Rocky Mountain Rendezvous '99

August, 1999

(A Supplemental Trip Report by Todd Zuercher)

After 9.5 hours in the driver's seat, I returned yesterday from the Bronco Registry Of Northern Colorado's(BRONCO) 2nd Rocky Mountain Rendezvous held in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado. We based our operations in the KOA Kampground in Ouray, CO. Attendees included: Ray, Leah, Rose, and Nathan Bork John, Stacy, Abby, and Travis Bundy Steve and Nancy George, Shawn and Deirdre Halsey, Coby and Marie (pronounced "Murray") Hughey, Brian and Mel Lackey, Joe and Miles Lougee, Dr. Bill ( "Never Back Up") and Faith Swart, Bob Steele, and Todd Zuercher.

Pausing for a break while climbing Poughkeepsie Gulch

I left the heat of Phoenix early on Thursday morning and endured the 10 hour drive to beautiful Ouray, CO. With a lot of wind noise and no radio, one's mind tends to wander, particularly in the often monotonous miles of the Navajo Reservation. I probably planned out my next year's worth of Bronco mods during this portion of the drive. Once you hit Cortez, CO, though, your spirits climb considerably as the elevation rises, the temperature lowers, and the scenery becomes spectacular. When I arrived at the KOA at about 6 o'clock, there was only one EB in camp and soon I was talking shop with Bob Steele. We talked EBs until well after dark and then turned in for what we knew was going to be a long day of 'wheeling the next day.

Early Friday morning we all gathered at the Hugheys' cabin and decided to do Poughkeepsie Gulch. This is the only trail in the San Juans that has a few obstacles on it to keep the hardcore boys happy. We had seven vehicles on the road this beautiful morning as the sound of Ford engines reverberated off the canyon walls as we headed for the Engineer Pass turnoff. After airing down and locking the hubs, we headed up the Engineer Pass Road for several miles before turning onto the Poughkeepsie Gulch Road. Before leaving on the trip, Coby had fabbed up a mount for his camcorder, similar to the in-car cameras on race vehicles. The "CobyCam" recorded some great moments for us on this trip.

On the summit of Engineer Pass

We splashed through a lot of mud puddles on our way to the first obstacle; a steep climb on a spur trail. Nearly everyone went up it-I used a little coaching from John Bundy when I had trouble on a loose turn. Soon we were back on the main trail and spinning our way through a slimy mudhole. It took most of us numerous attempts to get our back tires out of the ever-deepening pit. Then we hit "The Wall", as it's called. There are two rocky ways up and one steep muddy climb that Bob Steele attempted. Brian Lackey provided the almost all the entertainment here, denting both his front fender and and his driver's side door and almost tipping over several times trying to surmount the shelf. I say almost all the entertainment, because Dr. Swart provided the rest when he drove up on his attempt. Dr. Bill really drove it like he meant it and put a big(loud!) dent in his rear quarter panel as he crashed and banged his way up. He didn't stomp on the brakes as he cleared it either-the video showed a poor motorcyclist tripping and falling over himself as he vainly tried to remove himself from the area. I still hope I'm able to romp on the gas when I'm 73 years old! Bill's wife showed herself to be the model of calmness-quietly eating an apple during this whole demonstration. The rest of us found our way up without nearly so much drama.

John Bundy's beautiful rig in Poughkeepsie Gulch

We then 'wheeled on to Lake Como, which has to be one of the most beautiful, blue/green lakes on the planet. We ate our lunch here and enjoyed the beauty of nature as we skipped stones across the surface of the lake. After lunch, we motored on through Hurricane Pass and then down Corkscrew Gulch to the highway. We reached Ouray in the late afternoon and bought thick steaks for the evening meal. With Coby's spare axles serving as grill supports, we ate our meal and then retired to John Bundy's outdoor entertainment center for a video recap of the day's activities. The humorous highlight for most of us was when, after watching his driving performance, Dr. Swart uttered, "Never back up!" We were obviously raising quite a ruckus as soon after that the campground hosts came around and sent us all to bed. It was just as well, for the next day was a long one.

Saturday dawned clear and beautiful and with 9 vehicles ready to go, we knew we had to do Black Bear Pass and Imogene Pass. Black Bear is of course storied in song and fable, and is all the more infamous with EB owners now because of Jen's rollover there during last year's Rendezvous. The morning started with John Bundy using his Premier Power Welder to reattach some of Brian Lackey's rollbar tubes to the plates on the floor; I don't imagine they would've been worth much in their prior condition.We crested the pass in short order and descended about half way to Telluride when we decided to stop at a beautiful little lake and take a break. While we were there, we enjoyed the antics of several marmots that weren't too happy with us being there. Soon after we left, we stopped for a group photo and we noticed that one of Ray Bork's tires was low. We found where the tire was leaking but we weren't able to fix it so on went the spare. Then we thought the front wheel bearings were loose so we tore the hub apart. Somebody(I think it was Coby) then realized it wasn't the wheel bearings, but a balljoint that was bad. So everything was thrown back together and we were on our way.

We descended the parts where some folks butts pucker in the seat and handily made our way through the switchbacks with our short trucks. Steve George had to make a few more turns to make with his F150 truck and I don't think Nancy was too happy about that, but everyone made it down safely. Then a quick blast through town put us on the trail to Imogene Pass. It started to rain on the way up Imogene so we didn't daudle on the climb. The top was windy and rainy and I think I was the only one who stopped for a picture. We continued on down the other side without incident and made it back to town for a nice dinner in one of the cafes in town. It rained most of Saturday night butI believe even all of us in tents stayed dry.

By Sunday morning, some folks were headed home and so only six of us started out to do the Alpine Loop-which consists of the trails over Engineer Pass to the quaint town of Lake City and then back to Animas Forks via Cinnamon Pass. The climb up Engineer was uneventful with the exception of several of us hitting our diffs on rocks that we thought we should've missed! We posed for group photos on the top and then headed to Lake City. We saw the only other EB(besides our group, of course) on the trail headed down towards Lake City. It was an uncut truck from Minnesota with about a 4" body lift on it. The owner was quite surprised to see all our trucks. We drove rally-style(fairly fast) down to Lake City for tasty lunch at the Lake City Cafe. We headed west towards Cinnamon Pass and at the turnoff to Carson City, Brian and Mel and Steve and Nancy bid us farewell as they needed to get home yet Sunday night. The remaining four vehicles continued to Carson City, which is one of the best preserved ghost towns in Colorado. The fact that all the buildings have been re-roofed with metal roofing has something to do with it.

We backtracked and continued on up to Cinnamon, stopping to view a beautiful rainbow at one point. As the sun sank lower in the sky, we quickly descended the rocky trails of Engineer Pass once more after stopping to look at the ghost town of Animas Forks. We arrived back in town once again just before dark and enjoyed another great meal together before heading back to camp. On the last night in camp, we stayed up late and shared some brews and talked about everyone else on the list(just kidding). A fitting ending to a wonderful weekend.

Our group headed down Black Bear Pass

I'm sure Coby will have plenty of pics and video to post when he returns later this week. I've been to the San Juans in '91, '95, and now '99. If I stick to that schedule, I'm due again in '03. However, I think with the fun I had this year, I may just be back again next year. I'd encourage any of you that live within driving distance to come on out and join us. I had 3 extra seats in my truck this year so even if you can't drive your truck, come on out and get your butt in a seat!

Your reporter,

Todd Z.