Jeepers Jamboree 2008

[jcbrandon]

Rmarz and I have just returned from the Jeepers Jamboree on the Rubicon Trail. We arrived in Placerville, California on Wednesday evening July 23, drove into Rubicon Springs on Thursday and out to Lake Tahoe this afternoon.

Of course, there's more to the story than that. But we are at this very moment kicking back with well-deserved adult beverages. So for now, I'll just stick up a couple of pictures for your viewing pleasure. More to come later.


Rmarz airing down tires at the trailhead:


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Rmarz showing how it's done:


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And me, resting after a tough day on the trail (where someone else did all the heavy lifting):


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Stay tuned for more hot Rubicon Trail action.

 

[jcbrandon]

Pre-departure

Here's our expedition vehicle in Coloma, California. That's a replica of Sutter's mill at the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park on the American River.


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And the one-lane wooden suspension bridge on Mosquito Road just north of Placerville. We watched the bridge move up and down as a 6,000-pound truck drove over it. It moved somewhat less with me standing on it.


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We spent Wednesday night at the Best Western in Placerville. The management was nice enough to let us park the Jeep in sight of the front desk and watched by a security camera. Excellent Mexican food just across the parking lot at Casa Ramos.


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Next morning found us assembling with a few dozen other vehicles at the trail head at Loon Lake Dam. Turns out that a majority of the particpants had already hit the trail hours earlier. We did get there in time to enjoy coffee and breakfast provided by the organizers.


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Last item before departure was to collect box lunches to eat somewhere along the Rubicon Trail.


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[jcbrandon]

On the trail

Within minutes of leaving Loon Lake we came to our first obstacle. And our first traffic jam. Not sure exactly how many vehicles participated in the Jeepers Jamboree. We heard some folks say the event was limited to 800 people which seemed like about what we saw in camp once everyone arrived. So figure 300-400 vehicles on the trail spread across two departure days. Waits at obstacles ranged from a couple of minutes to a half-hour or more. But this affords great photo opportunities and the chance to meet other folks.


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Here's a helicopter just after leaving Loon Lake for Rubicon Springs. The flight takes eight minutes. The drive took us nine hours. The helicopter is used to shuttle people (such as the entertainers) and stuff (such as repair parts) to the springs. Rides above the trail are available for $50. We didn't take a flight, but we did become very familiar with the helicopter.


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Here's someone about to winch himself after getting the rear differential hung up on a rock. After a while of driving behind this fellow, we started to call him "Throttle Boy" as that seemed to be his response to most difficulties. Almost all of the vehicles we saw were equipped with winches. But in two days of tough driving we only saw cables pulled out three or four times.


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We did our best to fly our colors. The fellow in front of us chose a more dramatic approach. More on him later.


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[jcbrandon]

Slabs o' granite

The Sierra Nevada are mostly one big ol' bubble of granite busting out of the earth. These pictures give a sense of that:


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Our Jeep sitting level in the foreground while another crawls off-camber toward a water crossing. Angles like that remind you where your center of gravity is located.


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A very nicely set up Jeep Scrambler eases down a stairstep with a sharp turn thrown in for good measure. The fellow in the green coveralls is a "Rock Roller." These are volunteer spotters stationed at the tough obstacles. They made even me look like I knew what I was doing. We gave them cold beverages from our fridge.


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In addition to flying the colors for Overland Journal, we also sported an Adventure Trailers logo. If we were producing a movie, we would call this "foreshadowing."


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[jcbrandon]

Squeeze play

Here's that bold-looking FJ Cruiser again, this time navigating a tough tree-rock-rock obstacle. We had about 15 minutes to watch him get through here.


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And here's rmarz working the same obstacle so quickly that I only got one picture. He gets an admiring glance from a rock goddess.


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Fifty feet down the trail the FJ went right and got delayed. My chauffeur went left over a drop and moved ahead. I had to run to catch my ride.


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At the next obstacle, we had plenty of time to peruse the Cruiser. The big window decals read "Off Road Drive" and the sides sport some Cyrillic lettering. The driver, passenger, and their camera crew spoke Russian and were very focused, so we did not chat much with them. The California license plate reads "ORD MAG" which we later learned is a Russian enthusiast publication. In this picture you might notice the Overland Journal sticker, which we had not seen previously.


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[rmarz]

Looked up the bridge history and was surprised to see that the bridge is appraised as, “Structurally deficient”, nice. On the up side the substructure, that big bubble of granite is rated as “very good”.





“Overview
Suspension bridge over South Fork American River on Mosquito Road
Location
El Dorado County, California
Status
Open to traffic
History
Built 1939
Design
Wire suspension
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 201.1 ft.
Total length: 245.1 ft.
Deck width: 8.9 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 13.1 ft.
Approximate latitude, longitude
+38.77611, -120.74861 (decimal degrees)
38°46'34" N, 120°44'55" W (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Inventory numbers
CA 25C-61 (California bridge number)
BH 10869 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection (as of 07/2006)
Deck condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Very Good (8 out of 9)
Appraisal: Structurally deficient
Sufficiency rating: 0.0 (out of 100)
Average daily traffic (as of 2000)
900”

WWW.bridgehunter.com

 

[rmarz]

 

[rmarz]

Here is the text that I intended to post with the above pic......darn gremlins. The pic is of the trail head message board near Loon Lake.

For those interested, a little history on the area that the Rubicon Trail is located from the El Dorado County trail guide pamphlet.

Running West & East in both Placer and El Dorado counties, between the towns of Georgetown and Lake Tahoe, the trail is generally spoken of as the premier off highway vehicle (OHV) trail in the United States.

Originally a Native American trail connecting the Sacramento Valley and Lake Tahoe, the Rubicon Trail was rediscovered by European immigrants in the 1840’s.

By 1890 the trail had become an actual road and was used to reach the Rubicon Mineral Springs Resort and Hotel. The first car into Rubicon Springs arrived in 1908.

In 1952 local residents gathered to discuss and plan hosting an organized Jeep tour from Georgetown to Lake Tahoe and from that meeting the Jamboree was born.

The road is today classified as an unmaintained county road open to both street licensed and ‘green sticker’ vehicles. The road and surrounding areas are maintained by several very active private groups and clubs.

 

[jcbrandon]

End of the first day

We splashed through a water crossing just before arriving in camp at Rubicon Springs. No drama for us. But later we saw other vehicles with mud almost up to the door handles.


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We celebrated a successful day with 100-proof nine-year old bourbon and hand-rolled Dominican cigars. This would not have been the same without ice from our on-board fridge.


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Then we headed to the chow line for the first of several memorable meals. This picture helped us remember when to eat as that was the most important thing on our itinerary for the next couple of days.


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[rmarz]

With a little time jcbrandon was ready to take the wheel and conquer some obstacles. Made it look easy too.

Even found time to slow down for a well framed side view pic.

 

[rmarz]

Ugh, I jumped ahead on the time line, how could I have forgotten the food? What a logistical accomplishment, feeding such great chow to so many folks. The volunteers were amazingly efficient, friendly and having just as good of a time as the participants.

 

[jcbrandon]

Hello, old friend

Friday morning we bumped into an old friend in fine fettle after a cross-country adventure.


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The celebrity Adventure Trailer drew admiring crowds camped on the slabs next to the swimming hole.


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And if you've been wondering why surplus 1/4-ton Jeep trailers are hard to find, it's because they congregate at Rubicon Springs.


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[rmarz]

Might be common, but I thought this surplus trailer with the tent was neat, I went to get a closer look but someone was in the tent, so I backed off.

On Saturday several of the trailers were launched into the water of Rubicon Springs and a floating trailer race was had. I have no pictures but three were swamped and had to be recovered from about fifteen feet of water.

 

[jcbrandon]

On Saturday several of the trailers were launched ...

I wondered what all that excitement was about. Woke me up from a nap under a pine tree.

 

[rmarz]

In addition to the floating trailer race Saturday, there was a floating spare tire juggernaut event where floating spares were stood on by brave contestants. I was told that the winner of this event was one of the El Dorado sheriff's Deputies that was patrolling the area. Additionally there was a great presentation hosted by ???????? (help me out jcbrandon, I forgot his name) that was standing room only unless you brought a chair. Topics covered were history of the trail, old surveys and property disputes and what the landowners plan to do with the properties in the future, Harald Pietschmann a local guide was present along with many others to look over old photographs and documents from Jamborees of the past.