| The Rubicon Trail is perhaps the most
famous 4x4 trail in the country. It is located in the
Sierra Nevada mountains west of Lake Tahoe and offers an
amazing combination of hardcore rock crawling and beautiful
alpine scenery.
Since it was our first time through the 'Con we wanted
some people familiar with the trail to join us. We
were lucky enough to have some folks from one of the local
4x4 clubs offer to guide us through. Even better, they
are all involved with
and the
so they were really able to educate
us on the problems facing the trail and proper trail
etiquette. Their contacts through those groups also
came in handy on the trail.
We met two of our guides at the Loon Lake staging area
and headed across the first slab to Gatekeeper. We had
a little trouble at first since the trail was a little wet
and it was starting to get dark. But we managed to get
through and headed on to the Granite Bowl. We stopped
at a big ledge to snap some pictures and get some video.
The sun was almost down so our guides urged us on. The
trail is tough enough in the daylight and the lack of light
was going to slow us down even more. We headed across
the bowl, running into a couple more problem areas at the
stairsteps and a rock garden. But with some strapping
we kept moving.
We made it up to the main trail and headed toward
Wentworth Springs to meet up with the third guide and
another H3 owner. That was also where we would be
setting up camp for the night. After some trouble at
an intersection trying to find the trail, we finally met up
with the guide and rolled into camp around midnight. A
quick bite to eat, a couple drinks, and everybody hit the
sleeping bags.
The next morning we were joined by the last H3 owner who
had spent the night in Georgetown. We now had our full
party of four H3's, two Toyotas, and an older Bronco.
We headed back up the trail toward Ellis Creek. We
were starting to get better about picking our lines so we
were making much better time than the night before.
The daylight probably helped as well. We ran into a
couple more obstacles that required getting out the tow
strap or hooking up the winch. As expected on this
trail, we ran into a lot of traffic, but we were usually
able to pull off to the side fairly quickly and let the
faster groups by.
We made a quick stop at Ellis Creek for lunch and watched
all the modified Jeeps and Toyotas roll by. After
lunch we made our way up Walker Hill and down towards Little
Sluice and Spider Lake. We decided to setup camp at a
nice open area near Little Sluice. We got our camp
setup and then hiked over to Spider Lake to cool off.
The temperatures had been over 100 degrees and with the dust
and all the rock stacking, we all could use a swim.
Then it was back to camp for some barbecue, beers, and a
campfire.
Our guides had left their trailers at Loon Lake so we
weren't going to continue on to Tahoe. We packed up
camp again and headed back out the way we came in. We
were still within site of our camp when we ran into all
kinds of trouble. Maybe it was too early in morning
but we all got stuck at one spot or another on this hill.
After a little drama with some other motorists and a couple
sheriffs we got ourselves unstuck and up the hill. If
it hadn't been for the experience and contacts of our guides
it could have turned into a nasty situation. But by
the end, the sheriffs were joking around with us and
everyone was on their way.
The rest of the way out went much better than the last
two days. Our guides had gotten better at spotting us
and were getting used to how different IFS handles than a
straight axle. And we had all gotten better at picking
our lines and following them. We heading back across
the bowl, out Gatekeeper, and were at the Chalet by early
afternoon. Since some of us had to drive back to the
Bay Area and Southern California, we said our thank you's
and goodbye's and headed home. It was an amazing trip
and I can see why thousands of people drive the trail every
year. I can't wait to go back and finish the rest of
the trail.
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