Here's a write-up I sent to some local cruiser buddies. Our camera never left its case this time. I was too busy driving and Lauren was busy being mom. I'll have to teach my dog to take pictures. :) If anyone sends me Rubithon 2002 pictures, I'll add them to this page.
This was another good Rubithon, even with some problems. Heck, surmounting the problems - mechanical, trail and situational - is part of the fun of running the trail.
Rubithon was good, wheeling was good. Cruiserheads were in full effect. Saw just about everyone in the cruiser universe in fact. Those crazy Ohio/Kentucky boys ("Skate the Gate!") were there. Attendance was down from previous years but it was still a lot of fun. The general plan was to camp at Miller Lake, then head out to Tahoe for breakfast Sunday morning. By the time we got there, several passengers - mine included - were very responsive to the suggestion of a motel stay on the north shore. That expectation wasn't met for a lot of us...
I had procrastinated, hadn't felt like I had the time to work on my 55, so it had sat for eight months in the garage since the pig run. Once I was out of work I sent out resumes and cover letters for the first few days, then spent the remaining time working on the truck. There was a lot of little bugs to fix and mods I wanted to make, and I only got to some of them. (Thanks again, Andy!) Some of the bugs remaining were pretty important, like two leaking valve stems and a brand new, significant engine oil leak from somewhere like the side cover, and no signal or marker lights on the driver side. The night before we left I was up until 2:30AM working on the truck, and when I went to bed the truck was still not packed. Lauren set the alarm for 4:30 and I dozed for two fitful hours, anxious thoughts running through my head. Dragged myself out of bed, went back to work, had the CB installed, lights working and truck packed and ready to go by 7AM. (We were supposed to leave at 5AM.) Stopped at an America's Tire in Rancho Cordova and to my amazement they diagnosed and fixed the two leaking valve stems for free, while I waited. That rocked. The guy who did the repairs was a wheeler. I will buy tires from them next time. Got to Cameron Park, took on 15 gallons of filtered water and stared in dismay at the hot oil splattering the asphalt under my engine. Fuck. Checked the level, put in a quart and bought a case of 10w30, a filter and a drain pan. Stopped somewhere else along the way to fill up our new tiny propane cannister. Too bad I forgot to get the right fitting for it to fuel our stove. (Thanks again for the green can, Gary.) I was supposed to be at Loon Lake Dam at 10AM, but I didn't get there until 2PM. I was absolutely amazed to see the cruiserheads there, STILL WAITING FOR ME. You guys are great. I am not worthy. Gary's double-locker run was there, too, making it's turn-around. We waited for them to go, then got on the trail behind them. I think it was 3:30PM when we got moving.
Wheeling was good. My 55 continues to rock. Gary, thanks again: That thing is point and shoot. The Alligator Pit is a lot deeper and it has some extra teeth now. Jay had diff/locker trouble and needed a lot of help through it. Walker Hill was pretty mellow. With the 55 absolutely loaded with gear and people and dogs I didn't even give Little Sluice a thought. I would have liked to have tried Old Sluice but our group was late, we were moving slow and not all the rigs prepared for it. Another time. We got to the slabs just as it was getting dark. I took the lead but took a wrong turn down the nowhere route into the valley. Pat and I hiked up, Got a reorientation from Gary in the dark. We turned the trucks around and very very slowly made our way to the correct route and down the slabs. Sam was so scared. It was dark and he was freaked out and tired and I lost my temper several times with the pace. Jay lost a bead when I tried to drag him up and over a ledge (that ledge-left-turn at the top of the slabs) and it took us FOREVER to get him moving again. It was about 1AM at that time, Sam had fallen asleep, and I was feeling absolutely murderous. Pat was the epitome of kindness and patience. I was beside myself. We got moving again and I was boiling everytime we stopped. Pat generously offered to let me lead and I jumped at the chance. We finally got into Buck Lake at 2:30AM. The Slabs were a cinch, when we were moving. We were at Buck for three days. I didn't do anything but loaf and relax and nap and eat and go for hikes and swims with Sam, Lauren and Judy. We saw lots of people come through. Mark showed up in his 80 with nary a ding! I was amazed and impressed. We left Buck on Saturday around noon. I was one of the last guys out, with Craig in the red 40 and a guy named Patrick in a blue 40 in front of me. Patrick's rear right axle failed almost immediately, on the rocky ledge right after the dam. None of us had spare rear axle shafts. Craig and I got him up onto a flat spot and waited while he locked up everything he could, hid his toolboxes and started hiking toward the springs. We radioed to our group but no one had the axle shaft he needed. Craig and I played catch-up, reaching our group and some minis on Big Sluice right after the left-hand turn with the big rock.
Hung out the Springs for a little while. Lauren and Sam and Judy got in the water, I helped Nick change birfields. (more below!) Visited lots of people. We ate our Rubithon dinner and got our Rubithon t-shirts and then a lot of the cruiserheads staged on the trail heading east and started up Cadillac Hill. There was lotsa mud and water pits after the Springs. Cadillac was interesting. Only real sketchy point in the trip for me was when I was climbing a steep ledge after V Rock with no spot. I was slipping sideways as my rear tires scrubbed and my right rear found a deep hole. The nose was in the air and the vehicle was way over. I radio-ed ahead to Brett, the guy with the BJ70 who was in front of me, but he was just plain gone and couldn't get back with a strap. I radioed back to Tom Boyd asking for a spot but he was too far back and busy. Eric (Brian's buddy) and his buddies were behind me in their 55, but they're all new at wheeling and I didn't feel comfortable getting a spot from them. I did have them put some counterweight on my driver-side nerf as I slowly backed out of it. Sam and Lauren were out and watching and Sam was crying. I got kinda mad because no one around, then Acid Jer walked up looking all calm and beatific, and he gave me a zen spot. The 55 just walked right up. Thanks, Jer. We made it to Inspiration Point just as the sun was setting. Perfect timing - not for a photo, but for avoiding obstacles in the dark. I think it took us about two hours to get up to Inspiration Point. We were there for about 45 minutes while Dave patched his t-case. The rest of the drive out was uneventful. Gary and Ross and Rick and some other guys caught up to us at Miller Lake, after Gary won more shit in the raffle.
Used my front locker once or twice. I think the real problem I was seeing is that the red LED isn't accurately showing me when it's locked. I think that's how my brother-in-law broke a birfield - the light was off, but the locker had been recently engaged and I don't think it was really disengaged when he got in, cranked the wheels and backed up a hill in low gear with his foot in it. Finally saw the bobbed green/white 55 that was in one of the 4x4 mags a few years ago, talked with the current owner Mike, and got the name of the builder, John Langdon. He was there, but I didn't meet him. Pat talked to him and told me a bit about John's stretched, aqualu-bodied 40. Sounds like a good guy to talk to. The "50" no longer runs a caddy 500. It's got an fj40 rear crossmember at the back and the chop line is invisible. Mike had a Norcold fridge that was absolutely the same fridge as the medium-sized ARB. Saw a couple buggies, much more than in recent years. Seems like MTRs have really caught on, too. That super-tall 40 with the dragon on the side, snorkel and raised exhaust was there again. This time he made it all the way into the Springs. Used my UHMWPE rope a couple times, dragging it across rock while extricating Jay at the Alligator Pit. No problems, that stuff has been great so far. My battery didn't have enough juice to crank the starter when we got to Buck, after a long night of winching, ARB fridge on (set at "2") the whole time, H4 lights sucking juice off the battery. I'd left the lights on while I went back to the bottom of the slabs to watch the rest of the rigs get through the twisty part. When I got back to my truck the starter wouldn't go. (two-year-old minitruck starter) I will set up a dual red/yellow battery setup next. I somehow blew the 8A in-line glass fuse on the ARB cig-lighter plug when I got to Loon, replaced it with a right-sized 15A fuse I got from Pat, since that was the only replacement I could find. Don't know why it blew a fuse, but I'm guessing it was because the vents on the fridge were blocked and it got too hot. (?) Only other interesting piece of tech info I can remember is some discussion of a propane-powered gizmo that outputs CO2 and sucks the mosquitoes that follow the CO2 into a bag. Consensus is that we should have one next year. I don't know more than that about it, but I can say DEET worked for me.
Saw some good breaks and some good fixes. Dave Tay put a hole in his transfer case on Cadillac, but he was able to patch it with some goo and tape at Inspiration Point as the sun went down. Ross broke something before I got there, (can't remember what it was) then he fixed it, then he tore out a diff drain plug, and Mudrak helped him fix it. Jay was in open-diff three-wheel-drive with only one wheel getting power in the back, from the get-go. He and I were "on-belay" with the tow strap until Buck, then I think Brian took over. Poor Nick broke his front ring gear somewhere near the Springs after a week of wheeling. He pulled and replaced both birfields before he found the problem. It was amazing watching Mudrak go from broken cruiser to broken cruiser, keeping the rigs in the double-locker run moving as night fell, like Hawkeye repairing soldiers in the MASH. That guy Patrick got a spare axle in camp from someone, hiked back up to Buck with it and to his good fortune met Marlin coming in, near his rig. Craig hiked back up to help Patrick, just as they were finishing the install. Luke broke, then bent a leaf, is that right Luke? Some guy broke a Chevy V8 bellhousing in half. Saw some other carnage.
When we got to Miller Lake at about midnight, I suggested to Lauren and Sam that we go get a motel. Lauren's eyes lit up in the dark. "Really?" I told the group via CB that we were going to go out and motel it, that we'd meet them at 10AM at Rosie's in Tahoe City for breakfast. The motel idea caught on and quite a few other vehicles elected to head out either for a motel or for home. Some stayed, like Nick and Jen, Jay, Ghislaine and Ella and Rob McGarty, I think. Well, bottom line is there were no vacancies on the west lake or the north shore. We went along the top for a while then gave up and decided to try Truckee. Truckee had no vacancies! WTF? Got on 80 and drove through the long dry stretch, motel-wise, until Auburn. Auburn had no vacancies. I was getting really irritated at this point. My temper has been short for weeks now and this was just weird. Every single motel we stopped at was full. Why? Huh? So we kept going, trying every fucking motel. Finally in Roseville the second hotel we tried - a huge Ramada - had one room left. One of the desk people along the way had told us everything was booked in a 40-mile radius because of a volleyball tournament in Sacramento. Another one told us "It's always like that this time of year." We left Judy in the truck and got into our room at 2:30AM. Fucking ridiculous. I went right to bed, dirty as a dung beetle. They can wash the sheets. Shower felt good this morning, when I woke up at 9:30, so did a big breakfast at Denny's. Stopped in Benicia at Lauren's mom's house to pick up Lulu, got home around 2PM. Drive home was fine, except for some vibrations. I'm thinking it's the driveshaft or a dinged wheel.
Was another good trip. Thanks again Cruiserheads, for all being excellent. I want to go do Fordyce now.
Morgan
Brett Toothill's Rubithon 2002 pics
Rubithon 2000
Rubithon 2001
Pig Run 2001
Nick's Pig Run Write-Up
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Morgan Fletcher
<morgan@hahaha.org> |
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