June 'Intro to the Rubicon' run

[DHappel]

The snow still lays heavy on the Rubicon and there's little chance the trail will be clear by our planned trip.  The melt is on however so the lower elevations are beginning to clear.  Unfortunately this has led to the closure of the Wentworth Springs part of the trail last week due to the high run-off.  We'll be keeping a close eye on things to see how it develops over the next few weeks.

 

Given the conditions it's unlikely we'll be able to make a thru-trip.  In fact, it may well turn into a major snow-run.  I'm still planning to go in at Loon Lake but now our goal will be Spider Lake or Buck Island Lake depending on how far we can get.  

 

I'd like to get an updated idea of who's still interested.  The character of the trip may change from 'get to know the Rubicon' to 'snow wheeling the Rubicon' but it should still be plenty of fun.  

 

I'm going to be on a boat the 2 weeks prior to our departure so my access will be limited but I'll check in when I can.  Let's start nailing down our official plans-

 

I'd like to camp at Ice House on Thursday night so we can get an early start on the trail Friday morning.  If we still have a big group we'll want to break into two groups to avoid becoming a giant traffic jam.  We'll need experienced guys in each group.  Chime in if you're still interested and let's get the details ironed out.

[DHappel]

BTW, here's a nice write-up on the trucks that were stuck and buried on the Rubicon FIVE MONTHS AGO.

 

Note - so far only one has been recovered!

 

http://www.drivingline.com/articles/operation-glacier-girl-the-5-month-recovery-of-2-snowbound-rigs-on-the-rubicon/

[DHappel]

Come to think of it....

 

 

If we're only doing an out and back, we can push this back a day to make it easier for people on tight schedules.

 

Let's plan to camp Friday night at Loon Lake and hit the trail no later than 8 on Saturday, pushing though to Spider Lake or Buck Island if we can get there.  Camp Sat night on the trail then back-track on Sunday to Loon.

 

Chad has officially bailed on me, so that's one down.  Who's still in?

[Jethro]

Come to think of it....

 

 

If we're only doing an out and back, we can push this back a day to make it easier for people on tight schedules.

 

Let's plan to camp Friday night at Ice House and hit the trail no later than 8 on Saturday, pushing though to Spider Lake or Buck Island if we can get there. Camp Sat night on the trail then back-track on Sunday to Ice House.

 

Chad has officially bailed on me, so that's one down. Who's still in?

I'm in!

 

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[Lauroness]

You'll have have to remove me as a ride along. It being Father's Day weekend I plan on just doing something I can bring my son.

[Teds]

I'm still in. I took Friday off work to make this trip, so I am down for camping Friday night or meeting Saturday morning early since I am about an hour from the campsite.  We'll have to see how conditions improve but the snow pack is crazy high this year. Talking about skiing on fourth of July at Squaw!

[DHappel]

Yes, snow looks to be a problem for sure which is why we've changed to a simple out and back instead of trying to go all the way through.  They still haven't even found the 2nd truck that was lost on New Year's day - 6 months ago!!  But that's up on the Tahoe side somewhere so with any luck we'll still be able to make it thru to Buck Island Lake.

[DHappel]

Update from Pirate - trail is open again.  Loon to Spider is do-able but some areas still have significant snow though it's melting quick.  Buck Island is impassable as yet - a large mudslide took out a bunch of the trail just before it.  

 

Apparently just getting up Ice House Rd is the biggest challenge as of last weekend!

 

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/rubicon-trail/2520042-trail-closed.html

[Jethro]

Did we ever lock down who's in? Believe Jason and Ted are confirmed driving rigs... anyone else? Don we are holding up hope but looking less likely.

 

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[DHappel]

Yes, set-backs have me only now in Ft. Bragg.  Still at least 6 days to Portland.  Maybe more depending on weather and/or 'other'.

 

(yeah, she's not a fast boat and she doesn't carry a lot of fuel so lots of stops!)

[Teds]

Enrique, wish u could join us. It's a small group but should be a great time.

[DiscoChef]

Enrique, wish u could join us. It's a small group but should be a great time.

THanks Ted, unfortunately, the "Rubi-Ready RRC" is not ready...i've been dealing with the thrust washer bearings and swivel pre-load and it's not there yet.

 

You guys have fun!

[DHappel]

Sorry I've been away from the thread but I'm now at the airport heading for home and WILL be on this trip (angles sing, trumpets sound)

 

With weather and various set-backs, we've scaled the trip down as discussed earlier.

 

The plan is to meet at Casa de Fuller Friday afternoon and leave for the trail at 4:30.  We'll be going thru Georgetown.

 

Friday night we'll camp at the top of the slabs on the far side of the bowl.  Should be there around 6:30 PM.  Then Saturday morning we have at least one other vehicle joining us and we'll head to Spider lake and possibly try to reach Buck Island depending on conditions.  We'll camp there then back out through Loon on Sunday.

 

PM/text/call me or GregB (Jethro) if you're able to make it.  

[MatM]

I guess I'm the first one back home. I wasn't officially part of this trip because I didn't want to camp overnight. I left San Francisco early Saturday morning and drove my 109 up to Loon Lake, through the trail and back to San Francisco by about 3am Sunday morning. Sorry I didn't have more time to stop and chat with the rest of you.

 

Past Rubicon Springs, there were some very nasty obstacles (see attached video if it uploads ok), some water deep enough to go over my hood and also some snow drifts which required winching. Still I made it with minimal additional body damage so feeling pleased with myself. Probably one of the first this year to get through the trail in this direction.

 

Hope you guys make it back safe.

IMG_3672.MOV.mov

[Jethro]

I guess I'm the first one back home. I wasn't officially part of this trip because I didn't want to camp overnight. I left San Francisco early Saturday morning and drove my 109 up to Loon Lake, through the trail and back to San Francisco by about 3am Sunday morning. Sorry I didn't have more time to stop and chat with the rest of you.

 

Past Rubicon Springs, there were some very nasty obstacles (see attached video if it uploads ok), some water deep enough to go over my hood and also some snow drifts which required winching. Still I made it with minimal additional body damage so feeling pleased with myself. Probably one of the first this year to get through the trail in this direction.

 

Hope you guys make it back safe.

It was great catching up with you Matt, hopefully next time you can stay longer...

 

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[DHappel]

Great to see you on the trail Matt - we were debating if you had gone through or if we'd missed you coming back past us.  I didn't think anybody was getting all the way through the last I had heard so yeah, you're one of early guys this year!

 

Here are my photos/video clips

https://goo.gl/photos/rQE3yvXUtCmgK7nx6

 

Final count was Ted in the P38, Jason in his D1, me in a D1, and Greg riding shotgun.  We also had a friend of Jason's in a JKU on 37s join us on the 2-3rd days.  Ted gave his armor a serious work-out but didn't rearrange any body work.  Jason had a leaking seal on his ARB on Sunday so I'm not sure if he could use his lockers or not.  The Jeep had a leaking bead-lock on Sunday and had to change it for his spare.  I got in a hurry on Saturday afternoon and banged a slider pretty hard but none of us had any mechanical issues.  I did learn that my spare U-joint fits a JK dana 30 though when a guy busted one at little sluice and needed a part.

 

The only real issue was today on the way out - A friend of Jason's was toying out a disabled rig and Jason went around him only to get  a little close and kiss his driver's rear window against the other guy's roll cage.  You can guess the results.  At least it's an easy find at Pick-n-pull.  Later, as we headed toward Wentworth Springs on our way out today he came *this close* to flopping it when he was leading and mis-judged a drop off.  I couldn't see him when it happened but Greg in my passenger seat was watching and started saying 'holy crap! holy crap!' - then Jason came on the radio and suggested we might want to take a different line.  

[lutz]

Looks like it was a fun time .Glad everyone made it back without anything major .

[Lauroness]

So awesome. Sucks I missed out. Good job Don!

[DHappel]

Another trip in the books.

 

This one evolved over time.  Originally we had hoped to bring in several first-timers to introduce them to the Rubicon but with the weather the way it was this winter the trail is just now opening up.  At one point we had as many as 7 rigs and 3 passengers interested but in the end that slimmed down to 4 rigs and 1 passenger - a much more manageable size.  Throw into the mix my work schedule getting screwed up to the point I didn't think I'd make it at all and it was a close call. 

 

Since I was traveling and didn't get back until the day before we left, the other guys jumped in to handle food.  Greg and Jason pretty much took care of the shopping - I just brought coffee and provided fridge space while Ted brought kitchen kit.  Friday afternoon we met at Jason's place in Loomis before caravaning up the hill to Georgetown.  As we made the exit to highway 49, Jason came over the radio and asked if he was dropping oil from his rig. No, I didn't see anything and I was right behind him - why?  Turns out his power steering had suddenly packed in.  We pulled over and investigated and though the pump was turning and the oil level looked fine we couldn't hear the typical whine of the pump when under load.  No leaks visible, so we assumed the pump had failed internally.  We started making calls to all the local shops we could but of course nobody had a Disco power steering pump on hand.  As a last gasp we could have headed back to my place (about 90 minutes away) and swapped in a pump from one of my trucks but we weren't stoked about driving that far if we could avoid it.  We then remembered our buddy Luke had a D1 torn apart at Scully's shop which was much closer and figured we could 'borrow' that pump for the weekend, but Scully was out of town.  While he was trying to find somebody with a key to let us in, Jason's pump decided it was happy again and started working.  Since it didn't give any problems the rest of the trip our best guess was it was overheated from the climb up I80 in the 100* temp and letting it rest for 30 minutes or so brought it back around.

 

Back on the road we stopped in Georgetown for a final fuel-up and Gatoraid fix (did I mention it was freakin' hot?...sometimes having no roof has it's drawbacks).  Then on up Wentworth Springs road to the Loon Lake entrance.  We got there around 7:00 and broke out some of Greg's burritos for a quick dinner while airing down at the trail head.  As expected, there was quite the crowd on-hand.  We knew one club had a huge poker run planned for the next day but in addition at least 2 other clubs had big turnouts on hand as well.  In particular we would keep bumping into a Toyota group who were doing a memorial run for a friend who had passed away earlier that year.  While the traffic would prove annoying several times through the weekend, at least they provided entertainment/comic relief from time to time.

 

We planned to go in about a mile and camp at the top of the slabs then meet a friend of Jason's who was coming in with a new-to-him built JKU Saturday morning, then push on to Spider Lake or possibly Buck Island Lake depending on how time went.  We got through the gatekeeper just fine, with Ted finally getting to put his P38 to the test on the Rubicon itself.  He took it slow and steady and did well, no issues at all, though he quickly realized the armor and rear bumper were going to get a work-out.  I also got to put my D1 to it's first proper workout and was happy to find it did anything I could ask.  Though I'd had it out a couple times already I hadn't taken it to a proper trail to really test it out.  Greg had ridden up to the start of the trail in Jason's D1 but on the trail jumped in with me and also got to see first-hand what the trail was like.  It was fun to watch him grow in confidence both in spotting and in what he would be willing to try with his own D1 when he gets it together.

 

After the gatekeeper we dropped into the bowl and got to our first challenge at the bottom.  There are two lines - to the left is a stair step climb and to the right a single smooth granite slab at about 45* but only about a truck-length long.  Typically the right line is the easier and is used as the by-pass.  I'd taken this route last year in the LR3 with no problems and that was the route Jason headed for while I took to the left to try the stairs.  Jason quickly found out that with the later season run-off there was a lot of water at the bottom of the slab and with 4 wet tires he wasn't getting up it.  Making it tougher, it was obvious others had already been trying and failing on that line as it was pretty dug out at the base making it even worse.  On the left side, I first tried to crawl the stairs but found my wheelbase was such that I caught all four tires against a step at the same time.  I made a couple stabs at it then finally used a little skinny peddle and bumped it to get up.  I then came over and acted as an anchor point for Jason to winch himself up the slab.  Ted didn't stand a chance going up Jason's route as his rear overhang would have hung him up badly before he even got fully onto the slab so he came up the steps.  After a couple of attempts to go straight up like I had gone, he took a ramp to the hard left and made an easier line up.  With all of us up, we headed on to the top of the slabs were we had planned to camp only to find a large Toyota group already there and in full party mode.  With the sun already down we continued about 100 yards further and set up our camp for the evening then proceeded to watch the Toyota group as well as various other rigs that came by throughout the night take turns demonstrating the right and wrong way to get up what would be the next obstacle we would tackle in the morning, a steep blind climb up a dusty slab with a left turn thrown into the mix.  Get it right and you can crawl it with no problem.  Get it wrong and you'll learn why the right-hand boulder is called 'painted rock' when you lay your truck against it.  Get it really wrong and you'll do more than just leave behind some paint as a pair of Toyota girls learned.  3 hours in and they were still working on driveline repairs with the help of plenty of their friends.

 

The bulk of the partying Toyota crowd packed it in moved on to Spider as the night wore on so the noise did settle somewhat, but that close to the trail head there was traffic coming through all night long.  I recall waking around 3:30 and still hearing an engine off in the distance.  Not a problem, but don't come to the Rubicon on a weekend expecting peace and quite.

 

The next morning Jason got an early start and did a little fishing, catching a couple nice trout.  We were in no rush to break camp though as we weren't expecting Jason's Jeep buddy until around 10:00.  About 7:00, the first spotter/trail guide for the poker run came and set up; he was bringing their first group of newbies up an alternate easier route that he had coned off as it was on private property which his club had gotten permission to use.  After that about every hour a group of 10+ rigs would come through and take a stab at the steps we had come up the night prior as well as various individual rigs.  Most of them ended up using the line Ted had taken though a handful got up the steps proper and 1 or 2 made it up the wet slab Jason had tried as the sun warmed it and traction increased.

 

We were able to get in touch with our last member via radio and learned he was stuck at the gatekeeper with 10+ rigs both in front and behind him.  One of the poker runners had broken and bottlenecked everybody for a couple hours.  By the time he got free and up to us it was already noon and the temps were up probably around 80.  Much hotter than normal at that altitude.

 

With the full group together we started out for Spider lake.  We put Jason in the lead and I brought up the rear with Ted and the Jeep in the middle.  We alternately were held up by people in front of us or were holding up others.  Such is life when you're on one of the most famous trails in the country, on a holiday weekend, with multiple groups running big events.  But fortunately most people are pretty understanding and willing to let you take your time if you need it, or will move over and let you by when they can.  It makes for slow going but you have to take a live and let live attitude and just accept it.  Toyotas, Jeeps, ultra4 cars and full on rock buggies as well as our Rovers all worked their way forward.  Several times we stopped to spot through a difficult section and again the P38 worked out the armor pretty hard but despite having no lockers and the smallest tires of the bunch Ted never ran into something he couldn't handle.  We did have a pretty tight squeeze getting him past the narrow spot at Soup bowl as his awning is on the side that leans toward the wall, but with Greg spotting he cleared it with perhaps an inch to spare.   While we were stopped on the trail at one point, we saw a built 109 making it's way up - this turned out to be Matt who we didn't know was coming out but had seen the post on the forum and thought he'd catch up with us.  He was moving much faster than we were and pushed all the way through in one day, finding some nasty stuff past Rubicon Springs as not many rigs have been through yet this year.

 

Just past the Soup Bowl we came to Little Sluice.  Jason and his buddy in the Jeep both headed up the sluice to find a camping spot on the slabs to the south near Spider Lake while I took Ted around the bypass which has a couple tight spots of it's own.  We then looped back around and hooked up with them, making camp in the shade near the lake spillway above the slabs around 3:00.  Some of the guys took a swim in the chilly water which was pretty appealing after the hot day on the trail while the rest of us just took it easy around camp and entertained ourselves watching the various groups and individual rigs take on the Little Sluice.  As the day wore on it was clear some decision making was becoming...less logical.  In particular one rig got himself stuck in the sluice and told his buddy to just 'push him forward'.  He did...several times and with plenty of power, leaving behind broken taillights and other damage but not actually moving him off the rock.  So they decided to go around and pull him off, but didn't take a great line around and drug down the full side of each rig.  Neither seemed overly upset about this state of affairs, which I can best explain by the phrase 'hold my beer and watch this'.  Fortunately while we may have had a few hopsicles along they were reserved for camp after we were done driving so nobody in our group was tempted to try anything quite so foolish.

 

Dinner that night was thanks again to Greg with grilled corn and huge steaks in his own marinade.  Good stuff!  The party had mostly moved on and we ended up having a fairly quite evening and turned in much earlier this night before 11 as opposed to 2AM or so the night before, planning to get an early start on Sunday to avoid some of the traffic that would inevitably be heading out as well.  

 

Saturday night was warmer than Friday night, perhaps only into the upper 40s, and Sunday we woke to clear warm skies and a breeze.  we broke camp and had breakfast, again courtesy of Mr. Fuller, and were on the trail by 7:00AM.  We debated on taking Ted out down Little Sluice but decided that while possible, it probably wasn't the best idea so he and Jason headed around the bypass while I and the Jeep took the sluice.  Before we left though, we saw the driver's front tire on the jeep was down so I aired it up and we headed on, meeting the other guys where the by-pass joins.  There was another group camped here who was also packing up to leave and had some damaged rigs that were limping.  They moved out but we soon caught up to them at the first big obstacle where one rig had lost all drive and was high-centered.  They worked another guy around and strapped him up to tow him out the rest of the way then we started figuring out our line up and over.  Jason was the first over and found his air locker compressor was cycling often with an air leak - I'm not sure if he was able to engage his lockers or not but made it over fine regardless.  Ted was a little worried but with some good spotting by Jason he made it over with no problems at all.  We continued on until we caught up to the same guys who seemed to be stopped for a while so Jason decided to go around them - the rig towing out the busted truck was a friend of his and moved wide to let Jason by, but not quite wide enough - Jason's driver's side rear window just touched the exo-cage on the tow rig with the result that Jason now needs a new window.  Not the end of the world; at least there was no sheet metal damage.   Along this stretch every time we stopped the Jeep would pull up behind me and we'd add more air to his leaking tire which seemed to be leaking at one of the beadlock bolts.  It had held air all day on Saturday but felt like it was loosing air as fast as we could add it today.  

 

Shortly after the window, Ted was working past a tight spot with me spotting.  He hung on his rear diff and I backed him up to clear it but in the process he spun a little which caused the rear to slip sideways.  This got him on a new line that took care of the rear diff hitting but made the approach to the next part harder.  He then ended up with his passenger side front tire wedged hard against a root and unable to go froward or back so for the only time on this trip he winched.  It put a pretty good load on that tire but it finally climbed and we got him free with no damage and we all continued down to Ellis Creek where we decided it was time to put the spare on the Jeep.  One problem - it needed different lugs as the 4 main wheels had been machined for larger lugs but the spare hadn't.  This was the first time he'd wheeled this rig as he had only recently picked it up so though he had noticed this before and meant to pack extra lugs he had forgotten them.  Luckily he scrounged around and found some spares in his kit and we were able to make it work.

 

We didn't have any traffic from here on out and chose to exit through Wentworth Springs.  Shortly after the junction where the trail splits to go to Loon Lake or Wentworth, on the slabs, with Jason leading, Ted following, then me, then the Jeep, I heard Greg in my passenger seat shouting 'holy crap! holy crap!'  What?  I didn't see anything expect the back of Ted's P38?  Turns out Jason had taken a bad line over what he thought was a small drop and instead dropped about 4' on one side, coming *this close* to flopping.  Close enough that Greg saw the high-side tires lift off the ground before settling back down.  Jason then came on the radio and with a bit of shake in his voice suggested Ted not follow that line....

 

We found a by-pass and took Ted around through it, but looking at the drop, I could see that it should be passable with careful tire placement.  I was up for the challenge and in true peer pressure style Eric in the Jeep said if I did it he would as well so Jason spotted me through.  The pucker-factor was high as I stood it on it's nose and lifted a rear tire but I got through cleanly only to see the Jeep back up and take the by-pass.  Apparently it looked as hairy from outside the truck as it did from inside and he decided discretion was the better part of valor and maybe he didn't *NEED* to take that line.  

 

We made good time from here, passing the area we had been through last winter on our Rubicon snow run and making it on out to pavement where we aired up and headed for home and a return to the 100+ degree heat, me going down Ice House Rd. to 50 while the other guys took Wentworth Springs Rd back through Georgetown.  

 

A great trip with no major issues.  Ted picked up a pretty good dent in a slider and worked all his armor as well as his Jerry can holders but didn't break anything and only needed to winch about a foot.  Jason had an O-ring leak on his ARB lockers and of course broke a window against his buddy's roll cage but it's a fairly easy and inexpensive fix.  At one point on Saturday I got rushed and sloppy and banged the passenger side slider pretty hard so that the door rubbed when opening but nothing a few good blows from a large hammer can't fix.  The Jeep driver had a bad tire leak which will likely need re-mounting but didn't break anything either.  All in all, a very successful run.  Had it not been quite so busy on Saturday we could have easily pushed on much further but with the crowds I think our shorter run was probably best.  The trail is most difficult after Buck Island Lake, and getting the P38 though would have been very slow going, though if I got my LR3 though last year I'm sure Ted could have made it as well.

 

So that's the first of the Sierra Triple Crown.  Later this year we have a fall run planned for the Dusy led by Lutz and I plan to be there.  That will just leave Fordyce as the last of the big 3...and it's only a matter of time before we plan a return assault on that (in)famous trail!

[Jethro]

Finally got around to making a video for this trip...

 

 

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