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Rubicon (6/03)
Saturday/Sunday

The next morning we got up and made a nice breakfast. Andy was busy trying to weld his junk for an hour with Richard's welder whe he discovered it wasn't even turned on! Too funny. A few other repairs were made before all of the group but my Dad and I headed up to run the Little Sluice and meet up with a few people at Spider Lake. We decided to stay in camp and do some hiking. I also needed to get my tire sealed. In the process of fooling with the ARB compressor to air the tire up I blew out the o-ring that sels the compressor tank...excellent. Tried a quick fix with duct tape and zip ties but it still wasn't holding pressure. So no lockers the rest of the trip. Yeah, fun! At least I got the tire sealed finally. Lots of plugs.

Dad and I took a great hike out around the lake to the big waterfall at the head. Tons and tons of water coming down from the snow melt. I was fascinated by all the wildflowers growing in little patches of soil up on the granite cliffs and spent a good part of the day taking pictures. We also hiked around to the spillway at the other end of Buck just to see what was happening over there. Lots of people fishing. Great, great weather. I also got in the lake for about 25 seconds to clean up. That water was MY-GOD-COLD! but so very refreshing!

Later in the afternoon a few people cam back. They turned around and decided they didn't want to go all the way to Spider. I figured the rest of the group wouldn't get back until late, and I think they barely made it into camp before dark. Some good stories of body damage to go around. I was glad to have taken the hike instead since I knew we were heading that direction the next day anyway. Another great round of sordid campfire stories and drunken banter. Moments like that are what Jeeping is all about!

 
Crystal-clear Buck Island lake, early morning

Crystal-clear Buck Island lake, early morning

Lee's Mr. Coffee, ready to serve

Lee's Mr. Coffee, ready to serve

Crash trying to weld his transmission crossmember

Crash trying to weld his transmission crossmember

Interesting flower up in the cliffs

Interesting flower up in the cliffs

The view of Buck from the East cliffs

The view of Buck from the East cliffs

Some crazy guy with a video camera

Some crazy guy with a video camera

Oh, wait, that's my Dad

Oh, wait, that's my Dad

A big tree

A big tree

Some dort of lilly?

Some dort of lilly?

Another shot

Another shot

Strange growth on the granite

Strange growth on the granite

Another shot

Another shot

Another view of Buck Island Lake

Another view of Buck Island Lake

Another lilly

Another lilly

A very friendly gecko sitting on a big pine cone

A very friendly gecko sitting on a big pine cone

The falls above Buck

The falls above Buck

Baby pine

Baby pine

A Barney-hater--nice FJ40 though!

A Barney-hater--nice FJ40 though!

Holy tube-bender Batman!

Holy tube-bender Batman!

Keven and Stoney around the campfire

Keven and Stoney around the campfire

Farmer Matt and his wife

Farmer Matt and his wife

Raging fire--thanks Britt!

Raging fire--thanks Britt!

Stoney..."huh?"

Stoney..."huh?"

Richard and Jenn

Richard and Jenn

Paul, the funnyman

Paul, the funnyman

Farmer Matt, dancing?

Farmer Matt, dancing?

The next morning we got a late start because some people broke near our camp needed some welding done. We finally got on the trail about noon and headed up the slabs. I really like that part of the trail for the views--amazing panoramas all the way up. We stopped at the top to take a few pictures and Andy and I tried to seal my compressor with RTV to no avial. Being open front and rear was a real challenge, particularly when we got up around Spider Lake. There were a couple of climbs that really required finesse and a lot of momentum to get up. Kind of frustrating, but I drove pretty well. There were the ocassional sounds of crunching metal or the bang of my rear bumper landing on granite (or was that my gas tank--yeah, I think it was my gas tank!) but I did alright. Stopped near Spider to weld on a Grand Cherokee that ripped the lower control arm mount completely off the axle!

Coming up the slabs

Coming up the slabs

Looking back down to Buck Island

Looking back down to Buck Island

Group photo op

Group photo op

A nice line-up

A nice line-up

Another pose

Another pose

Another scenic vista, looking back towards the Springs

Another scenic vista, looking back towards the Springs

Crash making a gasket for my ARB compressor

Crash making a gasket for my ARB compressor

James coming up near Spider

James coming up near Spider

Wrong line James! Trail is to your left!

Wrong line James! Trail is to your left!

The proper line

The proper line

A view of the "box" near Spider

A view of the "box" near Spider

Farmer Matt coming up

Farmer Matt coming up

Extinguishing some rat-bastard's campfire on the way to Loon

Extinguishing some rat-bastard's campfire on the way to Loon

Me, really stuck near Gatekeeper

Me, really stuck near Gatekeeper

Coming over to Gatekeeper

Coming over to Gatekeeper

Another shot

Another shot

Waiting...

Waiting...

Gatekeeper, with no lockers

Gatekeeper, with no lockers

Coming over, very slowly

Coming over, very slowly

Turning at the bottom

Turning at the bottom

The end of a long day of wheeling!

The end of a long day of wheeling!

The toughest part of the day for me was the last 200 yards. I got seriously hung up on a big wedge of a rock about 100 feet behind Gatekeeper. Mostly because I wasn't locked at all. I tired to stay high on the wall but ended up sliding down and high centering the whole passenger side of the Jeep on the big rock on my rock rails. Two wheels spinning in the air with no lockers = tow strap. Lee yaked me off the rock without much problem, and with some good spotting from Andy, I made it across Gatekeeper with no further hassles. It was nice to get off the trail. Great day of wheeling but it was already about 5:00 and we still had to swap a tire, air up, and drive all the way back to SF.

We changed the tire with the plugs for the one that only has a huge chunk of rubber missing from the sidewall...seemed a safer bet on the highway. Aired up and headed down to Placerville. The ride was all over the place and I later discovered while in Placerville my lower track bar bolt was about to fall out. Tightened it up and everything was great. We ate dinner at a diner there and headed back to civilization. Not much traffic thankfully. Rolled in around 11:00.

After inspection, total carnage this trip: a dented gas tank, bent lower control arms, one destroyed tire, one blown compressor o-ring (a catastrophic failure as I'm fond of saying--a 50-cent part goes and I have NO lockers for 5 miles of the Rubicon. Must get a spare!), a mangled hard brake line in front which later snapped while I was trying to repair it, a leaky rear diff cover (again) and numerous rash on the skid plates and unibody. Not too bad all things considered. This was a great, great trip with a stellar group of people. many thanks to everyone who made this a memorable weekend! Great spots, great camping, funny and friendly people, and perfect weather.

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