Rubicon Trail

[roaniecowpony]

I think it’s open 365

Unless they decide to close it.

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[wibornz]

Gotcha.

My thought was that the Rubicon has been "groomed" to be more difficult as years pass, just to keep the reputation as the arguable "king" of jeep trails.

HO-127_Siller-Rubicon-pt1-R.pdf (sillerhelicopters.com)

I have run many trails, and I would agree that the Rubicon is the King of Jeep trails. There are many trails that are hard like the Rubicon, but none that I have ran that have as many obstacles. It is unrelenting for the most part. I usually take a bunch of pictures. I took maybe a quarter of what I usually take as I was so busy spotting, that I did not have time to get the camera out. The next time I run it, I am going to take at least three days so I can enjoy it more.

I do like this one.

I had the Law pass me too.

 

[Tncdrew]

It's a tough trail. Last time I ran it was around '98. From my trip a few weeks ago, it almost appears as the years of rain & snow have eroded some of the dirt away from the trail, exposing more of the rocks, (increasing their presence).
Of course, that's a "seat of the pants" opinion, but seems logical.
I really doubt they're hauling boulders in there to "toughen" the trail, (chopper time is too expensive for that). They may roll a few rocks here and there to ease passage (maybe?), but mother nature has her hand firmly on the make-up of that trail.
Kinda wish I'd been able to go through a few weeks ago, (pretty sure my Jeep woulda done fine). Unfortunately, in my group, I was the only Jeep, (no other 4x4's), and well, I still had to drive 2400 miles home. ?

 

[Granny Gear]

It really is a fun and challenging trail! I agree with @Tdkrum5 & @Tncdrew about the tougher trail conditions today compared to the past. I used to run the trail often in the early 90’s in our 1973 CJ5 (Yikes 31 years ago). We just ran the trail last week and while still amazing and enjoyable, the trail is much more difficult overall than in the past. It is far more unrelenting now than before and has many more obstacles to tackle throughout most of the trail. While the trail can be done in a stock or slightly modified Jeep, I would always recommend a good lift, decent size tires (35” or +), and some select armor (heavy duty diff covers, front & rear control arm skids, and rear diff skid) to anyone that asked (recent Rubicon Trail pic 7-28-23).

 

[702_Jeep]

We just got back home from our trip.We Ran the trail from Loon to Rubicon springs and camped two nights before finishing at Tahoma.
We had a great time and def recomend staying at least a extra day.Also we had a bear in our camp both nights.He tore open our friends trasharoo…So be mindful of that and mesquitos if staying at Rubicon Springs.

 

[Granny Gear]

Not trying to take this thread a different direction but great advice to be mindful of bears in the Sierras. They have always had a presence at Rubicon Springs and as you mention often cause issues getting into food and garbage. It is good that you mention that to folks that might be unfamiliar with camping in that environment. When camping in areas of bear activity this is what we do:

• Never leave food out and unattended.
• Exercise easy to do secure food storage principles.
• We use a Yeti ice chest and pad lock the lid closed (they have that capability). We also store items with scent like our snacks, cookware, unrefrigerated foods, toothpaste, and sunscreen in Zargas K470-40678 IGBC certified aluminum storage cases and padlock them closed (they have that capability). We run a cable (with a padlock) through the Yeti and the Zargas handles and secure them to a tree.
• We keep the above items out of the Jeep and out of the tent while in camp.
• We cook away from our tent.
• We store all garbage away from and out of the Jeep, tent, and cooking area.

Doing the above has worked well for us. Having bear spray on hand is not a bad idea. One of the folks camping near us at Rubicon springs had their trash attached to the back of their Jeep in a mesh bag. They lost their mesh trail sack to a bear. Luckily, the bear did not decide to get inside and rummage through the Jeep!

 

[jeep1]

We're doing the Jeep Jamboree Rubicon Trail Expedition in September. Three days on that trail after spending about five days beforehand doing trails around Ouray CO with our patrol in the Mile High Jeep Club.

One unexpected (to me) thing that I've been warned about is the black dust. I assume it's volcanic and gets everywhere / into everything.

Jeep Jamboree's requirements: minimum of 37s, front and rear lockers, good tow points, and skid plates covering the fuel cell, transfer case and rocker panels.

I've also got front and rear diff skids on order from Next Venture Motorsports. Hopefully those will be here in time for me to get them installed.

You will have a blast. We ran the Expedition last year, being in such a small group is great and the guides really are top notch which is much appreciated when running that trail for the first time.

The 37s minimum is really just to keep it as easy as possible for everybody. Yes, you can absolutely make it through on a stock Rubicon, especially if you know the trail, but the chances of damaging something is higher and that just ruins the run for most.

We didn't have any issue with "black dust" ... but it was certainly hot and dry and it took a while to clean out the Gladiator once we got home !

 

[Powelligator]

I grew up about two hours north of the Rubicon Trail and first did it in my bone stock '83 CJ-7 on 235/75-15 tires with open differentials. Back then, a 2" spring lift, 33" tires and a Detriot Locker in the rear was considered overkill for that trail. Over the years the trail has gotten tougher, as well as the Jeeps that now crawl all over it. My most memorable trip was on New Year's Day 2000 when I had the insane idea of being the first Jeep to go over the Rubicon that year, we winched for three miles straight past Cadillac Hill, making it off the trail at 9:00 PM that night.

On one trip in the late 90's I ran across a Jeep engineering team testing out the then new Jeep TJ. They stacked rocks on almost every obstacle but were nice about it and let us pass. According to them they were testing out a new 30" tire and wheel package but were really impressed with my CJ-7 which by then had 4.56 Gears and lockers on both ends. If you do the trail from the Tahoe side going west you do what we call "The Nocibur". Ah the memories...

The black volcanic dust isn't an issue on the Rubicon, it's much more prevalent further north in Plumas County. The last few years have seen a lot of forest fires in the area, perhaps the black dust some talk about is actually ash from those fires.

 

[Ratbert]

I'm nervously excited about doing it next month, especially after seeing how much damage they did to their Braptor:

 

[Powelligator]

Don’t sweat it, that first obstacle is optional, there are bypasses for a lot of stuff. Also, the outflow from the dam this year is roaring, the Sierras got a lot of snow this year.

 

[dragoneggs]

I'm planning a Rubicon trip in April '24.
OP, take lots of pictures and post here.

We planned for mid June this year. Didn't happen because of the unusual amount of snow pack this year. Now we are targeting late August 2024. Ugh... the anticipation is killing me.

 

[SadRobot]

We planned for mid June this year. Didn't happen because of the unusual amount of snow pack this year. Now we are targeting late August 2024. Ugh... the anticipation is killing me.

2024???? ack the world could have exploded by then!

I wanted to get to the Rubicon this year but it’s looking like I won’t get to it till next year as well

 

[azjl#3]

• We run a cable (with a padlock) through the Yeti and the Zargas handles and secure them to a tree.

I did this, bear reached up and p[ulled over a 9 inch round pine, and got the steaks.

Bring peppermint spray, the kind they use to repel chipmunks, keeps bears away, they like pepper spray, more tasty.

 

[Granny Gear]

This method has always worked for us in Alaska on Prince of Wales Island, Kodiak Island and in the Sierras without incident over many years but as you mention with your story, always good to add the caveat YMMV.

 

[av8or]

We had an absolute blast! With just 2 vehicles it was really a very nice trip. We went in on Sunday morning expecting a few rigs coming out from the jamboree back to the Loon Lake side, and we did run into about a dozen throughout the first day. On day one we went to Buck island lake and were the only ones camped there. The trail from the gate keeper to Buck island lake is pretty much unchanged except for little sluice. More and more people are going around and little sluice seems to be getting harder every year. We started at 0730 and took our time ending at 1730 averaging .5 mph

On day 2 we only planned on covering the 2 miles or so to rubicon springs. We left at 0830 and got to the springs at 1330, not seeing another soul on the trail. The trail between Buck island and Big sluice was straight up nasty compared to a couple years ago, but the upper part of Big Sluice before the corner was really easy compared to back then. The lower part of big sluice is still BIG, and now there’s a choice again for right or left where decision tree used to be.

We had Rubicon Springs all to ourselves, as the only others there were 2 caretakers. It turns out going in behind the jamboree is a great time to be there. We took the afternoon to swim and enjoy not getting the shit beat out of us. It’s a beautiful place to spend a day. We saw a really big bear in rubicon springs just before dark and that big boy was not easy to persuade to leave, he kept coming into camp all night (probably cleaning up from the 400 or so jamboree campers) and at 2:15 am one of the caretakers had to get real loud with pots and pans to get it out of the front of their truck!
In the morning we went up Cadillac hill, which seemed to be really easy from what I remember, and on out to the trailhead.
After 3 days of beating the shit out of my 2020 JLUR now with 70k miles and a 2021 eco diesel gladiator we aired up the tires and drove home on the freeway at 75mph. Amazing vehicles.

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