Reno FOTR Meeting
Posted: April 13, 2014 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentOn Saturday the 12th, there was a Reno area FOTR meeting held at the Blind Onion pizza parlor on South Virginia. It wasn’t a huge turn out but we had a good conversation about the Rubicon Trail.
John Briggs updated the group about the Placer County grant of $294,000 to be spent on the Tahoe side this summer. The contracts need to go out to bid and once the contractors have done the ‘heavy equipment work’ the county is expecting the volunteers to finish off the water bars, drains and rolling dips. Plan for Sept/Oct.
I talked about “To Do List” for the Tahoe side. Some of the issues brought up in the past will be completed this summer. The Basin has cut some of the branches along the paved section to the staging area but the limbs still need to be picked up and disposed of. Placer will be repaving holes and repairing the paved section. The areas of the trail that hold standing water will be worked on.
Rusty will again be leading a crew to work on hardening and stabilizing Cadillac Hill. I’ll be maintaining the three water bars on Cadillac Hill as well as blocking one illegal bypass.
Representatives of local clubs were asking what they could do, so we’ll be working with them to select a project on the trail.
The full FOTR meeting will be held May 3rd in Placerville at the DOT office. The public is welcome if you’d like to drive over the hill. Once that meeting is held, we should have a clearer direction of what FOTR would like to take on this season.
Thanks go out to Paul for making the meeting happen. And thanks to those who took the time to show up. If you have comments about what you would like to see done on the trail, post up or contact FOTR directly.
Still lots of snow on the trail
Posted: April 12, 2014 Filed under: Access | Tags: Rubicon Leave a commentI drove up the Rubicon yesterday. Okay, let me confess, your rig works better with both hubs locked. I drove up quite a ways before realizing I never locked my left hub. A Detroit locker and Power Locker really help. I only got as far as the border between the TNF and the LTBMU. The creek crossings were getting a little steep on approach and I figured that being the lone rig and lone driver, that I should stop and hike.
Turning around was one of the biggest challenges. Most of the trail is a two track. It reminded me of driving the cars at Disneyland as a kid.
I hiked up the Richardson lake Trail a little bit to see how the ‘meadows’ were holding up after the winter. They are all still under three feet of snow. I should remind the users that the Richardson Lake Trail is closed. It will be closed for some time as we work to decide on what each ‘meadow’ section needs and when we can perform the fix.
The paved road is getting beat up. Please use caution and look for potholes and a narrowing road. Placer County will be working on the paved section as soon as the snow clear off the road.
I heard that this tree fell late last fall (photo above). It will need a little trimming but is currently passable. There were other trees down in the area. Some had crossed the trail and were already cleared and some were off to the side of the trail. This time of year, always carry a saw and be careful when using it.
It will probably be another month before the trail dries out well enough to be travelled regularly. Right now, there is still enough snow for it to be considered snow wheeling. In a week, it will have melted enough to be wet dirt and possibly damaging.
Rubicon closed again
Posted: April 9, 2014 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentDue to the recent storms and the warm temperatures, there is too much water flowing on the Rubicon Trail, so it has been closed through Friday.
I’ll try and post up as soon as I hear it has been reopened.
Good news, bad news.
Posted: March 29, 2014 Filed under: Access | Tags: 14N39, ENF, Richardson Lake Leave a commentThe good news is…
On April 1st, the Eldorado National Forest will allow the scheduled opening of its OHV trails that were closed for the “wet” season. The forest has the option of extending the seasonal closure if they feel the trails are still too wet.
The bad news is…
The only ENF trail that is near the Rubicon on the Tahoe side, 14N39 The Richardson Lake Trail, remains closed due to four sections of the trail not meeting “Standard & Guideline 100” for meadows.
My goal is to work with the ENF and Reno/Tahoe volunteers to get at least the first three ‘meadow’ issues fixed. Optimistically, I’d love to see them open for Memorial Weekend; Fourth of July at the latest. As for the last ‘meadow’, I’d love to see a temporary fix in place before the end of the season. That section will require a reroute and that will take YEARS to finish.
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.
The 'Other' Rubicon 