On This Day, 2007 Rubicon

Summer 2007 trip to Cali to run the world famous Rubicon with some coworkers.

I recall leaving the Jeep at a shop for three weeks getting air lockers and new ring and pinion installed. Only for them to wrap that up just the day before this trip. So I spent the night driving around town to break in the gears at minimum recommendations before the long high speed drive out from SLC starting early the next day.

Following the long drive out and camping near the start of the trail, day One on the trail wasn't too bad but with just a driver in each vehicle we didn't have much going for spotters other than to stop and help each other through, this left me watching lines taken by the rig ahead, deciding on and memorizing the next line I would drive, while remembering the last line I picked as it has disappeared under the hood, it was quite the mental workout.
The Jeep and lockers performed well, the Tacoma in our group though taller than my XJ, but with IFS in front, only a limited slip for some traction, and a worse departure angle, was the most challenged. We made it to camp near the little sluice without incident. After setting up camp the weekend local crowds showed up and continued to show up what felt like all night. Back then Little Sluice itself was a rock-crawler only buggy fest, I've heard since then that not long after, things were changed to make it more passable and keep the trail on route. We spent the afternoon and evening between fixing dinner, hiking about to see some views, and spectating at little sluice.
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On this day 2007, Rubicon trail Day 2

Day two the group decided to keep our camp near Little Sluice and drive the next segment to Buck Island Lake, do a little swimming, then drive back to camp.
Our Tacoma guy decided he would just walk and take photos leaving his truck at camp. Now the Rubicon really starts to get rough, constant rock gardens separated by few and all to brief moments of smooth stone or dirt.

Following the lead and not knowing about the easier slab route down toward Buck Island it proved to be a long and rough day for my little XJ. We descended the original route segment known variously as the True - Old - Big Sluice and past it's crux obstacle at VW Rock. Part way down, one of our TJ's dropped a front coil then two groups came along just then from opposite directions in perhaps the only spot all the vehicles could be out of each others way enough to let some passing occur. In repositioning the TJ for them to get by it also pealed a tire bead, so that was a bit of work to fix.

I recall being strapped off of rocks several times, high lifting off of rocks several times, being winched off of rocks once or twice, being pushed and shoved through some boulders just after my first body damage, in the process breaking a front axle when the passenger side U-joint gave up the ghost. A group behind us and a couple rigs playing through the opposite direction waited as all movement stopped for me to pull the broken shaft.
We dragged my Jeep to the junction below the slabs and left it there while the guys splashed in the lake. With the fresh body damage on my mind I was too nervous about the rest of the trip in 2wd to want to play in the water. In a lucky circumstance while returning from the lake we ran into another XJ who had a spare stock front long axle he was willing to sell me for not too much cash. Back at the junction I broke out the tools and figured out how to swap that in, then we returned to camp up the slab route and back to Little Sluice.

Back at camp, someone asked me if I had spare steering for a broken Jeep back near the start of the trail, they didn't have cash and promised to return it, well I thought I better pass my luck foreword anyway and let them take my spare stock tie rod and drag link. More spectating and relaxing followed, reading an issue of JP Magazine the boss brought, featured there is a Comanche on 37" tires, the minimum tire of choice for many of the drivers who seemed to be smiling more and looking at the scenery instead of memorizing the next line through the rocks while forgetting the last line and falling off of it. Hum, maybe next time...


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On this day, 2007, Rubicon trail, Day 3, Retreat

Our Tacoma guy didn't want to drive his truck on the next section after watching what it did to us the day before, even on the easier slabs. He was going to bail and head back out so we discussed someone should follow him out. I felt like I might have used up my luck and offered to follow him leaving the better built Jeeps to complete the trail. Now as I recall our silver TJ guy was from back East and not at all used to that kind of wheeling or remoteness, though his Jeep handled everything pretty well, surprisingly to us he was for following the Tacoma out too. So I considered If we split up I'd follow the blue Wrangler to complete the trail but I didn't like not having another spare axle on board or having my own spotter/passenger along and warned our trail boss he might have to do a lot of spotting and dragging me out of tight spots. Our TJ guy was still very uneasy even about heading out "alone" with the Tacoma. The boss considering everything thought it best we should all stick together just in case, so we would retreat as a group and head back out the way we had come in.

This plan left us in no hurry so it was a lazy morning, some of the group slowly packing. I recall hearing a lone vehicle approach and an older plain ol' Toyota regular cab pickup with not much lift and with tires not more than 32"s come bouncing along. They were driving out. There was no gear at all in the bed, it appeared they only had what they were wearing. They had that zombie stare like they had been driving all night. The truck would bounce into some rocks and get bounced back a little, a guy would hop out and give the driver a quick spot for a slightly better line and hop back in and they continued bouncing on in some oddly efficient and numb to the abuse of the trail manner. I thought we would catch up to them but I don't recall we ever caught up to that truck.

The drive out was mostly uneventful, while the Rubicon had coated our rigs with it's special brand of dark moon dust. There was an incident where I stopped above a small ledge drop. I stuck my point n shoot out the window to take a picture, then released the break to change the point of view slightly, forgetting the ledge. Suddenly the front tires dropped down causing my arm to slam the door launching the camera out of my hand on a big trajectory. A couple days later the camera returned to earth eventually, landing on the hard unforgiving granite. That was the impetus for my first DSLR later that summer. Back to pavement we made a plan to grab a campground spot at Lake Tahoe for the final night and we lucked out and secured a couple sites next to each other close to a view over the lake. Thus ended our Rubicon adventure.

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