Peak Putters - Rubicon Trail Expedition 2014 Report 1 of 2

Area for club members and candidates to post pics and reports of new PP Club called runs and events.
OldGreen
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Peak Putters - Rubicon Trail Expedition 2014 Report 1 of 2

Postby OldGreen » Mon Jun 30, 2014 12:52 pm

Nothing to see here.
Last edited by OldGreen on Tue Jul 01, 2014 12:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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tobyw
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Postby tobyw » Mon Jun 30, 2014 2:00 pm

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Yep, I've wheeled one of those, too...
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OldGreen
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Postby OldGreen » Mon Jun 30, 2014 3:11 pm

Whew. . .nice. . . :lol:
Last edited by OldGreen on Tue Jul 01, 2014 12:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Livin4Today
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Postby Livin4Today » Tue Jul 01, 2014 12:13 am

Wow,

Jimmy Had a rough start for sure, but I'll bet Don could chime in for the award in rough starts and sack Jimmy's bad luck. Let's see if that comes to pass.

For Mandi & I we had the time of our lives, and yes as Jimmy mentioned we have a gazillion pics and vids (Mandi got herself a new fandangled camera). So I'll share the nearly 500 pics, and add the video as I can post processing of course.

Mandi & I got an extremely LATE start leaving after everyone else at 9 pm on Wed night, in hopes of getting to bend and catching the rest of the gang by morning in our Moho tow pig with Julia trailering behind.

we got to Redmond OR, and fueled up thinking we'd be ready to go in the morning, then my I hate being last elf jumped off y left shoulder and says, "We could just push through and be in front of the pack."

He seemed to make a good argument so I agreed, dropped a 5 hr power and pushed thru, of course it was nearly 2 am, and my previous experience in Trucking told me pushing thru only works if you reach your destination. Going part way and catching a nap generally doesn't work out, as we'll surely prove later in this saga.

So around 6 am we hit Weed CA, and I had dropped my 2nd 5 hr power. We stopped for fuel and grabbed some McDonalds breakfast and jumped back on I-5 headed south, ou coffee ran out before Shasta so we focused on Red Bluff for a refill. After finding a cool lil' coffee stand (The Human Bean) we grabbed a frappe' and started again, but I had noticed my front winch line that I tagged to the trailer as a safety was no longer taught...

Upon closer inspection I found the "pressed pin" that had been installed on my 2 pc hook had taken leave, I frantically searched the interwebz for a 4x4 shop, settling for a 4Wheel parts or Central 4WD in Sacramento. But on the way back to the freeway found a Napa store with a good fix, and we decided to push the rest of the way thru and nap on the endrun...

We arrived at Icehouse Resort at 2:30ish, and found that camping in the storage area may cause some issues for the locals, so we opted for an actual dry campsite instead, since our gas budget was doing well (we budgeted $500 each way and had only spent $375, so far), we tossed the extra $36 bucks out and made camp while awaiting the others.

Now knowing how "seemingly" punctual our fellow Rubiconees were, we remembered the plan of meeting at Uncle Tom's Cabin at 5 pm as being crucial, so we set and alarm and were waiting patiently at Uncle Tom's at 5:05 pm by ourselves. About a beer later our new friends John & Kyle showed up and after another beer we decided to head back the almost 20 miles to camp. But not before following John & Kyle to Airport Flats to see if anybody else had arrived. Nobody at Airport Flats...

We started to worry and wondered where everyone else had gotten to, then headed back to camp figuring we'd stick to the plans previously laid out here on the forum. Luckily when we arrived back at Icehouse we found our fellow Putters, had arrived and were assembling for the trek to Airport Flats. After double checking the plan we were set to meet everyone the next morning (Friday) at 7 am for our assault on the Rubicon.

We met everyone who had already met John & Kyle (JKU friends from the wet side) and prepared to hit the 'Con. The next few hours were daunting killing Jimmy's newly built rig, and nearly blasting Don's confidence in his own. But everyone pushed through, Jimmy jumped out and found a gift from NAXJA (a driveshaft and place to install GRATIS), and Don regained confidence in his rig (after replacing a center pin in his front Right spring pack shortly after jettisoning the fan that found his radiator again). I was running on pins and needles wondering what I might find wrong with my Julia, but she pulled through really well. The only issue (on the trail) I had was one of my tube doors failed to latch. Now the night before leaving I had a bigger problem that I was able to correct, it seems my #3 plug wire had decided to retire from active duty, luckily I sensed this coming and had a spare ready to replace).

The rest of our trip was EPIC! Both Mandi (Big Sluice) & I (Little Sluice) drove some of the most challenging terrain to date, we enjoyed it so much we're hoping to go back and do it again.

The trip home was a lot less fun. Mandi expressed a desire to return a different route so we chose 395 as our return run. Leaving Icehouse at a leisurely 10 am we ran pretty hard but still had to nap a couple times and didn't arrive home until 9:30 this morning (Monday), then both of us took a 3 hr nap before we could function in partial capacity.

The lesson we learned was doing the 'Con in 4 days is fine as long as you tack a day on either side just 'cuz...

Now a bajillion pics... Vids will come soon...

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Icehouse Resort

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Our Campsite (#15) @ Icehouse Resort

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Uncle Tom's Cabin with John & Kyle

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Loading up at Airport Flats

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Entering through Wentworth Springs

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Hell's Gate - The place where things start to come apart...



End Part 1...
Lance

Building a capable off roader is easy, building a street legal one that you can wheel and then drive daily is the challenge...

2007 JKU, 7" RK lift, 40s, ARBs, 5.38s, Headers, Fox Coilovers, etc. http://www.Livin4Today.com

OldGreen
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Postby OldGreen » Tue Jul 01, 2014 6:54 am

Excellent pics. . .
Last edited by OldGreen on Tue Jul 01, 2014 12:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Livin4Today
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Postby Livin4Today » Tue Jul 01, 2014 7:09 am

Part Two...

Still before Lunch on Friday, and the pack of 7 rigs has made it through Hell's Gate, minus Don's fan/radiator intrusion. Then Jimmy twist that driveline up into some sort of pretzel, and has to make a run to God only knows to find another, and hopefully catch back up to us.

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Our surroundings - simply incredible!

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Finally getting everyone clear of the crazy initial obstacles of Hell's Gate and/or Gatekeeper (affectionately known to us as the Real True Rubicon entrance), we were heading into the next OMG obstacle...

Oh and I should say unless it's a big name obstacle, I won't know what it's called and will defer to those knowing, hoping they'll share their knowledge. To Mandi & I it was like one challenge after another with a little smooth sailing in between said obstacles.

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Where Jimmy bailed in search of a driveshaft, being escorted by Toby & Marc, and that brings us to the

End of Part Two...
Last edited by Livin4Today on Tue Jul 01, 2014 7:58 am, edited 3 times in total.
Lance

Building a capable off roader is easy, building a street legal one that you can wheel and then drive daily is the challenge...

2007 JKU, 7" RK lift, 40s, ARBs, 5.38s, Headers, Fox Coilovers, etc. http://www.Livin4Today.com

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Livin4Today
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Postby Livin4Today » Tue Jul 01, 2014 7:12 am

OldGreen wrote:Well. . .the intent was to have a separate thread since, at least for the foreseeable future of the report, Will and I had a separate trip. . .but, we'll roll with this method.

From our perch on "Google Lookout", Lori talked me out of jumping (kidding). . .

After swallowing my one and only "chill pill" of the weekend, we decided to carry on towards Georgetown and find another spot to work the internet.

That location was only a couple of miles down the road. Another, different, search on the Google revealed a few wrecking yards that were under 2 hours away. One of them. . .uh. . .J and L I think. . .was called. He had drive shafts stacked up like cord wood for $75 each and was 1.5 hours away in a town called Antelope.

I also posted up on NAXJA.org's Sierra chapter to see if anyone else had a solution. . .


Ooops, my bad, I was kinda tired when I started, and the only thing ringing true in my head was um " No pictures, no proof!"

I gotz your pictures people!
Lance

Building a capable off roader is easy, building a street legal one that you can wheel and then drive daily is the challenge...

2007 JKU, 7" RK lift, 40s, ARBs, 5.38s, Headers, Fox Coilovers, etc. http://www.Livin4Today.com

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bobracing
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Postby bobracing » Tue Jul 01, 2014 7:28 am

Dumb questions but how are you driving around without a rear driveshaft?
Cherokee's have a rear slip yoke, correct? And I don't remember seeing a SYE installed.
James
'92 YJ with a little something of everything.

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Livin4Today
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Postby Livin4Today » Tue Jul 01, 2014 7:54 am

Part Three

Now we're getting somewhere? I have no idea where we are but we're still moving forward or upward and that was the important part!

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Squirrel?

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Time is now lost to us, we are approaching the Little Sluice, but take a good long break at the bottom awaiting Toby and Marc's return from escort duties.

End Part Three
Lance

Building a capable off roader is easy, building a street legal one that you can wheel and then drive daily is the challenge...

2007 JKU, 7" RK lift, 40s, ARBs, 5.38s, Headers, Fox Coilovers, etc. http://www.Livin4Today.com

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Livin4Today
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Postby Livin4Today » Tue Jul 01, 2014 8:47 am

Part Four

The Little Sluice, up until now things have been going well for both of the JK's and the Bronco. I think Don had already decided against putting the CJ through the LS, and we're still awaiting Toby & Marc's return, so we were sort of mingling with the other travelers we encountered. Heck, I ended up assisting another group repair their broken u-bolt (just being helpful and killing time), while the girls found some more water.

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Next thing I know my group is uh gone? Well Don's CJ is still here, but where I find the gang was up the LS watching John in his JKU Rubicon trying his run. So I walks up and proceeds to formulate how I would do it (if I were actually gonna do it, that is)...


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We might have to bury that JK right there...

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I finally found the gang and as usual decided to help John get through... He was having a time (hmmm, maybe I should skip this one...), Tim to the rescue, this JK is beached... But John decides to pull himself forward rather than have Tim pull him back, and soon clears the obstacle...


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Now being the Uber smart guy I am, I'm not about to chance getting all tied up in the Little Sluice, after watching all the trouble John had...

Of course, one never know if he'll get a chance at this EPIC challenge!

To heck with it I'm doing it (especially after Tim goaded me)...

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Yeah, it got me, and I had to pull line also, but Tim did say he thought I'd have made it if me rear locker were intact (out loud even)... Toby and Marc caught back up to us...

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Toby - Little Sluice showing us how it's done!

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Marc - Following suit Little Sluice...


End of Part Four
Lance

Building a capable off roader is easy, building a street legal one that you can wheel and then drive daily is the challenge...

2007 JKU, 7" RK lift, 40s, ARBs, 5.38s, Headers, Fox Coilovers, etc. http://www.Livin4Today.com

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Livin4Today
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Postby Livin4Today » Tue Jul 01, 2014 9:30 am

Part Five

Don wisely chose the LS Bypass and now we shall seek out Spider Lake and a Magical guy called Merlin... Some say he's a wizard, but in reality he's just a really nice retiree who stays in a cabin nearby, and help people stay on task by sharing information. He's also a Friends of Rubicon Trail representative, and even offered us a chance to camp right there on Spider Lake, however the group decided that although it was an honor we preferred to keep moving and get a bit lower to avoid camping in a cold wind.

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Spider Lake is very serene, but we were moving forward in hopes of finding Jimmy later in the evening... So we pointed towards Rubicon Springs, knowing we would be lucky to arrive before dark...

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What we have to crawl our way into and work our way through Buck Island? We decided that was enough for day one, and set about finding a suitable place to camp...

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Pretty place, but we worked our way in past Hundreds of partying peeps, and later found out the art of Yota Wheelin' (at least for the ones sharing our space)

Step 1. Must have loud indestiguishable music blaring at full volume. If thats not loud enough add Amps and Speakers to Roof.

Step 2. With Entertainment needs met, now Drive - Push skinny pedal to the floor, to make sure you'll be heard by all of God's creatures, for miles around (to keep them safe).

Step 3. (Most important) Tear $h!t up! Do NOT let off the skinny pedal at all costs keep it mashed to the floor, unless you end up on your back or side.

And if all the above wasn't enough, there is a special step.

Step 4* Do all the above at 2 in the morning...

Yata Hey! I was unconscious, but others spoke of the Ghostbusters Containment Field having failed, I heard nothing 5 beers and the long day, I checked out....

End of Part Five - & Day One
Lance

Building a capable off roader is easy, building a street legal one that you can wheel and then drive daily is the challenge...

2007 JKU, 7" RK lift, 40s, ARBs, 5.38s, Headers, Fox Coilovers, etc. http://www.Livin4Today.com

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iaccocca
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Postby iaccocca » Tue Jul 01, 2014 10:02 am

Rut roh! We got some JK vs. yota bashing going on. [Actually, priceless.] We all know the brand of wheelers you are referring to.

I like the camp pics, but that does not look like the most comfortable place to pitch a tent.
Okay, we're a little crazy to have a Duramax for a daily driver. But if we go off our meds, we might wind up in a Prius.
If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans.
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Danny
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Postby Danny » Tue Jul 01, 2014 10:17 am

Lance, where you were going to leave the JK is where I lost a tire and wheel last year, but I made it thorough under my own power......
Forget your age and live your life!

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Thread, Pics and Video

Postby Mandi » Tue Jul 01, 2014 10:31 am

Sorry Jimmy, Lance probably should have stared a separate report....I just logged in and started reading and see that may have been your intent.
No need to recap...but I will say this...
I had an awesome time, it was a great experience...
a few things I will do different the next time?

1. Allow for more travel time
2. bring ear plugs
3. AND MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL.....BRING MY XJ!


It was a real adrenaline rush to get the chance to be behind the wheel even for just one of the obstacles....

As for the pictures and video...I know I took a lot of shots, but I really tried to get multiples of everyone and every vehicle....for those of you who are less camera "happy" I hope I took a picture you like!

See you on the trail!

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Postby Mandi » Tue Jul 01, 2014 10:35 am

only bashing of Yota's that come through camp at 1:00 AM with their music blaring....but hey, everyone has their own idea of a good time....
We were all just really tired....

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Livin4Today
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Postby Livin4Today » Tue Jul 01, 2014 10:49 am

Danny wrote:Lance, where you were going to leave the JK is where I lost a tire and wheel last year, but I made it thorough under my own power......


Sure rub it in... LOL
Lance

Building a capable off roader is easy, building a street legal one that you can wheel and then drive daily is the challenge...

2007 JKU, 7" RK lift, 40s, ARBs, 5.38s, Headers, Fox Coilovers, etc. http://www.Livin4Today.com

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Livin4Today
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Postby Livin4Today » Tue Jul 01, 2014 11:40 am

Part Six - Day Two

So after listening to many a rig run up over or around the exit from Buck Island, right next to where we camped. We awoke to coffee (instant) and packed things up for day two of this EPIC adventure.

Then we climbed our way out of Buck Island onward towards Rubicon Springs to see if Jimmy made it back...
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That was all before Breakfast! Just getting out of Buck Island - Wow what could our day ahead hold for us?



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Hmmm, Yota squatter? Maybe he hurt something last night at full volume?

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Note to self - Carry no spare, maybe walk home. Carry Spare, nobody else gets a picture of your abandoned rig... Mandi what part did you need again? LOL...

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Okay, I hadn't yet let Mandi have any wheel time, so she got to take on Big Sluice, and did so with great skill, she conquered the Big Sluice. Of course it appears the street creds will have to wait for the video proof...

We pushed on to Rubicon Spring and reunited with Jimmy, Toby & Tim. Took a well earned break before tackling Cadillac Hill...

Unfortunately there is little proof of this as our cameras were falling victim to bad charging, as well as the need to get to the end...


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From here we slid down to the exit and parted ways with everyone, to get back to our motorhome for well deserved showers. Then Dinner at the Icehouse Bar, Meat Loaf Rocks! A few drinks and deciding our route home.

So one note the fastest route isn't always the best route, UNLESS you decide to come home via 395, it creates a nightmarishly long drive that luckily got us home by 9:30 Monday...

In retrospect all we would do different would be add a day of travel on the end. We will be back, it's just too dang awesome not to go back!

End of Part Six - Day Two
Lance

Building a capable off roader is easy, building a street legal one that you can wheel and then drive daily is the challenge...

2007 JKU, 7" RK lift, 40s, ARBs, 5.38s, Headers, Fox Coilovers, etc. http://www.Livin4Today.com

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Livin4Today
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Postby Livin4Today » Wed Jul 09, 2014 1:36 pm

Lance

Building a capable off roader is easy, building a street legal one that you can wheel and then drive daily is the challenge...

2007 JKU, 7" RK lift, 40s, ARBs, 5.38s, Headers, Fox Coilovers, etc. http://www.Livin4Today.com

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Livin4Today
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Postby Livin4Today » Sat Sep 06, 2014 1:54 pm

Here are links to both photos and videos that my friend Jon (Wetfootnw) got while on the Rubicon Trail...

http://www.wetfoot.net/Jeep/Off-Road.../Rubicon-2014

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47FTUm9Ehsk[/youtube]

Man, that better video than I have put together!
Lance

Building a capable off roader is easy, building a street legal one that you can wheel and then drive daily is the challenge...

2007 JKU, 7" RK lift, 40s, ARBs, 5.38s, Headers, Fox Coilovers, etc. http://www.Livin4Today.com


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