On July 27, 2024, the 2nd Annual Bronco Sport Meet Up Michigan happened in Allegan, a small town outside of Kalamazoo. With perfect weather, the Sports started arriving to the Biggby Coffee shop to complete registration, sign waivers, and get their complimentary coffee.
Special thanks to Biggby for allowing us to take over their parking lot for over an hour while we took care of all the logistics and the guests got to know each other or reconnect.
We held our driver’s meeting at 8:45am and let everyone know what to expect for the day, answered any questions, and loaded up. We left promptly at 9:00am with myself in the lead cyber orange Sport that we rented from a Ford engineer named Chelsea.
She happens to own two Sports and was in attendance in her other Sport. My co-driver for the day, local guide and historian Mike Heckman, aka (Slashracer) really helped us put together a fun day. Brian chose to hop in with Haley, a brand manager with Ford on the Bronco Sport team, who had arrived with her new Black Diamond Sport.
We did have a couple of large Bronco Sports show up, one with locals Brian and Kristy Mead and another with Aly DuBois, so we put them at the end of the line. We were skeptical as they seemed to be Broncos, not Sports, but Mya, the official doggo of Bronco Nation, told us that for that day, they were definitely Bronco Sports.
Who can argue with Mya?
We took a historic and scenic drive around the town, crossing the 100-year-old plus bridge, and down to the fairgrounds. Mike got permission for us to walk through the Pioneer Village. The buildings in this area were relocated from areas around Allegan and were all historic in nature, from wooden cabins, to churches, and a blacksmith shop.
Mike knew quite a bit about the buildings, and we spent a few minutes walking around and taking photos. After about a half hour, we loaded up and began the drive to our first trail segment of the day, with a brief stop to see General Prichard’s house, a general during the Civil War.
These are mostly seasonal roads and rarely traveled, which worked well for our fourteen vehicles. Mike, Brian, and I had pre-run the trail the day before to assess the trail conditions. We did have some limbs down and Mike even found a “reason” to break out his chainsaw. So, the roads were in great condition.
We had a wide range of off-roading experience so took a few minutes to discuss the differences between the Badlands Bronco Sport and some of the other trims. We also talked about the G.O.A.T modes and how they change the software to adjust the shifting patterns, throttle response, and steering as well as the RDU in the Badlands and considerations for when you would use it.
We made our way to an area that Mike calls the Tubes. There is a large sand area and plenty of parking, so we decided that we would have a brief hike, lunch, and a recovery class here.
We started eating our box lunches that were picked up earlier from a spot called Mug Shots and handed out bottled water as well as some cookies that we had stashed away in the Sport. A couple of Sports found their way into the sand, and we expected that someone would get buried and become our volunteer for the recovery class. Surprisingly, no one got stuck and made for a lively show.
We got everyone settled down a bit, finished our lunches, and then went on a walk to see the Tubes. They were built in the stream to allow for the fish to be able to migrate and there were a few fishermen there when we got there. This was a brief hike but a nice opportunity to stretch our legs for a bit before returning to our rigs.
Haley, a new brand manager from Ford, had brought a box of swag to give out and we decided that participation in our recovery class would be a great opportunity to pass out Bronco bottle openers and Bronco journals.
Something every Bronco Sport owner knows is where the built-in bottle opener is located. So, our first question was for Haley, to see if she knew where t bottle opener was. Luckily, she had plenty of helpful hints and figured it out with lots of laughs out with lots of laughs and some great input from a few experts in the group on recovery techniques and best practices. It was a great class with lots of sharing and questions.
We then wrapped everything up and got back on the trail, working our way through some mud as well as some rutted areas on the trail. Everyone navigated the route well and we enjoyed the narrow, tree-lined roads. We took a route down to the river and filled in the small turnaround area for our afternoon break. Everyone jumped out to continue the conversations while Mya took a swim. This area was absolutely beautiful and we stayed here for about half an hour before working our way back out. We discovered a side route that had a bit of off-camber hill climb and everyone enjoyed the climb.
Just after 3pm, we made it to the end of our route and checked in to see who wanted to join us at Tilt for appetizers. Almost everyone was in so we said “goodbye” to the couple who needed to head out and we drove back to Allegan.
We filled up the parking lot and then filled up Tilt, grabbing appetizers and telling trail stories. We had a wonderful end to a wonderful trail day. We plan on visiting Michigan next year with another Bronco Sport Meet up. Thanks to everyone who came out, please feel free to share comments or photos of your day in the comments.
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