Rubicon Trail - Winter CRAZY Land!
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- Location
- Plumas Lake, CA, USA
- Vehicle(s)
- 1974 CJ5 ~ Fresh built AMC 360 - SM420 - D20 - D30F with upgraded 30 spline shafts and knuckles & D44R - 4.27 Gears - ARB Lockers F/R - All chrome molly axles - on 33's - YJ 4" Lift Spring Conversion
So we were feeling a bit adventurous, and decided we'd never had our tires in snow yet on the jeeps! We, quite bravely (or foolishly) decided we'd try our jeeps in the snow on the very difficult Rubicon Trail.
Jeeps did great in the snow, but the ice sucked big time.
We left Sac @ 4:00AM New years day! Got to Rubicon Loon Lake entrance around 6:30 ish since we drove slow up Wentworth Springs / Ice House Rd. (It was icy). The very first down hill off the granite spillway area was icy and kicked us sideways on a side-hill.
I'm waiting on Go-Pro footage from my Uncle, but here's a couple photos and videos of the less hairy spots.
The Granite Bowl was beautiful in the early sunlight!
Here was exiting the granite bowl near the loon lake entrance - getting into the bowl was a bit more difficult...
There was definitely some icy conditions present!
The snow areas were cool!
You really NEED to bring a chainsaw when going into a trail that may not have been ran lately... The first tree fall we came to was "easily" avoided by turning around and winching back up the trail we just came down. There are multiple routes on this section of the trail so we chose a different one...
But the next tree had to be conquered!
In hindsight, we should have packed a down side ramp as well... We foraged for logs to put in front of the tree across the trail. The video doesn't show it well, but there is about a foot between the ground and the bottom of the tree, and the tree is about a foot or so in thickness.
We didn't have enough fuel (or time) to travel back to the Loon Lake Entrance instead.
We got off the trail without much issue, and back to our favorite camp site. Set up a bit of a camp to make lunch and a pot of coffee. Also fueled up the Jeeps for the drive back down the mountain and back to Sac. My Cousin took a small nap too!
Hope to have some links to the GoPro footage soon from my Uncle.
Lesson learned about the chain saw for sure!
Jeeps did great in the snow, but the ice sucked big time.
We left Sac @ 4:00AM New years day! Got to Rubicon Loon Lake entrance around 6:30 ish since we drove slow up Wentworth Springs / Ice House Rd. (It was icy). The very first down hill off the granite spillway area was icy and kicked us sideways on a side-hill.
I'm waiting on Go-Pro footage from my Uncle, but here's a couple photos and videos of the less hairy spots.
The Granite Bowl was beautiful in the early sunlight!
Here was exiting the granite bowl near the loon lake entrance - getting into the bowl was a bit more difficult...
There was definitely some icy conditions present!
The snow areas were cool!
You really NEED to bring a chainsaw when going into a trail that may not have been ran lately... The first tree fall we came to was "easily" avoided by turning around and winching back up the trail we just came down. There are multiple routes on this section of the trail so we chose a different one...
But the next tree had to be conquered!
In hindsight, we should have packed a down side ramp as well... We foraged for logs to put in front of the tree across the trail. The video doesn't show it well, but there is about a foot between the ground and the bottom of the tree, and the tree is about a foot or so in thickness.
We didn't have enough fuel (or time) to travel back to the Loon Lake Entrance instead.
We got off the trail without much issue, and back to our favorite camp site. Set up a bit of a camp to make lunch and a pot of coffee. Also fueled up the Jeeps for the drive back down the mountain and back to Sac. My Cousin took a small nap too!
Hope to have some links to the GoPro footage soon from my Uncle.
Lesson learned about the chain saw for sure!
