Winter on the Rubicon

I drove out to the Rubicon yesterday. Being alone and in my street truck, 2002 ZR-2, I didn’t venture too far.

Here is my truck at water bar number eight, actually an Arizona crossing. It’s about a 1/8 mile past the intersection with the Buck Lake Trail. The trail was very icy due to the warm day temperatures and below freezing nights.

Plenty of evidence of people out playing on the trail.

Just before WB#8, someone took the time to clear a downed tree from the trail. Thank you to all of you who take care of business while you’re out on the trail. If you document your time and the people involved, we can get credit towards grant fund matching. Forward any documentation to FOTR.

Please remember to go prepared.

“Turn around, don’t go around.”

If you come across a downed tree or other obstacle and don’t have the means to clear the trail, turn around and head home. Do not drive around the blockage. If you have a chain saw or what ever it takes to clear the trail, feel free to do so but be very careful. This time of year there is less traffic on the trail. If you hurt yourself, you might not see someone drive by for days.

Placer looking for input

Placer County is planning a late January meeting to gather input from volunteers/users. The grant process starts in February for the 2015 season. The discussion will focus on listing and prioritizing maintenance needs for the Tahoe side that can fulfilled under grant funding (read as by an outside contractor). Placer is trying to keep the scope of this next grant to water quality issues but all ideas will be entertained and prioritized.

I’m sure a follow up discussion will take place to determine what projects can be completed by the volunteers.

If you have any ideas about what you would like to see done on the Tahoe side, please speak up. You can email me (TheOtherRubicon@Charter.net), FOTR or Placer County to have your voice heard.

Thanks for your input.

One year and still moving forward…

Well, it’s been a full year now.

It’s been interesting putting this site together and learning what works and what’s important. One of the funnier lessons is it’s tough to find a picture for each week and the time to switch it out. So, that’s going monthly.

I’ve tried to build a website so users of the trail can find updated general information about the Rubicon Trail and also be kept up on what’s going on regarding changing and challenging issues facing the Rubicon and the surrounding area. In the future, I’ll try and streamline the ability for those reading the website to comment on current issues to the right people by posting the email address and a few bullet points.

One area I have yet to expand is the Vehicle/Equipment page. I have visions of listing minimal vehicle upgrades prior to hitting the trail. Or at least how far in one should travel if not in a fully built rig. The other aspect is to build a spare parts list and a tool list.

Please feel free to let me know what you think should be added to or covered by the website.

Safe trails…

Rubicon Ronin

New page on The ‘Other’ Rubicon

I just changed one of the ‘pages’ of this site.

Gone is the “Articles” page. It’s been replaced with “GPSed“. This page will be a list of “Points of Interest” along the McKinney-Rubicon Springs Road. I’ll try to get the articles placed somewhere else on this site.

At some time in the future, each ‘point’ will be a link to a new page with a detailed description and multiple photographs and possible other links about that site.

This will take some time to compile, so for now, go out and check them out for yourself.

Wind drops trees

This week brought the beginning of fall. The trees are changing colors, the temperatures are dropping and the bikini Jeep tops are being swapped out for a full soft top or hard top. Also, a huge wind storm blew across California and in to the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

I was headed to the Rubicon trail and knew it would be windy, so I made sure I had my chainsaw, saw bag and that it was running well before I left the house. I am sure glad I did.

Around 11am, the wind hit. I was out the Long Lake Trail. The great thing the wind brings is a bug free afternoon. Going up Cadillac was a breeze (sorry, easy pun).

I was well on my way home when I came across a down tree west of Miller Lake. It wasn’t blocking the whole trail but I felt large or at least tall rigs might have an issue with it, so I broke out the saw. It didn’t take much but cleared the snag from over the trail and the debris from the trail itself.

Please remember to always wear proper protection when running a saw: hearing, glasses, gloves, long pants, sturdy closed toe shoes. To take it all the way, you should also wear a helmet and chaps.

Feeling like I’d done something positive for the community, I went on my way. It was getting late and it had been a long day. I left the staging area just before 9am and it was now after three in the afternoon. I had a meeting in Reno at 6pm and it was going to be close.

Then I came across another down tree truly blocking the entire trail.

This one was between water bar 14 and 13. It was much larger than the first one, and blocking a wider section of the trail. Out came the saw again. And I cut it in to many manageable size pieces.

The nice thing about a tree that has fallen across an OHV trail is that the tree is usually rotten or extremely dry making it very easy to cut. I pushed the section of tree to the sides of the trail. It may be necessary to further remove the sections from the trail but there is a sizable path between the sections now.

Always go prepared. If you come across an issue like this and you can’t clear the trail, turn around, don’t go around.

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