Yes, Black Bear Road is dangerous

I ran across this YouTube video.  Apparently a Wrangler parked on Black Bear Road did not remain parked.  There was a passenger and a couple of dogs in it at the time.  All three were ejected from the vehicle.  It says the girl sustained serious injuries.  It says this happened on 10 Oct 2020, so about a week and a half ago.

So yes, Black Bear Road is dangerous.  I've been down it twice, and part of me would still like to do it again.  But even before hearing this story I've wondered if it's worth it.  As I've said before, Black Bear is an easy trail, so the driving challenge isn't a reason to go.  Yes it's incredibly scenic, but a lot of other roads are as well.  The big reason to do it is the adrenaline rush.  I felt that the first time I drove it, but really didn't the second when I knew what to expect (even though it was 18 years later).

Anyway, I'm not telling anyone that they should or shouldn't do Black Bear.  Just putting this out there.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL-mznHcEsU&feature=emb_logo

Yipes!  Oh, my goodness!  That's awful!  

That was three days after we rented a Jeep and went over Ophir Pass.  And, as the crow flies, that's only 4.3 miles from where we were.

The Drive says "The 22yr old male, who was the driver of the Jeep Wrangler Sport, told Deputies he had shut off the engine, applied the emergency brake and stepped out of the vehicle to help direct a driver behind him around a tight turn. The Jeep started to roll with his 23yr old female friend in the passenger seat. He tried to jump back into the vehicle to try and steer it, but he was thrown into rocks when it left the road."

The implication of "started to roll" to me is that the emergency brake came off, but is that the way you read it?  Could it mean it slid over the side?  Surely not.

So, is it that it is so steep?

I really doubt it slid over the side.  It's steep, but unless it was muddy or icy that wouldn't be a concern (and even mud I don't think would be an issue since the trail is more rock than dirt).  Plus, that would have been at least as big an issue as he was coming to a stop as it would be parked.  So if he was able to stop OK I'm sure it didn't slide off.

It could be that it's steep enough that the e.brake didn't hold well enough.  I know the e.brake on my pickup isn't strong enough to holt it on a hill as steep as Black Bear is in places.  So maybe he set the brake and didn't realize that it was starting to move as he took his foot off the brake pedal?

When I've stopped on Black Bear I've always shut off the engine and left it in low gear, low range.  With a manual trans that's the best "parking brake" you've got.  And I (usually) turn the steering so if it rolls it will roll into the wall rather than off the cliff (I say "usually" because I'm probably not as careful about this as I should be).

But it highlights what people say, one mistake can get you killed there (although no deaths in this one apparently).  So don't make that mistake!


edit to add:  It says he shut off the engine and applied the parking brake.  Was it an auto or manual?  What gear was it in?  "Park" in an auto ought to have held it, even without the parking brake.  And a low gear in a manual ought to have held it without the parking brake.  So was he in neutral?

Another possibility might be that he was a little crossed up and some tires were unweighted.  If that was the case, then the engine/trans wouldn't hold it unless it has lockers (that were engaged if they were selectables).  The fact that it says it was a Wrangler Sport (not a Rubicon) says it wouldn't have had lockers stock.  Anyway, in that scenario it would also just be the parking brake holding, at least until all 4 tires were pretty well planted.  And if that didn't happen in time as the vehicle picked up speed...

I'm thinking he didn't put it in Park and the emergency brake didn't hold.

As you said, a manual in low range and 1st gear would be very unlikely to move, especially with a 460 up front.  But I've wondered about a "line lock" that keeps the brakes engaged.  Would only work on one end or the other, and probably the best on Big Blue would be the front.  What do you think?

Anything extra will help until it doesn't.  In other words, any system can fail.  Are line locks that prone to failure?  I don't know, but in my experience 100% of them have failed (that's 1 out of 1...).  I used to have a line lock on the rear brakes of my Bronco, but it quit working one day in my driveway.  Now I have a pretty good dent in the rear bumper of my pickup (the Bronco tow point that hit it was unfazed).

So I definitely wouldn't count on a line lock as my primary line of defense, but it could be a good belt to go with a pair of suspenders.

An E-brake is, at best, a belt as well.  For me (as I said), the suspenders is the manual trans in gear with the engine off.

By the way, steering toward the wall isn't as helpful for me as it would be for Big Blue.  He likely has a steering column lock, which I don't have.  If my Bronco starts to roll the steering will tend to go back to straight (unless a tire hits a rock, and then all bets are off).  So again, in gear with the engine off.

Putting a ROCK behind a tire isn't a bad idea either, as long as it isn't no bigger'n a grapefruit (just ask C.W. McCall)

I saw that this morning also.  There is a brake lock for all 4 wheels. They use Mico locks on big work trucks and such. They have 2 wheel and 4 wheel applications.

https://www.mico.com/products/dual-cable-lock

For what it's worth, the line lock that failed on my Bronco was a Mico.  Not saying they're bad, just that I wouldn't trust them with my family's life.

Was it a mechanical or electric? I don't think I would trust the electric one either. I have not had any problems with the mechanical ones that I have dealt with.

Mechanical.

Mico is a good brand, I know that.  And again, it would be a good belt to add to the suspenders.  But they aren't infallible.

I should say that it did give me some warning.  It had a switch for a warning buzzer to signal if it was set but the pressure was low.  I had it wired to not buzz unless the key was on, and it had started buzzing when I turned the key on, so I knew it was losing pressure.  I parked the Bronco in the driveway, set the line lock and left the engine running in neutral while I got out to put a brick behind a tire.  As I picked up the brick I heard the buzzer go on and I hurried to place the brick but the Bronco was already moving.  So I let my truck stop it rather than run myself over in my own driveway (I think that would've looked bad).

At least you were not hurt! We need to design an automatic wheel chock that you hit a button and it drops behind the tire. But with my luck I would need it in front of the tire.

I read about that warning on the Mico units.  Apparently they tell you when you have enough pressure by going silent, and then warn you again later if the pressure drops.

And like Bruce said, I'm glad you weren't hurt!

The belt and braces approach is the best, as you said Bob.  And since I carry beefy wheel chocks in Big Blue's tool box I think I'll use them as the third layer if I ever get to something that steep.  Normally they are used to hold a Chevy I've winched up on the trailer while I'm cinching it down.  But they should be a nice addition for a steep trail.  Keep the engine running so the hydroboost is functioning and have your buddy get out and chock it.  Kill the engine, drop it in 1st and low range, and set the e-brake.

As for C.W. McCall, aka William Dale Fries Jr., I had to Google that.  Wikipedia says "McCall is best known for the 1976 #1 hit song "Convoy. ...... Though McCall is not a one-hit wonder, "Convoy" has since become his signature song. McCall first charted the song "Wolf Creek Pass", which reached #40 on the U.S. pop top 40 in 1975".  Didn't know that.

But what I found fascinating with respect to the present conversation was the additional statement that "In 1986, McCall was elected mayor of the town of Ouray, Colorado, ultimately serving for six years."  Small world.

However, I found nothing about "no bigger'n a grapefruit" in that article.  So I Googled a bit more and found the lyrics to Black Bear Road.  Now I fully understand, and since they are quite germane to this here conversation:

Me an' RJ an' the kids was on a camp-out in the mountains, and we had us one'a them U-Drive-'Em Army Jeep cars which we rented from a fella by the name of Kubozke for thirty bucks a day, buy your gas along the way, take a rabbit's foot and leave a pint of blood for a dee-posit

And he 'splained it all to us how we was supposed to get to Telluride, which is fifty miles away by way of the regular highway, however, there was a shortcut but unless we had drove the Black Bear Road before, we'd better be off to stay, stay in bed and sleep late. (Pay no attention to the gitar there.)

Well, we took up off'n the highway and we come upon a sign says "Black Bear Road. You don't have to be crazy to drive this road, but it helps." I says, "RJ, this must the shortcut road Kubozke was talkin' about." She didn't pay no mind, 'cause she was makin' peanut butter sandwiches for the kids in the back seat throwin' rocks and drinkin' Kool-Aid and playin' count-the-license-plates. But they wasn't havin' too much fun a-countin' license plate or cars, 'cause there weren't no other cars

We went about a mile-and-a-half in about four hours, busted off the right front fender, tore a hole in the oil pan on a rock as big as a hall closet. Went over a bump and spilt the Kool-Aid and Roy Gene stuck his bolo knife right through the convertible top and the dog threw up all over the back seat. Peanut butter don't agree with him, you see

So we had to stop and take off the top and air everything out and clean it up. The dog run off and RJ says she felt her asthma comin' on. I was sittin' there wonderin' what to do when the en-tire scenic San Joo-wan U-Drive-'Em Army Jeep car sank in the mud. At thirteen thousand feet above sea level

Well, we shoveled it out and ate our lunch, the dog made a yellow hole in the snow and Roy Gene got out his Instamatic and took a snapshot of it. Mary Elizabeth drawed a picture of the road; it looked like a whole bunch a' Zs and Ws all strung together. And RJ took one look at it and said that the only way that Jeep car is goin' down that road is over her dead body. Then a rock slipped out from under the wheel and the U-Drive-'Em Army Jeep car went right over the edge of the cliff. Yahoo-oo-oo-oo!

"Doggone-it, Roy Gene! How many times do I have to 'splain it to you? When I tell you to put a rock under the wheel, I mean rock! Now look at that, what you have there is no bigger'n a grapefruit."

If you want to go down a Google / YouTube rabbit hole, look up Old Home Bread commercials (I'll start your search here).  Back in the '70s or so Old Home came to an advertising agency to come up with a TV ad campaign.  The agency created commercials where a truck driver named C.W. McCall delivered bread to the Old Home Fill 'er Up and Keep On Truckin' Cafe where he was sweet on the waitress, named Mavis.  The commercials were so popular that the jingle from the ad was extended into a song, and eventually into several albums.  And no, the actor in the ads isn't Bill Fries.  When the music career took off they went with the guy with the voice rather than the actor.

Anyway, C.W. McCall rode that wave for a while, but eventually all good things come to an end.  At that point Chip Davis, who had been in the ad agency with Fries and (I think) wrote the music for C.W. McCall, thought that writing and performing music was a pretty good gig, and wasn't too keen on going back to advertising.  But Country & Western was never his jam, so he decide to take it in a different direction and went with the name Mannheim Steamroller.  So yes, C.W. McCall and Mannheim Steamroller are musically the same band!

As to C.W.McCall doing the Black Bear Road "song" (more of a Country-rap, or C-rap as I like to call it), I guess Fries had connections there from before his C.W. McCall days (maybe was from the area? or had just vacationed there and really liked it?).  Anyway, he wrote the words to that song (and by the way, Kuboski did run a Jeep rental company in Ouray for a long time) and a few others inspired by the area (the Silverton, Telluride Breakdown as well as a bunch of more general Colorado songs).


I guess this really has to qualify as a hijack.  But hey, it's my thread, so who's going to complain!

That's bizarre!  I missed this in the Wikipedia writeup: "Fries wrote the lyrics and sang while Chip Davis, later of Mannheim Steamroller, wrote the music."  I never would have guessed.

And that video is cool!  I'd never seen it.  Guess the Metz Baking Company didn't sell in the Kansas/Oklahoma area so didn't run the ads there.

I was sure that the rental had to have been from Ouray given the "50 miles to Telluride" line.  However, that's by paved road, and Last Dollar Road cuts many of those miles off.  

Ok, sorry for the hijack.  (Not really.)

Well, that was cool! Thanks for that!

I first read the C.W. McCall story on the jacket of the first Mannheim Steamroller album I bought back in the '80s.  Like all boys in the '70s who liked trucks, I was already a C.W. McCall fan so it stuck with me.

And in a happy coincidence...  Years ago I put all of my music onto my computer and burned a series of MP3 disks that will play in the CD player in my truck.  That way I only have to change CDs about every 10 hours of driving.  I have 7 CDs that I cycle through.  This morning the first songs that came on were Convoy, followed by Wolf Creek Pass, Old Home Fill 'er Up and Keep On a Truckin' Cafe and Black Bear Road!

I love happy coincidinks.  I'll bet you were smiling the whole way!  

For what it's worth, on another forum someone who knew someone who knew someone said that they heard that the driver left the vehicle with the engine running, manual trans in neutral.  I think my source is pretty reliable, and the chain seemed relatively reliable.  But he summarized it the same way I would; "We will likely never know what the real truth is but we can all learn from it."  (Even CW McCall would agree!)

Yes, I agree - we can, and should, all learn from it.  You need belts and braces!

And bigger rocks!

This video showed up on Facebook, looks to be the same footage but un-cropped. The added context helps in my opinion:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR2JMcxIQghVg6u0NtUhSj11J9s7cFI5gIEwHA9HN7KSFtW8xn2CDxH62Cg&v=2R5cLghSWGQ

I have heard about line locks not being an acceptable parking brake alternative in states that require vehicle safety inspections. There are many discussions around this in connection with rear disc brake conversion kits and the need for an alternative parking brake.

There is a line lock installed on my F-Superduty because the Cummins swap/Getrag 360 eliminated the Ford driveline brake. I feel comfortable enough with it on relatively flat ground where I will be using it (mostly to leave it running while I open and close our gate) but I wouldn’t care to use this on a backcountry vehicle. I like the driveline brake idea, but unfortunately there isn’t anything that will work with a GearVendors OD that I will have in my crew cab. I guess I will be stuck shutting the engine off and leaving it in gear since the Sterling parking brake is marginal at best.

This brings up another question... it was mentioned here that leaving a manual in gear is more effective in low range? Wouldn’t that ratio make it easier for the kinetic vehicle energy to overcome the engine’s compression and allow it to creep? Intuitively I would pick the highest gear to hold it instead of the lowest. What am I missing?