Back home from the Rubicon Trial, whew!
Itinerary:
Day 1: Drive Prescott to Visalia
Day 2: Drive Visalia to Georgetown, missing the turn to Georgetown and taking some back roads to get there. Very tight and winding roads with the truck and trailer! Then to Auburn for dinner and back to Georgetown. The drive between Georgetown and Auburn on 49 was also no joke, winding steep roads that required your full attention despite the beautiful views. Stay at the American River Inn and leave my truck and trailer there (thanks to Dawn, the very accommodating innkeeper!).
Day 3 / Trail day 1: driver meeting at 7am in Georgetown. Drive to the trailhead (air down, BS a while). Start the trail at 8:30 and made it to Spider Lake just above Little Sluice around 4pm, well short of original plan for Buck Lake due to lots of traffic on the trail. Camp just above Little Sluice and regret it as there were several loud rigs making night wheeling passes on Little Sluice up to 1am!
Day 4 / Trail day 2: Leave camp at Spider Lake 9am and get into Rubicon Springs around 5pm, camp there. Camp along the Rubicon river is quiet and relaxing.
Day 5 / Trail day 3: Depart Rubicon Springs at 9am and get to the end of the trail near Tahoma at 2:30pm. Drive back to Georgetown and arrive 5pm for another night at the American River Inn.
Day 6 and 7: Drive back to Prescott AZ via Barstow.
The rigs in our group (6): My LJ, a 2 door JK on 35's, a 4 door JK on 37's, a 4 door JL (AEV build 392) on 37's, a 2 door Bronco on portals, and our guide in a 4 door JK on 35's. It was interesting to see the difference in lines that worked/didn't work for the variety of rigs builds and sizes. I think a 2 door was a good size as the 4 doors often got hung up underneath and had to take many turns with several attempts given their bigger turning radius. Truth be told, the Bronco was a beast and walked right over everything with 37's and portals giving it massive ground clearance. The AEV JL 392 was really heavy, fully kitted for overlanding, and got stuck the most and had to be winched once, the only time a winch line was pulled in the group.
My trip was put on by Barlow's Adventures. Our trail guide Nick is a Georgetown local who has been on the trail he whole life with countless runs of experience and knows all the locals. He and his son were excellent guides and fed us very well with hot breakfast and dinners as well as a sandwich bar for lunches. I highly recommend the Barlow trip if you looking to have a guide and have your meals provided for you. We had to bring our own tents and such but that was also available if you needed it.
I quickly realized that I would not be taking too many pics as the drive required two hands 99% of the time. My wife took some but she stayed in the rig most of the time as even walking it was not easy. I expect to have some good actions shots once the picture share for the group is set up.
The trail was a challenge, mostly due to the non-stop obstacles or just going over endless rocks, even if small. There are very few clear patches of trail. From what our guide told us, the trail changes a lot each year due to running water or big build rigs making holes and moving rocks, etc. Some of the stuff that was very hard for us was previously filled in but already eroded away. Some of the easier sections used to be harder. So, I have no idea how to compare it to how others have experienced the trail in the past. One thing is for sure, the dust/dirt on the granite is very slick and tires do not grab it well. Wheel placement and controlled speed are key. We had to bypass a couple of the really tough obstacles given the lines waiting and our rig/driver ability in the group, but even the "bypasses" are no cake walk.
The drive back to Georgetown from the Tahoma trailhead is well over 2 hours and made for a very long last day. Some in our group stayed in Tahoe that night and I'd do that next time as there is much more to do there versus Georgetown.
My rig did well and I used the lockers sparingly, right up to the point about half way through when I did not have a rear locker function yet again! I did the back half of the trail with only a front locker and it was not a problem. I did get hung up on my diffs many times and feel my 35's are a bit small for the trail, at least my 33.5" BFG KM3 "35s" combined with a Dana 60 in the rear. I did throw a code once for misfire / vapor lock but it was rough for just a bit and the next day the code cleared. I've got the DEI kit to better insulate the fuel rail and injectors and will get that installed soon. I am glad I brought extra gas as I think I would have been on fumes had I not.
We had great weather, highs maybe 80 degrees, sunny, and lows might have been low 60's. It was a bit hot with the hard top and we used the air conditioning most of the time and glad to have full doors/windows to control the dust which was really bad.
It was pretty crowded on the trail by the account of our guide, especially for a mid week trip. This weekend is a Jeep Jamboree expecting hundreds of rigs and I can't imagine how that is going to go. On our way out we had to pass many rigs coming down Cadillac Hill pulling trailers full of supplies (booze) for the jamboree. Seems like EJS for the Rubicon and while I am not up for it myself am very grateful for the ecosystem of people that maintain the trail and keep it open with events like the jamboree. The trail is spectacularly beautiful and I am so glad to have been able to wheel it.
Here are some pics to hopefully be amended with pics from others once I can get my hands on them:
My rig packed for the trip at the American River Inn in Georgetown. My shelf worked great and we had plenty of room for our stuff:
Rolling across the Loon Lake Dam approaching the trailhead:
The obligatory pic with the sign:
Things are getting real:
Not sure of the location of this one:
More typical terrain:
Glam shot near "Arnold's Rock":
Day 2, rolling into Buck Lake. We were on the same basic pace as a group with all female drivers that had a mix of well built Broncos and Wranglers and one 4runner, here we pass them by:
Another glam shot, this time during lunch at Buck Lake:
Coming up to Big Sluice:
Some of our group coming down Big Sluice:
Over the bridge into Rubicon Springs:
Camp night 2 at Rubicon Springs:
Going up Cadillac Hill:
Getting our group in position for oncoming traffic on Cadillac Hill. Many rigs going down with trailers of supplies for the Jamboree:
Finally airing up at the Tahoma trailhead:
That's a wrap of our trip to the Rubicon Trail.
