. I made the mistake of avoiding the vnotch and stayed right. Kept it upright but definitely a pucker moment coming off the rocks.

Anthony J

2900

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 06/13/2021

Short trail, but I liked it. Looking forward to doing it again and using it as a warm up to John Bull.

Trail Review: 3N10 - John Bull East aka Little John Bull - Anthony J

Joe

5800

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 05/15/2021

Fun little pre-trail before hitting John Bull! The trail has some pretty fun sections that will definitely give you a glimpse of what it's big brother is like. The V-Notch this time around was nice and deep so it made for a great time. This would be a great trail for newer 4xers looking into possibly running harder trails in the area.

Trail Review: 3N10 - John Bull East aka Little John Bull - Joe

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The Trails Less Traveled

500

Open

Visited: 01/27/2021

Simple verison. Short but fun. The end, this trails is pretty short, but if you've never driven a V-notch then I'd say stop by an check this trail out. Its not a tough V or a very long one, but still a pretty fun obstacle and can give you a taste of what the full John Bull trail has to offer. Check the video below from my most recent trip!

Josh Noesser

Official Crew

130500

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 09/11/2020

Great little trail

Taylor Kempkes

Official Crew

14500

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 12/22/2019

Ran this trail both ways today and the v-notch was an especially fun challenge coming back up. Otherwise the trail seemed to be in similar condition as usual.

Taylor Kempkes

Official Crew

14500

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 08/04/2019

What a great medium/hard trail! Based on the trail review and video, I thought this might be a good proving grounds for my newly required (and nearly stock) '95 YJ and brother-in-law's TJ and boy was I right. I definitely wouldn't suggest anyone else attempt this in such a stock vehicle, but we did make it through with some rock stacking, generous use of throttle at times, and getting high-centered once in the little YJ. Everyone else we saw running the trail were on 35" tires and had no problem.

AARON MCKENZIE

1000

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 07/17/2019

Really fun trail if you're in the Big Bear area. As this video shows, Little John Bull is just one part of a great loop that's available in this region. We ran this trail in the middle of summer, when the weather is usually dry and clear. As the pics show, however, we ran into quite a rain storm, which made for some fun adventures...

Trail Review: 3N10 - John Bull East aka Little John Bull - AARON MCKENZIE

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Josh Noesser

Official Crew

130500

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 07/01/2019

This a great little trail to run. People often forget about it since it is off on the extreme end of Holcomb Valley. But hard and fun.

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Tom H

3900

Open

Rated 5/5

Visited: 07/28/2018

This is a great trail for a newbie as long as he is led by someone experienced. Probably not doable in a stock vehicle. Even the easy parts are rocky and fun. The V-notch is the most exciting obstacle and be advised that you will be riding your sidewalls on the way down. Don't tackle this trail alone and have a good spotter along for the v-notch.