Paving the Rubicon!

Okay, that was a cheap tactic to get you to read this article. The Rubicon Trail was not paved but a bypass was rock lined to prevent erosion and ensure safe travel.

Again, let me be clear, this is a bypass, not the original route of the Rubicon Trail. The original route remains untouched, somewhat difficult but very doable.

The area in question I know as “The Step”, because it is one HUGE step. Others refer to it as “Birthday Cake” because you can see a mountain top that looks like a flat top cake with candles (trees). Yesterday, for the first time, I heard it referred to as “The S-Turn”.

“The Step” is one of a few named obstacles on the Tahoe side. And named many different things.

The original route runs right down the middle. It’s one large step, obviously. That’s the ‘most difficult’ route. It’s not really that hard. To the south (right) is the newest route and it’s the ‘intermediate’ route. There are a few lines through it. It’s never been my favorite. To the north (left) is the ‘easy’ route. It’s been around for some time and for decades provided a route for those coming out broken or towing a trailer.

Birthday Cake…as seen from The Step.

I moved ten loads of rock from the local area to the hole at the bottom of the northern most route at The Step. Okay, they were half loads. It gave me more time to rest between loads.

Over time, the easy route has been flooded and washed out, creating another step, but smaller than the namesake of this area.

Some years ago, I witnessed a rig get flopped on its side while being towed up the easy route. Ever since then, I’ve wanted to get out there and fix it. The flop was more the result of a towing error, but the difficulty of the route needed to be dealt with.

I forgot to take a good picture of the before. Here is was a few weeks ago, filled with water.

Here’s the one picture I took right before I unloaded the first trailer of rock.

Here’s what ten (half) loads of rock looks like.

Once I got to the site and started moving rock, I noticed some tracks cutting the corner. It wasn’t until a guy in a Jeep cut the corner right in front of me, that I figured I needed to do something. I called him out about not staying on the trail and he said it was a rental and it was his first time on the trail. Who rents a guy a Jeep and says go drive to Rubicon Springs?

So…I moved some trees.

This is the approach to the area from the east. Trail is to the left of the small tree. Tracks were cutting the corner to the right.

Dragged a third just to make sure they stayed on the trail.

Coming from the west, people were driving straight through the easy route, up the ledge. Hopefully, that tree lets them know that is not the correct route. (It’s off to the right) Note all the newly placed rock in hole before the granite. I moved two more loads after that photo.

It was a long but very satisfying day.

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Rubicon Ronin