This trip was a lot of firsts for me. First time I have been to the Rubicon First time everyone on the run slept in a tent or bed of a pick up. First time I ran a trail where the rangers were hiking on foot and we could not keep up with them. First time I had mystery chili. It was good. First time I went on a run that long. First time I had hot Starbucks in the morning. Thanks Mike.
I was very happy with the how the trip went. There were 9 adults, 2 kids and 7 vehicles attending this run. 7 of us never had been on the Rubicon before or knew its exact location. Darell had been on it 4 years ago and David I. had been on it twice. The camp ground was pick at random off a map. It was not the one Darell was thinking of. So this trip had the makings of a very long day. But the trip went off without a hitch.
Everyone found the campsite without any problems. Darell even took CJ and I on a tour of the Mercedes dealer in El Dorado. It was fun towing a second vehicle thru the line of new cars. Richard and his wife even found our camp site at 1 in the morning, even after we switch sites from where we said we would be. Got to try harder next time to hid from him.
I have to say that the Rubicon was the hardest run I have done since joining ED4. There are almost no spots were you can drive along without worrying about damage. It is pile rocks after piles of rocks. There were a few tight squeezes mixed in. I thought for sure that I was going to lose a mirror and a window. It seems that 32″ tires are a little to small. I hit every part of my underbody on rocks. I also got high centered a couple times. It was a long 10 hours of driving, 45 minutes from the camp site to the trail head.
Everyone made it off the trail without any major problems. In fact there was very little vehicle damage that could be seen. For a bunch of novices I was surprised how well everyone did. No one got stuck to bad. Not much time was used up spotting. I though for sure that we would be spotting the whole trail. No one lost a mirror.