Stompers hit the Rubicon

Happy Easter!

Yesterday, one of my four-wheel drive clubs hit the Rubicon Trail. Granted, there were only three of us but it worked out well.

The snow has really melted. There is still plenty to play in but it’s dry all the way to the staging area. There are trees down alongside and somewhat encroaching on the paved road. There are also some large potholes on the paved road. Keep your eyes open.

Once you get to the staging area, the first entrance is blocked by a rather large tree. I have notified the Forest Service. There’s really no issue as the other two entrances are fully functional.

There were probably a few places where I dragged my diff in the snow. There were tracks of a few rigs before us, since the last snow fall. I was surprised that we didn’t see another rig all day.

There were many. many trees down across the trail. I had my saw out a few times. This one moved with having to be cut.

This is at the east end of Miller Meadow. I thought we were done because I wasn’t cutting that tree.

But there was just enough room to squeeze through. It took a bunch of Austin Powers turns to get lined up correctly to get through.

A picture of the classic shelf road, soon to be lost to the reroute. I’ve never seen it with snow on it before.

I pitched this trip as a scouting run not a work party. We skirted past this tree without moving it.

Again, not a work party, we drove over this one. I’ve been in touch with FOTR about getting a group out to clear these trees. maybe next weekend?

This time, we were done. This is about five miles in. Again, I wasn’t going to attempt to clear this with my little electric chainsaw. The motto of this website is “Turn Around, Don’t Go Around”. Practicing what I preach, our group turned aropund.

Now, many had already gone around. But I couldn’t.

The go around doesn’t go through a wetlands, or over bushes. I have sent this information to FOTR and the Tahoe National Forest. My thought is to allow the user created bypass to stay, as it isn’t worth the effort to move the tree.

I’m assuming that Observation would have been an easy reach. If you want a long day, you could make Rubicon Springs.

The only place we really had an issue was coming out, just before the intersection with Forest Road 03-04. There is a tree down across the low side of the trail. Going in, we skirted left and stayed high. no problems.

On the way out, the first guy crawled the snow to the right and stayed high. The second guy tried but kept slipping left toward the tree. With a little skinny pedal, at the right time, he made it to the high side. Playing tail-gunner, I went last after the second guy chewed it up a little. On my third attempt, I used the skinny pedal and made it without assistance.

Overall, it was a great day. Beautiful weather, some challenging driving, good friends, nobody got stuck.

As always, I had my “Go Bag”, sleeping bag, food and drinks in case I had to stay the night. It’s still below freezing overnight. Go prepared.

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Rubicon Ronin