Rubicon Trail Meeting in Reno – update

The Reno Off-Road and Motorsports Expo is happing March 23-27 at the convention center. On Saturday the 26th, there will be a meeting at 9am about everything Rubicon. Attending the meeting is free. El Dorado County is heading up the meeting. Below is a list of all of the groups and agencies that have been invited to the meeting. I do not know who has accepted the invitation or who has declined.

Questions to be asked: What maintenance is planned for the trail in 2022? Will there be an Adopt-a-Trail program for the Tahoe side? When will the staging area bathrooms open/close? Where are we with the small mud hole bypass? Where are we with the suggested larger shelf road bypass? How are parking issues at the staging area going to be solved? Can we stop or prevent future trail closures for fires well away from the trail? How do we volunteer to do trail maintenance on the Tahoe side?

That’s not my entire list of questions. If you have a specific question to ask and can’t make the meeting, let me know and I’ll add it to my list.

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El Dorado County Parks & Trails

Tahoe National Forest, Truckee Ranger District

Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit

Eldorado National Forest

Placer County (ask for Peter Kraatz)

CA State Parks OHMVR Division

Rubicon Trail Foundation (RTF)

Friends of the Rubicon (FOTR)

CA Off-Road Vehicle Association (CORVA)

CA Four Wheel Drive Association (Cal-4)

NV Four Wheel Drive Association (NV-4)

Local clubs:

  • Hills Angels (Reno/Sparks)
  • Lake Tahoe Hi-Lo’s (Tahoe)
  • Tahoe Donner 4-Wheelers (Truckee)
  • Sierra Stompers (Minden/Gardnerville)

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I’ll be hanging out at my booth at the Expo all week. Stop by and let me know what’s on your mind.

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Rubicon Ronin


Eldorado Forest OHV Virtual Open House

Okay, I missed the Tahoe NF email about their open house. It was on the 10th. Here’s your opportunity to be included in the ENF open house. It’s on the 23rd:

Eldorado National Forest Virtual Open House to discuss
Off-Highway Vehicle grant applications

PLACERVILLE, Calif. – The Eldorado National Forest (ENF) is requesting public input for the California 2022 State Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation (OHMVR) Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program application cycle. The Grants Program is an annual program that provides for off-highway vehicle (OHV) recreation in the State of California by providing financial assistance to eligible agencies and organizations that develop, maintain, operate, expand, support, or contribute to well managed high-quality OHV recreation areas, roads, and trails. Also as important, the Grants Program seeks to responsibly maintain the wildlife, soils, and habitat of project areas in a manner that will sustain long-term OHV recreation.

The Forest will host a virtual open house on February 23, 2022, from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. using Microsoft Teams. The public may join the meeting using the information listed below. Current application proposals need to reflect current needs and will be informed by prior year monitoring and accomplishments, upcoming projects being planned, and disaster relief efforts following the Caldor fire. Members of the public are encouraged to come with suggestions to assist the ENF’s project development for the upcoming grant application cycle as your ideas and input are important for developing our proposals.

The ENF has been successful in being awarded grants from the OHMVR Division in previous grant cycles. The grants have helped address trail repair and clearing of downed trees on over 300 miles of OHV routes and law enforcement patrol on an additional 900 miles of native surface roads on the Forest, provided for the printing of free Motor Vehicle Use Maps, OHV campground and trailhead maintenance, as well as other planning, development, and restoration activities.

Once completed, the preliminary grant applications will be available on the OHMVR website on Tuesday, March 8, 2022, through Monday, May 2, 2022, for review and comment. To review the grant applications submitted go to http://olga.ohv.parks.ca.gov/egrams_ohmvr/user/home.aspx.

The public may provide electronic comments to the Eldorado National Forest (applicant) by e-mailing both Michelle Zuro-Kreimer at michelle.zuro-kreimer@usda.gov and carbon copying (cc) the OHMVR Division at OHV.Grants@parks.ca.gov.

Microsoft Teams meeting

Join on your computer or mobile app

Click here to join the meeting

Or call in (audio only)
+1 323-886-7051,647007738# United States, Los Angeles
Phone Conference ID: 647 007 738#

How to Join the meeting:

• You do not need to have a Microsoft Account to attend
• If you are going to attend via computer or via mobile app, you will need to use a MODERN browser, such as
• Microsoft Edge
• Google Chrome
• Firefox
• If you wish to attend via computer or via mobile app, click on the “Click here to join the meeting” link
• You will be taken to a page where you can choose to either join on the web or download the desktop app and then join.
• If you already have the desktop app installed, the meeting will open automatically
• If you do not have access to a computer or mobile device, you may call in via the provided phone number
• Do NOT attend the meeting using both methods (computer/mobile app or phone), you will have feedback and echoes
• If you have hearing needs, you can turn on Live Captioning (managed by a bot)
• Once you enter the meeting you can click on the three little dots on the control bar to open the More actions menu
• Click on cc Turn on live captions

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Reno Off-Road and Motorsports Expo: March 23rd-27th, 2022

It’s on again. For the last two years, the Reno Off-Road and Motorsports Expo has been cancelled due to covid concerns. All signs point to the show actually happening this year at the Reno Convention Center!

https://www.lockettshows.com/off-road-and-motorsports-expo

The show is actually five shows in one: Off-Road, RV, Boat, Home and Pet shows. One ticket, five shows.

I will again have a booth with the Lake Tahoe Hi-Lo’s at the show to talk about everything Rubicon Trail. Here’s a shot from 2019:

I think this is from 2018:

Here’s the twist for 2022. The plan is to hold a meeting, Saturday morning starting at 9am, to talk about the Rubicon Trail. Entry to the Rubicon meeting will be free. I believe that a ticket to get you in to all five shows is only $10.

I first planned this meeting for 2020. But then covid. Since then, I’ve become burnt out on sitting on boards and organizing meetings. Now it’s 2022. El Dorado Couty has stepped up to take the lead on making this meeting happen. All of the governing agencies have been invited. User groups have also been invited. Local clubs should be represented. There has been a list of questions and topics for discussion presented to El Dorado County. Hopefully, all of our questions will be answered.

My assumption of how things will go at the meeting…

-Introductions of presenters

-Explanation of how and by who the trail is managed

-Explanation on how trail maintenance is funded

-Maintenance: who, what, when, where and how

-Possible projects

-Current issues

-Questions and Answer session

Hopefully, we will get all of our questions answered.

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Rubicon Ronin


Long Lake Trail Maintenance 7-28-21

The Long Lake Trail is at the bottom of Cadillac Hill and runs along the Rubicon River for 0.91 miles. Yes, I’m getting that specific as there is a definite end of the trail that we must adhere to or we could lose the entire trail.

The kiosk at the trailhead received some new paperwork as the old ones were wet and faded.

A few nuisance boulders were removed from the center of the trail. These were not obstacles that added anything to the trail experience, just something to go around and make the trail wider.

The campsite area had the old drive through route blocked off (again) and signed to explain why. The Forest Service has prohibited the area as a drive through. If we don’t play by the rules, we could lose the campsite.

This step got some reworking. There was an undercut developing which is nothing anyone wants to try and drive up. It only leads to breakage. And the boulder in the middle of nowhere is one of those nuisance boulders that was moved. This one was moved in to the undercut area and built in to a ramp.

Two routes were maintained. Easy towards the river (right side) and harder (but not tough) closer to the HUGE boulder.

The end of the trail has been blocked and signed to prevent travel and inform the users.

Please get out there and explore and enjoy your trails. The Long Lake Trail is adopt and maintained by the Lake Tahoe Hi-Lo’s.

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Rubicon Ronin


Forest Road 03-04 Improvements

For those of you that don’t know that road, it runs from the Rubicon over to Barker Pass. It was one of the recommended reroutes around the closed staging area last week.

It’s probably twice as far to get to Lake Tahoe than the Rubicon, but it’s twice as smooth. And it just got better.

While the staging area was getting paved, Forest Road 03-04 was getting groomed. The first mile off the Rubicon was always little rough and severely rutted. But the road got progressively better the closer you got to Barker Pass. The last few miles at Barker Pass you could drive a Honda Civic down, it’s that groomed.

Back in 2016, there was water running down the trail causing erosion, allowing sediment to get in to the water system.

Hard to see, but looking back down the trail towards the Rubicon, there is one on many new rolling dips along Forest Road 03-04, so many I lost count.

Just south of the intersection of 03-04-14, looking up the trail, 2016.

Just last week, looking down the same section of trail.

Forest Road 03-04 is classified as a ‘road’ not a ‘trail’, so it is maintained at a different level then say the Buick Lake Trail. The FS got serious with 03-04 this time around. The work done on this trail will allow emergency vehicles to access more of our forests. For the Rubicon, it means we can bring in material with very large trucks much closer to the actual trail.

There are a ton of places to camp along and just off Forest Road 03-04. The most popular is Bear Lake but it’s usually crowded. Some of the other side roads have great views and are always empty of campers. You should check them out.

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Rubicon Ronin