Rubicon Trail reopens!
Posted: March 21, 2014 Filed under: Access, Maintenance | Tags: El Dorado County, FOTR, Rubicon Leave a commentEl Dorado County has reopened the Rubicon Trail.
FOTR will work the problem section this summer to prevent future closures.
Unless there is a heavy rain storm, the trail should remain open.
FOTR Annual Meeting
Posted: March 15, 2014 Filed under: Maintenance | Tags: El Dorado County, Placer, Rubicon Leave a commentFOTR’s annual meeting will be held Saturday, May 3rd.
Posted on Pirate4x4.com by the Trail Boss, Jerry Reffner:
FOTR Annual Meeting
Its that time again, so we now have a date and place:
Saturday-May 3rd
Start Time: 9am
Place: Placerville Maintenance/Operations/ Construction, DOT Building
2441 Headington Road Placerville 95667The Annual meeting this year will be in Placerville. We are going to incorporate the Adopt-A-Trail training into this year’s meeting. This will also serve as a meet and greet as we will have a lot of new faces.
The plan is to have at least 2 to 3 representatives from each club/organization to go over trail work, the how’s and why’s and the paperwork.
El Dorado County will have their people there to show how to do specific projects and walk them through all the aspects of getting the program up and running.
All members of FOTR should go through this process also, the reason being so everyone will have the same training and in the advent of a club having to drop out FOTR volunteers can step in seamlessly.
There will be the usual discussions on what projects FOTR will be involved with this year both El Dorado County and Placer County, and please bring your ideas of any projects that you see the need for. This is a start of a brand new year, with a brand new Adopt A Trail Program! It should be another record breaking year.
A continental breakfast will be provided before and RTF is going to supply the lunch.
As we get closer to the date, more info will be sent out. And please if you have any questions/ideas or want to have some speaking time, the floor is always open.
Contact for the Adopt-A-Trail is:
Vickie Sanders
Parks Manager
County of El Dorado
Chief Administrative Office
530-621-7538Thanks and look forward to seeing everyone there.
New RTF Trailer for the Tahoe side
Posted: February 22, 2014 Filed under: Maintenance | Tags: grant, RTF, Rubicon Leave a commentChristmas came late!
John Briggs, the Placer County liaison for FOTR, just received a brand new trailer for maintenance efforts on the Tahoe side. It belongs to RTF (Trailer RTF-06), obtained through OHMVR grant funding, and is on a “permanent loan” to the Tahoe side. If it is needed on the Eldorado side, we’ll bring it over.
I got a chance to check it out today. It was made by Varozza 4×4 Outfitters (www.Varozza4x4.com) out of Diamond Springs, CA, just south of Placerville. The basics: 2/3 of a yard capacity with a built in dump feature (air/hydraulic); 360 degree “Lock N Roll” rotating hitch (all you need is a 2” receiver); two piece swing out tailgate all on 35” BFG Mud Terrain tires. Another feature is the offset axle. It is offset up about 4” between the leaf springs in order to gain more clearance.
There is a standard air chuck intake like you would find on an air tool. There is a valve on the trailer to control the lifting of the trailer. Supply air and the bed tilts up, in order to lower the bed, you need to use the orange handle to turn the release on the hydraulic jack under the trailer. There is a latch to hold down the bed. In case you are out of air, there is a manual override by using the orange handle on the side of the trailer to pump the hydraulic jack under the trailer; quite awkward.
The trailer weight is low enough that it does not require fenders, nice! And the trailer paperwork is in a holder on the front of the trailer to prove that to any officer that tries to ticket you.
Specifications:
- Hitch height – 24″
- Bed dimensions – 60″ long, 40″ wide, 12″ deep (16 cu. ft./0.62 yards)
- Overall width – 70″
- Wheel pattern – Toyota 6 lug (I think)
- Weight – 1100 pounds (empty)
- Electric brakes – (needs 7 prong RV connector)
The trailer now has a mounted 7 to 4 adaptor. So, you can use the 7 prong connector (if you have one) to get the benefit of trailer brakes or plug the 7 prong in to the adaptor and use the flat four connector to get lights only.
Operation:
Before tilting the bed, open the dual tailgate doors and secure them with the small chains on the sides of the trailer. The trailer has a small square tube on each side to hold the chain to prevent it swinging and being noisy and chipping the paint.
To dump the trailer, you need to supply it with compressed air. Before opening the valve to supply air the trailer with air, unlatch the tilt bed from the trailer frame at the front of the trailer, if you don’t the bed won’t go up. (Trust me on this one.) The air to hydraulic pump surges, it sounds and feels like it’s giving the jack small bursts of air. Empty, the bed bounces and jerks a little bit. This operation uses quite a bit of air to operate.
There is a support brace under the trailer if you need to have the bed up for an extended period of time. Jack up the bed, reach under the bed and hold up the brace while you lower the bed on to the brace. This will provide a safer means of working on the trailer.
Speaking of working on the trailer, along with adding the electrical adaptor, I purchased and swapped out the air line from the valve to the pump. The original hose was not on all the way, so I reattached it. Then it blew, three times! I went and bought a steal braided reinforced 4000psi hydraulic line with threaded connectors on both ends. The hose will not leak or blow.
An example of how this will be used on the Tahoe side would be to finish the culvert removal project John Briggs headed up last summer. We still need to rock line the seasonal crossing to prevent any erosion and this will save some backaches, at least during unloading.
The trailer will be stored in a central location with a combination lock so arrangements can be made to let groups doing maintenance access it as needed. I’ve purchased a combination lock and John Briggs donated some chain. We’ll lock the trailer and provide the combination when someone needs it. The combination lock has a changeable combination so we’ll change the combination with each use.
This will be a huge help toward keeping the Rubicon Trail maintained and thus open for year ‘round motorized public use.
Thank you RTF for getting the grant and sending a trailer to the ‘Other’ Rubicon.
Adopt – a – trail (water bar)
Posted: January 19, 2014 Filed under: Maintenance | Tags: FOTR, grant, LTBMU, Placer, TNF Leave a commentThe Rubicon Trail Foundation has recently released information about the ability to ‘adopt’ a section of the Rubicon Trail within El Dorado County:
Okay, you’re asking, “I thought this website was about the Tahoe side of the Rubicon Trail?” Well, it is. Let me twist the story a little bit.
RTF has again stepped up to better organize getting maintenance done on the Rubicon Trail. They have worked out a plan with El Dorado County to have different clubs/groups/organizations to adopt a section of the world famous Rubicon Trail. Basic, routine maintenance and clean-up will be done by club members. Any major projects that come up will be led by the club but put out to FOTR for additional support as needed.
So, the Tahoe side twist is this, what about an “Adopt-a-water bar” program?
There were 28 ‘rolling dips’ (we all refer to them as water bars) built on the Rubicon Trail within the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (LTBMU) in 2001. Over the years they have received some annual maintenance but they could use a little more love. This summer, Placer County will use OHMVR funds to create more rolling dips and drains (like 35 of them) along the Rubicon Trail between Miller Lake and the turn at Barker Pass Road (Forest Road 03).
Why not ask OHV clubs to ‘adopt’ one water feature, be it a water bar, a rolling dip or a drain? All that would be asked of these clubs would be to do maintenance on their one water feature once a year.
Dozens of clubs, from all over the western United States, organize an annual club run to the Rubicon Trail. It would be a simple addition to that trek to stop at the clubs’ one “Adopt-a-water bar” and spend an hour or so clearing the drain, digging out any sediment and re-covering any bare spots with rock.
As FOTR steps up to help Placer with labor and thus ‘matching finds’ for the OHMVR grant, the clubs involved could volunteer to adopt whatever water feature they were working on. This would establish ‘ownership’ from the beginning and instil pride in creating and maintaining each feature.
There would be some details to work out, namely, a Tahoe side local might be needed to scout the water feature to determine if any materials would be needed for any maintenance effort each year and then get those materials dropped off prior to the maintenance effort but easily overcome.
Placer County – Rubicon Grant
Posted: December 16, 2013 Filed under: Maintenance | Tags: LTBMU, Placer, Rubicon, TNF Leave a commentCA State parks has awarded Placer County a grant worth almost $300,000!
Link to a chart of awarded values, Placer County is number 67.
Starting October 15, 2013, Placer County has one year to spend the money and document matching funds through volunteer hours for labor and equipment. The grant funds: signage, rolling dips, filling holes, water bars, material and repairing the single lane of asphalt from the residential area to the staging area.
The wording of grant application can be found at the link below. The actual grant awarded changed mostly in the amount not the scope.
Link to Placer County grant application.
Thirty five different spots along the trail from the boundary with the Basin to the turn at Forest Road 03 have been identified as needing attention. Most are either creating a rolling dips or reestablishing the natural drainage from the trail.
The spots were identified, GPSed, photographed and sent to Placer County. A small group provided transportation while Placer toured the sites to take detailed notes and discuss options and fixes. Once Placer County documents the proposed fixes, they will get sent to the TNF to make sure the FS is good with each fix. This might require a trail visit.
Once all the fixes are decided and approved, the details of how to make each one happen will be documented. Contractors will need to submit bids for the ‘heavy lifting’, materials and transportation costs. This could take until July! At this point, the volunteer leadership will need to step in and work with Placer County to organize the volunteer labor portion of this plan.
The grant is HEAVY with matching funds from volunteers, so we will all need to document any and all maintenance efforts within Placer County.
This will probably be a September project with finishing touches leaking in to October. You might want to keep your calendar clear.
The 'Other' Rubicon 