RUBICON 8/13-8/17 2001

INTRODUCTION: It was my great pleasure to run the Rubicon trail this year with the DEHESA 4WD club, several Jeepaholics.com regulars and a few other guys from the internet, all of whom were not only exceptional drivers with well equipped Jeeps, but were all pretty good guys to boot. :) Now, since I'm always working on becoming a better photographer, during this year's Rubicon run I was constantly jumping about and getting in people's way while trying to take halfway decent photos of the action on the trail; anyway, because of that I wanted to start my gallery off with a quick apology since many other people's photos probably have my head in them somewhere blocking their shots so that I could get mine.

Here's my favorite trail quotes!
"You look like Keanu on crack"
"No, I'm going around, I have to save some balls for the Little Sluice"
"There's never enough time to do it right, but there's always time to do it again"

Trip report, Rubicon 8/13 - 8/17 2001

Monday 8/13 - Getting reacquainted with the old girl
Per my last conversation with Matt we were all to meet up at 9:00am at the campground at Loon Lake right before the entrance to the Rubicon to air down and prepare for the day. Of course I was behind as usual and didn't arrive till 11:30am or so, all the while wondering how far down the trail everyone would be at that point and whether or not I'd catch up to them, or meet up with them at Spider Lake. I felt better once I showed up and realized that they were still waiting on some other Jeeps anyway (Matt included :) After a few quick introductions we were off to the trailhead.

This year was my brother Tommy's 21st birthday and his present was to drive the Rubicon trail, alas the first obstacle got this quote out of him, "damn, this is a lot harder than it looks! You drive." and after that, I ended up driving the trail. Anyway, after we cleared the initial slabs we came to the Rubicon's gatekeeper, an interesting obstacle that reminds you what you are there for. I had never really wheeled much with long wheelbase vehicles before, so it was a rather new experience to see the different lines they had to take.

After the first obstacle there are a few little spots each with its own unique way of marking its territory on your Jeep. Once we made it past those obstacles we faced the biggest one of them all, which way was the trail? :) On those slabs pretty much everything looks the same.

Although it looks like there are a billion different options on where to go, as our fearless and unanimously voted trail-boss pointed out, they pretty much all lead to the same place anyway. He was in fact right, as we all ended up at the top where we should be.

Once we had cleared out of the slabs it was pretty much standard fare Rubicon rockcrawling, lots of good stuff. After not too long however we stumbled across something interesting, a nice little 2 step rock face that looked quite steep. What made this obstacle amusing was that there were lots of tracks leading up to it, and on it, but none on the other side of it. Several of the guys took a shot at it and it made for some pretty nice photo action. Unfortunately I wasn't ready for it when Chris pulled a nice big wheelie with his silver YJ. Here you can see a shot of Brad taking a stab at the climb.

After we stopped playing around on the rocks, it was back to business on the trail winding through the Rubicon's fields of boulders on our way to Spider lake. A comment that was pretty common this year was that the trail seemed to be a bit more difficult in general than it had in the past, and I definitely agree. Continuing on the trail we all opted for the bypass to the Little Sluice so that we could check it out later as we wanted to get to Spider and make camp. After stopping to repair my first trail related flat tire since 1995 (apparently I've had incredible tire luck) we squeaked through the tree obstacle and went on to Spider Lake to make camp where we would be staying for the next two nights.

My poor 2 week old tire with a 1.5" sidewall rip in it. :( I believe this was the first trail damage this trip.

Spider Lake is such a nice place to camp, its incredibly scenic, although, the downside is that since this trail is run so much and Spider is so popular, there are some aspects to it that are not that great.

Such as the fact that some people who apparently didn't want to use either the outhouse or port-o-potty decided to just do their business on the bare rock and leave their toilet paper right there as well! It is really quite filthy and a sad thing, these people need to learn that if you aren't going to use the facilities, at least cover up your business, it's not that difficult!

That aside overall I wasn't terribly upset about the condition of the trail which appeared for the most part to be relatively clean. There was a beer can or two about, but the trail in general was good, save for the people that need to read a book like "How to shit in the woods."

This is what it's all about!

Tuesday 8/14 - The rescue operation gone awry
After a morning of relaxing at Spider, Matt was off to help some guys that had broken down on their way out and were in need of a welder. With the company of a few other Jeeps we made our way towards the broken CJ5, however we hadn't made it far from camp before Greengo started complaining about her front end. Matt got out and took a look at it but there was no obvious reason for the sound. After climbing over a few more rocks louder noise prompted further investigation of the sound. Now that we were looking closely the problem was clear, the factory shackle hanger was cracked apart and separating from the frame

Flying in supplies for Jamboree

Ouch!!

So as it turned out the rescuers had to make a quick pit stop for a little self maintenance. Out came the welder and after a lot of banging, welding and cussing, the Jeep was back in action and ready to head off to find that stranded CJ5.

The master welder at work

Granted, we were on our way to bail these guys out, but the Rubicon is a great trail, so of course we all enjoyed ourselves on the way there anyway. Semi-amusingly enough, we actually ran into a group of oncoming traffic that had decided they would stop for lunch, but rather than pull off the trail, all 8 or so of their Jeeps were on it blocking any possible forward progress. I assume they realized the stupid idea they had of completely blocking the trail, as they ended up moving on once our entire rescue party had arrived.

Once we arrived we soon discovered that things were worse than we had expected. We had believed that a spring hanger had simply come off the frame and would need to be welded back on. As it turned out, the CJ5's front end wasn't engaging for some reason, they had spun an axle shaft, and had also broken the spring hanger.

While they were being put back into semi-working order, I headed down the trail a bit to see the twice weekly run Jeep Jamboree that appeared to consist mostly of foreigners all driving very heavily skid plated TJs bouncing down the trail towards us at a fairly alarming rate. With the fact that 30-40 Jeeps were right on our ass, we buttoned up the CJ5 and headed back as fast possible.

The rookie lineup

Chris negotiating the trees

This is no bueno!

Poor Matt was just not having a good morning, at some point on our way back, I believe on the tree obstacle, his right rear ladder bar that keeps his springs from wrapping up decided to break off.

The welder was not called into service for this break, at least not yet. A bit later in the trip the other one gave way and they were both welded back into place.

What would a Rubicon trip be without a shot at the Little Sluice? Alas, once we all walked down to take a look at it, the trail appears to have changed quite a bit. If you haven't seen it recently, the Little Sluice is definitely a very extreme obstacle. Only one lad in our group gave it a shot, and alas, we just couldn't get him over the first obstacle. Here's a few quick shots to show you the kind of nastiness he was up against.
So where am I supposed to go again	Pinned in	Assessing the situation	Send this to my family if he slips!

There was one guy who managed to get through the Little Sluice while we were there, he definitely had a pretty hard time of it and in the end, the only way he could get into the Sluice was to take a winch cable. Here are two pictures of him sitting on the first obstacle. He had dropped on it really hard and wedged himself in so tight that he not only couldn't be pulled backwards by a winch cable, but his shift linkage was jammed up and he couldn't start his Jeep, or get it out of gear! In all fairness, once he got over the first obstacle, he managed to work his way all the way through which if you had seen the trail, is quite a feat!

Wednesday 8/15 - The day of reckoning After breaking camp at Spider Lake we headed off to the trail, for the most part things were as usual, pretty much the same stuff everywhere, relentless rocks. We wheeled on to the Old Sluice and split off into two groups, the long wheelbase Jeeps and the Toy opted for the go around on the slabs to try to keep from getting their bodies torn apart, while the swb Jeeps ran the sluice. Of course, what would a four wheeling trip be without some carnage? So on our way to the sluice we hear that Kevin's yellow CJ5 was leaking oil. Well, once we walked back to check it out, we discovered that the reason it was leaking oil was that one of his motor mounts was breaking up and shifted into the oil filter punching a very small hole into it. Although trivial sounding, its more major than it seems, Jb weld would take 4hrs to set and we couldn't be certain it would hold up to the 40psi that the oil system produces. I'll take credit for this idea, what we did was to take a small screw and a piece of rubber (cut from a shock boot) and screw it into the hole, preventing the leaking. We later realized it was leaking extremely slowly, but that it was holding up.

Of course, we couldn't end the day with just one fix right? As it turns out Derrick's yellow CJ5 had a crack in the frame that needed some attention. Once again we called on Matt's welder to save the day. The funny thing is, the frame on this CJ is seriously beefed up with some extra plating, it figures it would crack in the one spot that was neglected!

Man.... not again

Right about that same time that the CJ was being welded up, a few of us decided to hike in and take a look at the Old Sluice and see what kind of shape she was in. Everything looked nice and kosher so we walked back, only to find that poor Matt wasn't having much luck either. Apparently the other ladder bar on his Jeep had broken off and was being welded back on when I arrived back at the Jeeps. I headed off with Derrick to catch up to the other guys on the sluice while Matt finished buttoning up his Jeep. Honestly, I think the ladder bars kept ripping off because of Matt's insanely flexy suspension, but that's just my opinion. :)

The Old Sluice was a fun section of the trail to run, lots of neat technical crawls while pinned inside, well.. a sluice. Here's a couple of shots of the sluice partway down. Of course, the real fun isn't till the big rock in the middle. Unfortunately, the trail has been eroded such that you don't even have to take a go around to get around that rock, you can just plain drive right around it like it wasn't there.

Of course, that wasn't acceptable to me, I had to try for the idiot award on this trip. I had remembered that Nasvik was able to go over the top of this rock once, so I figured, hell he did it, so I'd have to give it a try. It wasn't until later on when I looked at the pictures we took of him that he took a completely different line than me. Oh well, so much for rockcrawling ever being a sure thing. Anyway, once I got up on that rock, I must say I was quite apprehensive, it's a rather scary feeling being that high up and teetering your Jeep. Well, I've crammed in several pix of me on that rock, just cause I thought it was cool, so here they are.

	But the fun doesn't stop there! After we got off the Old Sluice and made our way to the dam, that semi-broken motor mount on Kevin's yellow CJ finally decided to give way so it was time for another trail repair. The cool thing about it was how well prepared everyone was. Yeah the motor mount broke, but we had everything from air tools to a sun shade to work with. Of course, the amusing thing was watching everyone work/watch the fix in progress, it was one of those "how many four wheelers does it take to screw in a lightbulb" moments. :)

After working out that little ordeal it was time to hit the trail again. Oh yeah, I have to slip this photo in, I think it was Mark that took it. Seems that my hair was getting a decent amount of attention, but of course I have no idea why :)

Unfortunately, Kevin's CJ was having a bad day; as it turned out he didn't get very far from the dam before his tie rod decided to essentially fold in half and his front tires were pointed towards each other. Looks like it was time for another trail fix. Amazingly, it worked extremely well.

Assessing the damage

She offered to do something for us, but I forget what

Bending it back

With handle in place

My idea was to leave the tie rod in place and use a winch cable under the axle to pull it down and bend it back into shape. In theory the idea is sound, however in practice it didn't really work. What did work was to take it out, bend it back into place using a shackle on Kevin's bumper, then slide a hi-lift jack handle over it to beef it up. Once we had that Jeep all patched back up again, we were off to run the Big Sluice, and what fun that was. Unfortunately on our way down, a couple in a pickup truck was on their way up and they had to wait for us all to pass. What was pretty cool however was that they had just married painted on the back window. Interesting way to spend your honeymoon, to each his own I suppose. :)

What a glorious sight to see!	After negotiating the Big Sluice we worked our way down into Rubicon Springs where we camped out for the night. Alas, I only stayed through Thursday and left with Kevin a day sooner than many of the others, although I believe Blair and Derrick worked their way up Cadillac hill Thurs as well. Here's a couple of pictures of the signs on your way in.

It was a lucky night for Kevin! When we wheeled into the Springs we stopped to pay and asked if they might have a spare motor mount for a CJ7 258 since the trail fixed one sheered the bolts that were being used to hold it together. In an incredible stroke of luck, the guy came back with not only a motor mount, but a new oil filter as well!

The best part was the install, we split up and left Kevin, Ken and Richard behind to do the repair while Derrick and I headed off to camp. Many hours went by and we were a bit worried about the repair. We couldn't help but join in a group laugh when we heard why it took so long. Apparently they accidentally put the motor mount in upside down and didn't realize it till they went to put the oil filter on and realized it wouldn't fit! You've gotta love that! :)

Thursday 8/16 - Let freedom ring
After having run out of food and water, I was pretty ready to get home to a nice cool shower. The Rubicon is a great trail but it definitely leaves you pretty grimy by the end of the week. I suppose my impending drive to LA was looming over my head, but either way I had a blast on the trail and it was time to get off of it. Being the schmoe that I am, some poor bastard that honestly had no right being on that trail was asking for help getting up Cadillac hill and I offered to escort him out. Apparently he had spun 3 driveshafts already and was down to his last one. After checking around, it wasn't just my opinion that he was probably driving like a madman to be breaking driveshafts like that, seeing as how no u-joints broke.

I confirmed that when I got him up to the first slab. He hit the gas and started to hop. We yelled at him to stop and asked how the driveshafts broke. He casually explained how he was hopping his front end up and down till it snapped. The real downside was that the other motor mount on Kevin's CJ had now broken completely as well. Apparently it was cracked before, but the stress of holding the engine up while the first one was broken was too much for it to bear. Because of this I wanted to be in front of him in case I had to strap him out, so the other guy that tagged along was on his own if he had any real issues.

Of course I thought to myself, lovely... what have I gotten us into. Anyway, rather than drag this on, to make a long story short, we escorted/taught him how to drive about halfway up and handed him off to another group of wheelers since we were semi-pressed for time; not to mention we didn't mind getting rid of the anchor we were dragging. NOTE: He had fully aired up street tires with very little lift if any, open front and rear, and had apparently never gone off road before, yet carried two spare driveshafts. Figure that one out.

So to conclude... It was a great trip with some great people. I was glad to have gone with them and look forward to wheeling with any of them again. I had a good time and hopefully everyone else did too. And, if all went well, my constant rousting of people on the trail didn't get too much on anyone's nerves.

Now, if you aren't totally Rubicon'd out, you can check out the rest of the photos below by clicking on any of the three links. The basic gallery categories are Jeeps in Action, Scenery, and a repairs page. All images are at 640x480 with 1024x768 as an option if I took the photo.

Gallery Options


See Jeeps in action!	Enjoy Rubicon scenery photos 800x600 only	Crack open the repairs page
Tony's 640x480
Tony's 800x600
	Take gander at the Geese of Spider Lake 800x600 only
Tony's 1024x768
Tommy's 640x480

ABOUT THE GALLERIES: Here you will find the photo galleries for the trip as a thumbnailed index of the better photos (IMHO) that I selected out of the many that myself and my brother Tommy had taken. Tommy was taking pictures at 640x480 while I was taking pictures at 1024x768. For the sake of those with smaller screens, and for ease of online viewing, I've converted my larger images to 640x480 and 800x600 as well. As far as the scenery and geese photos, if you want 1024x768 just let me know and you can have them, and no they won't have that copyright thing on them. So why is it there then? Being a complete amateur is one thing, but it would suck pretty bad if someone took one of those photos and used it for something that made money eh? :)