I was wrong…
Posted: November 27, 2019 Filed under: Access, Maintenance Leave a commentI’m not going to remove the previous post but it’s wrong.
The MOU approved by El Dorado County allows for El Dorado County to write a grant for the entire length of the trail. CA State Parks is onboard and is allowing that grant over multiple jurisdictions.
El Dorado County still has maintenance responsibilities over the tail within El Dorado County but the Forest Service (with the Tahoe National Forest being the lead forest) has maintenance responsibilities within Placer County. So, we only got half way there.
So, CA State Parks has signed the MOU, as has El Dorado County and the Tahoe National Forest.
As of today, Placer County, the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit and the Eldorado National Forest has not yet signed on.
There is a chance that not everyone will sign on and the group will go back to the drawing board in order to get consistent trail maintenance across the entire trail.
Stay tuned!
MOU is approved!
Posted: November 24, 2019 Filed under: Access, Maintenance Leave a commentTHIS POST IS INCORRECT. THE MOU ALLOWS FOR ONE AGENCY TO WRITE A GRANT FOR THE ENTIRE TRAIL BUT MAINTENANCE IS STILL DIVIDED BETWEEN EL DORADO COUNTY ON THE WEST AND THE TAHOE NATIONAL FOREST ON THE EAST. (11-27-19) MORE TO COME.
It’s now official. The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors voted on Friday to approved the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that puts the management and maintenance of the entire length of the Rubicon Trail solely in the hands of El Dorado County.
This is a very good thing.
Back in the day, Placer got onboard with the users and was doing trail maintenance. Placer slowly backed off leaving maintenance to FOTR and RTF. Enthusiasm slowly dwindled with no grant money coming in and no one officially leading maintenance efforts.
For years, El Dorado County has been working with the Eldorado National Forest and CA State Parks in obtaining grant funds and maintaining the Rubicon Trail. Basically, they’ve saved the trail from closure.
This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is between El Dorado County, Placer County, CA Department of Parks and Recreation Off-Road Division, Eldorado National Forest, Tahoe National Forest and the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.
The Placer County side of the trail will now get getting funding along with the El Dorado County side. The trail will be managed as ONE!
Link to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
El Dorado County has been reaching out to users and volunteers by holding ‘Rubicon Oversight Committee’ (ROC) meetings on the road. There are plans to hold a Rubicon meeting this March in the Reno area to explain what’s going on and to answer any and all questions you may have. Stay tuned.
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Rubicon Ronin
Onboard Air, on the TJ
Posted: November 23, 2019 Filed under: Maintenance | Tags: maintenance, onboard air, upgrades Leave a commentOkay, new rig new upgrades. You’ve got to add and change a few things when you buy a rig to make it your own. Yeah, I’m hearing the ‘build it don’t buy it’ but it was a deal I couldn’t pass up.
Having taken the rig out a few times, it got old “borrowing” air to fill up my tires. So, I ordered up a few parts (thanks Amazon) and headed out to the garage.
The first issue was finding a place to mount the pump. There’s not a lot of free room in a TJ like I’m used to in a CJ. But, I found room behind the windshield fluid container. After a few cardboard cutouts, I built and painted the steel mounting plate. It mounted without drilling any holes.
The blue hose on the right is for the filter on the intake. It’s so close to the fender, the filter wouldn’t fit on the pump, so I went remote. Even the 90 elbow had to be cut down in order to screw it in to the pump. Yes, I should have screwed it in before mounting the pump. The second blue hose runs down to the bumper.
This winter, when I remove the bumper for more upgrades, I’ll build a bracket to hold the hose better. I’ve run an switch to the dash so I don’t have to pop the hood in order to fill the tire.
One of my pet peeves was having to continuously check the tire pressure when filling tires. So, I installed a regulator on the discharge side of the pump. Now, the most pressure I’ll ever get out is 28 pounds (it actually adjusts from 0-60). No more tire gauges!
Okay, this time I’m just lazy. I built a filler hose to fill all four tires at once. With this and the regulator, I hook up the hoses, flip the switch and wait. Once the tires get to pressure, the regulator no longer draws and the pressure switch shuts off the pump, once the pressure gets to 115 before the regulator.
It’s a small diameter hose, and I need to shorten them both for quicker fills and easier storage. And when filling all four tires at once, it seems to take forever. But you hook it up and walk away. Fourteen minutes later, all the tires are full an all to the exact same pressure.
Feel free to use this idea as imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
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Rubicon Ronin
Control of the Placer Side
Posted: October 11, 2019 Filed under: Access, Maintenance | Tags: El Dorado County, FOTR, maintenance, Placer, RTF, transparency Leave a commentControl of the management and maintenance of the Placer County side of the Rubicon Trail is being decided right now. Literally, right now.
Until recently, Placer County has denied any authority over the Rubicon Trail. Lately, they have decided they want or have a hand in it but don’t want the day to day responsibility of applying for grants and to manage the maintenance of the Rubicon Trail.
Placer County and El Dorado County are currently working on an MOU (memorandum of understanding) that will allow El Dorado County the full legal authority to manage the Placer County side of the Rubicon Trail. To be clear, this will give El Dorado County authority over the entire length of the Rubicon Trail. My understanding is that they are very close to making this a done deal.
On the surface, this is a good thing. Placer has failed to apply for and receive steady grant funding and really has been hands off for years. Read as no maintenance has been done on the Placer side for years. El Dorado County has been extremely successful in getting grant money for the Rubicon Trail.
The down side is the lack of transparency. El Dorado County is currently working with Placer County, the Tahoe National Forest (TNF), the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (LTBMU) and who knows who else, in order to decide what maintenance gets done and when.
The Rubicon Trail Foundation (RTF) had been the representative for the users for 15 years. Lately, El Dorado County cuts ties (probably not the best term) with RTF. I’m not sure, but I’m betting that RTF is not in the room when these negotiations are being made. I do not know of any user representative that is in the room.
Worse, projects that had been on the books to take place this summer season have been cancelled. The LTBMU cancelled the installation of a new kiosk at the Tahoma staging area along with cancelling the paving of the staging area. They literally waited until the last moment to inform some of the users. Note, the funding for these two projects ahs been in the LTBMU’s control for years. The RTF had scheduled to bring in a contractor to rebuild the 28 rolling dips within the LTBMU this fall. Again, at the last moment, the project was cancelled. They didn’t tell anyone until I went asking about it.
Friends of the Rubicon (FOTR) who normally had worked closely with El Dorado County on trail maintenance projects has been dropped as a close partner and relegated to just another volunteer, ignoring their 20 year history of maintaining the Rubicon Trail.
I have been asking for information on what’s going on, where we’re going and who’s involved in making these decisions. I was told to call Vickie Sanders of El Dorado County. I replied that I didn’t want information for me but for all users. I asked that any and all information be posted for the public to view 24/7. El Dorado County and RTF have pushed back and said if you want information, call us.
El Dorado County is about to control our trail. All I’m asking for is for them to explain how that process is going to work, how they will keep the users and volunteers informed and how they will allow the users in to the decision-making process.
I don’t think I’m asking too much.
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Rubicon Ronin
Almost clear
Posted: June 30, 2019 Filed under: Maintenance | Tags: snow, trees Leave a commentYesterday, a group of four Jeeps and seven people headed out to do a little maintenance: Dean, John, Doug, Dean, Gary, Carlos and Don.
Our goal was a general clearing of trees and branches encroaching on the trail, draining some water, removing a large tree from the trail and shoveling down a huge snow berm.
Well, my thanks go out to whoever got out and shoveled the snow. The berm was gone by the time we got there.
We got everything else done and then headed up the Buck Lake Trail to clear more downed trees. Well, again, someone got there before us. So thanks to whoever that was.
So, for the most part, the Rubicon on the Tahoe side is clear of trees and major snow. There is still a lot of water on the trail. Please tread lightly and stay on the trail.
Thanks again to John for putting yesterday together and all of those who were there to help out on very short notice.
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Rubicon Ronin
The 'Other' Rubicon 