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My First Rubicon Adventure

4th of July, 1999
Click pictures outlined in yellow, to see larger versions of them.

My truck does get some pretty good flex from the Rancho softride 4" springs in front, with 2 1/2" springs and 2" blocks in the rear. The swaybar disconnects from Off Road Designs add a couple inches of flex too.

I've seen some people write that the Rubicon trail is a difficult place to drive a four wheel drive.
Ranking The Rubicon and some other trails... by the Jeepers Jamboree
The Rubicon; by Glenn Wakefield
Rosenkrantz vs. Rubicon Trail 1996
Off-Road.com's Rubicon 99
3rd Annual Lost Coast 4x4's Rubicon Bash.

I'd believed them, but only to a degree. It's supposed to be a trail where some people can't go through without using a winch, or the bypass (cheater) routes. My brother Steve, Eric H., and I decided it was about time to see it for ourselves. We headed up Ice House Road from Highway 50, and tried to camp at Loon Lake. The 4th of July is a busy weekend for the Rubicon.
We found a campsite that was empty, but was reserved. Even though it was already 2:00 in the morning (Berg's are not noted for getting early starts on their trips) when we got to the campground, we didn't want to have to move once we set up camp. Eric, at our overnight camping spot.

We decided to move on. We found a spot near the road, and camped just off a fire trail.
The next morning we got on the road past Loon Lake. When we got to the parking lot at the beginning of the Rubicon Trail, we stopped to air down our tires. (Tires with lower air pressure grab the rocks better.) I got busy joking to the other guys in the parking lot that the Rubicon didn't seem all that hard so far. (About half a mile of gravel road.) The guys that had just come off the trail didn't even seem amused by my clever repartee. It was if they'd just gotten off a tuff trail and didn't have any sense of humor left. Undaunted, we headed off to see the Rubicon. We started across the slabs of granite, and proceeded to get to the end of another camping area... It seemed we couldn't even find the beginning of the trail.... We saw some other guys heading across the rocks, and followed them to the Rubicon.

A jeep that came down,
while we waited to go up.

As we got to the trail which tapers down to some obstacles which only one vehicle at a time can pass through, we stopped and waited for some Jeeps to come down through.
Then, a couple monsters rolled through that may have started out as Jeeps, but not much Jeep was left. They had custom drivetrains from engine to tires, with monster axles in between. The suspension had been laid out with some awesome articulation. One of the monster Jeeps drove up to the top of a two foot rock with one of it's 40" tires, keeping the other three firmly on the ground. The other monster drove up the rock and over the top of the "high" tire... STILL KEEPING IT'S OTHER THREE TIRES PLANTED FIRMLY ON THE GROUND!!! I'd seen stuff like these Jeeps in magazines, but not in person.

What happened when it was our turn to go up through the "Gatekeeper" obstacle, is subject to interpretation. (My brother Steve has a different explanation of our trip to the Rubicon than mine.)

Blade
The Gatekeeper is a tight portion of trail with two foot or larger rocks that have to be driven over. Even with 4" of lift, a swaybar disconnect, 33" tires, a rear Detroit locker, and a Detroit True Track limited slip differential in front; I wasn't able to drive over the rocks.

Here I'm stuck, and putting some rocks under
my tires to give me the traction to get through.
(It didn't work. I guess I should have used more rocks.)

I slammed my transmission, front and rear differentials, both Nerf bars, and dragged the front and rear edges of my truck on the rocks. Finally, I let a guy with a winch drag my truck through. Since I'd had such poor luck going through, Steve decided not try. I turned my truck around, and went back through the "cheater" route. It was almost too narrow for my Blazer to fit through. I finally squeaked through, and we headed back out. Since we hadn't done so much four wheeling, we decided to explore a few dirt forest service roads.
Blade

Steve
I would have to say that most of my brothers account of our 4th of July weekend is accurate. In fact I wouldn't contradict him, except for the fact that he asked me to.
I will preface "MY" version by saying that Blade is one (I have three) of my older brothers, and occasionally (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) brothers can be a bit competitive, and might even tease each other.
I offer this as a different interpretation of the story (perhaps this is why they tell you to "...tell the WHOLE truth..." when you are in court). I began telling this version while we were all relaxing back at the cabin, and after everyone else had heard Blade's version.
Lastly, keep in mind that my version may be missing a few minor details...

My brother and I went four wheeling on the Rubicon over this last 4th of July weekend. I must admit I was concerned that my pickup would have problems, as it has open differentials (My brothers truck is locked in back, has a limited slip in front and is generally a more squared away trail rig than mine). As it turns out, I didn't have any problems to speak of (on the Rubicon). He however, ended up getting stuck on the FIRST major obstacle we encountered. When he began leaking transmission fluid (due to damage sustained on this obstacle), I suggested we turn around. He agreed that this would be a good idea, so I had to find another trail to get my pickup stuck on (later in the weekend, I got to "modify" my exhaust, on a rock).

Steve

As we headed back toward the trailhead, we found a few minor obstacles to traverse. Here I'm getting my truck tilted a bit... and Steve drives off a ledge.

Steve drove up a few side trails and found that there were some hills that even his truck were unable to climb. Eventually we made our way back to Placerville, and then back up to the Finnish cabin where we stayed the next couple days. Camping is fun, but it's also nice to be able to cook breakfast on a stove, take a shower, and sleep in a bed.

For the Fourth, we went into Lake Tahoe (on the road) to see the fireworks. They started the fireworks pretty late, and they show had a fairly odd pace. They set off a bunch of rockets, then they'd wait, then lots more, etc. It was a good show and went on for quite a while. The finale was one of the best any of us had seen. We went gambling for about an hour so we wouldn't get caught in the traffic trying to get away from the lake. None of us won any money, and the traffic was still pretty hellish when we did finally leave.

The next day Steve and I did a little more exploring in our trucks. We drove from the cabin to where there were some other roads. Going cross-country over terrain that doesn't have any marked trail or road is pretty cool. We did find that driving over fallen trees, or small upright trees can be somewhat tricky. We also found that some rocks can test the limits of a truck's articulation.

When we finally called it a weekend and headed back to the bay area, my truck broke down. :-( It is a pretty common occurrence for my truck to break on one of my four wheeling trips. It would be kind of nice if that trend to end. I had to bring my truck back from Sacramento on the back of a tow truck. At least I have CSAA (California State Automotive Association) "Plus" coverage. I had my truck towed a hundred miles or so (for free) to a shop that my dad has been using for years. It turned out that the ignition module in my distributor had gone bad. Not related to my four wheeling, but still a break down on a four wheeling trip. It's a good thing that my brother Mark keeps an extra car or two, so he can loan one to me, when my truck breaks down.

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