Jawbreaker

March 17th, 2001

(Trip Report by Dwight Smith)

For the March club run we had scheduled a weekend that we thought would have something that would appeal to nearly everyone. Camping at Martinez Cabins, a choice of running the "Coke Ovens" or "Jawbreaker" on Saturday and the Martinez Mine run on Sunday morning. Things didn't quite work out as planned. We did camp at the cabins and we did run Jawbreaker, but the weekend turned out very different than expected.

Joe Cayer and I went in a day early and enjoyed a peaceful night at the cabins.

By the way, Joe doesn't go camping to get away from it all, he brings it all with him.
Saturday morning early we headed back to the Florence Junction Texaco to meet the group, on the way we found Bob Galizia and his family camped beside the trail in their tent trailer. After giving Bob directions to the cabins we proceeded on to the Texaco where we met the rest of the group. The turnout was pretty good with a total of nine Broncos, a Jeep and a Willy's pickup. Joining us for the first time were Brad Ellsworth and his daughter in a very nice brown and red Bronco, his son Colt in a good looking nearly stock half cab, Brownie's nephew Stacy Courrier in his Willy's pickup, Doug Rudy of Scottsdale who rode with me, and Marshall Gott from Maine who rode with Joe Cayer.

After a short discussion we found that we didn't have a trip leader for the Coke Ovens, so that run was scratched and the group all headed for the cabins. On the way in we picked up Bob Galizia and family with the tent trailer. After a little struggle with the tent trailer we made the cabins, everyone unloaded their camping gear and we headed out for "Jawbreaker".

The State Jamboree rates Jawbreaker as a 3.5. When I pre-ran it in February with three other vehicles it was rough but probably still a 3.5. A heavy rain since the pre-run had changed it to 4.5 but nobody was aware of that when we started. At first things went well, but the farther in we got the more everybody struggled.

Doug Bass who said that he had been wanting to step up to next level in his four wheeling found he had skipped up a couple of levels. Tom Chaney who now has full width axles under his Bronco adopted a style somewhat reminiscent of Jan Bonesteel. Try it once,, try it again, then back up, drop the hammer and go on through.

Tom Chaney

Keith Jones in the legendary Project Proto Fab never struggled anywhere. Joe Cayer who has what is probably the most improved Bronco in the last year had almost no problems. Others had varying degrees of problems.

Keith Jones and Project Proto Fab

Stacy Courrier and Brownie in Stacy's 51 Willy's pickup had the most problems. The combination of a flexible frame, stiff springs and V-8 power caused his body mounts to fail and he struggled all day. The cab moving around on the frame caused the shift linkage to bind and the Willy's started shifting gears without regard to what Stacy wanted.

The six mile long Jawbreaker became a test of machines and men. The farther we went the rougher it became. Doug Rudy and Marshall Gott were amazed at the beauty of the area and absolutely blown away at what we were putting our vehicles through.

Nearly everybody suffered some rock rash, with rocker-panels being especially vulnerable.

Near the end of the trail, after nearly eight hours of struggle we encountered a notch that was nearly the undoing of us all. We managed to get everyone through except Stacy's Willy's pickup.

The next morning a rescue party of Keith Jones, Joe Cayer, Brownie and Margaret Brown, and Jim Fender, who had showed to run Martinez, returned to rescue Stacy's truck. With Keith's winch, a lot of jacking and some rock stacking the truck was extracted.

By now it was dark, I had broken my winch and everyone was tired. After Stacy's lights shorted out the decision was made to leave the tightly wedged pickup and return for it in the morning. Finally after almost ten hours our battered little group returned to camp where Margaret Brown had begun to wonder if she had been abandoned. After a little visiting those going back to town took off and those of us staying started supper. Bob Galizia's wife made enough delicious chili to share with everyone and before long everyone was around the campfire swapping stories.

The weekend proved to be a real test of everyone's abilities and preparedness. Everyone struggled, most had some sheet metal damage, but there was almost no breakage. My winch and Stacy's body mounts were almost all there was. This is by far the toughest trail the club has run and several of our members surprised themselves at how capable their vehicles really are.

- Dwight