A bucketlist trail I have been trying to figure out how to run for years!! So much planning went into this. With Super Cel Nevada, this was the perfect excuse to run this iconic trail. My WA club and a few of us local guys put our money where out mouth is and committed to this trail prior to Super Cel.

A couple of the guys from Ellensburg, WA arrived at Loon Lake CG on Friday Sept 29th and made sure there was room for our group the following night. With this being the last weekend this CG was open, there was plenty of space. And I am sure the rain had some folks change their minds. The rest of the WA group and myself arrived Saturday morning and the rain had continued. Our goal was to leave camp with the trailers and shuffle them all to the Tahoma side where they would be waiting for us upon completion a few days later. This is our soggy camp:


We met my wife along hwy 50 and made the 2.5hr drive out to Tahoma.
South Lake Tahoe:


We dropped the trucks off and using some ammonia in assorted containers, set those around the rigs to deter any interested bears as folks have had trucks tore apart trying to get into food, even toiletries!
We carpooled rather cramped the 2.5hrs back to camp, but this would be well worth the effort. At camp we enjoyed a nice hot Taco Soup and sent my wife and kids back home. Despite others moving my tent, it still had an inch of standing water inside! I am so thankful I made a last minute adjustment and picked up one of those weatherproof Kobalt totes to use as a suitcase instead of a bag. Otherwise everything would have been wet! The rain still upon us, was forecast to lift by the following day, Sunday 1 Oct. It did just that, but the clouds remained. I think we got sprinkled on once that day, but the sunshine was on it's way!

The Loon Lake Dam just prior to dropping into the Rubicon:






This is the best map we found - I never found it online:


Mile marker 0.0 - these would come so slowly as each tenth of a mile was earned! This was taken at 9:20


The group consisted of 2 Gen 6 guys locked on 37's, and 5 EBs in different configurations.


The first section is called the gatekeeper. It wasn't particularly hard, but if you have trouble here, you should consider turning back as it does not get easier:










From there, we come out on top of the Slabs, dropped back into a small valley and up the other side. That's one massive rock!




This was taken at 10:50. We are all realizing that the Rubicon really is relentless. The obstacles are nearly continuous with maybe a 100ft between each. It's like eating an elephant.








I attempted Soup Bowl, and while I was so close, the rocks were just too wet to get the required grip:

Vid:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HtP1PTZjqxmywJCUA

Another valiant effort, but no success:


Next up was Little Sluice, 2pm. This was to be our last obstacle of the day as we planned to camp nearby.




It was here that we sheared the bolts off the steering box and broke an ear off it. Ironically, just a few hundred yards down the trail, I found a washer and nut threaded onto a broken bolt and asked the group if it belonged to them. No one recognized it, but we quickly found out where it came from.


We hooked up two winches. Once to pick the bronco out of the massive hole it was in, and the other to help make progress up the trail for safe extraction 30 yrds ahead:


We got to work sourcing hardware that would get us off the trail and we never found the ideal stuff, but had enough to get us further. We even asked everyone as we passed them, and found one guy who has one short grade 10 bolt that was enough to go thru the frame and box. That is all we needed to finish the trail!


Mr. Grade 10 owned the red taco:


We expected a turn-off to our camp site, but never found one, so we just continued onto Buck Island Lake.


We got there just before 6pm wheeling hard all day:


Next morning, the clouds begin to break and we are all happy to see sunshine. Today, we decided to take it easy as our goal was about 3.5hrs of hard wheeling before our destination at Rubicon Springs.






Trying to dry out camp!




Around 11am, we hit the trail, expecting things to get a little easier as that is what we had heard. But I think we were all in agreement that this stretch to Rubicon Springs was the hardest of the trip!


An hour and a half later, and we are still in sight of Buck Island Lake:


It is here that I began to have fuel issues. I attempted a climb and at the top, my bronco sputtered and died and would not restart at the bottom. We began diagnosing starting with the simple things first. More fuel:


That didn't help. Fuel filter next:


That seemed to be the ticket and onward we went. How about that sunshine!


@ 1:20pm on Monday:


From there, we made our way down into the Rubicon Springs Oasis, arriving just after 3pm:






Bear bait:


We enjoyed the evening there before we lazily packed up camp on Tuesday for our final push. I had issues with fuel on the first startup that am, but it went away and I never had any more issues. But it was still dirty fuel, as I discovered at my friends house later.

Tuesday was our last day. We were all ready to be done bouncing around, but it had been an epic adventure with incredible scenery and challenging wheeling. There were some obstacles left that were no joke, but Cadillac hill was our last. We were all too tired and busy to take many photos:


Made it to observation point at around noon and this is MM 11ish. From here it's mostly two-track with only a couple obstacles for the remaining 11 miles.




Once out, we loaded up and celebrated the successful run with a stop at a great burger joint in Tahoma! From there some of the group made their way to Carson City NV, while others slowly made their way home. Me, I made a visit to Chad where I met Mike there and we spent the remaining part of the week together checking out Super Cel, but also camping for a night and enjoyed each other's company.

That was an adventure I will never forget and possibly the best week of wheeling I have ever got to enjoy! This is what makes living in CA palatable. So I got to make hay while the sun shines; looking forward to this trail again, but also some other notable trails like Fordyce, Dusy Ershim, Slick Rock...

EDIT to add:
Once home, my bronco needed some TLC. The last day on the trail I noticed the gear levers on my Atlas were wobbling back and forth from torque more than usual and more than the trans shifter. Upon investigation, the clocking ring on the front had loosened up allowing it to rotate until the 6 bolts stopped it. So I separated the Atlas from the tranny and slide it back just far enough to remove the allen bolts, clean them, apply some thread locker and reinstalled. Hope that is a permanent remedy! Also, the front driveshaft U-joint at the axle yoke was quite loose, so I removed it for R&R to avoid future problems. Lastly, in hopes to fix my fuel issues, I drained out @ 17 gallons of fuel in hopes to flush some of the crude out. I changed the fuel filter a third time (with a clear body one) and filtered the fuel as it went back in. I'll keep a close eye on the filter and now have 2 spares. Should be ready for the next adventure!

Looks like an incredible trip. Glad you got to do it. Great write-up too.


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Great trip report, and definitely a bucket list trail!

Thanks for the great trip report! This trail is definitely a bucket list trail for me.

Being 3hrs from my doorstep, it was a no-brainer for me. But having checked that box, I wish I would have made the effort to do it sooner!! Just encouraging you to start making plans to tackle this trail. You won't be sorry!

Maybe we need to make a CCB run next year??