My Trip Report
We started our day, for the most part at the Shell gas station at the Sly Park Rd. exit. It was our first meeting point for those coming in from the greater Sacramento area. Tony (Cube Dweller) Dias and his brother Jeff joined me in my gear-laden rig. We met Brett (Dieselbigot) Toothill here and waited for Sam (NorCalSam) and Teresa (Little Boss) Turnage to roll in. They were running a little late, but it's completely understandable -- they had a fully loaded 80 and their 2 kids along for the ride...
. Fueled up and ready roll, we set off for Loon Lake.
We arrived at Loon Lake Dam #2 a bit late and were welcomed to beautiful, clear skies and raging 200MPH winds. Okay...maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration...there were a couple clouds up there...
JonB met us there -- he'd come in from Wentworth Springs the previous day, camped in a nice spot and backtracked to find us. I'm glad he waited for us -- it was great meeting and wheeling with him.
Once aired down, Jon walked back toward his very nicely built 4Runner, while I followed Brett's built Toyota mini -- Sam and Tree followed behind me.
Alas, Gatekeeper is no more. We proceeded through what was once the also challenging alligator pit and onto the granite slabs. The slabs were fairly uneventful, but I did have some problems on one ledge climb. My stock 4.10 gearing combined with the extra weight of the tent and my 315 MTRs proved to be too much for my torque converter. I had almost no power. I finally made it up, but only by giving the rig a very healthy bump -- much more momentum than I ever like to use, but it got me where I needed to be -- past the ledge. I went back to spot Sam. He was hung up in the same spot, but he managed to overcome it with just a little bump.
We arrived at Walker Hill much earlier than I had expected. We were making excelling progress through the trail. I took a quick look at Walker, watched Brett easily navigate up, then took my place behind the wheel. It was evident that a lot of work was done here. It was a challenge, but not nearly as difficult as it had been in the past. Sam made it up as well, without much trouble. Jon followed and climbed the hill like he owned it.
Then we got to the "V". Images of rigs sliding and flopping on the side rolled through my head. I watch Brett take the line to the left, avoiding the "V". This required crawling over a large boulder, but he had no problems with his truck and the 37" MTRs he had on it. No way in hell was I going to try that route. I approached the "V" slot and did my best to center the rig. Luck was on my side that day -- I rolled right through. Brett had pulled off to the side, just past the boulder, so I thought it would be a good idea to pull up a ways so there would be room for everyone to get through the obstacle.
By the time I parked and ran back, Sam was already on his way through...but that's when he got in trouble. I missed what originally happened, but I suspect it was the same as what happened to Alvaro...
Cruiserdrew said:
Alvaro started just to the left of Rick’s line, and the wall of the gully forced his rear quarter into the rock wall. To get him out of that, we used Rick’s truck and a snatch block to winch the back end of Alvaro’s 80 to the right and pulled him off the wall. It worked like a charm and Alvaro only collected a new scrape on top of an existing dent, so no harm done. That may be the most difficult place for a wagon on the entire trail.
Anyhow...Same was in the process of trying to reposition himself to take the same line that I had. The problem was that he was in a spot that wouldn't allow him to back up much more than a foot. On one attempt to straighten out, he backed into a rock in the side of the hill. I was several yards away, but could hear the crunch of metal and plastic. It didn't look like there'd be any way to get him through without crushing the side of his rig unless we winched, so I ran back to my 80 to back up into position. I got in and carefully negotiated the same rocks and ruts that I had before, only this time in reverse. I couldn't see much through the back window, so I was using my side mirrors. I couldn't see a huge hole on the left side and slid into it. This resulted in the front of my 80 flying upward...it felt like the front shot straight up, but I'm sure that was just an illusion. I was on the borderline of tipping backwards.
I called out for help -- Jon told me I was in the hole and asked me if I could pull forward. I gave it a shot and gently gave it a little skinny pedal -- as soon as I did, I could feel the front lift up even more...no...I was not going to risk moving forward...not tilted back the way I was. I could feel that I was sitting on my sliders, with rear wheels on the ground and at least one of the fronts off the ground. Tree came running up to save the say. She jumped on the rail of my slider and that was just enough to bring my front end down. As soon as I felt my front tire touch down, I gassed it. I climbed right out of the hole. I realigned and backed into position. Hooked up to the winch, I kept my rig in place while Sam pulled out of the "V".
We arrived at Little Sluice around 11:45AM. Stop for lunch? Move on? There was no one playing around in the sluicebox, so we decided to push on to Buck Island and stop there for a later lunch. We pressed on. We encountered a group of Jeepers at the Million Dollar Drop. They were going around on the bypass of the drop. We decided to go down the drop. I'd never taken the bypass, so, the drop is what I consider the "normal" route
The jeepers who were there allowed us to cut through -- they seemed amazed that we were going down the drop (I'm no psychic, but the murmurs I heard of, "look, they're going down THAT way" were my clue
). Brett, Sam, Jon, and I made it down with no issues at all. It's just a matter of giving enough brake pedal to maintain your decent speed and keep from sliding down out of control.
We navigated out way to the granite slabs -- Brett wanted to hit Old Sluice, but stuck with the rest of us and started down the slabs. Kudos to the FOTR trail crew for all the new signs along all parts of the trail -- especially on this section. I've been on runs in the past where we've gotten...uh...a bit off track
The new signs are in the right places...at the right intervals to keep us on the trail.
We made it down the slabs, but I now know what everyone had been telling me on the past trips -- the slabs here are off-camber and tippy. I'd never noticed it much before, but with the weight of the tent I had strap onto the roof, I could really feel it. Not fun at all
At one point, my tire carrier latch banged loose from the impact on a ledge -- I got out to take a look and the latch was thrashed. It was bent from being dragged a few inches with the weight of the arm. We managed to get it secured temporarily with a ratchet strap.
We arrived at Buck Island at around 2PM. The area was packed with guys who, reportedly had been there for several days. We decided to move on across to the far side of Buck Island lake. We all bypassed gas can rock. Given the option of going up the loose, steep climb (and the diff rock at the top) or going around, I thought it would be better to take the less difficult route. We stopped to eat lunch once we reached the campsites.
What to do? Press on? Camp here for the night? Brett informed us of the new rules requiring vehicles to be no more than 25 feet off the trail. That plus the fact that we couldn't have a fire due to the no-burn regulations in effect in the El Dorado Nat'l Forest, we decided to press on to Rubicon Springs (being private property, we could park where we wanted and possibly have a fire that night).
Big Sluice. Wow...we're at Big Sluice and it's only 4PM. We all dropped down easily and I proceeded to the spot with the tree and boulder. Somehow it looked tighter this year than it had in the past. On prior trips, this obstacle had, oddly enough, been very easy for me. I'd been lucky. This time, I had a hell of a time getting the right line. When I finally did, I came very close to hitting the tree...apparently too close. After I got through, I went back to spot Sam through the spot and noticed that I had come in contact with the tree. I had a large sappy smudge along the doors under the B-pillar. Just a barely noticeable crease and a bunch of sap. Not too bad.
With a bit of spotting, Sam got through without much trouble; same with the next tight squeeze -- between the two large boulders. All in all, it was smooth...well, as smooth as Big Sluice is going to be.
Then...the BOULDERS. To call this a rock garden would do it no justice. This is a section of the trail filled with very large boulders. I did okay for a while, but finally managed to get myself stuck. When I get stuck...I tend to get stuck GOOD. This was one such time. I was in a hole with an immovable boulder behind me and an immovable boulder in front of me. I was not going to get out under my own power. Sam came to the rescue with his winch (Thanks for installing that just before the trip
) Once hooked up, we was able to pull me out -- 12k lb. winches do come in handy sometimes. On my second attempt through, I took a much better line and, although I did bang my sliders and rear bumper quite a bit, I made it through. Sam, able to watch what I did right and wrong, made it past the spot that tried to eat my rig with not a problem at all.
At the bottom, once free of the boulders, we encountered some water. Not much, but enough to get the tires wet a bit (about 2 feet deep, at most). When we came around the corner and saw that friendly, familiar green bridge, we all knew our day was just about done. At Rubicon Springs, we found that we were all alone. Brett was first to roll into camp -- we selected Mudrak's favorite spot. We arrived just in time too -- the group of Jeepers we had passed earlier in the day pulled in -- they picked a spot closer to the waterfall.
The wind picked up again, so once we threw a tarp up as a windbreak, we set up the stoves and grills.
Dinner was standard NorCal fare. I had a bunch of boneless short ribs marinaded in a Korean BBQ sauce. Tony fired up his grill and set us up with some very nice grilled asparagus and a most excellent tri-tip from Roseville Meats. Brett threw his cross-cultural-marinaded flank steak on the grill and Tree fired up some chicken fajitas. No one was going to bed hungry that night.
I broke out the Cazadores (both Anejo and Reposado)...there was also some Makers Mark and...was that Crown Royal? I don't recall...but it was all good.
Jon had to leave early to make it home in time for some fancy shin-dig he had committed to. Thanks for the good trip Jon -- it was great wheelin' with you. The rest of us, took our time with breakfast and packing. Tony and Jeff brought some very good linguisa to grill. Breakfast was very good. Once packed, it was time to head up Cadillac Hill.
Cadillac Hill has gotten very eroded. At the hairpin turn at the bottom of the hill, we had to deal with a couple off-camber spots. Brett had a little problem at one spot, but once he made it through, he spotted me so well, that I came through unscathed. Aside from taking a bad line on V, we all made it up Cadillac without a problem.
At the staging area in Tahoma, a quick assessment showed that I definitely did some damage to my cats and also picked up an exhaust leak. I was dripping a wee bit of gear fluid from my rear axle, but upon tightening the nut on the pumpkin, I haven't had any more leaking. With the exception of some minor body damage, already mentioned, and a few crunched spots on their flares, Sam and Tree came out pretty darned clean. Sam handled that 80 like a Rubicon veteran.
Another good trip with a great group.
