RUBICON, 6/25/2010

[Goose]

I have wanted to go run the rubicon for years now.
We finaly made it out there, this last week.
first I had to finish my suspension & steering

we headed out early on wed. & made it to the trail head that evening.
the scenery coming in from tahoe was awesome!
we camped at the trailhead that night, got up & headed out on the trail in the morning. ( some pics to get started)
(Ill post as many pics as I can)

 

[Goose]

the first section of the trail is realy cool! It has some awesome views & scenery!
I new the trail had some granite boulders & slabs but I didnt know that the whole mountain was granite, WOW! this first pic shows what they call the bowl (all granite, w/pines growing out of the cracks)
the lake is Loon lake

 

[Goose]

We had 4 rigs in our group & 1, 4-wheeler (my dad)
my yota, d's runner, joes cj & kevins rubicon
the trail gets buisey right of the bat, as you climb up through the bowl
& down into some pines. there are giant boulders all over & tons of them right in the trail (the way we like it!) so right of the bat you get to start playing around on boulders.
the first named obstacle that we came to was the soup bowl.

 

[Goose]

We made our way down the trail to (little sluce) Its a fun little ravine about 50 yrds long & has a few big boulders that are slicker that snot & pointy. Darrel & I both wanted to play around, darrel pulled in first & made short work of most of it, 3/4 of the way through there are 2 big boulders that didnt like us! darrel finaly made it through.
I pulled in & made my way up to the big boulders & as I was tangling with them I broke a stub shaft & a hub, (driver side) lame!!! so we parked there & pulled out the tools.
BTW: If you run this trail & want to play, bring plenty of spare parts!
we got the shaft thrown in, (after after arguing with a slightly expanded spindle)
& we went to find a spot to camp.As we made our way down the trail, we had planned on camping at "Buck Island",
we talked to a few guys on the trail that mentioned that there was a young bear hanging around Buck island & stealing food.

 

[Goose]

We decide to stay up a little higher & camp, as we found out the next day, there are quite a few people that camp at buck Islad, so we were glad that we stayed up high.
fri. morning we got up & hit the trail again, we went down big sluce & into rubicon springs, then up cadilac hill. we ate lunch at the top of cadillac hill & turned around there (the map shows 25 miles of dirt road to tahoe)
the sec. from little sluce over to & through big sluce was the best part of the trail, as far as difficulty. BIG boulders, BIG ledges, DEEP watter crossings.
the watter crossings topped my 42" Irocs, (made it tough for my dad on the wheeler)
As we headed back to camp, we were making our way up the big sluce & there was a spot in there that had 6' tall boulders in a shelf that I wanted to try & climb.
I ended up breaking my pass. stub shaft & hub, lame!!! I pulled the hub gears & 3 wheeled it back to camp (it was getting dark).
the next morning, sat. we found paw prints & alot of missing food. & a bunch of mud in my front seat.

 

[lewis]

Very Jealous.

 

[Goose]

sat morning I threw in another shaft, (had to take the knuckle of, the spindle had expanded too much)
the traffic on the trail was crazzy on sat. we must have passed at least 150 - 200 rigs
Ive never seen that many rigs on a trail, WOW!
we stopped at the little sluce to see if anyone else was playing, on our way out.
the sluce was empty, I walked in looking at different lines, (knowing if I broke my junk again my buddies might leave me there)
darrell gave me the OK. he said, as long as I dont have to drag you out on a strap.
I think carrying all the extra gear, watter, gas, tools, parts. was a little harder on the axles.
so I went in & played around, got high centered & tipped it over twice. I had a blast & didnt break anything!
heres a few pics from the sluce & some video of the trail

 

[jdub]

How did your friends Scrambler do? Did he have any issues with the rear overhang? Makes me want to plan a trip but it seems super tough. Bummer on the broken junk.

Nice trail report! Thanks for the pics. Do you have any more of your friends CJ?

 

[Goose]

heres a Vid




[YOUTUBE]zR0-cMQp1WI[/YOUTUBE]


[YOUTUBE]Zs259FZ7rQQ[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Goose]

How did your friends Scrambler do? Did he have any issues with the rear overhang? Makes me want to plan a trip but it seems super tough. Bummer on the broken junk.

Nice trail report! Thanks for the pics. Do you have any more of your friends CJ?

His crambler is SOLID! 38" sx, 14 bolt & 60, 350 cc
It does real well & didnt have any problems. soem of the trail you can pick & choose how tuff you want to make it.
I dont think my dad will ever be seen on a four wheeler out there again lol

 

[Goose]

Very Jealous.

youve got to make this trip one day, you wuld love it!!

 

[jmaxj]

great pics i love the con, it just sucks seeing your cause if it wasn't for me losing my job i would have been there from the 23rd-26th ha ha

 

[broncomitch]

goose, you got one sweet toyota

looks like a fun trip!

 

[TRNDRVR]

Makes me want to plan a trip but it seems super tough.

I did it in an XJ.

 

[broncomitch]

the next morning, sat. we found paw prints & alot of missing food. & a bunch of mud in my front seat.

sure it was mud?

 

[jdub]

^haha

 

[Goose]

sure it was mud?

I should have double checked!! lol

 

[ID Bronco]

awesome trail report. We went in early Oct. and it wasn't nearly as crowded, but it did snow. Great trail!

 

[PolarXJ]

Nice Report!

 

[Goose]

awesome trail report. We went in early Oct. and it wasn't nearly as crowded, but it did snow. Great trail!

thanks!
we tried to go in oct one year but, we were afraid of the weather.
were you guys able to run the whole trail?