SierraFest Rubicon Trip Report

[playwithit]

Bryan C soaking toes in river feeding Bucks Island Lake.

 

[playwithit]

Lodging extremes:

Dirty Dozen C.G., Rubicon Springs

Super 8, Stateline NE.

 

[srmitchell]

Man, I wish I could have made it. I would have broken everything though. It's good I stayed away.

 

[EricsXJ]

The box takes another victim.

That's a nice picture right there.

Respect to Phil for the effort.

x2

 

[Letterman]

I drove the box on the way out!!!! (photos to come)

More photos from the way in, Mike drop'in into the top of the bowl:

Kelly Play'in with it . . . if it was a big rock under his belly:

Kelly and the ledge:

A nice line:

 

[Letterman]

Tony drop'in into the Granite Bowl for the very first time:

B.C. throw'in his hands in the air and waving 'em like he just don't care:

Kelly got to see where he was driving the night before:

Still working on photos, only on 116 of over 1,000! More to come . . .

 

[Letterman]

Kelly driving down the bowl:

Mike:

Tony:

B.C. on his own line:

 

[fyrfytr1717]

Wow, some really great pics guys! I'm ready to go back...

Still working on my pics. I just got my computer back from the shop (much, much faster now) just in time to be stuck at work for another 48 hours. Maybe this weekend I'll get them posted after the fun run with my local club. I've got some cool ones I'm looking forward to sharing.

 

[fyrfytr1717]

Just borrowed this one for a new avatar. Thanks Dave!

 

[ocean_jet]

My trip report:


Day 0: San Diego to Livermore
· Wow. That’s a long drive in the Jeep.

Day 1: To Buck Island.
· 4:30am leave Livermore. Arrive at Loon at 8:30 am fully gassed up.
· Greeted by a man in a pink shirt.
· Meet Dave, Bryan, Tony and Kelly.
· 10:30 am begin trail.
· Dave’s busted pitman arm. “I’m done”.
· Holy shit, Tony has a spare. Trail repair… other group catches up.
· Meet Eric, Phil, Art, Opie and Steven.
· Soup bowl – Eric, Phil, Opie, Bryan and Dave make it up.
· Hikers scared of Dave and Opie humping soup bowl and soup kitchen simultaneously. “GET BACK!!!”
· Opie makes little sluice look easy. Phil needs a tug to get out.
· Lost steering stabilizer.
· Old sluice or the slabs? Old sluice is not too hard… “it’s just narrow”.
· Narrow indeed. Lost rear window (didn’t care much about this broken glass). Needed tug over rock. Smashed up driver’s side, now window only rolls down 2/3 of the way.
· Camp. Good food. Kelly has steering stabilizer!!!!
· Jack. Broken Jack. That sucks (cared a lot about this broken glass). Off to bed.

Day 2: The tunnel.
· Set out hiking in search of tunnel linking Rubicon to Rock bound lakes.
· Long hike. See Rubicon lake, but turn back.
· Find bottom of tunnel. Kelly investigates. Too long to see out the end. Inflatable flotation next time!!
· Carry Jazzy across river.
· Jazzy gets bad blisters. Try to carry her to camp. No way can I make it 2 or more miles carrying the mutt. Duct tape dog shoes. Slowly but surely we make it back to camp.
· Long day, but found the tunnel. And the tube. Thank god!!
· POT LUCK. Meat, meat and more meat. YUM. Cookies!!! (Potato salad is behind the grill… GET SOME!) Still pissed about broken jack. But, damn full of great food!!

Day 3: To Rubicon Springs.
· Break camp. Bandages for Jazzy’s feet.
· Grumpy old man with cigar (no, not Kelly!! J) informs us we are camped on trail. Dave informs back that “car wash” is closed.
· Say goodbyes to Dave, Bryan, Opie, Phil and Steven. Eric, Tony, Kelly, Art and I off to Rubicon Springs.
· On way to Springs, meet grumpy old man with cigar again coming up from Springs. He “let’s us by” by “pulling over” on to the easy part of the trail, leaving us the harder line. 2 of 5 get stuck and need a back pull. What a nice happy guy he was.
· The Springs. It’s paradise.
· Sandwiches by Art (yum!!).
· Dip and hike down the river. What a great river!!
· Dinner, a couple cold beers, bed.

Day 4: To South Shore.
· Awaken at 3:45 because Jazzy is chasing what we believe is a bear. Get out investigate. No bear, but gun wielding camper in our camp!! Back to bed.
· Break camp. Art leaves early.
· Why do I remember Cadillac Hill as being fairly easy??? (Guess I got poor trail memory).
· Adrenaline rush heading up Cadillac!!! Awesome!! But, jeep making funny clanking noise.
· Observation point. Pictures. sign made of rock and stick from Art to let us know he made it up.
· Clank clank to staging point. Clank clank, wobble wobble to south shore (what the hell is that wobble?? What the hell is that clank??).
· Tony heads home. Kelly, Eric and I forge on to South shore.
· Super 8. Rest. Laundry machine. Shower. Beer. Pizza. Cuddling with Jazzy on a king size bed.
· Learn about murder charges against Steve Carlson. Blown away. I used to hang out with that guy!!! (yikes).
· Refreshed.

Day 5: South Shore to Hermit Valley.
· Breakfast at IHOP. Yum.
· Climb under Jeep. Motor mount bad. Control arm bushings bad. Still need to make it back to San Diego. My wheeling is done.
· Kelly and Eric head on to Hermit Valley. I shop. Shoes for Jazzy. Plastic flasks for new bottle of Jack.
· Off to Hermit Valley. Beautiful drive. Make several stops on way to enjoy scenery.
· Arrive at Hermit Valley campground. Meet up with Kelly and Eric.
· Meet several other folks.

Day 6: Hermit Valley to Livermore.
· As the big group heads out to Deer Valley, I head down mountain. I don’t want to take my limping rig on the trail.
· Chill in Livermore with good friends.

Day 7: Livermore
· Chilling with my east bay homies!!!

Day 8: Livermore to San Diego
· Wow. That’s a long drive in the Jeep with a busted motor mount and shot control arm bushings. Rattle, clank, and wobble all the way to San Diego.


Thanks Sierra Chapter. You guys rock!!! I had a blast meeting you guys and wheeling with you. Thanks for helping me get through some of the more challenging obstacles. I had a blast and can’t wait to do it again next year!

(Pictures to be posted later.)

 

[sdspearo]

Mike, give Jazzy an extra belly rub...that dog sure earned it! She kept that bear (and I'm sure it was a bear) out of our camp!

 

[Letterman]

More Photos, the climb out of the Granite Bowl.

Mike find'in his line:

Kelly play'in with a line:

Tony driving a line:

Bryan making a line work:

 

[Letterman]

I think this is the best line in the Granite Bowl. It can be crawled but still gives you a little pucker as your tires break over the top:

 

[Letterman]

 

[Letterman]

An Animated Gif of it:

 

[Letterman]

Moving past the bowl and my busted Pitman arm (Thanks for the spair Tony!!! I will get it back to you next week), too bad the sun was in the wrong spot for the FOTR bridge but I still took photos anyway.

Mike:

Kelly:

Tony:

Look I got a shot of BigFoot:

B.C.:

Opie:

Phil in his Green Junk, the only one to bring a passenger:

Art:

And Eric taking the Tail Gunner spot for most of the day:

 

[Letterman]

Time for some Soup, Bryan went at it first:

Opie's rig made soup bowl look silly:

Opie's Helmet on backwards made him look silly:

Phil liked it anyway:

 

[Letterman]

Phil took his shot at soup next:

Found a very tipsy line:

I think this is one of the best shots I snapped all day:

In his new comfort he rejoiced the more exceedingly for the joy of driving Soup Bowl!!

 

[Letterman]

Eric took a shot at it, sounding not too happy with his last few denied attempts:

Eric found a wheel stand line:

Photos do not show how big this wheel stand was:

Fought his way over the wheel stand:

Found his line:

On a all new high for eating up a big bowl of soup:

You could not wipe the smile off his face after that one!!!

I went next and was denied . . .:bawl:

 

[brothrDave]

nice shots guys and "gals" if there were any