The Tale of The Bronco

[StvDiego]

I get carried away when I write  ~clap

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Do we want to start thinking of a trail clean-up for the near future? It was a simple question; little did we know at the time what we were getting ourselves into.

Corral Canyon Off Highway Vehicle Area in east San Diego County?s Cleveland National Forest offers some of the best recreational off-roading in Southern California. Covering over 1800 acres with more than 51 miles of trails open to off?road enthusiasts ranging from beginner runs to rock-crawling challenges and more in the planning stages. With two campgrounds, beautiful views over-looking Lake Moreno to the south and awesome sunsets over the Pacific Ocean 40 miles to the west, Corral Canyon OHV is a pristine spot for a weekend of wheelin and is high up on the list of many off-roaders favorite places and is well-cared for by the National Forest Service and local off-road organizations.

The off-road community is well-known for their hard work and dedication to preserving not just the trails we all enjoy, but the entire range of environmental issues. Corral Canyon OHV is no stranger to the time and labor of off-road groups. After the recent and devastating fires in Southern California, Corral Canyon was the focus of several weekends and countless hours of back-breaking work by several off-road clubs and supporting businesses and organizations along with hundreds of volunteers who gave their time, sweat, money and supplies to rehabilitate and re-open Corral Canyon. Trash was picked up, gates and fences were built and repaired, the areas burnt in the fire were fenced in to protect and preserve the sensitive habitat and new trail markers were set in place.

Arguably, next to Bronco Peak, the most-popular Jeep trail at Corral Canyon is Sidewinder, a fun jaunt across rocks, hill climbs, a rather large rock that has caused more than a few sets of knuckles to turn white, and one well-known blemish. How that old full-size Ford Bronco ended up abandoned a hundred yards or so from the end of Sidewinder, and even how long it?s been there, has been the subject of years of speculation and rumors. Besides the ?it was stolen?? story, the most consistent, and likely the most reliable, is that at least 4 years ago the owner was running Sidewinder when the lift blocks on the rear axle shifted, which caused the axle to shift and the Bronco came to a dead stop, and it?s been sitting there on the trail ever since. Over the years it has become a target for vandals with every window broken, the wheels and tires taken, body and other parts stripped and it?s evolved into the biggest blight and eyesore in the area and has confounded more than one attempt to remove it from the trail.

Which brings us back to our question and a new off-road enthusiast forum, SoCalUltimate4X4.com (SCUFF). Formed to encourage and promote family-oriented off-roading for beginners to pros, SCUFF community members are encouraged to make every run and make every run a trail clean-up. There was some talk on the forum about adopting a trail and a highway and performing a community service event, ideas were tossed back and forth and finally someone said, ?Are you guys interested in making the Bronco in Corral Canyon disappear??

That certainly got SCUFF?s attention. How would we get it out, will it roll, can we winch it, how do we get it over the rock climb?? Within a week of that fateful question two SCUFF members hit Sidewinder for a recon, the trail was walked, pictures were taken and a plan was set in motion. Get a 4WD skip loader, a flatbed, a winch, some tools and drag it out. Two weeks later SCUFF struck Sidewinder.

The key to the operation was Daley Corporation who not only loaned, but delivered, a 4WD loader along with an operator, who is also a SCUFF member, who volunteered for the day. Meeting up at the southern trailhead just after sunrise on a Saturday morning six SCUFF members: MetalTwister (Bob The SCUFF Builder), JeffM (our awesome loader driver), 4X4grey88 and Brink (Jimmy and Mike; our chain gang), DavidWymore (who volunteered the flatbed and actually hauled away the Bronco) and StvDiego (the unofficial photographer and wise guy) were ready to buck the Bronco. With the crew in place the group headed up the trail, Jeff did a fantastic job, and had all the fun driving the loader up the trail (he said at that first off-camber rock crawl it was obvious he wasn?t in his Jeep), finally got to the Bronco and said; Ok, now what? Fortunately Jeff had a better plan.

Using several sections of heavy logging chain the Bronco was hooked up and with a couple of lifts from the bucket and a lot of dragging on the chains and positioning of the loader the Bronco reluctantly gave up it?s resting place. That was the easy part. Dragging a 3,000 lb wreck with no wheels over a 2-3 rated trail is no walk in the park and Sidewinder did not want to give up it?s prey. It fought back all the way. It was a rock to rock fight, moving and adjusting chains, lifting and dragging the bucking Bronco trying to throw itself free of it?s reins, sliding over obstacles, and then the first hill, the rocky hill. Jeff calls it a ?fairly interesting ride? going backwards, uphill, over rocks, in a tractor pulling the dead weight of an old Bronco that still has some fight left in it. For those of us watching it was much more than interesting.

With the loader up on two wheels at times, the chain gang constantly adjusting the chains, the Bronco bucking and kicking, it made it?s final hill climb while trying it?s best to stay at it?s home for the past several years. Finally the Bronco crested the hill, worked it?s way over and past the last obstacles and the Bronco?s final run was complete, it?s off-roading days over. With a final pull of the chains and a couple of shoves on it?s flanks it was on the trailer, chained down and ready for the scrap yard, it?s last remaining taillight, the only undamaged part left, reflecting the morning sun in brilliant red as if to say, stop, I want to stay on the trail.

It was oddly quiet that late for a Saturday morning, a lone motorcycle rider stopped to watch the spectacle as the Bronco sat silently on it's perch. In an almost somber, but at the same time jubilant mood, the Bronco was left waiting on the trailer and the crew walked back down the trail using the loader and well-worn hands to repair sections of the trail in need, cleaning up the last of the pieces that the Bronco left behind and leaving the trail better, and a bit more challenging than we found it.

After a break for lunch, cooling off and relieving parched throats with ice-cold water donated by Off Road Warehouse and rinsing out some of the pounds of dirt and silt the crew loaded up and made their run across Sidewinder. Passing the niche once occupied the Bronco the SCUFF crew saluted the hard work of the entire off-road community in keeping our tails and OHV areas open. The Sidewinder run, and the day, was complete, and then the Bronco was off to the east on the trailer, light dust blowing off like a majestic mane, never to off-road again and Corral Canyon was just a little better for the next group to run across Sidewinder.