As I watched the video of the Ford Bronco coming down Lionsback without power and minimal brakes, it reminded me of a time in So. California when my fiberglass dune buggy went down a steep mountainside, fortunately without me.
I also read in another thread about Glacier Ridge and someone wondering about how a rig ended up way down a steep mountainside.
I grew up in Southern California and had a rock crawling fiberglass VW dune buggy that had a low gear and big engine and was excellent offroad. Anyway, I decided to ditch a day of college and headed for Saddleback. About 7 miles back on a trial, the little metal plate that folds over the pin to hold in the break pedal broke and I was without brakes on a steep twisting downhill road. I ran it into the side of the hill and managed to stop. As I got out of the vehicle, it took off again and proceeded to go over the edge of a steep bank.
It went about 50 feet before coming to a stop in some thick chapparal brush. Good thing, because it was another 1,500 feet to the bottom of the canyon and I would have had to write it off.
I walked to the main road, called a cousin with a 4WD with a winch and we rescued the vehicle. I repaired it enough to get home and from them on, I didn't wheel alone and I didn't ditch any more days of college.
Seeing the Lionback video and reading about the lost truck on Glacier Ridge brought back some memories.
Another place we had a near miss 20 years ago was on the backside of Anza Borrego and Coyota Canyon. There is a steep one-way 4WD road on the back of that canyon that has a high pucker factor.
