- First Name
- Caleb
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2021
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- 62
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- 1,558
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- Location
- Sacramento
- Vehicle(s)
- 2021 Bronco/1996 Jeep XJ/1957 FC-150
- Your Bronco Model
- Big Bend
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- #1
On August 28th, TrailView Expeditions (My LLC), along with my friend Mitch from Silverstate Off-Road in Reno Nv, put together the first ever, Bron'Con event! Born from my roots working as a Trail Guide for Jeep Jamboree, I have long wanted to do a Jamboree-style event for Bronco's on the Rubicon. The goal for this event is to become an annual thing and to raise money for the Rubicon Trail or other off-road related causes. This year, all proceeds went toward the Rubicon Trail Foundation and thanks to generous donors and raffle partners, we raised $1,700 this year!
This being the first year, I purposely kept it as small as possible and treated this event as the "trial" year. In total, we had 16 Bronco's register as well as 6 volunteers making it a total of 22 Bronco's in the group. We learned a lot this trip and had a blast, I want to personally thank all the raffle donors especially 74weld, Meraki Hammocks, Mohave Custom Design, ECGS, Silverstate Off-Road, Rough Country and Morrflate!
I also want to thank each volunteer guide/mechanic/media folk that showed up and made this event possible.
We had a wide range of Bronco's from stock 2 dr Sasquatch to @SierraBronco's mullet Bronco and a APG Braptor with a Godzilla Motor. Each driver killed it out there, it was truly awesome to see people go from a steep learning curve rock crawling on Day 1 to zooming through Cadillac Hill like it was nothing on Day 4. I get a bit of a high from taking folks new to rock crawling out and showing them the beauty of the High Sierra NorCal rocks that places like the Rubicon have to offer.
During the trip we experienced rain, traffic, 2 damaged 3.0 steering racks, 1 leaky portal, 1 damaged headlight, a few rocker panel crunches from inadequate slider protection where the slider failed to do its job and an assortment of the usual electrical Ford gremlins easily sorted by a turn off and back on. Every Bronco drove home and we know have the knowledge to come back and make this event even cooler next year with more space!
Huge shoutout to my mechanic @Snacktime for basically doing everything as well as a massive shoutout to @SierraBronco for stepping in and basically turning himself into a volunteer even though he paid the registration. I couldn't look away for more then a minute and he would be under a bronco or spotting a bronco somewhere.
.
.
Day 1:
Begin the trail at 8am with a light drizzle, that drizzle remained off and on for several hours as the group pondered through the Gatekeeper and into the slabs. With most of the group being fairly new to rock crawling as well as the Rubicon, this was an awakening to how tough the trail could be. The rain and slick granite did no favors as people begin to find their "rubicon shoes". Day 1 took the longest and the last Bronco's didn't arrive into Camp at Buck Island until late in the evening. This day, we also learned the most and took the most lessons from for next year.
We all fell asleep to the sound of drunk buggies rolling through Buck all hours of the night, revving, screaming and blaring music up till 4am all. night. long. Note to self, don't plan the Bron'Con during a Buggy event next year haha.
.
.
Day 2:
After a fitful night of sleep, we woke up to a beautiful lake morning, made coffee and enjoyed a delayed, 10am start to the day. Today's goal: Rubicon Springs!
We split up a little more staggered into smaller groups today with the guides spread around a bit more. This seemed to result in smoother flow and less traffic for other users of the trail. Ironically, I had posted on all social platforms that we would be on the trail with a large group this weekend, additionally I had put it on the trail calendar as well. It would seem everyone saw those posts and decided to also come as the trail was extremely busy with traffic in both directions all day long.
Even so, leading the first group, we got down into the springs with a couple of hours. Honestly, the obstacles coming out of Buck are the worst sections of the day, we had a few close calls as people got back into their wheeling shoes and then everyone was mostly smooth sailing down Big Sluice into the Rubicon Springs. If you know the Bronco line, none of these obstacles present much of an issue, if you don't know the Bronco line.... well, its sketch.
After making it into Rubicon Springs, we had half a day to relax, assess damage and settle in. We had reserved the VIP area at the springs with grass, a campfire, river access and bathrooms! It really is an off-road resort in the Rubicon! The Springs are privately owned but anyone can use or reserve different dispersed camping area for $25/night.
.
Day 3:
We spent the day relaxing all day at the Springs, some folks went hiking, others swam, some just chilled... I'm pretty sure @SierraBronco spent most of the day under APG's Bronco diagnosing a steering rack. Fun fact, its impossible to remove a steering rack from an APG, Godzilla swapped Raptor without taking the entire front end apart and lifting the motor and removing coolant lines... No thanks.
We also did quite the fundraising raffle on Day 3! Meraki Hammock, 74Weld, ECGS, Rough Country, Mohave Custom, Morrflate and so many more donated to the raffle to help raise funds. Almost everyone won something. It was honestly super cool seeing the interest in this event and actually having to say no to companies that wanted to be involved to keep it manageable for the first learning event.
A few folks left in the afternoon and made it out themselves through Cadillac Hill. The rest of us enjoyed relaxing in paradise for one more night.
.
.
Day 4:
We woke up to see that we had been partially raided by a bear that enjoyed @SierraBronco's brownies. After collecting our scattered goods, we packed up camp and left at a cool 10am. This time, we had learned from our lesson at Gatekeeper and had the group seperated into 3 groups. Each group had a guide in the front and back. We left staggered from each other and all groups were at the top of Cadillac Hill in no time. At the top, another steering rack went out so again, we discovered @SierraBronco in his favorite position... on his back in the dirt staring at steering racks. With the rack replaced in about an hour, we pushed out and I made sure to get stuck on the very last obstacle as is my tradition so far on the Rubicon.. 3x all the way through and 3x stuck in the same spot... literally the last obstacle haha.
.
.
This was just a quick summary but it was seriously such a cool event, we will be taking lessons learned and making this a much cooler, much more official event for next year... stay tuned!
.
.
This being the first year, I purposely kept it as small as possible and treated this event as the "trial" year. In total, we had 16 Bronco's register as well as 6 volunteers making it a total of 22 Bronco's in the group. We learned a lot this trip and had a blast, I want to personally thank all the raffle donors especially 74weld, Meraki Hammocks, Mohave Custom Design, ECGS, Silverstate Off-Road, Rough Country and Morrflate!
I also want to thank each volunteer guide/mechanic/media folk that showed up and made this event possible.
We had a wide range of Bronco's from stock 2 dr Sasquatch to @SierraBronco's mullet Bronco and a APG Braptor with a Godzilla Motor. Each driver killed it out there, it was truly awesome to see people go from a steep learning curve rock crawling on Day 1 to zooming through Cadillac Hill like it was nothing on Day 4. I get a bit of a high from taking folks new to rock crawling out and showing them the beauty of the High Sierra NorCal rocks that places like the Rubicon have to offer.
During the trip we experienced rain, traffic, 2 damaged 3.0 steering racks, 1 leaky portal, 1 damaged headlight, a few rocker panel crunches from inadequate slider protection where the slider failed to do its job and an assortment of the usual electrical Ford gremlins easily sorted by a turn off and back on. Every Bronco drove home and we know have the knowledge to come back and make this event even cooler next year with more space!
Huge shoutout to my mechanic @Snacktime for basically doing everything as well as a massive shoutout to @SierraBronco for stepping in and basically turning himself into a volunteer even though he paid the registration. I couldn't look away for more then a minute and he would be under a bronco or spotting a bronco somewhere.
Day 1:
Begin the trail at 8am with a light drizzle, that drizzle remained off and on for several hours as the group pondered through the Gatekeeper and into the slabs. With most of the group being fairly new to rock crawling as well as the Rubicon, this was an awakening to how tough the trail could be. The rain and slick granite did no favors as people begin to find their "rubicon shoes". Day 1 took the longest and the last Bronco's didn't arrive into Camp at Buck Island until late in the evening. This day, we also learned the most and took the most lessons from for next year.
We all fell asleep to the sound of drunk buggies rolling through Buck all hours of the night, revving, screaming and blaring music up till 4am all. night. long. Note to self, don't plan the Bron'Con during a Buggy event next year haha.
Day 2:
After a fitful night of sleep, we woke up to a beautiful lake morning, made coffee and enjoyed a delayed, 10am start to the day. Today's goal: Rubicon Springs!
We split up a little more staggered into smaller groups today with the guides spread around a bit more. This seemed to result in smoother flow and less traffic for other users of the trail. Ironically, I had posted on all social platforms that we would be on the trail with a large group this weekend, additionally I had put it on the trail calendar as well. It would seem everyone saw those posts and decided to also come as the trail was extremely busy with traffic in both directions all day long.
Even so, leading the first group, we got down into the springs with a couple of hours. Honestly, the obstacles coming out of Buck are the worst sections of the day, we had a few close calls as people got back into their wheeling shoes and then everyone was mostly smooth sailing down Big Sluice into the Rubicon Springs. If you know the Bronco line, none of these obstacles present much of an issue, if you don't know the Bronco line.... well, its sketch.
After making it into Rubicon Springs, we had half a day to relax, assess damage and settle in. We had reserved the VIP area at the springs with grass, a campfire, river access and bathrooms! It really is an off-road resort in the Rubicon! The Springs are privately owned but anyone can use or reserve different dispersed camping area for $25/night.
Day 3:
We spent the day relaxing all day at the Springs, some folks went hiking, others swam, some just chilled... I'm pretty sure @SierraBronco spent most of the day under APG's Bronco diagnosing a steering rack. Fun fact, its impossible to remove a steering rack from an APG, Godzilla swapped Raptor without taking the entire front end apart and lifting the motor and removing coolant lines... No thanks.
We also did quite the fundraising raffle on Day 3! Meraki Hammock, 74Weld, ECGS, Rough Country, Mohave Custom, Morrflate and so many more donated to the raffle to help raise funds. Almost everyone won something. It was honestly super cool seeing the interest in this event and actually having to say no to companies that wanted to be involved to keep it manageable for the first learning event.
A few folks left in the afternoon and made it out themselves through Cadillac Hill. The rest of us enjoyed relaxing in paradise for one more night.
Day 4:
We woke up to see that we had been partially raided by a bear that enjoyed @SierraBronco's brownies. After collecting our scattered goods, we packed up camp and left at a cool 10am. This time, we had learned from our lesson at Gatekeeper and had the group seperated into 3 groups. Each group had a guide in the front and back. We left staggered from each other and all groups were at the top of Cadillac Hill in no time. At the top, another steering rack went out so again, we discovered @SierraBronco in his favorite position... on his back in the dirt staring at steering racks. With the rack replaced in about an hour, we pushed out and I made sure to get stuck on the very last obstacle as is my tradition so far on the Rubicon.. 3x all the way through and 3x stuck in the same spot... literally the last obstacle haha.
This was just a quick summary but it was seriously such a cool event, we will be taking lessons learned and making this a much cooler, much more official event for next year... stay tuned!
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