2026 FOTR Meeting this month
Posted: March 1, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AAT, adopt-a-trail, FOTR, maintenance Leave a commentI just got the official word from Friends of the Rubicon (FOTR) about the 2026 planning meeting…
Saturday, March 21st, 10am, Placerville
Hello Friends of the Rubicon!
We’re thrilled to announce our Friends of the Rubicon Annual Meeting on Saturday, March 21st, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at:
American Legion Post 119
4561 Greenstone Rd
Placerville, CA 95667We’ll be discussing key projects on both the Tahoe and El Dorado sides of the trail, as well as FOTR and Adopt-A-Trail collaboration for the 2026 season.
We’re thrilled to announce our Friends of the Rubicon Annual Meeting on Saturday, March 21st, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at:
I would like to extend a special invitation to all Adopt-A-Trail clubs to attend and share your input on the future of the program. We welcome your thoughts and ideas on how we can improve moving forward. There are also sections of trail currently in need of a steward, if your club is interested.
We will also be holding an election for FOTR Trail Boss. If you would like to run for Trail Boss, please let me know in advance so we can include your name on the agenda. If you have any questions about the position, feel free to reach out directly at fotrtrailboss@gmail.com.
RTF will be providing lunch, so please RSVP to help us with a headcount.
Important: The American Legion has requested that there be no alcohol at the meeting or in the parking lot. Please respect their wishes.
Please bring your ideas, questions, and suggestions — we look forward to seeing everyone there!
Thank you,
Shannon Chard.
This is your opportunity to speak out about what you would like to see done with the Rubicon Trail and to step up and volunteer to help maintain the Rubicon Trail
The main project for the Rubicon Trail this season is to build a bypass around some very wet sections of trail and to bypass the shelf road above Miller Creek. I’m sure that the Rubicon Trail Foundation (RTF) will be on hand to answer any questions you many have about this project.
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Rubicon Ronin
TNF’s VIRTUAL Open House for OHV Grant ideas
Posted: February 5, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: funding, maintenance, reroute, TNF, USFS Leave a commentEvery year, each national forest applies for funding through a grant program. These forests are required to seek user/public input in order to qualify for these funds.
Sadly, these forests are not required to follow the input of the users when writing the final grant application. But we do the dance in case our particular forest does listen to our input.
The Tahoe National Forest is currently in the driver’s seat regarding the Rubicon Trail and the Fordyce Trail, among many others. It is in our best interest to give our input. The details of how to do that are below. Once the draft grant application has been filled out, there is a public review period. It’s better to get your ideas in before that initial draft than try and get them in afterwards.
There is a needed Rubicon reroute that should get funded through this grant and there may be MAJOR Fordyce work funded through this grant but more likely just Fordyce planning funds.
This year it seems the USFS is still in a covid lockdown as they are only doing a “VIRTUAL” open house.
So, here’s the info…
Tahoe National Forest invites public to provide input on annual off-highway vehicle program grant application
Tahoe National Forest is preparing its annual application to the California Department of Parks and Recreation, Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division, to request funding for trail and facilities maintenance, law enforcement and education and safety. The forest invites interested individuals and organizations to a virtual open house on Feb. 13 to learn more about the state OHV grants the Tahoe National Forest is considering applying for and how to provide input.
What: Open house to discuss Tahoe National Forest annual OHV grant proposals Where: Virtual, join on Teams
When: Feb. 13, 2025, 6 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Annual state OHV grants provide important funds for the U.S. Forest Service to develop and maintain trails and trailheads, repair winter storm damage and restore trailside environments, as well as provide patrolling, education and monitoring of OHV areas. When finalized, the grants will be available for public review and comment on the State of California’s website ( http://ohv.parks.ca.gov ) from March 4 – May 5, 2025.
Questions, comments or letters can be submitted through the following ways:
- In-person: During the virtual open house meeting via written comments
- Email: Trails Program Coordinator Joe Chavez, joe.chavez@usda.gov
- Mail: Tahoe National Forest, Attn: Joe Chavez, Forest Trails Program Coordinator, 631 Coyote St., Nevada City, Calif. 95959
Feedback on projects and grant opportunities is requested by Feb. 24, 2025.
The Saga Continues…
Posted: January 6, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: broken, maintenance, repairs, transmission Leave a commentI would follow through with my promise to post more about the trails, but I don’t have my Jeep back yet.
So, Jeep. “Just Expect Every Problem” or “Just Empty Every Pocket”. I seem to have proven that true, again.
Below is a picture of a piece of cast iron. It’s a very important piece. It seems the violent rotational vibration I experienced on I80 at 65mph was worse than I had thought. Not only did it destroy my transmission, but it broke off this small piece. This piece of cast iron is one of the four mounting points for my transmission to my engine.
If you look closely, you can see a shinny spot in the upper right corner. It looks like the gasket is missing but the actual mounting surface is missing.
We talked about the possibility of welding it back on and that idea was quickly dismissed.
Now, if this were for my mother driving to the store every Sunday morning, I’d say go for it with three. Since I will be driving this rig on the Rubicon, I can’t take the chance running three out of four. That means a new engine.
Nate’s got on it for me a had a new long block in a day or two from Jasper’s. Unfortunately, there was bad news with the new engine. Nate himself did the inspection didn’t like the pitting on the surface where the water pumps mounts. He sent the engine back and called me to say the repairs would be delayed.
The upside is I won’t have to replace the rear main seal that was leaking. Well, I guess I did replace the rear main when I replaced the entire engine.
Looking back, there were signs the transmission was not happy. I had been putting off a flush or fluid change. My advice is to jump on maintenance as soon as possible!
Happy New Year!
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Rubicon Ronin
Almost made it…
Posted: October 30, 2023 Filed under: Access, Maintenance | Tags: FOTR, maintenance, snow Leave a commentThis morning, I met up with a few fellow FOTR volunteers at the entrance to Blackwood Canyon. The goal was to meet the dump truck full of twelve yards of rock for the upcoming FOTR maintenance effort on November 5th.
Well, we met up with the truck, but we failed to get the truck to the dump spot. The drive was tight.
The very last grade was a LONG north aspect that actually had the big rig slipping towards the edge and drop off. He correctly backed down and we decided the correct line of action was to turn around.
This was as far as the rig made it.
On a side note, even if you have a mobile ham radio mounted in your rig, always bring your handheld as a back-up. This antenna set-up does not work without the whip installed.
This is how I store the antenna when not in use, as it fits better in the garage.
But at some point, over the last few days, I lost the whip. About to call the Ham Radio Outlet to order a replacement. Maybe Amazon can next day deliver? If not, I’ll have my handheld.
Shannon is trying to work out the details to get rock delivered to keep the FOTR work party on the 5th on track. Stay tuned.
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Rubicon Ronin
2022 Rubicon Trail Annual Report
Posted: February 21, 2023 Filed under: Maintenance | Tags: adopt-a-trail, maintenance, projects Leave a commentI’ll try this two different ways; first here’s a link to the report on the El Dorado County website:
Here’s version two, trying to implant the actual file here:
Yes, this is El Dorado County, not the Tahoe side. I’m putting this up for general information and as an example of what may happen after the formation of the Rubicon Trail Collaborative Council. Hopefully, after the RTCC gets going, this type of report will be available for the entire length of the Rubicon Trail.
My take-aways are for one, the Adopt-A-Trail program. There are two segments available for adoption. Hopefully, this same type of Adopt-A-Trail and Adopt-A-Waterbar (rolling dip) will come to the Tahoe side. Start thinking about which segment your club would like to adopt!
Second is the list of projects. It seems like a very short list. That’s good because that means things are being taken care of within El Dorado. I literally have a list, with short descriptions of each project, that is eight pages long for the Tahoe side.
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Rubicon Ronin
The 'Other' Rubicon 