My TJ is home, so I took it to the trail

Posted: February 15, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Okay, it’s been home for some time, but I was out of state and then down with a cold. With a brand-new engine, I’m trying to put some easy miles on it, but I needed get to the trailhead and report on conditions.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Saturday, 2-15-25, 11am…

There’s about a three-foot wall at the entrance

Placer was out cleaning up the edges.

But they hadn’t got to the Rubicon trailhead. Placer plow drivers have been consistent with a straight plow, no dip, at the trailhead. That results in no artificial wall. Good job Placer.

It appears someone went in, probably yesterday afternoon. Some fresh snow over those tracks. But the tracks are down to ice. The snow level was near lake level and the area probably got a good deal of rain that froze during the below freezing overnight temps. This will change as to drive in further and go up in elevation.

What a pretty picture.

Practicing what I preach, I didn’t drive in alone.

Stay safe.

.

Rubicon Ronin

Tahoma Trailhead Conditions 12-30-21

Posted: December 31, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Access, Travel | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Once the highways opened up, after a record-breaking December snow fall, I ventured up to the Rubicon Trail trailhead in Tahoma to see what it looked like.

Before I could even get there, I had to drive through the neighborhood. Single track! The county plow had been through but only one time and right down the middle. It will take two more plow passes to clear the road and then the rotary blower will come through to clean up the edges.

From a distance, the trailhead looks unbreeched by wheeled vehicles.

Sure enough, only one lone snowmobile track over the berm and up the trail. I did not have the time, nor the place to park, in order to snowshoe up the trail. But many snowshoe tracks already there.

There is a new trailhead sign. I don’t know who put it up but it has Forest Service colors.

My suggested signage for the trailhead was much more in your face:

(Yes, I realize there’s a misspelling in there)

Looking back from the trail, you can barely see the roof of my TJ with a 5″ lift on 35″ tires.

The berm is probably six feet tall, but once over the berm the snow is probably four feet deep.

So, I had to try it, but I knew if I made it over the berm I’d be stuck. Single vehicle; no way to winch myself backwards; but I did have a shovel with me. What the heck.

It’s a bad picture but it shows I didn’t get far.

Snow plow work is so far behind, understandably, that the entrance to the Sno-Park (Kaspian Campground) at Blackwood Canyon has not been plowed at all. FYI, no wheeled vehicle access from here, only snowmobiles.

The Rubicon Trail is open year-round. Only go if you and your rig are overly prepared!

Once the rotary plow comes through, there could be a five-foot face to the trailhead. Knock it down, make a ramp, go have fun. Stay on the trail. But beware as you exit, if there wasn’t a sheer face as you went in, there might be a sheer face on your way out. Walk it first.

Enjoy our public lands but be safe.

.

Rubicon Ronin