35^th Bronco Anniversary Celebration

April 2001

The 35^th Bronco Anniversary Celebration was held at the Lone Wolf Colony in Apple Valley (which is where Roy Rogers and Dale Evans lived).  It is somewhere in southern California just off of Interstate 15 near Barstow and Victorville.  My impression of Apple Valley is one long strip mall with fast food and medical facilities (and in some cases they share the same building)!  Evidently lots of senior citizens move there for the clean, dry desert air!  In fact, the Lone Wolf Colony was originally started in 1920 as a TB center for Pac Bell employees!  I wondered if there was some symbolism in the fact that a bunch of 35-year old vehicles were meeting at a former TB colony?  Go figure.

 Tuesday Night & Wednesday – April 24^th & 25^th

           Tuesday night I loaded the Bronco on the trailer in preparation for an early start.  I left Eureka about 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday.   At Sacramento I had to make a detour to Cameron Park to pick up Jeff Boyett.  It was great to have Jeff along to keep me company.  He piloted our course while I dodged all the crazy drivers as we traveled down Route 99.  At Bakersfield we turned east on Route 58.  A few more well piloted turns and we arrived at Bronco Headquarters about 8:30 p.m.  Not bad time considering I traveled more than 760 miles for the day.   Even though Wednesday was the first official day of the 35^th it was overflowing with early Broncos.  We registered, found a campsite, and set up our tents.  I was a still little “wired” from the trip, so I went back over the registration and vendor building to see what trails were available for tomorrow’s run.  Doran Canyon was the hard run, so I signed up for it.  I started looking at a photo album laying on the table when a young lady said that it was hers.  It took me a minute, but I recognized her as James Duff’s daughter Suzanne (from her picture in their catalog).  I noted that they had brought her brother’s rig “Hi Ho Silver” but she informed me that it now belonged to her since he was away attending college.  Jeff and I saw her the next day doing the easy run looking like she was having a great time.  She had a “Chicks Rule” sticker on the back of “Silver”!  (I wondered how her brother felt about that?)  I got back to my tent about midnight and Jeff was already asleep.  The minute I laid my head on my pillow I was out like a light.

Thursday – Doran Canyon –April 26^th

           Thursday we were up bright an early and got to meet our neighbors.  On one side were two guys from Tennessee.  They didn’t bring their Broncos, but they did bring a powerstroke full of transmissions, transfer cases, and front ends in hopes of paying for the trip.  One of them said that he had 35 Broncos in various stages of decay sitting in his back yard.   On the other side were a couple of very nice Broncos from Mexico.  These were rigs that you wouldn’t dare take off road!  Chrome under carriages, tie-rods, radius arms, etc.  After checking out all the rigs, we went over the registration area to attend the 8:00 a.m. drivers meeting. 

           Our trail leader was Joe Monroe, was a very likable guy, and who as we were soon to find out, was someone who you would have difficulty following even if you were on pavement!  Doran Canyon was located about 45 miles to the east (east of Barstow off of Interstate 15), so we lined up and left camp about 9:00 a.m.  Once we got to I 15, Joe took off at 70 mph+ leaving all of us in the dust.  With 4:56 gears, my engine runs about 3000 rpms at 60, so we didn’t see him until the trailhead.  Lucky for us the fellow in front of us was just as slow and knew the way.  

           The trailhead proved to be the staging area for all three of the day’s runs, so we got to see a lot more rigs.  I recognized James Duff who was a passenger with one of our group.  We were the 5^th rig in line.  About 200 yards into the run you encounter the first (and most difficult) obstacle. The canyon is very narrow and the first part of the obstacle is a 5-6 foot diameter rock that you must climb over.  The idea is to wedge your left wheels against the side of the canyon wall and the right wheels on the inside of the rock to keep from falling off into a deep hole.  After you get through that, the going gets really tough!  Well, Joe managed to get his rig immediately crossed up.  After about 20 minutes (and some very poor spotting) he finally got through, but he had wiped out both rocker panels.  His aluminum diamond-plate covers didn’t provide much protection!  After viewing Joe’s attempt, the Bronco just behind him turned around and left.   Next up was another hardcore looking rig with no part of the body that hadn’t been dented.  He too had the same fate as Joe, and spent considerable time getting through.  That’s when the couple (in a very nice white rig) in front of me turned around!  

           Well, you can imagine how I felt!  At this point I was very glad that I could see Jeff standing there ready to spot.  I certainly had nothing to live up to with the first two performances, but I didn’t want to suffer the same fate.  With some great spotting from Jeff I was the first rig to walk through (an unscathed).  ”Nothing left to do now but stand there and watch the fun.”  Not sure how many rigs went through, but according to Jeff there were only three of us that walked through without any problems.  One of the three (and the most impressive) was a turquoise rig from Tom’s Broncos in Medford, OR.  It looked even more stock than mine, but had 35’s, suspension mods, lockers, C4 and a set of JP 4.86:1 “rock eater” gears in the t-case.  It was very impressive to watch him walk though!  The driver was Tom’s nephew, Lonnie. Lonnie said that (like me) he owed his success to his spotter Randy!  He said that last year’s experience on the Hammers was his motivation to install the JP gears!  I got a chance to talk to Lonnie and his uncle, Tom later at the vendor’s area.  They were very friendly and genuine people.  But back to Doran Canyon!!  Both Jeff and I saw some very built up rigs but most of them had problems of one kind or another.  Some of them had to get out the winch.  One of the beefiest looking rigs smoked his clutch and had to be winched.  I later talked to him and found out that he was still running the stock three-speed manual tranny.  I was impressed that he made is as far as he did.  By the time everyone got through it was almost lunchtime.  We continued up the trail, but we were now in the back of the pack.  Jeff and I found ourselves following a yellow Bronco with Arizona plates.  The rig had boggers with beadlocks and not a straight piece of sheet metal on it.  In fact the windshield frame was tweaked so that the glass had been duct taped in one corner!!  Driving was Mark Ragel with his friend Mike.  The more I talked to Mark, the more impressed I was.  The body had seen a lot of extreme rock crawling, but a lot of effort and thought had gone into building a very tough and trail-worthy rig (as we were to see on Friday).  All three of the day’s runs stopped at the same spot for lunch so there was plenty of nice people to talk to.   The afternoon part of the run was a bit boring, but we saw some great country.  Once back at the trailhead, we aired up with my onboard air compressor and headed back to Apple Valley.  Just as we were getting onto the freeway, we saw about 5 rigs lined up in a service station waiting for the coin operated air compressor!  Another good reason to install a York in your rig!   

           I took a shower as soon as I got back and then hung around the vendor’s area collecting catalogs, decals and anything else that was free.  I met Jack O’Brien of JB “rock eater” gears.  Jack was a very nice guy and spent about 30 minutes explaining the engineering that went into his gears and gave me a lot of tips about my Dana 20 transfer case.  I only wish I had the $1800 to install his 4.86:1 gear set.  I did purchase several tee shirts: one for Kat and one for Jim Boyett.  Since Jim wouldn’t be caught dead with a Bronco tee shirt, I asked the various vendors if they had something with the word “JEEP” on it.  I finally found one that BC Broncos were selling.  Any of you reading this article should ask Jim to model it for you!

           Jeff & I decided to have pizza that night so off we went to find the local pizza parlor!   We finally found one with several Broncos parked in front, but we were informed that it was just closing.  No problem, because the one of the Bronco owners was using their phone to find one that was still opened.  He invited us to come along.  They were all from the San Jose Area.  Great guys, but I cannot remember their names.  One of them had a very good-looking blue bronco with Zolatone highlights.  It sounds funky, but it was very cool looking.  Since I am a Zolatone fan I had to ask him why.  Simple he said, “it’s bullet proof, doesn’t require any prep. work and is easy to spray.”  I’m already planning my new paint with Zolatone highlights.  We got back to camp around 11:00 p.m. and looked for the sign-up sheets for Friday’s runs which were to be the Hammers!  We had decided earlier that we would sign up for the Sledgehammer because people had told us it was a little bit easier than Jackhammer.  However, when I looked at the sign up sheet, all 25 positions were taken.  The sheet for the Jackhammer had only 4 signatures.  I decided to sleep on it!

Friday – The Hammers!  --April 27^th

           I got up a 6:30, made some coffee and strolled over to the staging area to see if anyone else had signed up.  Sure enough, the list was now up to 6 signatures!   Reluctantly, I added my name to the list and went back to camp.  I told Jeff that I had signed up and asked him if he though we should actually go for it.  After much discussion we decided to drive out there and make up our minds once we saw the trail.  At 8:00 a.m. we went to the drivers meeting.  There were lots of people, but most of them were there to get driving instructions to get to the hammers so they could watch.  I wasn’t very encouraged listening to the trip coordinator.  He was saying things like:

“The Hammers are EXTREME (5+ trails)”

“It isn’t a question of whether you will have body damage, it is a question of how  

 much body damage!” 

“There will be breakage, so bring all the parts you can carry!”

“No rig will make it unscathed”

 It didn’t sound very appealing and our trail leader Chris Navarre looked like he had just graduated from High School!  The raffle for each run was held, and of course I won!  I’m thinking that it would really be tacky of me to bail after winning, so Jeff and I lined up with the other brave souls.  Once we got in line I begin to feel very apprehensive because my rig stuck out like a “sore thumb”!  No one had stock chrome bumpers!  All were hardcore looking with lots of body protection.  There was only one rig besides mine that didn’t have a winch.  Most were running bead-locks with swampers or boggers, etc.  My 35x12.50 Mud Kings looked almost stock in comparison.

We headed out with the group turning on to Highway 18, then Route 247.  After 45 + miles we turned off the pavement and drove about 5 miles (on a dusty road) to Means Dry Lake.   At the Lake were 60 –70 Broncos waiting for us.  All had come to watch the carnage!  I saw our neighbors from Mexico.  They actually got their tires dirty from driving across the dry lakebed.  I was impressed!  Jeff and I got in the Jackhammer line and were told to air down to at least 10 psi.  (By the time we were through I had dropped down to 8psi.)  We then headed out across the desert.  Once there, I got out and walked up the trail about ¼ mile.  The Jackhammer is a narrow canyon that goes up the side of the mountain. I tried to console myself by saying things like: “Lots of rocks, but nothing bigger than a House!”  “Besides. It’s always a lot more fun to drive than sit around and watch someone else!”  We started up the trail, but the rig immediately behind the trail leader started loading up.  The driver fooled around with the carburetor for a few minutes, but the Trail Leader kicked him off the run so we all had to back out of the trail to let him out. 200 feet into the run and we had our first causality. (We were later to learn that Sledgehammer started out even worse – see Saturday’s report)   Jeff decided to walk ahead to be ready.  The first ¼ mile the trail was rough, much like going through one long, continuous “gate-key” on the Rubicon.  I climbed over a few more large rocks and then I saw our trail leader up ahead.  He was climbing a 12-foot rock face that was very steep and a bit off camber with an outcropping on the low side (just in case you slide sideways).  All you had to do was keep from sliding into the outcropping as you climbed the face.  Once you got your front wheels over the top you had to immediately turn hard right to avoid running head on into a very large rock.  Because of the very sharp break-over and off camber there is no way (no matter how much lift you had!) to avoid setting your passenger-side rocker panel on a rock and dragging yourself over with your front wheels until your right rear wheel gets some footing.  A couple of rigs in front of me made it after a little bit of jockeying around.  Now it’s was my turn!  I started looking for Jeff, but he was nowhere to be found!  This was the moment when I realized that I was in over my head!  I looked around and there were what seemed like a 1000 spectators (probably closer to 80!) standing on various rocks – all with cameras!  I started up and was doing pretty well, until I got a little shaky with my throttle foot.  In split second I slipped sideways into the rock.  I looked out my window and the whole side of my Bronco was buried in the outcropping!  I thought to myself, “Well, at least it’s on the side with all the rust holes.” I backed up and a couple of people gave me a sideways push.  I gave it another try and walked right up; set my rocker on the rock and climbed over.  I drove ahead a bit before inspecting the damage.  Some pretty good scratches on the rear quarter-panel, but it didn’t look as bad as it sounded.  Steve Sampson (35^th Chairman) came over and took a close-up shot of me inspecting the damage.   I now found myself 3^rd in line, behind the trail leader (Chris Navarre) and Mark Ragel’s yellow Bronco from Arizona.  I’m not sure, but I think that there was a rig in front of me that dropped out just before the obstacle.  I must point out that it was Jeff’s fault that I slid into the rock.  If he had been spotting instead of taking pictures I wouldn’t have been so nervous.  Of course if he had been spotting, it would still be his fault!! 

One of the hardest spots was the most satisfying for me – a very nasty waterfall.  Both Chris and Mark ended up winching themselves over it after giving a few tries.  With some very good spotting from Jeff, I was able to make it over without the aid of a winch (which was very fortunate for me, because I didn’t have one!).   As it turned out, I was the only one who did.  This particular obstacle proved to be very formidable for the rest of the group:  broken driveline yoke, two broken front axles, and other maladies.  It took 4 hours for the rest of the group to get through.  By the time we got rolling again, it was late in the afternoon.  Waiting around was a drag, but we got to talk to some great and knowledgeable people, including Jim Creel (owner of Wild Horses), Jack O’Brien (JP Gears), and Chuck Atkinson (BC Broncos).  We also got to talk to Chris Navarre (our trail leader) quite a bit too and realized how fortunate we were to have someone of his caliber leading us.   

Once out of the canyon, we traveled along on top for a while and then began a climb up a very steep ridge with a lot of loose rock.  About halfway up, I got my front differential hung up on a rock.  I backed up about a foot and tore and 1 ½ -inch hole in my passenger rear tire.  “Bummer – not even on the hard part of the trail!”  It wasn’t a place you would want to change a tire because of the steep grade and the fact that it was a 600-foot drop on both sides.  So we got out the tire plugs and began stuffing them in the tear.  Two attempts and 6 or 7 plugs and we were rolling again!  It seemed like an eternity, but I think we made the repairs in less than 10 minutes.  Once again I was thankful I had my York on board air compressor.  At the top of the ridge we were treated to a spectacular view of the surrounding country – with the sun sinking into the West! 

I thought we were done, but Chris had other plans.   Instead of taking the road out, we made a left-turn and started down another canyon.  I was skeptical, but Chris assured us that it wasn’t that bad.  Personally, I though it was just as bad as the Jackhammer, but at least it was downhill.  At least two times during our decent, my driver side front tire lost its bead going over a rock and then popping back on the rim before loosing all its air.  It was a very unnerving sensation, especially after having just made repairs to the rear tire.   We started down with Jeff in the passenger seat, but that didn’t last for long and soon he was out in front of me spotting.  We were doing pretty well until the sun begin to set.  Since we were traveling west, it was very difficult for me to see Jeff’s hand signals.  Then as the sun disappeared we both couldn’t see anything!  And when I turned on my headlights I blinded Jeff.   At this point, I’m thinking,  “Gee, it would be really nice to have that 3-cell mag light that I left back at camp.”  As the sun was disappearing we came to one of the tightest squeezes.  Mark and Mike (Arizona Bronco) were having a bit of difficulty getting their rig through, but after about 10 minutes of jockeying around they made it.  (I think Mark was having Mike drive at this point)  Not sure about our trail leader Chris, because we didn’t see him go through.  Now it was my turn and getting very dark!  The trick was to hug the vertical canyon wall on the right, and turn left at the last second in order to squeeze by a large rock on the left (to avoid being thrown into the wall).  I got a little too far to the left in my approach so Jeff motioned me to back up a foot or two and turn right.  We went through this exercise four or five times and Jeff was getting frustrated with my inability to follow directions.  I was getting frustrated because it just wouldn’t go right even though I my steering box was locked right.  Finally Jeff looked under Bronco and informed me of the bad news that my tie-rod looked like a piece of cooked spaghetti.  My inverted Y tie-rod is noted for being weak and the Jackhammer proved it.  I never hit it on anything directly.  It was just the stress of the trail.  In desperation, I told him to spot me over the rock, but after trying it a couple of times, it proved to be too big to get my front wheel on.  This was definitely my low point for the day.  I suspect it was Jeff’s too.  We were both very tired -- me because of stress of the trail, and Jeff because he had virtually walked the whole trail in 95-degree heat.  We both felt defeated.   I actually lost it a bit and used my customary phrase, “S#n o# a B###h” a few times.  By this time the rigs behind us had caught up so the plan was to hook a line on the rock and try to winch it out of the way.  Even with that I still had my doubts.  Just as we were getting ready to put our plan into action, Chris appeared on foot and inquired as to the holdup.   “Hmmmm…..  Why don’t you get closer to the wall?” he inquires.  We show him the tire-rod, but it didn’t seem to impress him other than it being a minor annoyance.  He backed me up about 15 feet (of course at this point there were plenty of people around to check for clearance.   I locked my steering wheel to the right and slowly it moved over against the wall.  I had plenty of turning ability to the left, so when the time came to turn left, I walked right through the squeeze without a hitch.  That gave both Jeff and I a very big lift.  We continued on, and as it turned out we only had to travel another a quarter over lesser obstacles and we were out. 

We caught up to Mark’s rig and it was parked in the trail, but no sight of Chris.  He had told Mark to stay parked and he took off.  We waited a few minutes, but none of the rigs behind me showed up.  Mark, who had a flashlight, took off on foot to look for the others.  We waited for what seemed an eternity, but still no one came nor did Mark come back.  I decided to walk back along the trail to try to hook up with the others.  After about a quarter mile, I decided that I was being very foolish trying to navigate around in the desert in the dark, especially considering that Mark and Mike as seen two rattlesnakes earlier in the day, so I begin walking back to the rigs.  On the way back I ran into Mike who also had a flashlight.  With the light, we could see some tire tracks that turned off to the right and up a small hill.  We followed them up and when on top saw some headlights moving through the desert.  We signaled them with our flashlight and they turn towards us.  It turned out to be Chris.  He had realized he missed a turn and had taken off to find the way out and then doubled back and found the rest of the group.  We went back to our rigs and followed him to where he had the others waiting.  Then we all drove back to the staging area at Means Dry Lake.  Realizing my dilemma (remember the tie-rod?) Mark graciously offered to drive his rig back the 50 or so miles to camp and put mine on his trailer.  Now came another inspirational thought, “Why wasn’t I smart enough to have trailered my rig out here like Mark did?” 

Jeff and I had a quiet ride back as passengers in Mark’s powerstroke with Mike driving.  A few miles down the road, we came across a group of Broncos led by Joe Monroe who had decided to come out and look for us (Of course that was after they all finished the pot luck and had the drawing for the bumper and winch).   As we traveled along Mike lamented the fact that in all the events that he and Mark attend it seems they always get back too late to participate in the dinners and the drawings.  According to Mike, Mark is “Mr. Hardcore” and always signs up for the toughest runs and is the last one home.  Both Jeff and I were glad Mark had signed up for the Jackhammer!  I was dirty and tired and it was my desire to get a cold beer and a shower once we were back at camp.  We arrived at 1:00 a.m. so there was no waiting in line for the shower!  It was a great feeling drinking that cold beer in the shower.  Since I was still too wound up to sleep I grabbed another beer and walked over to the registration area.  Sure enough, Chris and some of the others were there.  We hung out telling our war stories until 2:30 a.m.  

At this point, I must say that if it wasn’t for Jeff I would never had made it.  Jeff’s spotting was superb and was as good as anyone there – and there were some very high caliber spotters.  Simple stated, “Driving the Jackhammer was thrilling.”  Running with the “Big Dogs” is an experience I will never forget.  I think Jeff put it best when he described it to his dad Jim, “On a scale of 1 to 10 the Rubicon is a 5 and the Jackhammer is a 12.”

Saturday – April 28^th

I tried to sleep in, but by 7:00 it was too noisy.  Saturday was the day for the big group picture at 2:00 p.m.  There was also an early run to the sand dunes, but with 1-½ inches of toe-out and no turning ability to the right it was not an option for Jeff and I.  Of course Mark was out there!! 

Jeff and I went to town to enjoy our first breakfast of the trip.  When we got back from breakfast we parked my rig for the group photo and hung out at the vendors’ area.  It was here that we found out that the Sledgehammer run had been a disaster.  One Bronco actually turned over before it got on the trail!  In addition, there was so much carnage, especially on one rig, that the run was called off at 2:30 p.m. because so little progress had been made.  I heard later that there had been some problems with spotting too.  We felt fortunate that our group was small and we had Chris as our trail leader. 

Our original plan was to stay Saturday nigh for the big dinner and raffle and leave early Sunday morning.  But, I decided that I was not up for breaking camp in the dark and leaving with the rest of the crowd.  Neither of us had much sleep for the last several days so I didn’t think I could drive all of the 760 or so miles back on Sunday and go to work the next day.  Around 2:30 p.m. we drove the powerstroke & trailer over to the photo area and we loaded up the Bronco and left.  I was disappointed not to be able to stay a while longer, but I was anxious to get home.  We decided to drive as far as we could that night.  Instead of driving back on Highway 99 we took Interstate 5.  There wasn’t much scenery, but there really isn’t that much to see when you’re traveling at night!  I felt that I-5 was slightly faster than Highway 99 and there certainly was a lot less conflict from cross-traffic.  If I go to the 40^th Anniversary, I’ll use I-5 going down too.  Jeff helped out with the driving and at midnight we pulled into Sacramento. 

Sunday – April 29^th

I spent what was left of Saturday night on Jeff’s sleeper-sofa.  Sunday morning I had a few minutes to kill and noticed the December 2000 issue of the Coaster (an issue that Jim Boyett had prepared) laying on Jeff’s coffee table.  After thumbing through it a bit, I came across “The Art of Spotting” article.  As I read Jim’s introduction to the article, I thought to myself “how really profound his words were, especially considering the events of the last several days.”   I’m going to quote Jim’s introduction here because it is true, and for me it was the difference between watching people drive their rigs through the Jackhammer or driving my own rig through. 

“A good spotter is worth his weight in gold when the going gets really rough!  Those that have done the Sierra Trek know that you have a choice on the 5 winch hills as to whether you want a spotter, as indicated by turning on your headlights.  When the Lost Coast 4x4’s manned winch hill 4 several years ago, we had to winch about 30 rigs up the hill and it seemed like most of them were the ones who didn’t want to be spotted.”

In the body of the article, I could certainly identify with Jeff Reynolds’ observations on “Getting Religion”.  By the time we were half through Jackhammer all I saw was Jeff’s hand motions.  There are parts of the trail that I simply didn’t see because I was so focused on Jeff.   

“Jeff thanks again for some really great spotting!”

I left Jeff’s about 10:00 a.m. and headed for home.  The weather was great and I actually had a sunny day welcoming me home as I drove into Eureka about 4:00 p.m.  I unloaded the Bronco parked my trailer.   I had a good time but it was great to be home!!

Mike Eagan

p.s. Special thanks to Dave Levine (DNL Photos) and Mark Hagel for supplying most of the photos.

Click on thumbnails for larger view!