Thursday, August 14, 2014

Rubicon Trail Adventures

As I mentioned in my previous blog - in June Scott & I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. Last winter we were talking about ways to celebrate and we each came up with a different trip we would like to take - so we did both (find the next blog down to see my trip). This was Scott's dream. Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed it - he was like a kid going to Disneyland though...

We chose to go with Jeep Jamboree USA - the Rubicon trail isn't something you want to do on your own as it is rated the most difficult off road trail in the US. We also love their catering services - they serve awesome food!

We met up in Georgetown, California with 78 of our closest Jeeping friends ;-)

Lots of pretty views...




Everyone lining up at the trailhead


I think I heard there was 22,000 lbs of food and supplies lifted to us?


Time to air down and make sure everything is tied down



Scott was ready to apply for a job...



The trail guides were awesome - most of them were volunteers. The trail would have been much more stressful without their expertise and patience.


Kid in a candy store comes to mind...





I think we had been on the trail for 2-3 hours at this point...


As I went through these pictures I was disappointed in my photo taking ability - its pretty hard to get pictures that show some of the extreme positions Scott put the Jeep in. Some of that had to do with my lack of experience and some it had to do with the fact that I really enjoyed just staying in the Jeep and going along for the ride.




Maybe this should be our third Jeep? I think there are three grandkids out there who would enjoy it!





That doesn't look possible...




A discussion on which line to take (the jeep that just went through had gotten high-centered)


No problem!







The mighty trail guides are able to lift up trees!


Just a nice slow climb...








It was about 5pm by now and we were wondering if we would ever get to camp...


Between a rock and a hard spot...


Above and beyond the duties of a trail guide!

Scott was kind of bummed he didn't get to use his new winch

But their winch worked great!

Trust me... we put the mirrors in...

Such a beautiful area



And we're there! 11 hours after leaving the parking lot in Georgetown - we went 8 miles.

Check, check, check...etc...

Hamburgers, steaks, French toast...yummm...

and the bar...

They brought up a grand piano...




oops - this isn't part of our group. We thought this uni-mog was cool though.

The skid plates got a workout on our Jeep

Rubicon Springs - the water was not very tasty

Supermoon!

With a little help from our friends...

Sunday morning - on the trail again






The Jeep two ahead of ours had just lost their back window to the big tree in the center...

Made it!

I was trying to get a picture of the drop off on my side - this trail wasn't
for those who are scared of heights.

We were told by multiple Jeepers that Cadillac Hill on the way out of camp would be the most difficult. This is about where it started - and I didn't get any pictures. Part of it was because it was so rough it was hard to walk - and the other part is because I was having so much fun riding in the jeep. I guess we'll just have to go do it again!!




Wow - some trail without huge rocks!

The overlook - we were told that the rest of the trail was easy...



Nine Jeeps from Pennsylvania that were shipped out here just to do the Rubicon Trail!
Maybe we'll have to head out that way to try some of their trails?
Some of you may remember the last time we were in Pennsylvania
we were invaded by stink bugs...hmmm...



The poor trail guides ended up behind us (yes, we were one of the last jeeps) - and helped us get out of this obstacle. Thanks guys and gals!





What a great color!


What a great trip - thanks Jeep Jamboree USA!!
22 miles in about 17 hours...