[bzmarsh]

Quick start:
Here are my pictures on Photobucket. I'm still learning how to use it since Yahoo! Photos is going away soon. So please browse the images in reverse order. Sorry!

The only real carnage (aside from Storm's Crusher committing seppuku on the hillside) was to radardog's rig - and he had enough for all of us! Nearly the last straw for him was the third sliced tire, whereupon the Jeep sustained some knuckle damage (not damage to the knuckle, damage from a knuckle!) and we all heard Sasquatch howling in the forest. But he held up under the strain, we got him going again, and staggered out to the staging area. Daia had to be back today, so while everybody else went to get a hotel and pick up Onk's trailer (for radardog's rig), she and I hightailed it back home.

No doors! Highway 80 at 11PM! FREEZING!!!!! I shivered and felt my teeth chatter, while Daia huddled in a blanket. It's a horrible sight, seeing the highway sign that says "Sacramento 118" at that point. Daia was really tough - it must have been a terrible ride for her, but in true TH form there was no whining from that side of the cab!

Got her home at 4:00-ish, backed into my driveway at 4:20. It's a baaaaaad feeling when you can't find your house keys after a trip on the Rubicon...but after I woke the GF up to let me in, I realized I'd pulled an "Onk" (digital air gauge episode ) and they were in my pocket!!!

I'm going to let the others add their stories now...let's hope their trip back is an easy one.

[Storm]

Onk and BZ saved my buttocks and headed back out to meet the others. We were at a staging area at the bottom of Loon dam. I started out up the steep gravel incline to the top of the dam and my 2 wheel drive half ton started slipping tires with all the weight of the truck and trailer with the cruiser on it. We backed up a ways and gave er heck, making it to within a couple hundred feet of the top but just couldn't go all the way. A few people stopped and suggested dropping the cruiser off and driving it up top, not knowing the t/case was in the backseat. It was dark then, and I was once more trying to back down to a slope level enough to get traction. The truck would slide each time I put on the brakes and it was a grueling ordeal to keep it straight although very important because both sides of the road were drops. Finally a guy with a yota gave me a tug enough to keep traction and up we went. I think BZ's pull out the trail was less stressful than the trip up to the top of the dam.

[Rockinelle]

Thanks for the pics BZ. Good thing there were enough trailers to go around. It also sounds like there are some Bias ply tires in radardog's future :P What did you guys think of the trail itself?

[76 Patriot]

Was that a piece of wood? What exactly was the deal there?

Great pics. It's starting to sound like I picked the right trip NOT to go on. Still wish I could have gone, though.

[76 Patriot]

Quote

(76 Patriot @ May 29 2007, 09:56 PM)
Well, I'm kinda waiting on both the trailer guys for a quote/commitment, but I'm also waiting for some input from here. If we got trailered down, do we want to get trailered back?

Quote

(BZMARSH @ May 29 2007, 10:32 PM)What's with all the trailer queen talk? Drive down, drive the trail, drive back.

Did I mention "Pray for no showstopper carnage"?

Hmmm. LOL!

This post has been edited by 76 Patriot: 16 July 2007 - 12:08 PM

[Storm]

One of the first things BZ said when it was obvious the cruiser was done is that he'd never again poo poo someone bringing a trailer.

[76 Patriot]

Storm, on Jul 16 2007, 01:08 PM, said:

One of the first things BZ said when it was obvious the cruiser was done is that he'd never again poo poo someone bringing a trailer.

I just think it's good planning that far from home. Speaking from my own experience, the one thing I forget or don't bring is always the thing I end up needing. In this case, If I had gone without the trailer I #### sure would have broke and needed one.

Sorry, BZ. Didn't mean for this to bring any bad juju on ya with this post.

Now, back to the stories. What was the wood for?

[bzmarsh]

76 Patriot, on Jul 16 2007, 01:20 PM, said:

Sorry, BZ. Didn't mean for this to bring any bad juju on ya with this post.

No worries, mate.

Quote

Now, back to the stories. What was the wood for?

I think I'll let Onk or radardog tell that one. We have film. We chalked that event up to our own impatience, but it was hilarious while it lasted.

I don't know if bias ply tires are the answer. Mine are radials...I think it has more to do with the actual construction rather than the bias/radial religious war. His just had really thin walls.

I have to say the trail lives up to its rep. It was far more difficult than anything I've driven (some of the UA was harder, but I was a passenger). It's not insurmountable - the only winching we did was to get radardog out of the way while we effected repairs. But it's one obstacle after another. There's no time to stop and get out and watch everybody go by and have a spotter for everything. You just do it and keep going. The bummer about that is there are precious few action photos!

When Onk and I left Storm, it was getting dark; by the time we got back to where we'd left the group, it was full dark, and we drove the rest of the way to Little Sluice in the dark. It was a fantastic experience, and really fun to watch Onk go up and over stuff I couldn't see past. We squished past some stuff I didn't think I'd fit through (Onk of course handled it with elan). After a while I noticed that the little red indicator lights for my lockers weren't on. I'd never locked up!! :headbanger:

This post has been edited by bzmarsh: 16 July 2007 - 01:53 PM

[76 Patriot]

bzmarsh, on Jul 16 2007, 02:09 PM, said:

I think I'll let Onk or radardog tell that one.

Has anyone heard from them?

[bzmarsh]

76 Patriot, on Jul 16 2007, 03:55 PM, said:

Has anyone heard from them?

Yeah, billy d., Onk, and radardog came over and dropped Mean Green off at my house for temporary storage at about 7:45pm. We ought to start hearing from them soon.

Evidently they had a REALLY long day, finally getting radardog's rig loaded onto the trailer at 5:30am (I left them at about 10:20 last night). radardog had a really cold several hours in his Jeep all by hisself at the staging area. More good stories. (w00t)

[Onkover]

76 Patriot, on Jul 16 2007, 03:55 PM, said:

Has anyone heard from them?

I just got in the door for good this time. I got some big story to tell but it's late and I work in the morning. I'll post up tommorow I hope.

[Billy D.]

We made it home just fine and I'll give detail's tomorrow, It's now time to get some decent sleep

[radardog]

meh... Im alive, and "Mean green" as BZ xalls him is still moving under his own power..... too otired to post more now... up for 43 or so hours now....

[Billy D.]

Onkover is planning on doing a trail write up on this trip.

We started off on the trail around 3:30-4:00pm on friday as Storm already said we got about 1/4 mi when Storm's T-case decided it dident want to make the trip. We got him turned around BZ and Onk brought him back to the staging area helped him load up then headed back out to meet up with the rest of us. We made it to the bottom of little sluice to camp for the first night (this is where Radardog got his first flat)my friend Kevin and I went back up the trail till we could hear BZ and Onk on the CB and waited there till they cought up and lead them into camp.
Unfortunatly a large group of the pirate guy's were at the little sluice they had stereo's blareing till 5:00am then around 7:00am some one fired off a train horn to wake everyone so we got up and some of the people around us that kept us up all night were still sleeping so it was payback time they woke up to pat travers Boom Boom out go the light's we had breakfast packed up camp and headed out we got about 1/2 mi from little sluice and ran into a group of guy's that had the trail blocked for a little bit.
when we were able to get around them Radardog was climbing up on a ledge and broke his RF U-joint fortunatly he had the part's to fix it then we were on our way again.
After a little while on the trail we got to Bucks Island Lake and took a short break there to find out how much farther it was to Rubicon spring's we found out that it was about 1 1/2 hrs away and headed out again.
When we reached the big sluice we got held up by a group of rig's coming up which held us up for about an hour. around 6:00pm we reached Rubicon Spring's found a spot to camp and unloaded (this is where Radardog tore the sidewall of a 2nd tire. Onk had a patch kit onboard so we repaired the first tire and got it to hold air with a small leak. There was a small group camped about 75ft from us that were not in camp when we arived. When they came back to camp the stereo's were once again blareing Kevin went and talked to them about keeping it down and they dident seem willing till the caretaker of Rubicon Spring's came and talked to them twice then they kept it down so we got some sleep that night.
Sunday morning we loaded up again and headed out around 10:30am for Cadilac hill where there was another traffic jam it took us about 3hrs to get to morris rock at the top of cadilac hill this is where Radardog broke the bolt's on his stearing box and droped the drag link after about 8 rig's passed us coming up the trail one guy had some bolt's to get us going again but radardog could only put 2 of the 3 bolt's in because he could not extract the 3rd bolt and we used a bungie cord and duct tape to hold the drag link in place.
We arived at the look out point and took some pic's of the rig's around 4:00pm. We started out again and around 4:45 the 2 new bolt's broke so I headed out to Taho city picked up more bolts and returned around 6:30pm and got his rig back on the trail. Radardog could not turn very well with only 2 bolt's holding the stearing box on because he dident want to break them again. we got a short distance up the trail when he caught the LR tire on a stump and lost tire #3 BZ took his spare and put it on Radardog's rig and we contenued on. Radardog kept stoping and re-tightening the bolt's because now they were starting to pull through the unibody frame. We stoped at one point and dug through tool boxes and found some large washer's put those on to help keep the bolt head's from pulling through and found that the bolt's were about to break again so he put 2 more new bolt's on and we took it real easy. Finally we made it to the Taho side staging area around 10:00pm where we left radardog there to keep an eye on his rig.
BZ headed home with Radardgs GF then Onk and I headed to South lake Tahoe and got a couple of motel room's where we left Carly and Aimee to get shower's and some sleep Onk and I headed out with his rig to Robbs Valley Resort where we parked the truck and trailer. We arived there about 2:00am loaded up onk's rig and headed back for tahoe unloaded onk's rig at 3:00am and went after Radardog we had his rig loaded and headed back to tahoe by 5:30 and arived at the motel just after 6:00am took shower's and got a little sleep.
We left S.L. Tahoe around 11:00am droped Aimee off around 3:00pm in Nevada City then stoped to eat in Grass Valley. We got to Onk's house droped off hig rig and headed for redding around 6:45 we droped Radardog's rig at BZ's house about 7:30 droped off Radardog at his house and headed back to red bluff where we droped of my trailer and watched what video we did get then onk went home and Carly and I headed home also we got home around 11:30 tierd as could be.
WOW what a trip!!!!!! we did have a blast I definitly want to go to the con again it's such a great trail there arent alot of places where you can really relax while your running the trail it is just one obsticle after another large rock's to negotiate, off camber's that will give you the pucker factor ( some of them big time ) great climb's and down hill's. this is a trail where you really have to pick your line's right. Everyone's rig did great and none of us escaped damage it was light damage but still we got some :headbanger:
I will get some pic's up as soon as I get the film developed and I am going to take the video tape to have it put on disk so it can be edited and posted.
Rig's that were there:
BillyD.
Onkover
Storm (unfortunatly he broke but atleast we werent in the middle of the trail and all of us feel bad for him but maybe next time )
BZmarsh
Radardog
Kevin ( a friend of mine from Tracy Ca.)

Thank all of you for a great run and I can't wait to do it again !!!
One last note we had talked to one guy on the trail he said he had been there 15 time's and this was the worst he had ever seen it so yea it was tough.

[bzmarsh]

Nice quick synopsis! The only part you left out was where the chunks of wood tie in. Oh, and the fact that you made all the difficult obstacles look easy.

I still think we should leave the wood part to Onk or Radardog. Anticipation is the greatest appetizer! :P

This post has been edited by bzmarsh: 17 July 2007 - 12:09 PM

[toyoder]

Billy D., on Jul 17 2007, 12:51 PM, said:

Onkover is planning on doing a trail write up on this trip.

We started off on the trail around 3:30-4:00pm on friday as Storm already said we got about 1/4 mi when Storm's T-case decided it dident want to make the trip. We got him turned around BZ and Onk brought him back to the staging area helped him load up then headed back out to meet up with the rest of us. We made it to the bottom of little sluice to camp for the first night (this is where Radardog got his first flat)my friend Kevin and I went back up the trail till we could hear BZ and Onk on the CB and waited there till they cought up and lead them into camp.
Unfortunatly a large group of the pirate guy's were at the little sluice they had stereo's blareing till 5:00am then around 7:00am some one fired off a train horn to wake everyone so we got up and some of the people around us that kept us up all night were still sleeping so it was payback time they woke up to pat travers Boom Boom out go the light's we had breakfast packed up camp and headed out we got about 1/2 mi from little sluice and ran into a group of guy's that had the trail blocked for a little bit.
when we were able to get around them Radardog was climbing up on a ledge and broke his RF U-joint fortunatly he had the part's to fix it then we were on our way again.
After a little while on the trail we got to Bucks Island Lake and took a short break there to find out how much farther it was to Rubicon spring's we found out that it was about 1 1/2 hrs away and headed out again.
When we reached the big sluice we got held up by a group of rig's coming up which held us up for about an hour. around 6:00pm we reached Rubicon Spring's found a spot to camp and unloaded (this is where Radardog tore the sidewall of a 2nd tire. Onk had a patch kit onboard so we repaired the first tire and got it to hold air with a small leak. There was a small group camped about 75ft from us that were not in camp when we arived. When they came back to camp the stereo's were once again blareing Kevin went and talked to them about keeping it down and they dident seem willing till the caretaker of Rubicon Spring's came and talked to them twice then they kept it down so we got some sleep that night.
Sunday morning we loaded up again and headed out around 10:30am for Cadilac hill where there was another traffic jam it took us about 3hrs to get to morris rock at the top of cadilac hill this is where Radardog broke the bolt's on his stearing box and droped the drag link after about 8 rig's passed us coming up the trail one guy had some bolt's to get us going again but radardog could only put 2 of the 3 bolt's in because he could not extract the 3rd bolt and we used a bungie cord and duct tape to hold the drag link in place.
We arived at the look out point and took some pic's of the rig's around 4:00pm. We started out again and around 4:45 the 2 new bolt's broke so I headed out to Taho city picked up more bolts and returned around 6:30pm and got his rig back on the trail. Radardog could not turn very well with only 2 bolt's holding the stearing box on because he dident want to break them again. we got a short distance up the trail when he caught the LR tire on a stump and lost tire #3 BZ took his spare and put it on Radardog's rig and we contenued on. Radardog kept stoping and re-tightening the bolt's because now they were starting to pull through the unibody frame. We stoped at one point and dug through tool boxes and found some large washer's put those on to help keep the bolt head's from pulling through and found that the bolt's were about to break again so he put 2 more new bolt's on and we took it real easy. Finally we made it to the Taho side staging area around 10:00pm where we left radardog there to keep an eye on his rig.
BZ headed home with Radardgs GF then Onk and I headed to South lake Tahoe and got a couple of motel room's where we left Carly and Aimee to get shower's and some sleep Onk and I headed out with his rig to Robbs Valley Resort where we parked the truck and trailer. We arived there about 2:00am loaded up onk's rig and headed back for tahoe unloaded onk's rig at 3:00am and went after Radardog we had his rig loaded and headed back to tahoe by 5:30 and arived at the motel just after 6:00am took shower's and got a little sleep.
We left S.L. Tahoe around 11:00am droped Aimee off around 3:00pm in Nevada City then stoped to eat in Grass Valley. We got to Onk's house droped off hig rig and headed for redding around 6:45 we droped Radardog's rig at BZ's house about 7:30 droped off Radardog at his house and headed back to red bluff where we droped of my trailer and watched what video we did get then onk went home and Carly and I headed home also we got home around 11:30 tierd as could be.
WOW what a trip!!!!!! we did have a blast I definitly want to go to the con again it's such a great trail there arent alot of places where you can really relax while your running the trail it is just one obsticle after another large rock's to negotiate, off camber's that will give you the pucker factor ( some of them big time ) great climb's and down hill's. this is a trail where you really have to pick your line's right. Everyone's rig did great and none of us escaped damage it was light damage but still we got some :headbanger:
I will get some pic's up as soon as I get the film developed and I am going to take the video tape to have it put on disk so it can be edited and posted.
Rig's that were there:
BillyD.
Onkover
Storm (unfortunatly he broke but atleast we werent in the middle of the trail and all of us feel bad for him but maybe next time )
BZmarsh
Radardog
Kevin ( a friend of mine from Tracy Ca.)

Thank all of you for a great run and I can't wait to do it again !!!
One last note we had talked to one guy on the trail he said he had been there 15 time's and this was the worst he had ever seen it so yea it was tough.

sounds like it was one hell of a trip . and yea if you camp anywere near the little sluice you can plan on noise all night long weres the pics?

[Billy D.]

toyoder, on Jul 17 2007, 01:03 PM, said:

sounds like it was one hell of a trip . and yea if you camp anywere near the little sluice you can plan on noise all night long weres the pics?

I'm useing 17th century technology and I haven't finished discribing them to the sketch artist yet (w00t)

[Billy D.]

bzmarsh, on Jul 17 2007, 01:03 PM, said:

Nice quick synopsis! The only part you left out was where the chunks of wood tie in. Oh, and the fact that you made all the difficult obstacles look easy.

I still think we should leave the wood part to Onk or Radardog. Anticipation is the greatest appetizer! :P

I wasent around for the chunks of wood part but it was hilarious when I got back, also I thought you were the one that made the difficult obsticles look easy

[Predator]

What a trip, can't wait to see some more pics

[Bradlybob]

Sounds like a great trip!
What kind of flaming sodomite goes through the expense of preping a rig, driving to the Rubicon, and stays up all night blasting music in the middle of the woods in a camping area so no one can sleep. It just doensn't make sense to drink all night and spend the next day hung over and too tired to enjoy yourself. And then being such an asshat that they wouldn't turn down the music when asked. Somebodys moma didn't teach them to respect others.