Rubicon Run Sep 2006

A brief synopsis of the Rubicon trail trip.

Tom, Penny, Mikey, Art and I headed south Friday evening at about 9. We got Just past Portland before the sandman came calling. We stopped at a highway rest stop around 1:30am and slept till around 5am. We drove a few more hours before stopping for breakfast. After some warm food, we headed to Robb’s stopping about every 200 miles to stretch and get some cool refreshments.

We arrived at Robbs somewhere in the neighborhood of “evening time†and we were delightfully surprised to find GaryTJ already there. He had Marks truck though, as his decided to suffer a spectacular transmission failure somewhere around Chehalis on his way down. We got the Jeeps unloaded off of Tom’s massive 25-foot toy hauler, and headed to the Bar for some Drinks. What an entertaining evening as we had the pleasure of meeting the one and only, Johnny Nugget: a great old Clamper and prospective hopeful for the position of Governor of California. He is also full of more BS than yours truly. We enjoyed some cold beers and philosophical discussion long into the evening, before heading off to bed. We all camped out on Tom’s trailer, under the stars and dreamt of rocks to crawl, and a full week’s worth of fun.

We got up bright and early on Sunday. Grumbling about the frost on our sleeping bags, we headed to the bar for a hot breakfast of biscuits and gravy, eggs and bacon, with plenty of toast. We had a rather “large†audience at the breakfast table, as there are two Great Danes that reside at Robbs. They casually circled our table in hopes of handouts. After breakfast, we waited for Moose and Crew to arrive. Ed D finally showed up solo. He went on ahead of the group to let us know that Ilene was having overheating issues with the tow rig. Everyone finally arrived. We finished packing up the rigs, made a few phone calls and pointed the Rigs toward Loon Lake.

Aired down, disconnected and in 4LO, we headed into the Rubicon one by one. The Group Consisted of Tom and his Dad, Art; Moose, Mary, Ilene, GaryTJ, Penny and Mikey, Ed and Erick, and myself. Not even a mile into the trail, and we came upon a group that had rolled a Toyota pickup. Tom and Penny got to work winching them back onto their tires, and the forest Ranger came by to inform us of the rules. Amazingly, nobody in the  Toyota group had a winch, so if we didn’t come by, they would have been in a pretty bad situation for a while. We got past that mess, and had to do a little shuffling as there was an XJ group coming out of the trail as we were headed in. I was playing in the granite bowl trying to climb one of the stairsteps. My rig started bouncing, and the cooler popped open, 3 beers fell out and crashed to their foamy demise on the rocks. This was rather unfortunate, as I only had a 6 pack with me. Done playing, and cooler fully secured, we trailed on only to have Ilene twist up her rear driveshaft in pretty much the same spot I was when the beer massacre occurred. I had spare parts with me so we pulled my old driveshaft apart (with winches, I might add) and GaryTJ welded her up a fancy new one out of the parts. Finally, everyone fixed and happy we headed about another 50 yards before Mary started having ARB compressor issues. We decided that we would make it to camp and fix her in the morning, as it was getting late and we needed to get to camp in the first place.

We got to about walker hill, when a guy came running up behind us. He was having steering issues on his full-size Chevy. Gary and I turned around and went to help the guy out. His steering box had pulled from the frame. Gary welded that up for him, and we found out that he had sheared two of the 3 bolts that held his steering arm to the knuckle. Gary welded that together and we cautioned him to take it very easy on his way out of the trail. We hadn’t even finished turning around yet and this guy had started his rig up and was making full throttle assaults at damn near everything in sight. We got away as quickly as possible. (We later learned that the dude spent the night on the trail, under his broken truck)

Gary and I had a rather fun evening night wheeling to camp. We got just past little sluice and Gary got hung up a little. He managed to snap his passenger side stub shaft. He had a shifty front locker in the first place, so he was in 2wd all the way to camp. I would like to add, that he asked for my help, and I actually pulled his monster Jeep with my little tiny 4cyl. No pictures, but it really did happen.  Make sure he pays his tow fees at the next meeting. The rest of the night wheeling trip was rather fun. We got to camp about 10 minutes behind the main group, this included about an hour trip for repairs and also included us getting out of the rigs about 10 times to find out where the trail was. So I guess we made good time, considering.  Tom and Penny cooked dinner and we relaxed, set up camp and had an early bedtime.

Day Two:

We woke up bright and early to hear the maniacal laughter of some fool staring at the percolator waiting for the coffee to brew. We had breakfast and decided to run little sluice. We headed that direction but not without Ilene Earning herself the nickname “Turtle†as she had found a wonderful rock to get high centered on.  And my exhaust caught a rock and bent itself into configuration number one. (More on this later) In configuration number one, the muffler hits the driveshaft, thus making a funny rapid banging noise pretty much constantly. We stopped and tweaked it off of the driveshaft then continued on to Million Dollar Hill.  We all successfully navigated Million Dollar Hill, some more flamboyantly than others. We headed on to little sluice to watch Tom attempt the obstacle. He tried and tried but he couldn’t get the right line. After about 15 minutes of making attempts, he backed out and took the bypass. Next up, we had me. I wasn’t going to try the obstacle, but I thought the bypass itself looked pretty gnarly so I gave that a try. During one of my several attempts at picking the correct line up the bypass, my exhaust bent itself into configuration number two. In configuration number two, the tail pipe drags on the ground and requires a hose clamp to hold it up. A trio of guys in a huge Toyota showed up and we talked for a while before heading back to camp for dinner. On the way back to camp, my exhaust mangled itself into configuration number 3. In configuration number 3, the hose clamp that was holding it in configuration number two gets ripped off, but is no longer required. However, the tailpipe rubs on the passenger side rear shock thus heating it up causing it to explode. I wasn’t the only one to have trouble as Ed broke an axle u-joint in “Kermit.†Boy had I been there before. Dana 30? That’s my forte.  15 minutes later, I had a spare shaft in there and he was on his way. I knew I brought all those spare parts for a reason.

We finally reached camp and relaxed. Some took hot showers provided by Mary, others headed to the reservoir to wash up. Let me tell you that reservoir was refreshing. So refreshing in fact, it took your breath away.  Dinner was served (thanks Moose and Mary!!! Awesome chili!!!) and we had another early bedtime. Not having a campfire while camping really dampens the evening hi-jinx.

Day Three:

Another early morning. Wake up to birds chirping, wind whistling through the pines, and some crazy guy cackling over a coffee pot. Hot breakfast and the consensus to trail down to Rubicon Springs. I think this was my favorite section of trail Big sluice was a blast. I kind of got to do some “solo†running as the crew in front of me was really moving, and the group behind me was going mighty slow.  It was rather neat as I got to pick and choose where I wanted to go. At one point I thought I was getting the famous TJ suspension “lifties†where the tire picks up off the ground. No sir, I had TWO tires off the ground. A little pucker factor, a missing seat cover, and I finally caught up to the group in front of me. During big sluice, my exhaust became configuration number four. Configuration number 4 is where the tailpipe rubs on the track bar and also the rear passenger side shock, which has previously exploded due to heat. We got to Rubicon springs and saw the sights. Gary directed everyone to his favorite place, the bar, and we all had a good laugh. The idea to have the batwing carved into it was suggested, however declined. Once we had our fill of touring the area and seeing the sights, we all loaded up and tackled Big sluice going up. There were a few tricky sections that some of us had some trouble with. Ilene’s rig was having problems as she is carbuerated and going uphill isn’t something it really likes doing. She finessed it and try as she might, her starter gave out. About the same time, Moose broke a rear pinion yoke on his model 20 rear end. Talk about problems. Moose got himself fixed with the assistance of Gary, and most everyone else stopped to help Ilene get fixed. (I’m pretty sure the majority of the group stopped because Ilene and I had dinner that evening and we were serving Steak). Tom, Gary, Art, and Moose all worked together to Rebuild the starter, it was re-installed back in the Jeep and to camp we headed. Between that spot and camp, my Muffler hit another rock and the exhaust system contorted into configuration number 5. In this configuration, the tailpipe no longer hits the track bar or the shock. It does however, point straight down at the ground and blow up huge clouds of dust. I thus earned the nickname, “Pig Pen†as no matter where I went, I had a huge cloud of dust in my wake.

We finally got back to camp and  Steak and Potatoes was served for dinner and of all people, Gary declined. He was feeling poorly. And for Gary to decline steak, he must have been feeling bad. Drinks were also had, in abundance. If you want to hear the full story on that, ask Erick. What I heard from the story is somebody got pretty tipsy and successfully infiltrated the sleeping bag of another Timber Tamer.

Day Four:

Ahhh.. the fourth day on the trail. What fun we were all having at this point. Everyone expected the human coffeepot alarm to go off. It did and fresh, hot coffee was poured. Over breakfast we discussed running Old Sluice up and over House Rock. We headed in that direction without the company of Ed who didn’t want to ruin his fancy paint job and Ilene, who decided that her carburetor didn’t do well at vertical hill climbs. We ran old sluice, I invented the “New Stuck†and we all had fun. Penny showed us all how to drive by taking the line I initially wanted to and driving over it with no problems. The only conclusion that can be reached is the fact that I suck at driving.

We got to the top of Old Sluice and Tom found a neat little “platform†rock to pose his Jeep on. We all took pictures and enjoyed the view of the trail WAY down below. Moose and Gary were slow in catching up so we all relaxed in the little shade there was. As Tom was getting his rig off of the poser rock, he broke a front axle shaft. We limped him back to camp and had one of the most frightening moments of the trip. As Tom was going down a rather off camber downhill section, he got a little hung up. (He only had 2wd so he was really impaired) I used my winch to get him pulled back and onto better ground but this proved to be a little more dangerous than previously anticipated. The more I pulled him back, the more both of our rigs tipped. Art “rode†Toms rear fender and Gary “rode†my Jeep to keep me from rolling. Erick directed traffic and we eventually got off the hill safely, however there was lots of pucker factor. If either of us had rolled it would have been really nasty as we were hooked together via my winch cable and with Art and Gary riding the rigs, and Erick in the path of the cable had we gone down hill it would not have been pretty.

We got back to camp around 2 in the afternoon. Ed had his Jeep “Kermit†washed and waxed by hauling buckets of water from the reservoir. Boy was it shiny. Penny and I decided to run back to Robb’s to get Tom’s spare axle shaft. I got a list together of “essentials†and we were off to get spare parts. This quick trip to Robb’s turned into an epic saga as I managed to blow a tire. I had left my spare back at camp, so I borrowed Penny’s spare and we were on our way. Not even 2 miles of trail later and I had blown another tire. Well, we had no spare but I did have 3 tire plugs in the rig. We put a plug in the sidewall and we were on our way. We made it to Robb’s and grabbed the “essentials†that folks requested. One of the guys there couldn’t believe that Tom had broken a Chrome alloy D44 axle shaft and he was only on 36’s. He asked us if we had actually SEEN it broken. Kind of funny really.

All loaded up with spare parts, and that which folks had requested, and we headed back into the trail. About a mile back in, not only did it get dark, but my tire spit the plug out that we had previously installed. Tom put two plugs in and we aired it back up and were on our way. This proved to be a false sense of security, as we had to stop about every 200 yards because the plugs would start leaking. When we heard the hiss of air coming out, Tom would pull the plugs out, I would hold my finger on the hole, Tom would put the plugs back in the tire, we would add air and continue. We got pretty proficient at this process, as we had to repeat it so many times. The icing on the cake though, was we were a stones throw from camp and the plugs came all the way out. Ed and Erick got on the CB and started asking questions. Tm and I just yelled back to camp we were so close.  As a bonus, Ed and Erick had hot food waiting for us when we got back to camp. Those guys were heroes.

Day Five:

Thursday we didn’t do any wheeling. We all relaxed around camp, took naptime, and I fiddled with my tire issues. I also noticed that my Transfer case was leaking out of the rear output yoke. I fixed that, and got my rig on 4 tires that held air. Tom fixed his axle problems too.  Some folks took more naptime, some folks went out for a romantic picnic, and some folks went hiking around Buck Island Reservoir and Rockbound Lake. I hiked up over the hills to the North. If you ever get the chance to wheel the Rubicon, do some hiking as well. True you can see some really beautiful stuff from your rig, but hiking over a hill or two away from the trail, and you really respect the area. You notice a lot more of the intimate details of the area too. Not just the Jeep trail.

In the evening drinks were poured, a dinner of Mac and Sausage was served my Gary and Mike, and from out of  the blue, A Jeepster Commando group showed up. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Moose so excited. He saw just one of the Rigs coming through and leaped out of his chair screaming “Another BULLNOSE!!!!â€. That was just one. There were 17 of them total. Moose Parked his rig right next to the trail and sat on the hood as they all passed by. One of them was limping his rig with a broken steering box. So half of their group camped further down the trail, and the other half camped right across from us. This proved to be a mistake of theirs because there was a mid evening showing of the batwing as well as some noisy Tamers disturbing the peace. What fun was had, as we all knew it was our last night on the trail.

Day 6, the last day:

The morning of the last day came all too quickly. Coffee was announced, and breakfast was served. After breakfast a race of sorts was on. You see the Jeepster group across the way was madly trying to pack up camp before us. As we were trying to pack up camp before them. Both groups were in fear that they would get stuck behind the other and it would take all day to get off the trail. It was a funny little race but in the end, the Tamers were victorious. Amusing too, as they never did catch up to us.

On the way out, I managed to reposition my exhaust into configuration 6. In configuration number 6, the tailpipe rubs on the rear track bar and squeaks every time the suspension compresses, but you still have the pigpen style dust cloud behind you. The tailpipe was also pinched shut, later to be found out at the final exhaust configuration, on the way home when my muffler exploded.

We had a few problems getting out of the trail. Most notably, Penny hopped out of her Jeep and hurt her ankle real bad. She was such a trooper though. We taped it up at Rubicon Springs and she made it all the way up Cadillac hill with not so much as a peep. When we arrived at top of the world, the rigs were lined up and pictures were taken. Penny rode passenger in her rig while Tom drove and Art drove Tom’s rig.

We moseyed out of the trail and reached Tahoe around 1:30. We aired up, and most of the group headed to South Lake Tahoe to get motel rooms and hot showers. I headed off to my Moms up North. Turns out she was just getting home, so I got to wheel some more. We ran the 3 lakes trail overlooking the Feather River Canyon. What a blast as there were mostly huge Toyota FJ-40’s on 38 to 40 inch tires there, but I held my own on my tiny 33s.

After a week of fun, I headed towards home. Up over Mt. Lassen, which is always fun, but this time it was in the snow. And on towards Seattle.  An awesome trip to say the least. . I wouldn’t change a thing except maybe getting my exhaust fixed before heading out.

Thanks for some great times.

Until Next time,

Karl VP

“The official Timber Tamers whipping boyâ€