Fawl
Crawl 2003Fawl
Crawl 2003 
by
Karl Bradley, Fawl Crawl Chairman, Mid-Atlantic Early Broncos
and Drew Peroni, President, Mid-Atlantic Early Broncos, Middle Atlantic Four
Wheel Drive Association
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his stretched '68 on 42s up Slickrock. |
On Thursday, October 23rd 2003, Bronco enthusiasts from across the United States began to converge on Murphy, North Carolina. Murphy is one of those out of the way places that at first glance looks as if you can’t get there from here! Why Murphy? For the 5th Annual Fawl Crawl at Tellico, of course! Mid-Atlantic Early Broncos once again hosted this event. Base camp and trail ride staging were set up at Crawford's Camp (www.crawfordsattellico.com). This was the second year for the theme "Wheeling for a cause" with donations being taken for Southern Four Wheel Drive Association (www.sfwda.org). SFWDA and their members are one of the driving forces that keep Tellico open for all of us to enjoy. SFWDA members spend thousands of hours each year performing trail maintenance at Tellico.
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Assn President, Drew Peroni, on the approach to Slickrock |
Thursday:
Several participants and event staff were fortunate enough to get an extra
day off work and pre-ran some trails Thursday. Slickrock was the main destination
as several members of the group had a bit of a score to settle with this obstacle
after last year! Highlights included Ken Messer's right-footed attack right
up the middle of the lower section. Spectators wondered if Ken had been taking
lessons from the infamous Toby Till who trademarked full throttle Early Bronco
assaults at Tellico.
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Lee
Novikoff brought his custom tube, coilover bronco all the way from |
Drew Peroni managed to make it up Slickrock this year with the rubber side down, although we did notice his father Don was quick to volunteer to get out to take photos of Drew's grudge match with one of Tellico's finest! Thursday was a great day on the trail with lots of ground covered by those who were able to make it to the event early.
When the pre-run group arrived back at Crawford's they were meet by many friends, old and new, who were setting up camp and chomping at the bit to get to the trails the next morning. Thursday evening was spent settling in and talking Broncos and sharing stories from the trails around the campfires. It was great to see familiar faces, and exciting as always to meet the new attendees. There were enthusiasts from Pennsylvania to Florida and as far west as St. Louis, Missouri. Two special long-haul guests, Lee Novikoff and Greg Sutherland from the Lonestar Early Bronco Club (www.lonestar-ebc.com), made a twenty hour journey from San Antonio, Texas to take part in the fun. Many Fawl Crawl participants knew these two Texans from the various Early Bronco email lists, and were honored to get to meet them for the first time and show them some of the east coast’s premiere wheeling.
Friday:
During the Friday morning drivers’ meeting at Crawford's Camp the St. Louis Crew rolled in. They joined trail groups and headed out after driving most of the night. Matt Schmittgens gets the "easy rider" award after driving from St. Louis with no top in October! Kurt Fieler led the moderate group up to watch the guys play on the rocks on Lower 2. From there Kurt's group ran Trails 6 and 4. They had a very smooth run with few problems. All problems encountered were fixed on the trail in true Bronco fashion. The hardcore groups headed to Lower 2 for a run at what most consider the toughest trail in Tellico ORVA. Mother Nature had been kind to the park that week and Trail 2 was as dry as the participants could ever remember seeing it. The dry rocks provided some unexpected traction and many Broncos made the entire section without winching. The usual scratched/dented sheet metal was present along with a few broken and bent parts.
After finishing Lower 2, the hardcore group enjoyed a lunch break. It is always a treat to eat instead of fixing broken Broncos. Several other Broncos showed up to watch the fun on Lower 2 in addition to those who left from Crawford’s. Most of the Lower 2 group headed for Upper 2 after lunch while others chose to run different trails in smaller groups. The only real challenge on Upper 2 is the "ledge" roughly half way up the trail, and it was easily handled with the dry conditions. Only minor body damage resulted for some bedsides unlucky enough to be angled downhill into the rock and bank.
The groups made it back to camp after a day of running Tellico with a few damage reports consisting of the usual broken u-joints, driveshafts, etc. Friday evening was filled with exchanges of Bronco trail ride stories. It was especially interesting to compare stories of western wheeling with that of the southeast.
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Saturday:
After the morning drivers’ meeting, the hardcore groups headed to Slickrock (Trail 9), and Schoolbus (Trail 12). The moderate groups tackled Trails 4, 5, 6 and 8. A large group, which joined those from Crawford’s at the pay-window/unload area, took a whirlwind tour of many trails on Saturday seeing parts of each.
Thanks to SFWDA, for partially filling in the wash out on Trail 8 leading to Trail 9. As a result, no pulling on roll cages or rock stacking was needed for those wishing to keep the sides of their Broncos in one piece. The first couple of Broncos who made it up the face of Slickrock stirred up the mud at the bottom of the ledge a bit. Lee from Texas made the next attempt at the obstacle in his very sweet custom Bronco. The coilovers and link geometry allowed Lee to hit the bottom ledge on Slickrock numerous times with a lot of rpm and remain stable. The 40" MTRs were screaming from the 351 Windsor's encouragement to find traction in all the mud. After making it through the mud, up the first ledge, and onto the face of Slickrock, his rig walked it with no problem. He truly put on a show that would make any throttle jockey proud. The churned up approach at the bottom ledge on Slickrock gave most drivers an opportunity to blow out any carbon in their motors and provided some excellent video opportunities.
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MEB’s
Events Director, Mike Ingram, works his way up and |
Part of the hardcore group headed back to Crawford's after Slickrock and several drivers in the moderate group who had come around Trail 8 followed. A few from each group stayed behind for an attempt on Peckerwood, the ledge on Trail 7. The Peckerwood group was quite surprised at how far a root can press in the sidewall of a TSL on beadlocks without losing the inside bead. The entire group made it up and then headed back to Crawford's.
The trail groups returned to Crawford's with many great stories and mostly only minor damage from the weekend's trail rides, except for Keith Forrest whose rig was not so fortunate – on the access road no less! Many of us felt your pain Keith, and we hope to see his Bionic Bronco at next year's event – rebuilt bigger, better, stronger!
Steve Crawford and crew put together one heck of a feast for the entire trail weary Bronco bunch. We all enjoyed the BBQ, slaw, potato salad, chili, beans and homemade desserts (especially the brownies and peach cobbler!), true Southern Hospitality! After Dinner, MEB’s President, Drew Peroni thanked all the Bronco enthusiasts who attended and expressed our appreciation to Mr. Crawford for having us and putting together a great meal. Brian Keeler, Treasurer, commended the group for raising $600 which was donated to Southern Four Wheel Drive Association for trail maintenance projects at Tellico.
About the time the majority of attendees had their rigs loaded on Sunday morning, the skies opened up – how nice to have rain after an event for a change. The MEB Event Staff would like to thank all that were able to attend, and encourages fellow enthusiasts who are interested in our future events to check us out at www.earlybroncos.com. We hope to see you at the 6th Annual East Coast Bronco Roundup at Paragon (Hazleton, PA), June 25-26, 2004, and again at Tellico for the 6th Annual Fawl Crawl to be held in October 2004.
Until then, happy trails!
(reprinted by permission of Bronco Driver magazine, www.broncodriver.com)
