It's not that King isn't prepped at all. He's got a 2.5" Teraflex lift kit, Fox 2.0 Performance shocks, 33" Goodyear Duratrac tires, rock sliders and a decent amount of armor all around. Plus I have all the recovery equipment I could need- winch, Hi-Lift jack, shovel, straps, etc. The question we had was will we be able to do this trail without any lockers? Plus my gearing is the stock 3.21, since I have an automatic transmission. Well, we found out.
We chose the 3-day trip, so we arrived in Georgetown one day early to check in and get our wristbands. Then we headed for our hotel that I booked in Auburn about 20 miles away. After a quick early dinner, we hit the hay to get as much rest as we could, since we had to be up at 3am the next morning!
From Auburn to the trail head at Loon Lake, it takes just about 2 hours to get there! First, you head to Georgetown, then to Uncle Tom's Cabin, then the Loon Lake dam. The last place to gas up is in Georgetown. We got to Loon Lake at around 5:30am. I aired down to 14 psi, disconnected my front swaybar and got into 4L. After our last potty breaks and grabbing our "express breakfast" (which was a breakfast burrito) and our box lunches, we headed out on the trail as the sun was just starting to break. We didn't know anything about how this Jamboree thing works- the literature alluded to the trail being "open" (I'm assuming they meant ready) at 0600.
The first part of the trail is open and vast granite. We didn't see any signs or trail markers pointing us toward which way to go, nor were there any guides on the trail. We ran across a bunch of rigs that were parked- they had camped there overnight. One of the guys I spoke to told me that 14 psi was just fine for the trail, then he pointed me in the right direction. He said that if we can make it through Gatekeeper, we should be fine for the rest of the trail. So off we went.
Soon we were on the "trail" and it was well defined. We were in the Gatekeeper. There were large rocks embedded in the trail everywhere. My first thoughts were, "We're supposed to drive over those??!" Emily was slightly freaking out. We went very slowly and deliberately, trying to crawl on top of the rocks, rather than have the rocks go under the vehicle if possible. Sure enough, this little Jeep managed to handle the task readily. I was a little surprised and very happy :)
After a short distance of crawling, there were challenging obstacles. This section was called Walker Hill. Our lines had to be picked more carefully. Emily got out to spot me and help get me over the rocks. Again, no problem! Wow! Maybe King really can get through this trail!?
We reached some open areas of granite called The Steps. There was a "Rock Roller" guide up on the rocks. I got out of the Jeep to take a peek at what lines I should be taking to get up these steps. Then the guide ran down to give me a pep talk and a couple of pointers. With her help, this little Jeep easily crawled up these very steep steps. I was fucking amazed, since we're running open diffs! But with a little pinching of the e-brake, it was just enough to trick the software into activating the BLD (brake lock differential) system- totally worked like a charm!
When we approached Little Sluice, there was an option to take a bypass. At this point, I knew that we were doing pretty good, but I figured that if we had the opportunity, maybe we should take a pass and not push our luck. The bypass sucked! The trail was vaguely marked with reflectors glued to the rock surfaces and the obstacles were still tough!! We got slightly lost and while asking for directions from someone taking the bypass in the opposite direction, he told us that Little Sluice was probably easier than this bypass!! Eventually we merged back to the main trail.
This spit us out to a super-narrow part of the trail that was actually a V. To get through this section, you had to straddle the V riding both sides on the walls! A little hairball, but once we got the initial line going, the rest wasn't bad.
At one point, we got a little high-sided and stuck on a rock during a steep decline. I was about to break out the Hi-Lift jack, but then came a trio of Jeeps, one of which hooked me up and gave me a yank off the rock. Our subsequent attempt was a success- we didn't even scrape the skid plate at all! We later ran into these guys again at Buck Island Lake, where there were a few tents set up to repair vehicles that suffered breakages along the trail- one of the guys blew a shock and lost a brake line.
Right after we left Buck Island, we slowly drove by a group of Jeeps lying in wait along the side of the trail- up ahead was a hairpin to the left, which lead to a sharp right up and over a steep granite rock. There they sat carefully eyeing the lines that vehicles were taking, watching the carnage. I asked one of the guys, "What are you waiting for?" He told me he needed to rest his Jeep, that he was having problems with the lockers. "Now you're scaring me!", I said, "My Jeep is on NO LOCKERS!" Carefully we crept around the hairpin and tactfully got lined up for the approach. Luckily there was a spotter on top of the rock that was guiding us. We got slightly hung up and there was a little tire spinning, but we got up and over with little drama!
The guides were absolutely essential in our success to clear this trail! They knew exactly what it takes to get through the obstacles. I was really starting to appreciate the short wheelbase of my 2-door. A few guides had remarked how having the 2-door was getting us on line more easily. And that BLD was working fantastically! After crawling up one of the steep obstacles, the Rock Roller told me that I could turn off my locker. He was shocked when I told him I didn't have any lockers!
After seven hours of driving, we finally hit base camp- Rubicon Springs. It was busy and crowded with vehicles sprawled all over the place. We made our own parking space and were able to grab some lunch before they closed down. It was cold cheeseburgers, but for the price we paid to do this trip, I was going to take all I could take! We quickly ate, so we could find a decent camp site, before the rest of the parade behind us crawled into camp. We got pretty lucky and soon were able to find an area to set up the tent fairly close to the main area.
Camping at Rubicon Springs was an experience. There were some permanent buildings erected, while some were temporary set up just for our event. This is where the mess hall was. On the first night, they Hickory Hank served up barbecued pork tenderloin as the main dish. There was a large grass area with a stage and dance floor. When announcements needed to be made, someone got up in front of the stage and jumped on the PA system. At night, a live band performed cover songs. Drunken dancing went on late into the night. Emily wasn't feeling all that well, so she retired early.
The next day we tooled around camp and listened to a lecture about the history of the Rubicon Trail from one of the historians. The story about the origins of the trail were fascinating! The struggles they went through just to get the building materials to the camp amazing! Later in the day, we made our way down the river to the swimming hole. There were literally hundreds of people in the water cooling off, 4x4's scattered all over the granite slabs leading to the river. Everyone was very friendly. I felt a great sense of community. There was a waterfall at the leading end of the river where some people were jumping off into the pool below. The water was the perfect temperature for lounging.
The next morning, the alarm went off at 5am. I wanted a head start to beat the parade of the 500 rigs or so out of camp. We packed up camp in the dark, then headed to the mess hall to get some express breakfast. This time it was like a muffin and a danish, along with coffee and OJ. At 0700 we were sitting in the Jeep and on the trail. Still, we hit traffic almost immediately. We slowly crawled down the trail for about an hour, then we found Cadillac Hill.
So this Cadillac Hill was supposed to be one of the hardest obstacles on the entire trail. On the way into Camp, there were many, many difficult obstacles, but heading home, this one was the only real challenge, so we were told. There was a vehicle with a winch positioned at the top of the Hill, just in case a rig got stuck. The hill was embedded with lots of large wet and slippery sharp rocks. The trail was less than 10 feet wide with the steep ravine at the bottom of the right-side dropoff. Thank God there were lots of trail spotters in position ready to go. We just slowly and methodically made our way to the top, paying close attention to whatever the handy Rock Rollers were instructing us to do. We got slightly hung up on one spot, but other than that, it was smooth sailing! Again, King has more than surpassed all my expectations!
Immediately after Cadillac Hill, there were actually a few challenging spots tight turns and big drop offs from tall rocks, but we made it through with little incident. We headed to the vista for a good long look (and pee) into the valley below, then we mustered at the express lunch spot where we were handed barbecue beef sandwiches, chips and sodas. From there on, it was pretty much easy going. Soon enough, we were on pavement again where we found a staging area to air back up and reattach our swaybar.
This is absolutely a must do experience if you are a 4-wheeler! The Rubicon Trail is considered to be the grand-daddy of off-roading trails and one of the more difficult trails in America! The price to go with the Jeepers Jamboree was kind of steep, but considering the expert line spotting they provided, plus the elaborate camp food, I do believe it was a fair price to pay for practically a guarantee that you and your rig will get through the trail. Sure King suffered a few scrapes along the way, and having larger tires would've made quite a difference, but for the setup that we ran, we received nothing but kudos from all the folks that we talked to. If you're ever thinking about doing the Rubicon Trail, this a fantastic way to do it for your first time. I have no regrets.
