What do you do when you live in Northern California, own a Vintage Bronco and like to associate with other folks who share your love for all things Bronco? You start emailing everyone you’ve met on-line and labor to get organized, or you come here.
The N.C.A.V.B. or "Golden Gate Early Broncos" or whatever name we finally decide on, is a group of die-hard Vintage Bronco enthusiasts who live in Northern CA and want to meet and ‘wheel with others like themselves, but hate organization, micro government, holding office and making or following rules. To help get things rolling, Lester Foghead from the Early Bronco Entertainment Webzine started an email list to make communication easier. If you want to join, follow the link below:
Our first gathering was in March of 99 at the Stoneridge Mall parking lot in Pleasanton. Pictured below from left to right are the rigs of Brandon Halog, Drew Clary, John Kester, Larry Sudweeks, Bill Bussell, John Foottit, Andrew Norton, Greg Garrison, Al Hamilton (Yes, that’s a 72 Pinto body on a Bronco frame!), and Tim Maguire. Also in attendance, but unable to bring their broncos, were Chris Hansel, Ed Ghiselli and Kevin Garrett.
After poking around each other’s Broncos and comparing mods and ideas and soon discovering that no one wanted to hold an office in a formal club, we caravaned to the Pleasanton Fair Grounds where the Good Guys car show and swap meet were going on.
Our second gathering was in April of 99 at the Hollister Hills S.V.R.A. In the words of the Trip Organizer, Dodger Posey: We had 11 EB's and 4 or 5 other vehicles attending! Some suprises, cool and not cool, lots of sunshine, and excellent traction made for lots to do. I shot some video, and saw some cameras In Attendance:
Dodger Posey - 77 Ranger and 3 guests, Danny Mitzel - 76 EB, Greg Garrison and guests, Brian Wickert - 70 Sport, Andrew Norton - 71 Stroppe and Tim Maguire (71 Stroppless today), Drew Clary - 73 Ragtop, Joe Junkin – 77, Jim Dickey – 70, Gary Hulme – 77, Dan Nordeen - Red EB and Greg a local w/ cool EB for sale. If I missed you, apologies in advance.
We gathered at the Obstacle Course. Had some discussion, watched some locals in fullsize trucks plow trhu the MudPit, and got antsy. Played on the FrameTwister, most attemped the Staircase, 5 or 6 made it, those first two steps are perfectly matched for our wheelbase. Wet, and it's very tough. Drew's clutch was giving him problems, Dan N's front axle was broken, Danny Mitzel's creampuff stocker made it, the built for-sale truck didn't. Seemed to be the trucks with C4s who made it.
We moved to Five Fingers Hillclimb, and assessed the hill. It's pretty intimidating, the same one that's climbed in the TTC, very long, and quite steep, and a long way down, but it's been run enough to settle out the severe whoops, and much of the silt has been washed down. So the only real tough part is the top and sharp right. It gets a few big moguls which tend to hang up open diffs...Andrew Norton and Dan N went up, Greg Garrison went up and others not in the group went up. Joe Junkin went almost all the way up and snapped his RF axle and had carb problems. It reminded me of how important a properly functioning carb is on hillclimbs. After a few attempts in 2WD to restart, he got tippy and opted to back down. I walked him down, and climbed back up to the top. (whew) The top was maxed for parking so I led us 3 back around and down to the base.
As I got out and walked around the trees, I saw Danny Mitzel at the moguls, out of alignment, tippy and apparently stalled. He had another carb burp and a lurch. More alignment problems. The Uh-Ohs started streaming from my mouth . This is where all the good things Danny Mitzel has done in his life came back to him, and saved him from Certain Death. He rolled once steeply to the right, down and across the trail, landed on his wheels while whamming the tall right side w/his RF corner, stopping his rolling over down the side of the very steep rocky hill, about about 130 yards to the bottom. Instantly, he was rolling backwards, down and left across the trail, just 20 feet to the even steeper and longer other side of the hill....With un-powered power brakes. He rolled backwards, and as everyone near me gasped and strained, his rear axle rolled over the ledge ot the trail and his diff grabbed the dirt, Just Barely enough to stop the truck a few feet from No Way Back. I cannot emphasize enough how much of a catastrophe this could have been. Drivers at the top slid down to the truck, made sure Danny was ok, and secured the truck with tire blocks. He was checked by I believe Tim Maguire, using his Paramedic skills. He was OK, shaken up, and rightfully so. Problem now was getting the truck down, so I asked a local who drives the "Black Beast", an early Blazer w/ 44's, a 7 foot lift, and 2 winches (who hangs at the park on weekends charging knuckleheads in the mud to get pulled out, but saves lives for free) if he'd help us out. He saw the action, and obliged by backing up the hill nearly to the top, winching from above to straighten the truck, and Drew Clary backed it down w/ Andrew Norton spotting.
Danny checked out the EB and drove around a bit to be sure that it could get home. I got attendance info written down, and Andrew Norton and Joe Junkin left to rocking-chair Danny home to Mtn. View (with no door glass or windshield) via the side roads. A few others decided to call it a day and the balance decided to go exploring.
We played on The Crack below Truck Climb, made for some fun straddling and crossing-up. Some of us got very tippy on 3 wheels, ahem, I was actually ready to go over one time, and got it on video!! Once again, many expressed to me how informative and helpful it is to practice on a "safe gulley" doing traverses, straddles, and X-ups. On to some other places that I forget, some mud two feet deep, some water holes, lots of rocky climbs, and ended up at the Quarry. Last were me and the three trucks that were my guests. In the middle is a tall vertical shelf, about 6 feet tall, and it was calling my name. I had only gawked at it before, never actually seeing anybody go up it... Well , I just nosed up to it, crawled the front wheels up to the top, let the rears come to the base, and just about fell over backwards it seemed!! I was well past 45 deg's...I started on the accel'r, and that baby just clawed it's way up!!! What a Buzz I had!!! In the excitement, the vid cam got turned off just as I was to take off!! It was 5pm, and it was starting to rain, which is very bad when you're on these obstacles.
Lester Foghead reporting
