WEST COAST 4-WHEEL DRIVE CLUB, INC.
PO Box 28583
Santa Ana, CA. 92799
www.westcoast4x4.com
September 09-September 12, 2010 Rubicon Trip Report
Hosted by John Hively and Michael Johnson
Reported by John Hively
Attendance:
Michael Johnson w/passenger Dad, (John Hively)-Jeep TJ (highly modified)
Ron Guptill-Jeep TJ Rubicon
Vince Jones-Toyota Landcruiser
“Gabe”-1984 Jeep Wagoneer (very highly modified)
George Mansour- Jeep YJ
Mansour (Vince) Mansour-Jeep Rubicon Unlimited, 2dr
(All are Westcoast members, family or friends, except for Gabe. Gabe just finished his latest revision to the Wagoneer he has had since he was 16 years old. He queried Pirate 4x4 to see if anyone was planning a Rubicon trip—Michael invited him. Gabe is a deep water diver for the US Navy and resides in Alpine CA, east of San Diego. He was a true pleasure to have on our trip and I’m sure—a real asset to the Navy.)
Thur 9/09: 12:00 noon; Michael & John, Ron and Gabe depart from Michael’s house, collecting Vince Jones at the 57 freeway and Lambert. Caravan to Pollock Pines for dinner via 57 fwy, 210 fwy, I-5 and Hwy. 50. Arrive 8:45 pm to find Los Hermano’s restaurant stops cooking dinners at 8:00 pm—no problem; Italian restaurant across parking lot is open and has great pizza with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on tap to wash it down with. Vince generously treats us all to dinner. Thank you very much, Vince. After dinner we fuel our rigs, buy ice and firewood and head for Loon Lake.
It is about 11:00 pm by the time we get to Loon Lake after a beautiful starlit drive through the forest. We park our tow vehicles along the roadside between Northshore Campground and the 2nd dam. George and Mansour arrive about midnight. We sip some suds for awhile and then hit the sack.
Fri 9/10: We have coffee and rolls and hit the trail by 8:00 am. Already some traffic and a lot of new arrivals pouring in. It seems this weekend is Marlin Crawlers annual Customer Appreciation event and he has 160 pre-registered—we hope to be ahead of most of them. We say “hi” to Randy Burleson who is conducting a meeting with some trail volunteers, giving instruction and material fore their respective assignments. (Note: In my approx. 16 Rubicon trail trips over as many years—I have never seen so much trail maintenance/improvements as on this trip—truly amazing what volunteers are doing.) A lot of tow rigs are parked at the trailhead kiosk area. We find many people camped along the trail before we reach “Gatekeeper”. Once we hit the slabs, the group decides to let more air out of their tires. We proceed to the Little Sluice with Michael and Gabe each nicely negotiating the optional “Soup Bowl”. Everyone except Michael and Gabe take the bypass known as “Toyota Hill” on the right side of the entrance to the sluice. Michael picks a line, but keeps slipping off the rock he wants; picks a different line, pivots around a huge boulder and successfully drives the Little Sluice. Gabe tries the line Michael slipped off of and with his rear steer (he’s running Rockwell deuce and a half front axles, both front and rear), keeps his 47” tires on the rocks! Both drivers deserve a “nicely done”. We have lunch while watching others try the sluice; some make it through—some don’t.
After lunch we continue toward Buck Island Lake and begin to encounter a lot of traffic and one Landcruiser broke his Dana 60 passenger side steering knuckle. This blocks the trail for an hour or more and there are about 25 rigs ahead of us—all stopped. Eventually the wounded rig is winched out of the way and we continue. We decide to take the route less travelled through the True Big Sluice while all the others take the conventional SLAB Route to Buck Island Lake. All is going fine, with only a little spotting required, until—Vince Jones calls out on the CB to Michael and I, “Hey guys, wait up—I tipped over”. Sure enough, we find Vince unscathed standing beside his beautiful orange Landcruiser which is laying flat on the drivers door! (You’ll have to ask Vince how this happened—we couldn’t figure it out!! Gabe snatchblocked his winch cable from a tree on the other side of Vince uprighted the Cruiser—no dents or scratches on the drivers side; but, the windshield frame is tweaked and the windshield glass is cracked in front of the passenger seat—could have been worse. Michael hooks his winch to the front and pulls him back in line with the trail, while Gabe stays attached keeping the Cruiser upright, both these guys deserve another “nicely done”.
We eventually rejoin the main trail and arrive at Buck Island. It is only 4:00 pm as we cross the spillway and we figure in an hour we should make Rubicon Springs……..Well, in an hour we are still Lakeside at Buck Island. It is going to be a long, slow, painful ride to the Springs behind this large group struggling along (where they shouldn’t be struggling). We decide to overnight at Buck—a wise decision. We camp about 50’ from the water in a secluded area with a fire pit and room for all our tents.
Sat 9/11: We coffee and breakfast around our campfire and observe a 'V' formation of nearly 30 Canada Geese pass directly overhead. We douse the fire and head for the Springs at 9:00 am—about an hour later than we like—but, the campsite was restful and scenic, so we did not hurry. The good news is we encountered no traffic all the way to Rubicon Springs—what a nice drive! BTW, Gabe had about 1.5” of clearance on each side with his Rockwells and huge tires going across the Rubicon River Bridge. George, Mansour, Vince and Ron decide to go up Cadillac Hill to Lake Tahoe and return to Loon Lake via Hwy. 50. Michael and I chat with Marlin for awhile (in typical Marlin form, he is enroute to repair a broken birfield axle for one of his guests!), then Gabe follows us back up the trail to Buck Island. Both rigs are OHV licensed so we could not come out the Tahoe side—besides; it is a different trail going the other way. We make excellent time and stop for Lunch at the Little Sluice again. We did not really rush—but, we arrive back at Loon Lake based toe rigs at 4:45 pm. This is even a little earlier than we’ve arrived on previous trips when we left Rubicon Springs at 8:00 am! Buck Island to the Springs and back to Loon Lake in 7 hours and 45 minutes is not a record—but; not bad! An hour and a half later Vince and Ron arrive via the “easy” route—George and Mansour departed South Lake Tahoe to head home via scenic hwy 395 (they obviously both drove their rigs while the rest of us trailered).
We enjoyed a great BBQ and drank way too many adult beverages before calling it a night.
Sun 9/12: Gabe is up and departs by 6:30am. The rest of use depart Loon at 9:00 am and Michael and I pulled in front of Michael’s house at 4:30 pm—that is the quickest return I can remember—and, yes we did stop for lunch!
Summary: We all had a great time, the weather was absolutely perfect (we never saw a cloud!) and the trail camaraderie was exceptional—thank you to all who attended.
Four photos attached……………
These four photos were posted on Pirate4x4 by Gabe; so far these are all we have. (Captions by John)
Michael Johnson and John Hively in Little Sluice; George Mansour observing.
Gabe in Little Sluice
Gabe (100” width) is almost too wide for Rubicon Bridge
Vince wondering who parked his Cruiser like that? George will attach Gabe’s winch cable to driver side roll cage and soon cruiser back on all fours—only windshield, windshield frame and Vince’s pride damaged…