The Rubicon Trail: Trail Report with 146 Pictures.

[colbystephens]

Some folks have asked me to do as detailed a write-up as I can about driving the Rubicon in a full size truck…. so here we go. This is going to take me about 6 or 7 posts, so it'll take me some time to get it all posted.


First Impressions:
The Rubicon Trail entirely lives up to its hype. It is a long, extremely technical drive. While many tougher trails exist, you'd likely be hard pressed to find a trail this long (18.5 miles, on the route we took) that is constantly a highly technical drive combined with such unbelievably beautiful country. The trail goes across the mountains at around 7000 feet, over a mostly granite surface. Combine that with bright blue alpine lakes, scattered trees and forest, and an enormous blue sky, and you will be in total awe of the beauty of the landscape.
We drove the trail in 2 days, but I might prefer to take at least 3 in the future, because I would like to explore on foot a lot more. But, if you're the kind of person who wants to wheel from breakfast till dinner non-stop, 2 days would be a comfortable drive. It can be done in 1 day.
We drove from west to east on this ride, and I think I would probably prefer to always go that direction. It is a 3.5 hour drive through the mountains to get to the trailhead from Reno, whereas only about an hour and a half to get back to Reno from the trail end if you go in this direction. This is mostly due to incredibly curvy and slow mountain roads, and after the exhaustion of being tossed around in a truck for 2 days, I prefer the quick way home. Additionally, Because we drove eastbound, we went down Big Sluice, and I'm not convinced that my truck would have made it up Big Sluice unscathed.
Our group was 5 Americans in 3 trucks (2 K5 Blazers, 1 Jeep), and 9 Canadians in 5 trucks (1 Toyota, 1 Tahoe, 3 Jeeps). This was a nice sized group - probably about as big a group as my taste allows, as I like small groups. Russell and his other friends from Canada came down as part of a race team for the 550 mile Vegas to Reno race, and decided to trailer their wheeling rigs here so they could drive the Rubicon with us. I've been blessed with enough space to store their trucks and trailers at my house, so the wheeler rigs and trailers sat here while they went down to do the race, and then they came back to get their wheeling rigs and we headed up the mountain.

Specs on my truck:
My truck is a '90 Blazer with 5" of lift, 38" Super Swamper SS tires, 5.13 gears with a Detroit locker in the rear. I have a Dana 60 front, a 14 bolt full float rear which have been moved forward/rearward 1.5" inches to increase approach and departure angles, as well as keep the tires out of the fenders. My crawl ratio is somewhere around 90 (700r4/241/5.13). I ran my tires at 10 PSI. My truck did awesome. I regularly had to utilize my sliders, and the rock rails that come off of my sliders. In fact, you might say that the sliders got a real workout. I built them specifically because of this trip to the Rubicon, and I'm SO glad I did. I have a very gentle approach to wheeling - I don't bash on my truck, but I had to use them repeatedly. I came through the trail almost entirely unscathed, save for 2 scratches. My stock rear bumper took a bit of a beating from the sharp departure angles, but you wouldn't really notice it if you weren't looking for it. Because my truck handled the trail with ease (much thanks due to my excellent spotters), I'd say that you could do it with a truck that isn't quite as built.
I'm sure some of you are curious as to what might be the minimum specs necessary to drive this trail. I'll give you my opinion, but it is by no means a rule. Minimum, I think you could get a Blazer through with 4" of lift, 35" tires, and a locker in the rear. I would not recommend 1/2 ton axles for the job, however. You also must have rock sliders, and I'd recommend a beefy rear bumper. I'm not convinced that you'd come through unscathed with that set up, but I think you could get the truck through the trail. Anything longer than a Blazer and you'd have a VERY hard time making it through the frequent squeeze points. The 14 Bolt gets hung up a lot on this trail, and so I highly recommend a heavy duty after market cover. I don't have one, and my cover must be replaced now - it's hammered. I think you'd have an extremely hard time getting a truck through the trail that is longer than a Blazer, though I'm sure it's possible. Doing it without damage would be even more challenging.

Trail Ride Pics.
On to the pics! We had a total of 8 trucks and 13 people on this trip. Here's the line-up going through Washoe Valley on the way to the trailhead.


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We camped at Loon Lake that night, which is at the trailhead so as to get a nice early start the next morning. Here's my beautiful bride at the lake at sunset. The image is looking east, so the sunset colors are reflecting off of the mountains in the back.


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Here's a picture of the map, for reference. Loon Lake is the big one on the left, and Lake Tahoe is the tiny blue spot in the upper right corner of the map.


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There's 2 routes one could take. You can start out in Georgetown, CA. This would be the real Rubicon Trail. But, much of that is a plain dirt road (from what I hear), and it is more interesting for wheeling to come in from the Loon Lake Access.

Here we are going across the Loon Lake dam to the trailhead.


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The trail starts off by getting up onto the granite. Here's "Russell" and "alexsdad" on the first little hill climb.


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The first taste of real rocks happens just before Gatekeeper, and is only a couple minutes from the trailhead.


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Gatekeeper isn't a very challenging obstacle, but if you struggle through that one, you'll have a much harder time on the rest of the trail. It's also a bit of a squeeze for the full-size trucks, though not as bad as many of the squeezes to come.


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After you come around Gatekeeper, you quickly wind your way up a small hill to the first place that my sliders came in handy. I was real glad for them, because my truck bucked around and nailed a big rock that would have destroyed my pristine rocker panel on the driver's side.

Here's Russell and myself on that obstacle.


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After you pop up that obstacle, there's the first of many larger shelf drops. This one isn't the worst, but it's the first, and it feels like an awful long way!


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We stopped to admire the expansive views of granite before we continued on down into the valley and back up the other side.


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[colbystephens]

Part way up the other side of the granite valley is a pretty decent shelf climb. Prior to it, I re-checked my tire pressure and it had gone up about 4 PSI since we started the trail because my tires heated up from the cold morning. So I dropped them to 10 PSI again before I made my attempt on the shelf. The truck crawled right up no problem.


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Pretty much everything that was just described happens in the first couple bends on the map as you head north from Loon Lake:


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After that climb up the other side of the valley, the trees get slightly more dense and you wind around the granite for quite a while more before you get onto the real Rubicon Trail. Here's a number of photos of that route:


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Now the pics are of the real Rubicon Trail. These next few are fairly immediately after you get onto the real Rubicon.


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Three wheelin it!


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"alexsdad" got a bit hung up on his rear diff here. I have a video somewhere... We all got hung up on our rear diffs through out this trip.


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[colbystephens]

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Sometime just prior to this, Russell somehow popped his passenger front selectable hub out of his wheel without noticing it. In fact, he didn't even know it was gone until we were sitting for lunch at Little Sluice. He did notice that his front passenger side wasn't pulling up the rocks, but he did pretty dang good with his front ARB. Fortunately, someone behind us found the hub and picked it up. They caught up with us while we were having lunch at Little Sluice and with some paracord strategically tied around Russell's bead-lock rock ring and wheel, he was able to keep the hub in place for the remainder of the trip. Russ is on the road back to Canada right now, so I imagine in a few days he will post up more about this.


I wish that the photos showed how steep the hills are, because you do spend a lot of time looking at the sky through the windshield.


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Here's one of the larger drops where you are looking out your windshield straight at the ground.


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Just afterwards my engine shut down. Russell determined that it was the ECMB fuse that blew. We thought it was just because the fuse was old, but it happened several more times on the trip. So, now I have another wiring gremlin to find.


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The rest of this post is pics on the way to Little Sluice.


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This shows the steepness of some of the terrain pretty well.


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Pulling up to the entrance to Little Sluice.


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[colbystephens]

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Little Sluice itself is a gnarly crawl for which you'd have to have a VERY specialized rock buggy, or something you don't mind totally getting hammered. My truck certainly wouldn't have made it through little Sluice. Several of the guys decided to take an alternate bypass around Little Sluice that offers a decent hill climb. Here's my buddy Mike giving it a go. He nearly flipped by sliding backward and almost off of a 5' drop, but thankfully didn't. He backed out and took the normal bypass around Little Sluice. Not pictured here is the most challenging part of Little Sluice.


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The bypass around Little Sluice is an easy hill climb over a massive slab of granite.


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Here's one of my potential submissions to the Girls of CK5 Calendar.


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Just around the bend from Little Sluice was a fairly challenging section of trail. Mike in his tan Jeep was leading the group (being the only person who had driven the trail before), and he was able to slip through this area fairly easily. Jay in the Toyota took a bit harder line and got entirely high centered on a boulder.


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He winched back just a hair, and then drove out nearly on his side. Another Jeep gave it a try and got really hung up, so we decided that the boulder needed to be moved.


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We had seen less-built rigs traveling toward us (opposite direction of us) earlier in the day who could have never made it past this boulder, so we suspected that somebody knocked it into the trail while attempting a much tougher (and possibly illegal) line. We pulled the rock a couple feet down trail and we were all able to then make it over this boulder.


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The pictures that my wife took of me coming down the trail do a pretty decent job indicating how steep this section was, and how large the boulders are.


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[colbystephens]

From Little Sluice to Buck Island Lake, it just continues as a fairly slow technical crawl. About half of the trail between Little Sluice and Buck remains very high in elevation, along the top of the mountains.


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The next half of that section between Little Sluice and Buck is mostly a long downhill side hill. Very beautiful vistas, but a bit uncomfortable as you have to hold yourself up and feel generally a bit tippy. This route is technically the bypass for Old Little Sluice, which apparently is extraordinarily challenging and narrow. Two Jeeps and the Toyota did that route and said it was almost too narrow even for them. So, I don't think it's passable to any full-size rig.


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Sweet flex!


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[colbystephens]

We set up camp at Buck Island Lake for the night. It is absolutely stunning. This time of year, the water was very warm and made for a nice refreshing swim after a long, hot, dusty day of wheeling.


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We had a mother bear and her 2 cubs come and raid Mike's tan Jeep in the middle of the night. I woke up at about midnight from the best night of sleep I had ever had to the sound of a cooler lid being thrown down a pile of granite boulders followed by the snarl of the bear. I knew it was Mike's Jeep based on the noise, so Claire and I got up and we went to go get Mike and his boy to see what we could salvage of their food. We had the bears scared off before we got up to his truck, but with our lights we were able to see their eyes and form. Momma bear was enormous! And when we saw the cubs we got a bit uncomfortable about the idea of the bears. I had originally thought it was just the one, so when it was a mother and 2 cubs I was really surprised. Our food was locked up in my locking tool box that's bolted to the floor of my Blazer, so I figured ours would be OK.

We went back to bed after a while, but sure enough the bears came back a few hours later and we could hear that screeching noise that cubs make when they play/fight/wrestle. Needless to say, we didn't sleep very well that night. The bears did get more of Mike's food, but left everyone else alone.

Here's a few more pics at Buck Island Lake. Unbelievably beautiful!


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A couple more potential Girls of CK5 shots:


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Map for reference:


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The trail from Buck Island Lake to Observation Point is a non-stop technical rock crawl.


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The most challenging part of the trail for most of us was Big Sluice. There is no bypass for this section of trail. It is extremely steep down-hill. Most of the photos of Big Sluice don't do justice to just how steep it is, nor how big the boulders are that you have to maneuver over and around. Again, the sliders came in handy. The first obstacle in Big Sluice is a narrow crawl between two boulders onto a large drop off of another couple boulders.

((EDIT: As of my trip in 2014, Big Sluice has been modified quite a bit, and is now quite a bit easier.))


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[owenst7]

Wish I had taken more pictures this last weekend, but I ended up running the trail alone from Loon to Tahoe after I had to tow Sean out to Loon on Friday. I had to drive from Soup Bowl to Buck by flashlight and rock lights because my last headlight bulb went out...coming down Indian Trail alone was exciting when you couldn't see more than 10 feet in front of you lol.

I went up Old Sluice Saturday morning. I don't think it's that bad for a fullsize, but you are likely to get some dents. It is pretty loose and steep, which probably accounts for some of the difficulty for Jeeps. With the longer wheelbase of a fullsize or a Toyota or something, it's really just a process of picking your way over some big rocks. There are harder spots on Big Sluice if you don't take the bypasses. It is narrow, but not impossibly so at all. Nowhere near as narrow as the squeeze by the spings (the picture below).

I should probably get my 6pt hub socket back from you since Melody and I are going out there again tomorrow after I get off work.

Did Zoe go nuts on the bear? Our dogs used to tree them at my parents house. Black bears are usually pretty wary of dogs so I always feel a lot more comfortable with some in the group. Brown bears are another story though.

 

[colbystephens]

The rest of the way down Big Sluice is a slalom around and over other massive boulders.


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Here's a look back up the hill from the bottom.


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You continue down a technical, but not horrendous hill, and at the bottom there is another squeeze around a tree.


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And of course the iconic bridge:


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We continued bumping along to Rubicon Springs. I should have taken pictures there, but we didn't. Maybe someone else will post up with pics of Rubicon Springs. It's an amazing and developed camp that even has a helipad.


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Again, map for reference.


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You continue around the helipad from Rubicon Springs and there's some really nice ponds with little water falls. A nice place to cool off and have lunch. However, the helicopter pilot kept flying over, and it was loud and sort of ruined the peacefulness of the area.

At this point I was feeling a little frustrated because just prior to Rubicon Springs I had had significant trouble keeping my engine running because I kept popping the ECMB fuse. It has to do with being on the throttle and having my nose pointed upward. So, I have to find the short in my system. But, as a result of being a bit frustrated, I didn't get in the water or break out the camera at that location. I'm regretting that now.

After Rubicon Springs, you pretty immediately begin your ascent of Cadillac Hill. I REALLY enjoyed that hill climb. It was very technical and very steep, but for the most part I didn't require a spotter. Russell and I had a head start on it, and he came back only to spot me on the most off camber spot. There's a number of places along this hill climb that are extremely narrow, and which require the utmost precision to avoid messing up a Blazer's sheet metal on the trees. My wife walked all the way up Cadillac, enjoying the extraordinary view, so not many pictures of the truck going up, except for the truly off camber section.


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One of many times that my rock rails on my sliders came in handy.


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Pics from Observation Point.


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Somewhere along the climb, Mike broke the ears off of his passenger side axle shaft on his tan Jeep. Fortunately, between a couple of the other Jeep guys, they had the spare parts to fix it. Mike has Dana 35 axles (I think) and ARB lockers, so he still had plenty of traction to get up the hill, but it was making noise and was a bit more challenging.


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[colbystephens]

The trail from Observation Point to the trail exit at Lake Tahoe is a very easy, though VERY bumpy ride. Any stock 4x4 with decent clearance could do that section. It's very pretty with several vistas and lakes along the way. So, if you happen to find yourself at Lake Tahoe with a half way decent 4x4, you might consider going out to Observation Point. It's a view worth the drive.

Here's a couple pics of the lakes on the way out:


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And finally, the dog cooling off in a lake on our way out.


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So, there's your picture tour of the Rubicon Trail in a full-size K5 Blazer. It's an experience you'll never forget, and I HIGHLY recommend you do it at least once. I'm hoping to go again this year with a smaller group.

 

[colbystephens]

Wish I had taken more pictures this last weekend, but I ended up running the trail alone from Loon to Tahoe after I had to tow Sean out to Loon on Friday. I had to drive from Soup Bowl to Buck by flashlight and rock lights because my last headlight bulb went out...coming down Indian Trail alone was exciting when you couldn't see more than 10 feet in front of you lol.

I went up Old Sluice Saturday morning. I don't think it's that bad for a fullsize, but you are likely to get some dents. It is pretty loose and steep, which probably accounts for some of the difficulty for Jeeps. With the longer wheelbase of a fullsize or a Toyota or something, it's really just a process of picking your way over some big rocks. There are harder spots on Big Sluice if you don't take the bypasses. It is narrow, but not impossibly so at all.

I should probably get my 6pt hub socket back from you since Melody and I are going out there again tomorrow after I get off work.

Did Zoe go nuts on the bear? Our dogs used to tree them at my parents house. Black bears are usually pretty wary of dogs so I always feel a lot more comfortable with some in the group. Brown bears are another story though.

She barked a bit, but we keep her pretty under control. I'll bring you those sockets tonight.

 

[blazinzuk]

So all those Canadian mud diggers did pretty good?

Jay was worried about not getting on the rocks in Boise so this was his very first time on rocks.

I think Cory and Michelles first time too. Cory rode with me at KOH. Looks like they scratched up those pretty aluminum sliders a bit.

Awesome.

 

[NorCal_Chris]

Looks like an awesome time. I cant wait to make it past lil sluice to see the rest of the trail next time I am up there. Big sluice and caddy hill look fun.

 

[Smokinthehippies]

Subd to read in am.

Thanks Colby!!

 

[bp71k5]

Colby, is there a trick to viewing your full sized pics on flikr? It days they are private when I log in.

 

[muddysub]

absolutely beautiful! i hope to drive the Rubicon someday, not in my Suburban though, lol!

 

[Avery4jc]

Awesome trip report, we need more of these around here! Sometimes I feel like all we do is build stuff to go wheeling and we never make it to the wheeling part.

Someday I'd love to wheel with you guys, the k10 should be Rubicon approved pretty soon here.

 

[colbystephens]

So all those Canadian mud diggers did pretty good?

Jay was worried about not getting on the rocks in Boise so this was his very first time on rocks.

I think Cory and Michelles first time too. Cory rode with me at KOH. Looks like they scratched up those pretty aluminum sliders a bit.

Awesome.

Jay did great. He's a really good spotter too, which was nice for me and my nice sheet metal. Really a cool guy. Everyone drove pretty well. This was Cory and Michelle's truck's first time out, and it did great too. They did get the AL fenders scuffed up some on Old Sluice.

Looks like an awesome time. I cant wait to make it past lil sluice to see the rest of the trail next time I am up there. Big sluice and caddy hill look fun.

So you've only done the section from Loon to Little Sluice? The wheeling beyond there is about the same difficulty, I don't think you'll have any trouble with it. It's hard on the body though, getting jostled around for 2 days!

Colby, is there a trick to viewing your full sized pics on flikr? It days they are private when I log in.

Yeah, I have all my pics on Flickr on a password. I'll send you an unrestricted link to the photo album.

Awesome trip report, we need more of these around here! Sometimes I feel like all we do is build stuff to go wheeling and we never make it to the wheeling part.

Someday I'd love to wheel with you guys, the k10 should be Rubicon approved pretty soon here.

I think your K10 is quite Rubicon ready - it's a hell of a lot more built than my truck, and I made it through unscathed!

 

[NorCal_Chris]

So you've only done the section from Loon to Little Sluice? The wheeling beyond there is about the same difficulty, I don't think you'll have any trouble with it. It's hard on the body though, getting jostled around for 2 days!

Yeah Wentworth to lil sluice and loon to lil sluice. Wentworth to loon, loon to wentworth, etc. Ran out of time to make it all the way in. Wentworth has some fun parts, dont discount it too much. Couple nice spots and some smaller slabs. There is quite a long dirt road to get to the trailhead however.

 

[AZShooter]

This looks awesome! Thanks for posting!

 

[dhcomp]

Great write up!