We hit the road with Phil and Marcia on June 20,
1997. The first part of our trip was to head down to Los Angeles to
visit Disneyland...that was the expensive part of the trip! We would
later meet up with Ian and Mary at Loon Lake which is the trail head
for the Rubicon. From the moment we crossed over the border into the
U.S. we have to say we were impressed and pleased with the reception
we received. It seemed that every car that passed us along the way
was tooting their horn or literally hanging out the window waving at
us. We enjoyed our first week in the L.A. and San Diego area, but
after a week of scorching heat (to us) it was time to hit the road
and find our way to Lake Tahoe - we were all pretty excited about it
after all the months of planning.
We arrived at Loon Lake some time on Saturday afternoon, June
28, with Ian and Mary showing up later that evening. We all had a
nice sleep-in Sunday morning but were packed up and driving out of
camp at about 1 pm. There was no hurry to hit the trail early Sunday
morning as we had allowed for six days to run
the Rubi. This would also allow some of the weekend crowd to wander
out before we Rubicon rookies tried our hand at it. Like we had read
in all kinds of articles, the re-inforced rockers ($22 angle iron)
got themselves a workout in the first 30' treed section of trail just
before the granite slab, even with 33'' tires and about 6" of total
lift. Our first complication of the day was when Ian hit this
30'section. His pintel hitch on his trailer got binded up when trying
to back up,but after about 20min. of prying we were mobile again. We
ended up adjusting both trailer eyebolts to remove any excess swivel
and that seemed to have fixed the problem. We drove out on top of the
granite slab and played a little while on the various steps testing
the trailers' approach and departure angles.
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Last pavement for 6 days
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Ian testing the hitch
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Andrew looking for a detour
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We were having a good run and enjoying the rocks until about
half a mile before the side trail off to Spider Lake. Ian ran into
more trailer problems...this one was a little bit uglier, but we all
needed a "wobbly pop break" anyways. He had built his trailer with a
single axle tube using independent coil springs with a two control
arm type design. The axle tube sheared where the left side control
arm was welded to it. We were fastening a bottle jack with duct tape
and tie-down ratchet straps to the broken area (it's all we had with
us for this problem), when the last weekend group came around the
corner. They asked if we needed anything and we jokingly replied,
"You wouldn't happen to have one of those underhood welders, would
you?" They laughed and said, "Afraid not, but we've got some rod and
enough batteries here if you've got some jumper cables." So we
connected three batteries in series with the cables, grounded the
axle with the negative and stuck a rod into the positive jumper
cable. Put on two pairs of sunglasses and a half an hour later with a
very big thank you to the Georgetown Misfits, we were mobile once
again. The Misfits unfortunately informed us that the Little Sluice
had been blocked by a very large boulder and that there was no way
around it on the Sluice, so we would have to take the bypass. The
bypass turned out to be, from what we could see, possibly as much fun
as the Little Sluice could have been. We rolled down into Spider Lake
at about 6 pm. The sixty foot run down into the Spider Lake area was
pretty entertaining. It had several steps and off camber sections
finally bringing you to rest on the flats. The best campsite, off to
the right, was taken by a couple of guys in Broncos. We were just
deciding to drive on and do some night wheeling, when Ian (this was
not his lucky day!) discovered that his left front leaf spring center
pin had sheared and his left tire was now rubbing the back part of
his front fender. We set up camp, lit a fire, cooked up our steak
dinner on it and had a couple of rum&cokes - the repair job could
wait until morning! We all slept late the next morning, except for
Ian who wanted to get going on the repairs. Unfortunately, it was
very cold and started snowing as Spider Lake is at a height of aprx.
6800 feet. The snow fall only lasted a little while and our Bronco
neighbours had headed out, leaving us the better sheltered area. So
we tarped off the treed area with a 30'x30' tarp, and used this as
our 'living area' and Ian's garage. We rummaged through all our tool
boxes and had him repaired, ready to go for the following day's run
to Buck Island Lake.
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On the way to Spider Lk.
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Ian@LittleSluice By-Pass
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Phil playing@Spider Lk.
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Looking for dinner@Spider
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Before we start this section, you'll be happy to know, as was
Ian, that his bad luck days were now over. We got up at about 9,
broke camp, did the breakfast thing, and we were off to find the True
Big Sluice. We were told that this would be a hard one to find...but
we chose to stay, after leaving Spider Lake, on the high side of the
ridge (took every right we ran into). This flukey 'guesstimation'
took us straight to a narrow gorge turning out to be the True Big
Sluice. Phil who was trailerless led the way (with spongy brakes).
This would allow Ian and Andrew a chance to spot and figure out this
section before they pulled their trailers through. Phil made a clear
run, but where the big boulder is (the tightest point of the whole
trail) he had to try several different lines to make it by unscathed.
This was not good news to Ian and Andrew due to the trailers' adding
an extra 7 feet to their total lengths. Ian was next with "Don't Fear
the Reaper" cranked on his stereo. He also made a clear run with a
little bit of rubbing on his right sidestep on the large boulder.
Last to go was Andrew who crawled through needing a couple of
bouncing trailer adjustments to make it around the large
boulders.
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Leaving Spider k.
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Adjusting a side step
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Phil entering the T.BigSluice
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Squeaaak!!!!!
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Phil in the T.Big Sluice
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Ian in the T.Big Sluice
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The rest of the drive to Buck Island Lake was pretty much
straight forward after negotiating the True Big Sluice section. We
arrived at the lake around 5 pm and set up camp. We built a sauna
with our tarp before it got dark and after a few drinks and a good
supper, went for a steam bath. We stayed there for 2 nights, played
around during the day, and watched other trucks come rolling in on
the Wednesday afternoon for the American long weekend. Danielle and
Phil had a riot chasing lizards and putting a snake in Andrew's
drinking cup. This was pay-back for the "must have been a cat fish
incident" which happened to splash Phil and Marcia during a water
crossing the previous day.
With great regrets, we left Buck Island Lake, which
was by far our favorite camping area. We then preceded to find the
Big Sluice which gave our suspensions a good workout. Just after the
Big Sluice, Andrew's trailer's tongue came undone at the trailer's
crossmember. It had been fastened by a lock nut but for whatever
reason it had worked itself loose, no big problem just a quick
replacement and a little bit of damage to the trailer box. Our last
day on the trail must have been Andrew's day for mishap. Just before
the Rubicon Springs area his rear locker let out a big bang-we all
know what that means.... time for lunch!! Luckily he had his original
spider gears. It turned out that the locker's drivers had blown apart
and he would be finishing the trail with an open diff. In any case,
an hour later we were rolling again. We wound our way up Cadillac
Hill without any problems and enjoyed the excellent view from atop.
We originally planned on staying at Miller Lake on Thursday, July
3rd, but we were warned about the mosquitos there. We opted instead
to drive back to Loon Lake, after resupplying at South Lake Tahoe,
and join the festivities. Saturday morning we packed up all our stuff
for the last time in preparation for the long drive home.
