I was chatting with Jared, Chris and Paul and others about a potential Baja Mexico trip in April 2024 during the DRIP @ East Brothers Brewing today. There’s an interest to do an over-landing trip to Baja Mexico in 2025.
Leave the Bay Area Saturday, camp on the US border side for the night, drive across the border to Mexico Sunday, and spend the next 5 days in Baja, drive back Sat and make our way to the US border Sunday.
You will need a US Passport to get back, and a spirit of adventure during the trip. What do you think? Interested? Any questions!
Great seeing Paul, Chris,Jared, Don, Colin and others…I like my English Pale Ale with the Cambodian stuff chicken wings! Thanks Paul for posting! Had a great time!
Bumping this up in the activity stream. It is happening day after tomorrow. There will be great beer and t-shirts. T-shirts are free for NCLR club members!
Some members showing off their winnings and appreciation for the club sponsors! Thank you Bearmach, Benefits Experts, East Brother Beer Co, and Colby Valve!!
I took the family on a 3 week trip this summer thru 7 states and 13 national parks. We were going to thru Moab and over the Imogene pass. I wanted to add rock sliders but couldn't find anything commercially available so I made a set. I think they came out pretty nice. I've jacked up the truck using the sliders and they are plenty strong enough. They came in handy a couple times in Moab.
I also changed out the 22" wheels for 20s and put on 275/55 Nitto Ridge Graplers. They worked really well aired down and were also very quite on the road. Here's a few pictures.
If anyone wants more info on the sliders, I'm happy to share.
Meant to post this up last week - better late than never I suppose. It's another in my ongoing series of Rover adventure novels. As usual, I missed a great deal of what happened behind me on the trail and I'm sure I got some of the details wrong but it should at least give you some flavor of the event and hopefully inspire you to get your own truck ready for 2021!
OK, pretty sure everybody is back home in more or less one piece. Big turn-out; I think we had 21 trucks at final count but it was hard to keep track. Crazy heat even up in the mountains; I don't think it dropped much below 70 even overnight. Several people I spoke with said they were running hotter than they normally see which isn't surprising.
I ran up early Thursday and got about 15 minutes up Ice House Rd before my new fan died and I overheated. I handed off the new NCLR pop-up to Gabe who delivered it on to Loon Lake and I headed back home to scrounge up another fan and this time I ditched my 2-speed fan relay on the theory it was trying to run both low and high speed at the same time which was burning the motor out. Of course that fan draws too much power to run on a standard relay so I had to dig around until I found something local that could run it then set everything up for manual control. While I was at it I also wired my stock air con aux fans for manual control 'just in case'. I ended up finishing around 11:30pm so I crashed for a few hours then headed up to Loon at 4:30am and made it up there at 7 with no problems to meet up with everybody who had arrived the day before. I then headed down the trail about 8:30(ish) with Mathias (109) and Connal (P38) as the early scouting group to secure our site at Winter Camp just below Little Sluice.
With just the three of us and each having prior Rubicon experience we moved quickly and arrived in about 2 hrs. We did have to stop and play on Soup Bowl as it's such an iconic obstacle. Both Mathias and I got over it. I took a little work for me but he did it fairly easily. For some reason Connal didn't feel the need to try it with his P38. Maybe because his truck isn’t as built as ours, or maybe he just doesn’t feel the need to prove anything. I’ll go with the former as a bolster to my own ego.
Once we'd set up our tents to lay claim to the Winter Camp area we walked the short way up to Little Sluice to check conditions and play spectator for anybody coming through. Only one area looked especially challenging but given the nature of the sluice we all know it changes with every truck that goes through. As it was still fairly early in the day we didn't have a lot of traffic to watch (heckle) but did talk with a few people who gave it a try. After an hour or so we decided to drive back up to Soup Bowl to await the arrival of our next group led by Mike in his D90. We had been listening to the radio chatter and knew they were working their way up Walker Hill so would be getting close. In the meantime we watched 2 large Jeeps on 40"+ tires take on the challenge. Being both taller and longer than either of us they used a different line. The first one cleared it easily while the second Jeep needed a few tries before getting over. Soup Bowl is a classic crawling obstacle where getting exactly the right tire placement is the difference between making it and not - speed and throttle won't do you much good here and are more likely to just end up with broken parts or a roll. We did see a few people get close to flopping that day but nobody actually went over.
Mike's group arrived and watched the fun for a while before heading on down to set up camp themselves. For some reason I was unable to convince any of them to try it for themselves. They were too smart to fall for my weak ploys. We knew it would be a while before the next batch came up so we also retired to camp though we could come back up later as more Rovers came through. The idea to make our first day shorter and stop at Winter Camp instead of our usual run to Buck Island Lake paid off well as we had people arriving well into the late morning and I don’t believe Eric’s last group got started until after 1pm. We ended up running 5 groups that day though the last two caught up with each other and merged into one large group. They were also later caught by a late arriving but fast moving Danny in his D90/buggy hybrid. They were also slowed somewhat when Zach’s Cummins 4BT powered Siii had a fuel filter sprung a leak (JB Weld for the win here) then later he needed to make a quick fuel pump repair as well but as a diesel mechanic these were but minor setbacks.
As group 3 arrived to camp the full heat of the day had settled in so several of us made the short walk up to Spider Lake for a little play in the water. Normally I don’t swim in the lakes but this time I was really wishing I’d brought trunks as the water was super inviting. Usually it’s pretty cold but today it was only cool and felt sooooo gooood after being in 90* heat. I’ve mentioned we happened be running this trip during a record heat wave, right? Sacramento was clocking 110* this weekend. South Lake Tahoe was over 90*. Even at night on the trail I don’t think it dropped much below 70. I’d say it was a good 15* hotter than what I usually experience on the trail.
After the water therapy it was back to camp and then back to Soup Bowl as Eric’s final group arrived. Over the radio we had been hearing sporadic updates and knew they’d had some issues – seems one D2 had already gotten tired and decided to take a trail nap somewhere in the granite bowl. Joe from BlackListed Engineering in SoCal had taken a bad line and was doing an Austin Powers 72-point turn to get back to where he wanted to go and accidentally backed his passenger rear over a ledge. It was apparently a very slow flop and he had time to discuss it with his wife as they went over, however it did result in a fair bit of body damage and the loss of the rear window. I also understand his dog was very confused by the whole thing but did eventually consent to get back into the truck after they got him right side up again.
Just before Eric arrived I was joking with some of the guys that I may not have been able to get anybody else to try Soup Bowl yet but I knew I could goad Eric into breaking his junk on it by telling him that 2 of us had already made it over and he had to uphold the D2 reputation. And sure enough, he stepped up and gave it a try. Unfortunately, my joke turned to reality when his passenger rear axle snapped. This was actually something of a surprise as he wasn’t pushing too hard or bouncing or any of the other obvious driver induced errors that snap axles – he was pretty much doing it the way you’re supposed to but the weight of the truck and the grip level proved too much. We had to winch him backward off the obstacle and he was then able to drive the short distance on to camp to make repairs.
One last man remained who wanted his bowl of soup – Danny in his, uh, well, it’s sorta a D90. Last year he flopped trying it and he wanted another go as he had completely redesigned the entire back half of the truck over the winter with custom … everything. It’s really more a D90 front end and a tube buggy rear at this point. He did give it a go, but a torn rear locker air line meant once again it wasn’t going to be his day.
Everybody adjourned to camp at this point and we began the process of making repairs. Eric’s axle came out only to find what was expected to be a fairly simple repair turned out to be much more involved. The axle had broken, yes, but in the process it tore up the input splines and carrier of the locker and it’s bearing on that side. Luckily Miles had brought a complete 3rd member with him, though it was stock gearing. With a lot of help from Tyler (who won the award for most mechanically helpful of the trip – much thanks to him!) we swapped Eric’s ring gear onto Miles’ carrier, reset the lash by feel, and put it all back together with a stock axle shaft. Eric may not have been able to take the crazy lines after that but he made it the rest of the way though.
While this was going on Danny got a little throttle happy just feet from camp and ripped his hydro-assist ram off the steering link resulting in no steering at all. At least he had the good manners to do it very close to camp and Lutz happened to run the same Gwyn Lewis ram assist so he had some of the fittings needed to remove the ram and loop the hydraulic lines back so Danny could at least have his normal steering back. I also had an extra air line union that fit his rear locker so we were able to sort that easily enough as well.
And concurrent to all this Joe was wandering around looking for a large piece of cardboard to replace his now missing rear window. I happened to remember seeing something on the side of the trail earlier so we went for a hike and about 30 minutes later found a good size piece of plywood that we drug back to camp where he got to practice his carpentry skills fitting it to the less than straight truck. Not perfect but at least his dog wouldn’t fall out so good enough!
With fire restrictions in place we didn’t have the usual large group campfire that night but we did gather around and break into the kegs from East Brother Brewing. We need to thank not only Paul for providing the beer but Andrew for carrying the ice and Eric for the jockey box to put that ice in! I may have cracked open a bottle of Old Elk as well that night but honestly I was so exhausted from the heat and not drinking enough water that day I turned in pretty early. However it wasn’t too long after nightfall when the traditional Little Sluice activities commenced. The crazier types like to crank up the disco lights and stereos and run between Little Sluice and Soup Bowl at a party setting of 11 well past midnight. The musical selections are eclectic, from techno and rap to country to Motley Crue’s Girls, Girls, Girls. I personally favored the latter as it reminded me of my high school days.
Saturday morning we were up early to get last minute things sorted, break camp, and get rolling. We again wanted to run in 4 groups to keep the sizes manageable and a few of the guys from the latter groups of the day before moved up to the earlier groups today. This is the longest and hardest day of the trail and started just feet outside of camp with the run up Little Sluice. There are 3 options here – the full sluice which means a long bolder filled slot with few options for line choice, a full by-pass around to the left over the high ground that comes back into the main trail at the top of the sluice, or you can enter the bottom of the sluice and do the lower easier part of the boulders then bail out onto the slabs on the right to bypass the hardest parts. I led off again and of course went through the full thing, though I did need some spotting to get over the worst spot. Mathias was right behind me in his 200 TDI/underdrive equipped 109 and he crawled right through as well. After that most of the Rovers started lining up to do the lower portion and then take the ramp up onto the slabs while a few opted for the full bypass and met us at the top. I didn’t get to stick around and watch everybody coming through so I’ll have to wait for more reporting from others to fill in the details here.
My run group now consisted of myself in my D1, Mathais in his 109, Connal’s P38, Luke’s 109, and Shams in his trayback’ed long wheelbase D90 hybrid creation. (really, it’s very clean but it is a combination of many trucks over many years). We made good progress up to Arnold’s Rock where we had a few different line choices. I took my ‘normal’ line, going up to the end then turning to the left and circling around the big boulder, while Mathais went for the hardest option by following the slot all the way up the top then squeezing through the end. It did take a little work and was a tight fit but he got it done. The rest of my group took the earlier left hand turn-outs and then circled around the boulder the same as I had. From there it was down Indian Trail and on to Buck Island Lake which was way down this late in the year.
After crossing the dam at Buck Island you get into a series of obstacles where we took some optional lines or easier lines as we went. We hadn’t really run into much traffic so far since we were starting early in the morning which proved important as a short time later Connal’s P38 decided to spit out it’s driver’s rear spring. We spent about an hour re-installing that and let a few people past us including one mixed group with a Sami, an FJ, and a couple Jeeps. As it turns out, this group was extremely slow moving – one of the Jeeps was a very modestly built TJ on 31s. They were having to stack and winch rocks around to get him through though he was making it without damage. We caught up to them on Big Sluice as they were getting past the squeeze tree. At that point they were taking a JKU down the middle line. That line always LOOKS inviting but it also always seems to result in body contact with the boulder on the passenger side and this was no different. He pushed in a door handle slightly, though worse was yet to come for him… We on the other hand ran the more conventional line around the left side.
We let them run ahead of us and as it turns out I wasn’t that upset about stopping repeatedly for them as my (second) new fan gave up, reducing me to only my auxiliary pusher fans so I needed to pause to cool things off quite a bit anyway. I also started to notice an occasional misfire, though nothing consistent.
As we got down into the lower and most difficult portion of Big Sluice that same JKU that had earlier taken a bit of damage to his passenger side door now found himself on top of a large loose boulder that shifted and dropped his driver’s side hardtop into a tree taking out about 18†of fiberglass above his rear door. It took a little winching and work to get him free but they eventually made it and cleared out so we could make our run through. We made it mostly cleanly, though in that same area Luke’s 109 had a similar rock shift that sat him onto his front driveshaft. He was still able to drive off without major damage but it was a close thing.
Shortly after this, after rounding the big left hand 90* turn and onto the easier section leading to the Rubicon Springs bridge that random misfire that had been getting slowly worse on my truck had developed into a major misfire to the point I had to struggle to keep the truck running and eventually it died in the squeeze just before Rubicon Springs. As we were so close to camp I just strapped to Mathais and let him pull me the last bit. This proved especially fun since without the engine running I had a non-functional hydro-assist and 37†tires which made it all I could do just to turn the wheels.
We quickly enough arrived at camp and set up in the Jeepers Jamboree area along the river just behind the caretaker’s cabin to await the arrival of our other Rover groups. After my truck had cooled I spent some time tinkering and after cleaning the MAF well, found the truck running great again – problem solved. Or not as it turned out, though I didn’t yet know that.
Group 2 led again by Mike in his D90 arrived in camp with fairly little drama. I believe there was some minor bodywork by a couple of people but nothing crazy. Meantime groups 3 and 4 had caught up to each other and become one large group. Again, I wasn’t present to see any of the fun firsthand here but Edward’s D2 snapped an axle which was quickly replaced on the trail. Andrew’s D2 died but turned out only to have blown a fuel pump fuse so that was about as simple as it gets. His bigger electrical problem was that his dual battery setup had stopped charging the 2nd battery and his fridge wasn’t staying cold, which put the jockey box ice at risk but fortunately for everyone it had enough insulation to survive the day. While on the subject of D2s, I believe Robert’s DiscoStu also cut a tire but changed out to his spare and kept on keeping on as Stu does. And just for fun Miles had decided brakes on all four wheels was too easy so he ripped a brake line off to the rear of Snowflake his RRC. I believe it was also along this day’s run that he tried his best to roll the truck only to be saved by a number of bystanders jumping on his slider to provide ballast. The group made it to camp looking like invasion of the dirt people; almost to a man covered in dust and grit from the trail. With one glaring exception – somehow Stephano despite driving an open D90 and wearing a white shirt came in looking fresh as a daisy. I’m pretty sure he must have stopped along the way at an unknown trail-side rest area for a shower and change of clothes.
Being on private property we had the luxury of a proper campfire and even free firewood from Rubicon Springs. The area they were letting us use normally accommodates crowds far bigger during the Jamborees so there was plenty of room for us. With a hard day’s wheeling under everybody’s belts the kegs were again tapped and a few bottles of whiskey and wine made an appearance as well. Cigars were produced and stories began to flow. At one point I looked around at the gathered crowd; approximately 30 people including wives and kids and realized just how well this event has taken off. Despite the Covid mess we had people from across the country here on the most famous trail in the world all enjoying themselves in spite of – even because of – the difficulty. There had been breakage and damage but the group always pulled together and kept everybody rolling. We even fixed a few Toyotas along the way just for good measure. Certainly the trail is tough and challenging and this year’s weather added it’s own challenges but this really shows there is a place for rock crawling events among the Rover crowd.
And speaking of Toyotas – let’s not give the impression that only the Rovers had mechanical issues on this particular weekend. We got to play rescue Rover to more than a few Toyota guys as well. There was the IFS Tacoma in Little Sluice with the busted steering and de-beaded wheel we helped get back to mobile again. The sheered steering knuckle studs on an early SAS-ed Toyota pickup we welded back together at Arnold’s Rock. A particularly well lubricated gentleman who’s early Toyota wouldn’t start due to electrical problems. And I even heard a report of Miles towing a 2nd gen Tacoma somewhere on Big Sluice. Now I like to make fun of Toyotas as much as the next guy, but in reality what this shows is the comradery among wheelers on the Rubicon. We all have our brand loyalties but by and large any one of us will do whatever it takes to help the other guy out. Heck, I even had a couple Toyota guys stop to ask what they could do for me when I was sitting waiting for my truck to cool on day three (they call that foreshadowing….)
Later that evening Luke served as MC for some special awards. Furthest traveled went to Jim and his wife who came all the way from FL and displayed something so rarely seen here on the west coast – genuine rust! (we’ve all heard about it but only those of us who moved here from back east have a proper appreciation for the tin worm). Best Redemption/Most Improved went to Zach and his Cummins powered Siii 88â€. After last year’s unicorn impersonation at the granite bowl he made it through the trail in 2020 with flying colors. Most time spent wrenching on other people’s rigs went to Tyler who served as ‘the new Colin’ on the trail helping with multiple repairs. Best trail nap/most damage went to Joe of Blacklisted Engineering after his first day flop. And most convenient break went to Danny for killing his steering within feet of camp. There were a few more random drawings for swag and the party wore on into the night. I again was spent and only made it to about 11:30 but quite a few were still up and going well after I turned in.
Day three came and I was eager to get rolling early to avoid as much heat as I could. I again led the first group out about 8 with Mathais, Connel, and this time Stephano rolling with me. We made good time up to Cadillac hill with Mathais and me stopping just about at the old caddy frame itself to come back and help possibly spot the others up some of the tricky bits only to have Connel’s starter fail just before the hard 90* left that marks the start of the hill proper. Say what you will, but Connel does travel prepared and had a spare starter with him. With the other groups quickly catching up we rolled him back into a wide area where others could get by and again Tyler jumped in to help with repairs. The rest of the group then started coming through and taking turns making their way up Cadillac which was gnarly as always despite some repairs made earlier this year by Friends of the Rubicon.
The missing problem I thought I’d solved the day before returned on my truck such that I could only drive 5 to 10 minutes before it would get hot enough to die so I ended up moving in short burst up to the lookout. I tried to time my stalls to wide spots in the trail where others could get around me though one of those proved pretty tricky and Tyler got his S3 wedged so firmly even two trucks couldn’t pull him free so the winch had to do some work. Still unsure what was going on with my truck; once at the lookout I decided to swap in my spare fuel pump only to find it had apparently died from riding around in the bottom of my toolbox for the last 3 years. Taking it back out to re-install the previously suspect pump was a special joy to be sure. Not wanting to wait around for me to make my slow way out most of the group split up in a couple different waves and headed out toward Tahoe. Our final group of myself, Lutz, Luke, Danny, and Shams came up the trail last with me basically driving as far as I could before stalling out then waiting while it cooled. During one of those pauses we went ahead and swapped the fuel filter since Shams had one on-hand but other than getting gas all over my hands it did little to help the truck. At one point Lutz was towing me just to keep us moving instead of sitting stationary while waiting for my truck to cool but at the final eastern end gatekeeper he was unable to pull me through. We set up to winch me over only to find we were just dragging his truck sideways. At that point I again was able to re-start and clear the obstacle but after this I found that the smoother trail meant I could run a bit faster pace which seemed to keep the truck happier. We made our way on out to the staging area where we again met up with Connel who told us he’d actually managed to cook his spare starter as well due to user error but was now well versed in how to hot-wire a P38 so was ready to head for home. The rest of us aired up and made ready to get back onto pavement and I surprised some by saying I was going to just drive it home instead of calling for a tow. Luckily for me despite some missing and stumbling under load I had no problem maintaining highway speeds and the temps stayed in check for the 2.5 hr drive back into the crazy heat of the valley.
And so that’s my story of Rovicon 2. Eric, Greg, and I have already started discussing ways to improve and scheduling for 2021 and are more convinced than ever this truly is the premiere rock crawling event for Rovers in the country. While we have no misconceptions that it will ever become something like Jeepers Jamboree with hundreds of trucks and huge sponsorship we’re confident the event will only get bigger and better for next year. And we’re looking forward to sharing it with everybody again!
I've broken or seen a number of broken axles but never had one with that long tapered fracture. Usually they break almost cleanly, or have a small taper to them. I think that long taper is what led to the diff damage.
Got the rest of the shaft out of the diff. There was no magnet that was pulling this sucker out. Needed to weld a little stick to it and pull / pry it out. About as twisted as you’ll see them get
Not deeply rovicon related but less then a week later and I think our kid wants to go back. He will sit in those rocks for hours pushing his trucks around and saying the word “stuck†so I guess that reflects on my driveing skill since he just copies me.
We had a blast with everyone over the weekend, thanks again for everyone being so nice and inviting to us. Our truck has a few more love taps but I drove her to work on Monday. The quality and build level on everyone’s trucks is impressive and iv got a lot of ideas for next year. With any luck we’ll be built up a little better to hang with the big boys and we’re planning on doing any other runs with the club that we can. Once I figure out how to post up pictures I will and thanks again to everyone for a great time and a huge thanks to everyone involved in planning the event it’s very well put together we plan to attend ever year it’s on.
Rovicon 2 was a success! All trucks made it through. We had more trucks, less breaks, more beer, better camping, less crowds, and warmer water this year! We will get a photo album and a decent write up going soon. Thanks for coming out everybody. We really could not have hoped for a better event this year. Already looking forward to next year.
So here is your all star crew of trail leaders for Friday. Don will taking off for a scouting run to grab a camp around 8 with one or two other folks. Mike will leading the first regular group around 9, Lutzi at 10, Luke at 11, and myself about noon. We will figure out who goes with each group up there (I already have too many requests to be in the first group so be prepared to be disappointed if that’s your hope). Note that these are departure times, so you want to be aired down and ready to roll. Friday’s trail run is relatively short (3 miles), so don’t stress about leaving early. There will be plenty of camping spots to use and plenty of day to get there.
I think most will be staying at Uncle toms cabin Thursday night .I will be towing my rig so dropping it off there.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin June 28, 2020 Greg Bodene Leave a comment One new update for 2020 is for those who are coming out Thursday night to camp, we’ll be rallying at the famous Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It is an additional $10 paid to them upon arrival, as it’s not a requirement to make the trip we aren’t collecting at registration. For those with trailers, Uncle Tom’s does rent trailer space for the weekend at approximately $30. If you are bringing a trailer, please reach out so we can help you plan that to minimize your time on the road between storage and trail head. Uncle Tom’s is part of the region’s living history and everyone enjoys having a pint and pinning a dolar bill on the wall. Here are some links about the history of the location. https://www.facebook.com/UTCabin/“Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a small cabin-like building on the Rubicon 27 miles from Georgetown at 5,000 feet elevation. Little is known about its founder but he is believed to have been an African-American trapper and trader who settled in the area in the 1860s. He was well known and friendly to many hunters, prospectors, loggers and others in the area who would stop there as a welcoming gathering place. 60 years ago it was purchased by Irma Lawyer who, like “Tomâ€, welcomed people, especially offroaders. Today it is a small bar where the few locals gather and snow wheelers in the winter, offroaders in the summer, are welcome. Guests decorate dollar bills with names and dates and staple them to the walls and ceilings.â€
RedRover reacted to Mr.BlueSky in Gauging Interest Baja Mexico April 2025
