COKE OVENS RUN

January 18, 1998

(Pictures with red borders courtesy of Winston Brown)

(Pictures with blue borders courtesy of Jon Hanna)

(Pictures with white borders courtesy of Mike Lachance)

(Trip Report by Todd Zuercher )

It was a fine day for four wheeling in AZ yesterday as 25 Early Broncos and nine non-Broncos showed up for the Box Canyon/Coke Ovens trip sponsored by Arizona Classic Bronco. For the record, the following EBR-Netters were in attendance: Big Al, Mike Mileski, Mike Ritzel, Frank Chance, Mike Lachance, Jerry Steele, Deano Hathaway, Jon Hanna, Steve Harwood, Alex Gilmour, and yours truly.

I arrived a little late and was shocked when I rounded a corner and saw all the trucks clustered in a vacant lot. After selling t-shirts and club memberships for about 20 minutes, we held a a short meeting and then we were off!

Well, almost all of us were off.

Deano was having some trouble with the new off-road needle/seat kit on his Carter carb so Big Al jumped in to help.

Big Al's voice can be heard above the idling roar of several Flowmaster'd EBs, but he walks the talk and before you could say 'vacuum secondaries', Deano's truck was purring like a kitten and we were off to join the rest.

  
                              Big Al (out in front) draws a crowd

We quickly rejoined the group and aired down, adjusted the shocks, etc.

It sure is an awesome sight to see that many trucks lined up along the road. We wound through the countryside for 8-10 miles before entering the shadowy canyon walls of Box Canyon.

 Jack Q. Jones

Box Canyon isn't as narrow as Vaseline Canyon, but its walls are still high enough and close together such that the sun doesn't shine in very often.

In one of the wider spots in the road, we stopped and and took a break, adding new meaning to the name 'Box Canyon' with all our brick-shaped trucks crowded together. Alex Gilmour decided to call it a day here as his water pump was howling like a banshee.

We continued on in fine form, exiting the canyon and climbing several play hills that our leader, Don Bonesteel, led us over.

 Mike Lachance
 

A few folks climbed a veerrrryy steep, mogully hill that required TADs front and rear to surmount.

Steve Harwood thought his new F-series power steering would help him climb the hill too but after his front wheel went about 4 feet in the air, he decided that power steering wasn't the answer to everything after all.

After traversing a few more hills, we entered the rougher section of the trail where we all spread out and climbed over the rough, rocky obstacles that were our constant companions for the next few miles.

The Dillons (white Bronco)

 Greg Peacock

  Deano  

A ledge here, a boulder there; they all combined to keep the drivers on their toes and kept our backsides from falling asleep as we growled along, enjoying the shirt sleeve weather. About one o'clock, the last of us reached the Coke Ovens.

The Coke Ovens, which are hard to describe, are five beehive shaped stone structures, about 20 feet tall, that were once used in the ore smelting process.

  Todd Z. (Blue Hat)

There are about 30 different stories about their true purpose and when they were built, but most reliable estimates place their time of construction in the late 1800s. They are in excellent condition and at least one or two have been very habitable in recent years.

Don Bonesteel (Red Shirt)

The ovens were our lunch stop and for the next hour or so, many tales and lies ensued, as is the Arizona Classic Bronco club tradition.

Don decided we were going to make this a loop trip rather than the standard out-and-back trip and to this end, he had pre-run a crossing of the Gila River so we could accomplish this.

In the 6-8 times I've been to the ovens, this is the first time I've crossed the Gila.

Todd Zuercher exiting the river

It was only about hub deep yesterday and a loop was very enjoyable. One of the Chevy Blazers momentarily got stuck trying to cross the railroad tracks(no, I'm not kidding), but the mighty Fords returned to civilization with nary a hitch.

Jon Hanna

A fast wash run out and some good graded road soon brought us back to civilization at Florence, where we had started some 7-8 hours earlier.

Frank Chance

  This is Jerry Steele.

The beautiful truck of Mike Ritzel

In all, a very good trip. It's neat to finally put faces with names that you see in your mailbox every day. I hope everyone had a good time-I know I did.

- Your trip reporter, Todd Z.