The idea for another Rubicon run came to be sometime in March or so of this year, with my family planning on taking the annual trek down to SoCal to visit the in-laws for a couple of weeks. As in years past, I devised a plan to put them on an air plane and I would follow a few days later in the Jeep, run the Rubicon trail on my way South, and eventually meet up with the family in SoCal. Discussions were had with a few folks, and not too much later a full-blown attendee list and agenda were developed.
Accompanying me on this adventure would be Mr. & Mrs. OG in their sparkling new JLU-R, Rottwheeler +2 in his JKU-R, Dryside +2 (but they stayed at a rental house in South Lake Tahoe while we toured the local dirt roads) in his JKU-R (which is actually my old JKU-R, affectionately known as Trail Cow v3.0), and Craig riding solo in his 5.3L powered TJ. We met up in the parking lot of the Southridge Sports Complex around 0900 on Friday, June 29th and rolled out as a convoy headed for Klamath Falls, OR as our destination for the night:
Somewhere just after Biggs, as I was following him up a hill, Dryside took a hard right turn into the gravel shoulder. Turns out his 6.0L Powerchoke Super Duty stopped powering but was still choking... After a quick diagnosis, it turned out to simply be a blown turbo boot which was quickly remedied, and we were back on our way:
We stopped in Bend to check out a local overlanding equipment retailer, Free Sprit Recreation, and to have some lunch:
As we have done in years past, we rolled through the scales on the North edge of K-falls just to get some idea of how badly we were overloaded. My JLU-R ended up being pretty gross:
Our home for the night would be the Holiday Inn in K-Falls, which happens to share a parking lot with a Sizzler restaurant. Now, I haven’t been inside a Sizzler since I was in single digits for age, and I’m not sure if it was the hanger or some other outside influence, but it was delicious!!
Bright and early on Saturday morning, we rolled out of K-Falls and headed for Reno, NV. The road trip shenanigans started early, with Mrs. OG going full Mario Kart on me and tossing a banana peel in the roadway. While I wasn’t able to accomplish a high-speed 360 as per the rules, my evasive maneuver was deemed adequate to continue playing:
As we continued South, we came across Wong Road and Wong Potato LLC, and suffice it say there were some tears involved. As we approached Reno, part of the group continued South to Tahoe in an effort to get the rental house situation handled, while myself and the OG crew headed for the nearest In-N-Out, via the Reno airport because I had to pick up my wife. She played rock star and flew from SoCal to Reno just to run the Rubicon, leaving the minions with the in-laws for a few days until we made our way down to meet up with them.
Anyhow, In-N-Out was delicious as always, and we eventually met up with the rest of the gang in South Tahoe and headed West on Highway 50, with Uncle Tom’s Cabin as our destination:
After enjoying a couple of frosty beverages and some great conversation, we saddled up and made our way to the Airport Flat campground. Eating and sleeping equipment was deployed, and we had ourselves a grand evening of food, beverage, and lies, all with high anticipation of what lie in store for the next two days:
Sometime around 0700 Sunday morning, we were on the road, pointed toward the Rubicon trailhead at Wentworth Springs. As in years past, we wanted to run the entire trail and quite frankly, some of the best four wheeling lies in the section from Wentworth Springs to the intersection at Loon Lake. After airing down, we eased onto the trail and meandered our way toward the first section of real trail which is known as the Post Pile:
There is one particular ledge in this stretch of boulder-strewn nirvana that has given us cause for pause every time, and this year was certainly no exception. After scratching and clawing my way around and over, I walked back down to give OG a little spot. Now, some will say the boulders moved, some will say the spotting was terrible, and others will say it was a perfect plan with poor execution; regardless of who you believe, OG suffered what would be first and thankfully the only “real” carnage for the trip, relieving his shiny new JLU-R of its passenger rear fender flare. Suffice it to say Mrs. OG was
not impressed with this part of the program:
As in years past, we got lost on the granite slabs but eventually found our way back onto the main trail just below what we have affectionately labeled Tackle Box Hill, at which time my wife took the helm and put on a clinic on how to spank an obstacle. I really should have let her drive the entire trail…
Just past the summit of Tackle Box Hill, the trail meets up with the entrance from Loon Lake, and we took a quick rest stop at the outhouse just over the bridge. With everyone gathered back up and excess fluids removed, we trudged Eastward toward Little Sluice:
As we arrived at Little Sluice, we were greeted by a convoy of wheelers that were exiting the trail, undoubtedly from Buck Island, and we spent about 20 minutes watching the show as they went by. The Rubicon has vehicle watching that is similar to people watching in Vegas; highly entertaining and sometimes you just can’t look away. Coors Light: czek. Square driveshafts: czek. Iroks with less tread depth than a racing slick: czek. Boat speakers on the rollcage cranked up to 11: czek. Yep, we are squarely in the middle of Rubicon country now, gang!! Once the procession was past, we continued a few hundred yards up the trail to take a quick gander at Little Sluice before diving right in:
At the top of Little Sluice is one of the true gems of the Rubicon – Spider Lake. We parked the rigs and took the short hike over to the lake, sammiches in hand, and spent a few minutes taking it all in:
With lunch in our bellies, we loaded back up and continued on toward Buck Island, with mixed emotions about possibly camping there if the crowds were slim versus pushing on to Rubicon Springs for the night. Overall we were making incredibly good time, and found ourselves at Buck Island before 1600hrs:
After taking a quick break in the bathtub warm water in one of the granite pools at Buck Island, we surveyed the camping opportunities and found almost no one else around, which is extremely rare at that location. Some debate was had, but we eventually decided it best to push on to Rubicon Springs and keep our fingers crossed that it would be similarly deserted. The trail exiting Buck Island offers some of the most intense obstacles of the entire trail, and as soon as you leave Buck Island Lake in the mirror you are staring at Big Sluice, which is nothing to sneeze at:
At the bottom of Big Sluice is the infamous green bridge over the Rubicon River, which signals the entrance into the mecca of Rubicon Springs:
We stopped into the caretaker’s cabin at the springs, happily paid our $15 to secure a camp site for the evening, and then proceeded a few hundred yards North to find a beautiful camp spot right on the edge of the river. Camping and eating weaponry was again deployed, and we enjoyed a delicious potluck highlighted by carne asada provided by Mrs. OG and perfectly grilled by Mr. OG himself.
At some point a camp fire was lit, and as per the rules I went to sleep:
Monday morning was very leisurely, with OG making eggs and Craig walking around camp with a mountain of delicious bacon for everyone to savor. Just as the sun crested the ridge to our East, we broke camp and headed for Cadillac Hill:
Observation Point lies at the summit of Cadillac, and the group bunched up for a photo op to commemorate the event.
At this point the most difficult portions of the trail were behind us, but the wheeling was far from over. There are still a few miles of trail to be traversed before meeting up with the dirt road that eventually takes you to the trailhead/exit near Tahoma, CA. We stopped for lunch near Miller Lake before airing up at the parking lot and finally hitting pavement again:
Craig headed North toward home, but the rest of us headed back to South Lake Tahoe for an evening of fine food and spirits at the Hard Rock hotel:
Overall, it was another one for the record books. The Rubicon is hard, period. It’s miles and miles of continuous difficult trail, the likes of which we simply don’t have here in the PNW. Throw in the awesome scenery and the good times of a road trip on each end, and it’s truly an experience. Thanks again gang, can’t wait for the next one!
