Great Western Trail
February 17th, 2002
(Trip Report by Todd Zuercher)
Snow in Martin’s Canyon
Trips to Arizona’s high country are always a gamble in the winter months. You may be able to walk around in jeans and a t-shirt, or you may be faced with freezing blizzard conditions. Fortunately, most of our trip on February 17th, 2002 consisted of the jeans and t-shirt…well, maybe long-sleeved shirt, variety
Pre-run meeting at Burger King in Phoenix
Ten Broncos gathered at our Peoria Avenue Burger King gathering spot on Sunday morning. One surprise guest was Vern Brown. For those of you who don’t know Vern, he was an active member in the club six or seven years ago. His silver ’77 was a familiar sight on many club runs. Vern sold his beauty and took a few years off, but like most true Bronco fans, found he couldn’t be without one of the beloved Broncos.
Vern Brown's 1966 "Box" Bronco
He bought a ’66 "in boxes", as he put it, back in November. That "Box Bronco" now sports a fresh tan paint job and is on its way back to health. It wasn’t quite ready for the trip but Vern promised he will be joining us soon.
Looking around the parking lot, it appeared that this month’s theme was "Recycled Broncos". A familiar ’71 Swiss Aqua Bronco was revealed to be former ACB member Bert Dickenson’s orange truck. New member Justin Tanner drove an EFI’d ’69 whose former owner, Jason, used to be in ACB. Shad Bruce Sr.’s truck used to belong to former ACBer Efren Lopez. Newsletter editor Dale Bergersen of course drives Jim Taylor’s ’75 and a gentleman named Marcus was driving a green ’77 that looked vaguely familiar. Regardless of who’s driving what, it’s good to see the Broncos being preserved and restored. Each of the aforementioned trucks are in better condition than they were 7-8 years ago!
Lots of new people joined the regulars for this trip!
Other members along on this run included Doug and Danielle Schulz, Dean and Bonnie Hathaway, a gentleman named Dan(and his wife) in a green ’74, and yours truly in Broncitis.
After a quick meeting, we hit the road for the high country. We drove north on I-17, exiting at Cordes Junction and headed northwest towards Prescott. We hit the last gas station in Humboldt and then exited the highway at Fain Road.Here we met Bronco #10 on the trip-Jason Hansen, his wife Stephanie, and their two boys in a camo-colored Bronco.
Fain Road is a fast dirt road that traverses Lonesome Valley between Highways 69 and 89A. Lonesome Valley, which runs from Humboldt, through Prescott Valley, and out to Chino Valley north of Prescott was at one time owned in its entirety by the Fain family. Old man Fain, according to popular legend, allegedly won the land in a poker game in the late 1800s. In any case, the resulting land sales in the last 40 years have ensured that the Fain family will be financially secure for quite some time to come.
Rejoining pavement at Highway 89A, we pretended we were driving sports cars and headed up the curving switchbacks to the top of Mingus Mountain.
Brownie's strange, but familiar, half-cab and a half
At the top, we pulled off and found the familiar Bronco of Brownie and Margaret Brown. They joined us from the Verde Valley. It was a bit chilly at the top of the mountain so we quickly headed off to the west to begin our trail ride.
"Hey, here’s snow!" came the call on the CB. The white stuff was sitting in the shadows on the north side of the hills as we entered the Great Western Trail(Trail #102) gates and proceeded down a nice dirt road winding through the pine trees. For the next several miles we drove through a beautiful pine forest along the top of Mingus Mountain. The trail changed numbers numerous times. The key to finding your way through the maze was to follow the numbers that have the "Great Western Trail" logo above the trail number. The Great Western Trail is a compilation of dirt roads and trails that run north to south across the United States from Canada to Mexico.
Playing in the snow
Martin's Canyon
We soon dove off the edge of Mingus and wound our way down into Martin’s Canyon. This lush, narrow canyon is a beautiful, remote area enjoyed any time of the year. Out of the wind’s path and boasting many large shade trees, the trail winding through the rocky creek bottom is an oasis from the winter’s cold and the summer’s heat. Here we found some rocks to crawl over and some snow to play in. At one point, we stopped for a break and let everyone throw a few snowballs. The kids had a blast!
Lunchtime arrived and we were just about out of the beautiful canyon so the trip leader corralled everyone in a small basin and for the next hour or so, we ate our lunches and talked about all things Bronco. ACB lunch breaks are in an interesting social phenomenon; people swarm from truck to truck in packs, quickly nibbling food while looking at each others’ steeds making mental notes on the latest parts and how people execute modifications on their trucks. I’m sure a social scientist would have a field day.
Lunch Stop
With the knowledge that we had quite a bit of driving left before Jerome, we didn’t dawdle in the canyon for a long time.
Thanks to some excellent GPS work, Jason Hansen found the "Smiley Rock" highlighted in Charles Wells’ excellent book, Arizona Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails. The canyon gradually opened up and we entered scrub brush so common to the Arizona high country around the 5000 ft. elevation. As we sped across the scenic ranchland east of Chino Valley, we even passed two authentic-looking cowboys on horseback.
The 4WD section of the trail ends when you reach the old railroad bed that runs from Chino Valley to Jerome. Here we pulled our transfer case levers back into 2-Hi and eased onto the circuitous railroad bed that snakes and curves its way eastward toward Jerome. Our speeds increased here and we let our ponies stretch their legs a bit and clear our their cylinders. At numerous points I heard a roar, looked in my rearview mirror, and spotted a red beast squatting on its haunches and rocketing towards me.
Doug Schulz's Patriotic 5.0 powered rig
Doug "Herbst Truggy" Schulz was having a lot of fun with his new EFI beast! I don’t remember exactly how many turns this old grade has on it, but I think it numbers over 100.
First View
Soon after passing the turnoff to Perkinsville (did anyone stop at that stop sign?), we rounded a bend and caught our first view of Jerome and the Verde Valley at a site titled, appropriately, "First View". Here we stopped and aired up our tires and said our good byes to a few folks before completing the last few miles into Jerome.
Gold King Mine/Ghost Town
A mile before entering Jerome, about half of us turned off and spent about an hour at a grand diversion called the Gold King Mine. Don Robertson has to be one of the most fascinating individuals I have ever met in my life and I always consider a visit to his piece of paradise a real treat.
GOLD KING MINE / GHOSTTOWN 
Here, on the side of the hill, he has created a working replica of an old ghost town complete with old buildings, a sawmill, animals for the kids to pet and feed, and of course, row after row of old and unusual trucks to pore over. Someone paid him $5 to fire up Big Bertha, an enormous 3 cylinder engine that sends out an ear-piercing whistle through its exhaust when coaxed up to speed. I’m sure some New Agers in Sedona shake in their convergence circles when they hear that sound rocketing across the valley! Doug, Dale, Deano, and myself were in literal nirvana poring over the new trucks Don has pulled in since our last visits. There’s always something new to see!
JEROME
After bidding adieu to the Gold King, we made the short trip into Jerome, arguably the world’s most famous ghost town-turned-artist-colony. We walked around town for awhile before heading into warmer climates further south.
Doug, Danielle, Brownie, Margaret, and I enjoyed a fine dinner at Rock Springs, complete with pie of course, before heading back into the Valley.
I believe everyone had a fabulous time on the trip and it’s a great one for the books. No one had any breakdowns whatsoever. We saw some great scenery, great weather, a lot of new people came along, and we did some real four wheeling. What more could a club ask for? See you all at March Madness in Martinez!
-Todd Z.
