3rd Annual Lost Coast 4x4's Rubicon Bash

by Gil Meacham

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One of the best things about four wheeling is you get to make such wonderful friends. Two years ago at Easter Jeep Safari in Moab I met Jim and Bear Boyette from the Lost Coast 4x4's Club. This June, I was surprised and happy to see Jim and Bear were on the 16th Oregon Creek 'n Trail. After swapping trail tales, they graciously invited me to join them on the 3rd Annual Lost Coast 4x4's Rubicon Bash on July 4th.

I have wanted to run the Rubicon since I started four wheeling in my trusty (somewhat!) Nissan Patrol 25 years ago,but I hesitated at this golden invitation. I would not have time ($$$) to fully prepare "Crispy Critter" (my CJ5) for the Rubicon the way I would like. I was still running 2 piece axles, and I planned to swap out the engine. But, shat the heck, I decided I could not pass up the opportunity to run the Rubicon with such nice folks who have run the trail several times before.

We all met at Bear's house in Cameron Park on Thursday night for barbeque. As the rigs started pulling in, I was happy to see Crispy was about the middle of the group as far as trail modifications went. All of the rigs were Jeeps, although the Lost Coast club is not exclusively Jeeps. There were 4 CJ5's, 1 CJ7, and 3 YJ's. 33" tires were the order of the day, with lifts running the gamut from Dave Wheeler's YJ with helper springs and shackle lift to Carl Brandt's YJ with a new Rubicon Express spring over. All the CJ's and Carl's YJ were locked front and rear. The Steve and Dave's YJ's were open in the front with TracLok factory limited slips in the rear.

After a great barbequed tri-tip with all the fixin's provided by our chef and host Bear, we watched videos of previous Lost Coast runs. A few of the group went on up to the Icehouse to camp for the night. The Icehouse is the last store and gas before the trailhead.

Early the next morning, we drove the one hour drive up to the Icehouse and rejoined the rest of the the group. It was interesting that out of the 8 rigs and 14 people on the trip there were 3 father/son and 1 grandfather/grandson combinations. Participants included; Carl and Bryan Brandt in their Jeep YJ, Tim Gallagher and Larry Rutledge - Jeep CJ5, Josh Hampton - Jeep CJ7, Jim Boyett and Jeff "Bear" Boyett - CJ5, Dave Wheeler- Jeep YJ, Gil Meacham - Jeep CJ5, Steve Tatman and Dick Tatman - Jeep YJ, Chuck Warnow and Brian Warnow - Jeep CJ5. We all topped off with fuel, as this was the last gas before the trailhead.

Several miles later, we were at the end of the pavement. A few minutes later we were at Wentworth Springs campground, where we aired down and locked up. There is another trailhead at Loon Lake that joins up with the Wintworth trail a few miles in. That junction is at the "official" start of the Rubicon trail. But there is plenty of four wheeling before the "official" trail even starts.

About a hundred yards from the campground, we came to a rock step about 2 feet high. I was behind Chuck Warnow and his grandson, Brian, in the CJ5. Chuck went half way up the step, slipped back, then bounced. The rear driveshaft let go with a loud bang. Uh, oh! Five minutes into the Rubicon, and our first trail failure! Unfortunately, the only spare we could locate was about an inch too long. We waited while Chuck attempted to cut down the driveshaft, but the borrowed hacksaw couldn't touch the hardened spline. Chuck elected to use front wheel drive to head home.

Our original plan was to hit the trail early, and make Buck Island Lake by dinner time. That way we could finish the trail in two days without pushing too hard. Now our chances of making Buck Island Lake were looking kinda slim. After 3 hours on the trail, we were just arriving at the official start of the Rubicon Trail! Someone estimated our progress was about 1/4 mile per hour!

Once I heard someone say the difference between Moab and the Rubicon was the constant need for attention. In Moab, you typically drive easy trail for a few minutes between each obstacle. At the Rubicon it is obvious that as long as you are moving you need to be totally aware of your tire and vehicle placement. The continuous concentration on the trail immediately in front of you is the challenge. There are quite a few bypasses, but several difficult sections have no bypass. At Spider Lake, several vehicles have rolled on the bypass to the Little Sluice! If you don't take bypasses, I think the Rubicon lives up to its reputation as a tough trail.

Clearance was a very good thing on the Rubicon! Carl Brandt was enjoying the excellent clearance and articulation it gave his YJ. In spite of the stock gears, 2.5 litre 4 cylinder, 33" tires, and 6,000 + feet of altitude, Carl put the YJ through the trail with a minimum of fuss.

We came to a challenging section of rocks with a bypass on the way up to Watson Rock. I watched a couple of our party bang through the difficult section and decided to give it a try. Half way up it, Crispy gave a couple of loud bangs from the rear end. I stopped to assess the problem, and thought I had either spun and axle or broke the rear differential. I had the aweful thought of towing the Jeep over 800 miles to a trailhead and then break the rig in the first 3 miles of the trail. We could not find anything wrong but after playing with the emergency brake I was able to make it up the obstacle unassisted. I drove pretty gingerly the rest of the day, and started thinking the noise may have been a fluke (Sure!)

We continued on at a very slow pace. On the 4th of July weekend, there are more than 500 rigs going through the trail. With that many rigs going across the obstacles, there are bound to be failures. With the failures come delays. One of the biggest delays was going through the Little Sluice just before Spider Lake Campground. With a few hundred observers, gawkers, and hecklers looking on, negotiating the Little Sluice took a lot of concentration. When we saw about 20 rigs lined up to go through this famous obstacle, and we decided to take the bypass and setup camp at Spider Lake before it got dark.

This nice flatfender belongs to "Wildman Gary" of the Pirates of the Rubicon. Gary tried a couple of different lines before making it through Little Sluice, but he still made it look a lot easier than most of the rigs before him. The "Pirates" said they initiated a couple of new guys this weekend by having them drive the Little Sluice blindfolded!

While I was watching the action of the "Pirates" negotiating the sluice, someone pointed out "Oly" Olsen standing at the top of "Toyota rock". Oly runs a salvage yard in Placerville (the closest town to the trailhead). As legend has it, Oly blasted the rock from the wall above in an attempt to block the Little Sluice a few years ago. I happened to overhear Oly denying the story. He said it would be ridiculous for him to block the sluice, since he has been running this route for many years. He said there was a plaque at the entrance to the sluice falsely accusing him of "closing" the route. Obviously, he was not very happy about the legend.

As the sun dropped towards the mountain tops, the line at the Little Sluice got shorter, and Dave Wheeler decided to go get his Wrangler and drive up the Little Sluice. We waited around for quite a while, then walked back to camp. When we got back, Dave was pulling back into camp. He bent a spring trying to negotiate the bypass route back to the bottom of the sluice! With a bottle jack and a high lift jack, Dave was able to get the spring bent back to a useable shape.

We got up bright and early the next morning and broke camp. After a night of celebrating the 4th of July, it seemed many of the other groups elected to sleep in late. We took advantage of the late risers by getting on the trail ahead of almost everyone. As a result, we made great time to Buck Island Lake. This little dropoff required finesse and patience to drop off without hitting hard on the bumpers. (Note that I said hitting "hard"! Most rigs will hit at least a little bit on this ledge.)

When you read trail descriptions of the Rubicon, you usually don't envision driving through pools of water almost 3 foot deep. People always talk about the rocks so much it is easy to overlook there are several waterholes you must drive through. This one is right before coming into the campground at Buck Island Lake. It could be an engine drowner if you stray too far into the middle.

Once we reached Buck Island Lake, Bear and Jim Boyett paused to enjoy the beautiful scenery and perfect weather. This is one of those special places you have to come back and spend some time at. Next time I will bring my fishing pole!

There were some fun obstacles climbing up from the lake. The Forest Service changed the trail route to allow them to raise the level of the lake, so this section is new. It's tough, but makeable. Josh rubbed through a power steering hose on this section, and we took a little break while he taped and clamped the leak. Next we dropped down through the Big Sluice into Rubicon Springs. The Big Sluice has a couple of very large (VW size) boulders you have to straddle and ease down off of. Since they are in the shade, they get slippery. I slipped down off one, and landed pretty hard on a nerf bar. Later I noticed little crushed spots in the fenders above both nerf bars and the bolts had loosened. I'm glad the bars took most of the impact, or I would have a lot more than the little dings I got!

Coming into Rubicon Springs campground, there were a couple of honest-to-goodness mud bogs on some side trails. We came across this Scrambler up to the gunnels in gumbo! They tried to winch him backwards out of the tank trap, but the hidden four foot ledge into the bog was too verticle to get pulled back up and over. They ended up winching him out forward!

Pulling into the campground at Rubicon Springs, I heard a pop from the front end, and then noticed a grinding noise. When I examined the front end, I saw the front knuckle u-joint was broken. I had 3 driveshaft universals with me, but no knuckle universals. Luckily, Josh Hampton had one with him. I pulled the axle and made the repair. It turned out it had to be a temporary repair, since the stub axle was a little egg shaped. When I got home, I would have to replace the axle and the universal.

After the quick pit stop for a new knuckle joint, we were back underway. Three of the rigs decided to stay over at Rubicon Springs. The rest of us decided to go ahead and complete the trail. There was only Cadillac Hill left to go before we were on the road back home.

The trip up Cadillac was like the San Diego Freeway in LA at rush hour, but with bigger obstacles! We would make 50 yards of progress, then park for 15 minutes when someone ahead of us on the trail was stuck. A couple of rigs had driveline problems, and they blocked the trail while repairs were made. Cadillac is steep in parts and very rocky (like the rest of the trail wasn't rocky?) with several switchbacks. It climbed up to the ridge above Rubicon Springs with a spectacular view from the top. It got it's name from an old Cadillac that went off the road at one of the switchbacks. It is hard to imagine a two wheel drive vehicle on this road, but the road is a lot tougher today than when that Cadillac wrecked.

The last tough challenge was a rock ledge about two thirds of the way up Cadillac Hill. I almost made it to the top of the rock, but then slid back down to the bottom and the rear end made two more bangs like the day before. This time I was sure I had a spun axle. I managed to climb over the ledge with a little spotting from Bear. The rest of the way up the hill I was extremely careful not to put any extra torque on the rear end. Each time I climbed up a rock section I could hear the groaning noise of the axle trying to slip in its flange. I was very happy to see the end of the trail before the axle gave out totally. Thanks to the Detroit locker, I was able to complete the trail with three wheels driving.

The combination of serene forest, beautiful lakes, scenic vistas, and very challenging rock crawling make the Rubicon one of the premier trails of the world. I will definately be back (with a new motor, one piece axles, and a fishing pole!)

Happy Trails!

Meach

Best Rubicon Trail Guide
4 Wheelers Guide to the RUBICON TRAIL by William C. Teie

California Trail Guidebooks, Trail Maps, and Trail Videos

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