July 10-14, 1998

This was my first time on the Rubicon. I went through with the IRC #jeep trip with Jeff Yokomura as my co-pilot. I'm not on IRC so I was meeting most of the people there for the first time. It was an interesting group made even more interesting by high temperatures and long waits on the trail. The group included people from CA, AZ, OR and VI. There were a few YJs, two XJs and two TJs. Most Jeeps were well set up, but nothing too hard core.

We went in through Loon Lake. After camping the night before nearby and getting lost on the way to the trail we hit the entrance around 11:00. Aired down, disconnected and tightly secured we were all excited to get a start in the 90 plus degree heat.

I'll assume that most of you know the trail, and that it hasn't changed too much over time. Forgive me if I miss any details you'd like...

About a quarter mile into the trail there is a slight uphill left turn with a few well placed, articulation inducing granite ridges. I watched the Detroited and SOA'd YJ walk through it. Then the stock TJ ground it's way through. My turn. I knew the line from watching the others. No spotters on this trail...

Took it a little to the right. Set the front fender on the rock. Small ripple. Readjusted, started up again. Fell off a rock onto the right rocker. Readjusted. Fell onto the left rocker and crawled up through it. All in about 10 seconds.

The damage is interesting. The Off Your Rocker panels on both sides are punched in at the bottom. On the right side it's bad enough to have broken a few welds in the body. The problem was the angle of the rock - it hit at a 45 as the Jeep dropped sideways. The OYR have taken a lot of abuse but this was too much. I'm looking for ideas for a permanent fix...

10 minutes later we hit the slabs. Whee what fun! 3.5 hours later we were still on the slabs. Steve Piazza had sheared all the bolts on his yoke straps on the rear driveshafts. Some borrowed parts and many hot hours later and it still wasn't fixed. Paul and Steve P limped out to Placerville and met us back in camp at Spyder later that night - they came in in the dark - very cool! Well...they almost came in. Paul's rear ring gear decided to chew up some teeth about 200 meters from camp. There's is another story from this point, as they went out again the next morning.

Meanwhile, we got stock behind a bunch of REALLY drunk rednecks slowly destroying an old Wagoneer. It seems the front driveshaft broke on the slabs. They decided to winch/tow/2wd it to camp. When we caught up with it again it was blocking a very narrow section of trail with lots of damage. The entire front end was broken: both main springs, both shock mounts, and the driveshaft. The only thing holding it in was the front shackles and the steering linkage. Did I mention they were trashed? Did I mention they didn't care if the trail was blocked? Did I mention the guy with a 45 on one hip and a 18" Bowie knife on the other? Diplomacy was in order.

An hour later we got around them and headed off to Spyder Lake. Got there without much incidence and found a place to camp - it was packed! Lots of groups went through this weekend. It was about 7:30 or so. The water in the lake is very comfortable for swimming, BTW.

<rant> I've listened to a lot of talk on the various lists about enviro-nazis. One argument that sticks out is that Jeepers never see hikers carrying shovels for latrines. (I carry a small one BTW.) Well, the camp at Spyder Lake is like an open latrine. Take one step off the road and not in direct view and all you'll see is little white piles of TP. Remember that the Rubicon has only been open for a few weeks. What will it be like in September???? And cans, bottles, broken parts, oil, etc are everywhere. Want to keep a trail open? Clean it up. It's disgusting! </rant>

Saturday we woke up and made good time getting out of camp. We actually got out before at least half the people there. Good thing because this past weekend was very crowded - 35 Broncos, 30 Chrysler TJs, and about 100 other trucks I'd say.

On the way out of Spider we had to stop and play on a small hill climb that has foiled and broken a few in the group before. A few straps and an hour later and were were on our way. We climbed out onto another slab behind some of the Broncos and we all went around a small group of Jeeps waiting going the other way. Well, we missed the fork that they were blocking and started down the slab the wrong direction with the Broncos from Vancouver. It was a fun "shortcut" with some nice steps and tight turns. When we realized our error we turned around and found the right path. In the meantime we added about 15 vehicles in front of us - including a 33 inch wheeled Bronco with a Pinto body. Cool guy, but absolutely clueless on how to keep it from over heating.

We sat on the trail at the entrance to a rocky and stepped before the entrance to Old Sluice. There were a bunch of trucks stack up ahead so we broke for lunch. So did the 10 or so trucks behind us.

When we finally got going again we made the climb and then took the bypass to avoid Old Sluice. Truth be told, we didn't know where the other fork went... From talking to others, we were very glad to have missed it. One guy in a Bronco came through looking broken - not the truck, him!

One of the guys popped a bead about a quarter mile before Buck Lake. We stayed to help him out, but some were starting to look like they had heat exhaustion. A bunch of us went up and took a swim/bath in the creek. We then regrouped and headed on.

Just past the dam we caught up to the Broncos again. They had a broken axle. We eventually got past the two that were down and moved on. 20 or 30 minutes later and we were at the Big Sluice. So were the Broncos. And they were broken down half way through.

We sat there for about an hour. Stacking up behind us were 30 or TJs that Chrysler was sending through. They brought in their top sales people from Europe to drive the Rubicon. They were haulin’ ass and didn’t like it that were were blocking the trail. The European rep actually stood up in the lead TJ and said they were getting hungry and we should move on. The rest of them didn’t seem to care where they were. The local guides they were using were pretty cool, but I think fed up with it all.

For those of you familiar with the trail, you may remember that the left turn dropping into the sluice is full of boulders. Not anymore. There’s still a few, but the rest are downhill now. The ledge immediately after the turn is the first real obstacle. Then it continues down with big rocks to avoid. We had some stucks, but nothing major. We went down the rest of the way and camped just past the bridge into Rubicon Springs (the main camp was reserved for Chrysler - we didn’t want to take a chance on not finding a place to sleep).

For those who care, the bugs are numerous. A can of bug spray should be on your list of major necessities. So should lots of water if it stays this hot.

Sunday started a little earlier than other days. One of the guys in the group was set to start a new job at 8:30 Monday morning. Not a big deal, but he lives in Phoenix. And he had to drive his Jeep back. We definitely wanted to stay on schedule and in front of the Broncos.

We managed to squeak past a group of about 5 Broncos as we were leaving the camp area. We went through a very narrow, tilted section - even the XJs came through. Nobody damaged anything besides a mirror on one of the XJs, and it popped right back on.

We then got stuck on a short rocky climb. First a high centered TJ. Then a wedged in XJ - needed a winch. Then a YJ that thought the XJ had the right line. A couple of old Dodge Power Wagons with 38s were waiting behind us and came up to help. Nice guys.

From there we cruised (to make up time) to the bottom of Cadillac Hill. The mud en route was anywhere up to about 2 feet deep. One tricky water crossing was an option - the trail took a four foot vertical drop into two feet of water. God! I love my tires! :)

The climb up to the hard right on Cadillac was fun but uneventful. We caught up to two trucks waiting for some other trucks. No real idea what was coming so we just waited. About 15 minutes we were off with me in the lead. The guys in front of us took off and we never saw them again.

Chrysler had gone through that morning and there were a lot of rocks stacked in the first muddy 40 feet of the climb. I tried a couple lines before getting it. Then the YJ behind me tried a few times and still was having trouble. I backed my TJ back down to give it a strap when he popped through it. As I was now blocking trail I went up again and tried to keep going. We could hear the Broncos below us. We inched our way up a little at a time until we came to the last steep step next to the open hillside.

Once we figured out the line was to the left we got most up. That is until the mostly stock TJ hooked the rear end around and perched itself in a near rollover. It wouldn’t have gone over the cliff, but it looked uncomfortable nonetheless. We raced for the strap and yanked him up. The rest came through fine. We were now 7 Jeeps on a very small clearing halfway up Cadillac Hill. No problem except for the CJ trying to come down.

You know those puzzles where you move squares around on a grid to make a picture? That’s what we did for a while to get everyone past.

From there it was a few more steps and a short drive to the top of Cadillac Hill for group photos. We said goodbye to those that needed to get out of there, and then slowly worked our way out.

There was some great mud, some good water crossings and a fun snowball fight before we hit the trail head. We settled everything in for the drive home, and I field tested my new on-board air. The rest is freeway.

Thanks to the IRC people for a fun weekend. Tony did a great job getting everything together and pulling in a sponsor. I hope I can make it on the next one.