Log Corral
Jan 16, 1999
(Trip Report by Doug Schulz)
I was real proud of our club on this run. As trip leader, I had pre-run it the weekend before and found the trail to be pretty rough in the boulder area (about a 100 yd stretch of 4.0 rated stuff) and brushy enough that I had to chainsaw some areas. At the meeting before the run, 20 trucks had shown up, with a few Jeeps along as welcomed guests.
Of these 20, a few were fairly stock and I worried about how they would fare. Then Jack Q. Jones pulled up in his pristine ‘67, and I really started to worry about how it would look after the run. I gave everybody the low-down on the trail so they would know what they were getting into, and they all decided to take a look-see at least, since the bad section was close to the start. These folks are all adventurers, let’s face it.
We left the Saguaro Lake turnoff around 9am after the short meeting and 50/50 raffle, (won by the father of the little girl who drew it- hmmm…). We arrived at the trailhead about 15 minutes later, aired down, turned in the hubs, and started in. We started out in Sycamore creek just to the west of the bridge on US87, and went for about a half mile until we reached the mouth of Log Corral Canyon.
It’s just a Bronco width wide or two and after a little warm-up of rocks and tight turns, we reached the boulder area. I think everyone was having too much fun to stop then, so they all decided to take a crack at it.
Spring water was trickling down the trail making the rocks as slick as a minnow’s nose. I started through first and cut a sidewall about 50 feet in and had to rush through before the air all went out so I wouldn’t be changing the tire in the rocks. Undaunted by common sense, they all drove, bashed, bounced and scraped their way through one way or another. All but one truck went on through, with the one staying behind to return for another engagement.
New member Dwight Smith took a quarter panel hit on his beautiful yellow ‘76, and a few others did minor damage, but nothing too bad. I was just glad to see Jack Q. Jones skillfully guide his gorgeous rig through without a dent. It’s definitely not just a show rig. Attitudes were good, because everyone was just having a ball, scratches and all.
As they were guiding the trucks through one by one, I started changing my tire, when Randy Harral suggested plugging it. New member Rylan McMahon offered up a plug kit and Randy got about 7 of them in a finger sized hole. Randy loaned me his air pump, and later Dwight gave me some Stop-Leak and I’ll be danged if the crazy plug didn’t hold for the next two days until I got it fixed. I never would have believed it.
After trying to reimburse these two new ACBers, they both firmly refused, reaffirming my belief that Early Bronco owners are the best folks to be with on the trail. I know my passing on the favor to someone else some other time is all they expect for repayment. Plug kits and a good pump will be a standard part of my toolkit from now on.
Dean Hathaway ripped a BFG Mud TA, too, and had to change it, and Jerry Steele shredded a tire on the way to the meeting spot, so it was a rough day for rubber.
Todd Zuercher had to take a short break to straighten his tie rod that took a rock hit, but got it going again and we moved on.
We finally got out of the boulders, and the trail wound up the canyon with the brush pinstriping our trucks and the ruts testing our suspensions, until we finally crested the pass at the Log Corral, aptly named for its construction.
We gathered the trucks, ate lunch and swapped yarns for a short time while we enjoyed the big-time view of Four Peaks in one direction and Bartlett Reservoir in the other.
After lunch, we proceeded down the hill and followed washes down to the cove on Bartlett Reservoir, where one of the Jeeps started an impromptu hill climb contest up the exposed lake bed, since the lake was low. A bunch of us zoomed up it in 4wd, some tried and failed, but Randy Harrall kind of put all our efforts in perspective as he roared up it in 2wd.
There are trucks and then there are TRUCKS. Todd Z even made it up with his pizza cutter tires. The kids played by the water, the hoods got lifted, and the bull flowed like water- everyone having a good time checking out the wide variety of rigs.
Since it was getting late, we discussed our three options to go home: Cross the Verde river which was running high, take the Power Line road out to Sunflower, which was not pre-run but we had a good second hand report of, or go out the tough way we had come in. Everybody picked their own way and divided up into groups. I decided the Power Line road would be the least destructive to the pretty trucks and led the way guided by my trusty GPS fed computer topo maps.
The little GPS blip stayed right on the road on the laptop topo screen and reassured me we wouldn’t have to turn seven trucks around for any backtracks.
That road was a lot of fun, because it was really washed out and rutted, and you had to really watch or you could drop a wheel into a 4 foot hole about every 30 yards. Lots of tail dragging and careful wheel placement. The trail reminded me a lot of the Telegraph road trail we often take. We hit the pavement just as the sun dropped over the horizon.While we went out that way, most of the others took the boulder wash out.
I’m not sure if anyone braved the river. Randy went out the hard way, and started getting some death noises from his rear end gears, so limped it back to his trailer parked at Fountain Hills. 35 spline axles and 8 lug Dana 60’s are in the works now.
Nobody really earned the feared Cow Pattie Award, although there was some discussion whether my flat could be called the first "breakdown". I’ll leave that up to the Board of Directors. I’ve got to say, though, that this group was real easy to lead on this fairly tough trail. Lots of grins on the hard parts, and lots of compliments on the run afterward.
There was even talk of having an overnight run there sometime, so we could camp at the beach and catch some catfish at night. You can count me in.
-Doug Schulz, President
Arizona Classic Broncos
