Powelligator
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2017
- Threads
- 8
- Messages
- 1,203
- Reaction score
- 2,536
- Location
- Parker, CO
- Vehicle(s)
- 2006 LJ Rubicon, 2022 JL Rubicon
- Thread starter
- #1
Life, work, family, it’s all a delicate balancing act and sometimes can interrupt great four wheeling adventures. Conquering the legendary Rubicon Trail is something my good friend of over 30 years Zouch has wanted to do for a very long time (he drove, and still drives, a capable XJ). For me, well back in those days I was a regular on the trail in my CJ-7 but for the above named reasons the two of us had never gotten together on that particular trail. The idea cropped back up a couple years ago when we met up in Moab for a few days of four wheeling with our much newer and more capable JL’s, in fact it was the first Off Road trip for my JL. And for the same above named reasons here we are in late summer of 2024, tanned, rested and ready for a three day trip over the Rubicon.
First, let’s take a look at what we brought to the event. Zouch drives a oil burning diesel JLU Willys, Mopar 2’ lift with 37 inch tires and so many aftermarket skid plates mounted that the bottom of his Jeep is as smooth as a dolphin. He’s added beefed up axles and all sorts of aftermarket add-ons to the point that I can’t remember it all, it’s capable of far tougher trails than what we were about to embark upon. He even has a rooftop tent for sleeping. That’s what he’s in. On the other hand, here’s my ride for the weekend…
Unlike every other Jeep I’ve owned, my 2-Door JL has largely been untouched by creative use of my garage tools and wallet such that it remains, after over two years in my possession, largely stock. Aside from a larger set of 35 inch tires on the stock wheels, I’ve put one skid plate on the underside (to protect the oil pan) and under each door have attached rock rails, a first line of defense against having to hear the agonizing scrape of unyielding granite against thin sheet aluminum. Other than that, I’m depending on the giant sticker that the factory emblazoned on the side of the hood that suggests to everyone who can read, if it *says* Rubicon then it must be good enough *for* The Rubicon. After all, Jeep engineers use this trail as a proving ground for "Trail Rated" badges so if they can do it, surely I can too.
We met up first thing Friday morning at the Loon Lake Campground, Zouch having spent the night there while I spent the night in a hotel in Auburn since I had to fly to california (I live in Colorado) and pick up my pre-positioned Jeep that I had drove out a couple weeks before. Again, refer to the first line of this story above. We aired down at his campsite and headed for the beginning of the trail.
It should be noted that neither of us were with our significant others, so we didn’t have the luxury of someone else who could follow along, film the action with an array of cool cameras, video us for YouTube and fly drones high above for all the super cool scenes that make people famous on the internet these days. Nope, just a couple of normal guys with our cell phones for cameras, so the photos in this writeup are minimal.
Which brings us to the first real obstacle, the Gatekeeper. Holy crap, I was thinking, this is way tougher than I remember from the last time I was here years ago, this is worth a photo but dang it I need to get through this somehow without screwing up my Jeep in the first few hundred feet of the trail. OK, I’m though but can hear my buddy behind me already making rock on metal noises, I’ll just jump out and spot him and grab a quick photo. That ended up being a great description of how our life would be on the trail for the next two days.
After successfully getting through the Gatekeeper you travel across the slabs, huge fields of granite (but there’s no crystal, and no metallic, so WTF) that kind of lull you into a false sense of security convincing you that maybe this trail ain’t as bad as it’s cracked up to be. But then we came up on a traffic jam. Yep, trail was blocked for a bit by an older XJ that had broken a driveshaft already, less than two miles into the trail. Ouch, going to be a long weekend for somebody. But the wait let us get out of the Jeeps and chat with the first of several other groups of people whom we would meet on the trail. At the spot where the XJ broke, the group in front of us had some problems on an uphill obstacle but Zouch and I made it just fine.
On the next obstacle there’s a downhill step that if you have much of an overhang you’ll drag your bumper, in my case I have a pintle hitch in an effort to protect my spare tire and it was here that I suffered my first official trail damage. The pintle has a cotter pin secured by a small chain, somehow the chain got caught between pintle steel and granite rock, and thus, now I have two small chains.
Over the years helpful volunteers have put up mileage markers along the trail which is awesome and Zouch and I both want to thank the volunteers who do this. Here we are at the first such marker, 1.5 miles in a little over an hour of being on trail.
One point five miles per hour, you are thinking? Well, the thing about The Rubicon is that those miles are relentless. Most of the trail is rocks, granite rocks with not much crystal and the only metallic on them has been deposited by the hundreds of vehicles who have passed that way ahead of you. You just can’t make speed on this trail, unless you have zero thoughts of driving your trail battered rig back to Colorado the next time you see pavement. And unless you turn around, pavement is a long ways ahead of you.
At about noon we stopped for lunch in a pleasant shaded area off the trail. Another group that was running behind us passed while we ate our sandwiches. After we packed back up and hit the trail again, we passed them up while they were eating. On this trail you do a lot of leapfrogging of different groups and one of the cool things about almost everyone you meet is how the groups will pull as far off as they can to let you through.
As the afternoon wore on, there were sluices,
Big puddles of water,
Another broken vehicle, a faster moving group that we let on by and more rocks and slabs. One thing that gets little mention when I read tales of the Rubicon are the spectacular views of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The trail never disappoints.
Around 7:00 with only about four miles logged, yes four miles, we decided to set up camp for the night just below the Buck Island Lake dam. Zouch of course just needed to press a button or do one thing and sooner than you can say, “what the…” his home for the evening was completely set up and ready for occupancy. Myself, on the other hand, had to do the old school setting up my backpacking tent on a level section of ground with no bear poop on it. We enjoyed a couple of beers and our dinners and watched the late arrivals and night runners passing through the area, lighting up their way with Chinese made arrays of LED beacons.
The next morning we continued on, found another broken vehicle that was blocking the harder of two routes past a rock wall, though part of it was challenging enough that neither Zouch nor I was able to snap a picture since getting though with no damage was of more importance in the greater scheme of things.
Got close there but didn’t touch. This time...
The next thing you know we come to an obstacle that in retrospect would have been far easier if I had a spotter, but with just the two of us alone I took a shot at what I thought was the best line for my particular Jeep. This is one of these kinds of obstacles that no photo can do it justice, it looks easy enough but there was no getting through unless you had massive ground clearance or even more massive tires. I tried to squeeze through between a couple rocks and felt the Jeep slow and bind up, checked my right rear mirror and saw that the granite rock had seemingly walked a few inches sideways into the trail and grabbed ahold of the right rear plastic fender, holding me back, pulling me back towards the beginning of the trail. No can do, I’m going to plow forward and that I did, leaving behind some granite crystal metallic paint on an already well worn rock that had clearly seen and felt many vehicles before mine. Well, it ain’t going to be new forever…
I stopped ahead in a level spot and jogged back to give Zouch a spot, but was too late, he was also meeting the same fate with his JL. Any other narrower Jeep would have made it through with no issues, why oh why are these JL’s so freaking wide?
About 30 minutes later we came upon the famed green bridge over the Rubicon River.
A few minutes to pose for the cell phone cameras and we then pulled into Rubicon Springs for lunch. Late summer after Labor Day is one of the best times to do the Rubicon Trail, aside from an old crusty guy that worked there we were pretty much alone. You can see by the size of the place that during Jamboree Week it must be wall to wall vehicles and people. And booze, the (empty) bar was impressive.
About an hour later we were climbing Cadillac Hill. It had rained hard a day or two before we were on the trail which kept the dust down to a minimum and on the hill the leftover moisture gave us massive traction. During the height of the summer back in the day I remember my CJ-7 spinning and sliding a lot on the loose dirt covering the rocks on Cadillac. At the top, the view and the obligatory photo op.
After that, the trail is pretty easy, eventually mellowing out into an easy dirt road before hitting pavement at a parking lot. My Jeep with it’s diminutive fuel tank bingo’d on gas along that dirt road, giving me an uneasy feeling that I might not make it all the way to South Tahoe for gas. We aired up just as it was getting dark after only really two long days on the trail and headed into town, at that point my Jeep was darn near on fumes. Didn’t run out, and we had a good meal in town. After dinner, we parted ways and I headed east on US-50 for Colorado.
All in all, a great trip with a great friend. Zouch proved that a well built Willys can do as good or better than a stock Rubicon on The Rubicon, and I proved that a stock Rubicon can do The Rubicon. Damage report; both of us suffered right rear plastic fender scratches. Both of us suffered numerous scrapes along the skid plates beneath our Jeeps as well as some notable scratches on our rock rails. Both front bumpers suffered some scrapes on the bottom and our tail hooks took on some rash as well. On the way home out in Utah I had a flat tire, I’m not sure if I got the puncture on the Rubicon and it took until Utah to metastasize or if it was a random puncture from old Highway 50.
You know, about the whole Life, Work and Family thing; It all goes easier when you get a chance to use these Jeeps for what they are intended for. Make some time, we’re only on this planet for a short while.
Hope you enjoyed reading this.
First, let’s take a look at what we brought to the event. Zouch drives a oil burning diesel JLU Willys, Mopar 2’ lift with 37 inch tires and so many aftermarket skid plates mounted that the bottom of his Jeep is as smooth as a dolphin. He’s added beefed up axles and all sorts of aftermarket add-ons to the point that I can’t remember it all, it’s capable of far tougher trails than what we were about to embark upon. He even has a rooftop tent for sleeping. That’s what he’s in. On the other hand, here’s my ride for the weekend…
Unlike every other Jeep I’ve owned, my 2-Door JL has largely been untouched by creative use of my garage tools and wallet such that it remains, after over two years in my possession, largely stock. Aside from a larger set of 35 inch tires on the stock wheels, I’ve put one skid plate on the underside (to protect the oil pan) and under each door have attached rock rails, a first line of defense against having to hear the agonizing scrape of unyielding granite against thin sheet aluminum. Other than that, I’m depending on the giant sticker that the factory emblazoned on the side of the hood that suggests to everyone who can read, if it *says* Rubicon then it must be good enough *for* The Rubicon. After all, Jeep engineers use this trail as a proving ground for "Trail Rated" badges so if they can do it, surely I can too.
We met up first thing Friday morning at the Loon Lake Campground, Zouch having spent the night there while I spent the night in a hotel in Auburn since I had to fly to california (I live in Colorado) and pick up my pre-positioned Jeep that I had drove out a couple weeks before. Again, refer to the first line of this story above. We aired down at his campsite and headed for the beginning of the trail.
It should be noted that neither of us were with our significant others, so we didn’t have the luxury of someone else who could follow along, film the action with an array of cool cameras, video us for YouTube and fly drones high above for all the super cool scenes that make people famous on the internet these days. Nope, just a couple of normal guys with our cell phones for cameras, so the photos in this writeup are minimal.
Which brings us to the first real obstacle, the Gatekeeper. Holy crap, I was thinking, this is way tougher than I remember from the last time I was here years ago, this is worth a photo but dang it I need to get through this somehow without screwing up my Jeep in the first few hundred feet of the trail. OK, I’m though but can hear my buddy behind me already making rock on metal noises, I’ll just jump out and spot him and grab a quick photo. That ended up being a great description of how our life would be on the trail for the next two days.
After successfully getting through the Gatekeeper you travel across the slabs, huge fields of granite (but there’s no crystal, and no metallic, so WTF) that kind of lull you into a false sense of security convincing you that maybe this trail ain’t as bad as it’s cracked up to be. But then we came up on a traffic jam. Yep, trail was blocked for a bit by an older XJ that had broken a driveshaft already, less than two miles into the trail. Ouch, going to be a long weekend for somebody. But the wait let us get out of the Jeeps and chat with the first of several other groups of people whom we would meet on the trail. At the spot where the XJ broke, the group in front of us had some problems on an uphill obstacle but Zouch and I made it just fine.
On the next obstacle there’s a downhill step that if you have much of an overhang you’ll drag your bumper, in my case I have a pintle hitch in an effort to protect my spare tire and it was here that I suffered my first official trail damage. The pintle has a cotter pin secured by a small chain, somehow the chain got caught between pintle steel and granite rock, and thus, now I have two small chains.
Over the years helpful volunteers have put up mileage markers along the trail which is awesome and Zouch and I both want to thank the volunteers who do this. Here we are at the first such marker, 1.5 miles in a little over an hour of being on trail.
One point five miles per hour, you are thinking? Well, the thing about The Rubicon is that those miles are relentless. Most of the trail is rocks, granite rocks with not much crystal and the only metallic on them has been deposited by the hundreds of vehicles who have passed that way ahead of you. You just can’t make speed on this trail, unless you have zero thoughts of driving your trail battered rig back to Colorado the next time you see pavement. And unless you turn around, pavement is a long ways ahead of you.
At about noon we stopped for lunch in a pleasant shaded area off the trail. Another group that was running behind us passed while we ate our sandwiches. After we packed back up and hit the trail again, we passed them up while they were eating. On this trail you do a lot of leapfrogging of different groups and one of the cool things about almost everyone you meet is how the groups will pull as far off as they can to let you through.
As the afternoon wore on, there were sluices,
Big puddles of water,
Another broken vehicle, a faster moving group that we let on by and more rocks and slabs. One thing that gets little mention when I read tales of the Rubicon are the spectacular views of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The trail never disappoints.
Around 7:00 with only about four miles logged, yes four miles, we decided to set up camp for the night just below the Buck Island Lake dam. Zouch of course just needed to press a button or do one thing and sooner than you can say, “what the…” his home for the evening was completely set up and ready for occupancy. Myself, on the other hand, had to do the old school setting up my backpacking tent on a level section of ground with no bear poop on it. We enjoyed a couple of beers and our dinners and watched the late arrivals and night runners passing through the area, lighting up their way with Chinese made arrays of LED beacons.
The next morning we continued on, found another broken vehicle that was blocking the harder of two routes past a rock wall, though part of it was challenging enough that neither Zouch nor I was able to snap a picture since getting though with no damage was of more importance in the greater scheme of things.
Got close there but didn’t touch. This time...
The next thing you know we come to an obstacle that in retrospect would have been far easier if I had a spotter, but with just the two of us alone I took a shot at what I thought was the best line for my particular Jeep. This is one of these kinds of obstacles that no photo can do it justice, it looks easy enough but there was no getting through unless you had massive ground clearance or even more massive tires. I tried to squeeze through between a couple rocks and felt the Jeep slow and bind up, checked my right rear mirror and saw that the granite rock had seemingly walked a few inches sideways into the trail and grabbed ahold of the right rear plastic fender, holding me back, pulling me back towards the beginning of the trail. No can do, I’m going to plow forward and that I did, leaving behind some granite crystal metallic paint on an already well worn rock that had clearly seen and felt many vehicles before mine. Well, it ain’t going to be new forever…
I stopped ahead in a level spot and jogged back to give Zouch a spot, but was too late, he was also meeting the same fate with his JL. Any other narrower Jeep would have made it through with no issues, why oh why are these JL’s so freaking wide?
About 30 minutes later we came upon the famed green bridge over the Rubicon River.
A few minutes to pose for the cell phone cameras and we then pulled into Rubicon Springs for lunch. Late summer after Labor Day is one of the best times to do the Rubicon Trail, aside from an old crusty guy that worked there we were pretty much alone. You can see by the size of the place that during Jamboree Week it must be wall to wall vehicles and people. And booze, the (empty) bar was impressive.
About an hour later we were climbing Cadillac Hill. It had rained hard a day or two before we were on the trail which kept the dust down to a minimum and on the hill the leftover moisture gave us massive traction. During the height of the summer back in the day I remember my CJ-7 spinning and sliding a lot on the loose dirt covering the rocks on Cadillac. At the top, the view and the obligatory photo op.
After that, the trail is pretty easy, eventually mellowing out into an easy dirt road before hitting pavement at a parking lot. My Jeep with it’s diminutive fuel tank bingo’d on gas along that dirt road, giving me an uneasy feeling that I might not make it all the way to South Tahoe for gas. We aired up just as it was getting dark after only really two long days on the trail and headed into town, at that point my Jeep was darn near on fumes. Didn’t run out, and we had a good meal in town. After dinner, we parted ways and I headed east on US-50 for Colorado.
All in all, a great trip with a great friend. Zouch proved that a well built Willys can do as good or better than a stock Rubicon on The Rubicon, and I proved that a stock Rubicon can do The Rubicon. Damage report; both of us suffered right rear plastic fender scratches. Both of us suffered numerous scrapes along the skid plates beneath our Jeeps as well as some notable scratches on our rock rails. Both front bumpers suffered some scrapes on the bottom and our tail hooks took on some rash as well. On the way home out in Utah I had a flat tire, I’m not sure if I got the puncture on the Rubicon and it took until Utah to metastasize or if it was a random puncture from old Highway 50.
You know, about the whole Life, Work and Family thing; It all goes easier when you get a chance to use these Jeeps for what they are intended for. Make some time, we’re only on this planet for a short while.
Hope you enjoyed reading this.
Sponsored
