During one of our trips to the 'Con this last summer, we were crusin' around by Spider Lake. Anyway, we see this Subaru car, on the other side. Someone said, there is a road, almost paved, that goes to Spider. Does anyone know of this?

By the way, the car had no dents:confused:

Jen

Here's a map, I don't see another road?:confused:

Originally posted by landuseorc
Here's a map, I don't see another road?:confused:

Oops, maybe there is, go to topozone and pull up the area, there is a long twisty but good road to the north (you can see a bit of it on the map above). I've never been there, but that looks like what you mean.

There is a SMUD road that goes from Loon to Buck Island but I don't know if it goes by Spider.

BTW: The road is public access so either this person works for SMUD or made there own way in.

i've heard rumor there is, its an access road for the forest service to get to spider lake. there is also some assinine amount of fines you will have to pay if you are cought on it. needless to say, i'd stay away from it and don't tell anyone where its at. Last thing we need is some smartass in his riced out honda sitting at spider

Yes, there is I've walked it. It's not paved, at least the last time I was on it, but is well graveled and maintained. The gate is at the north-east end of the Loon Lake Main campground and locked.

Ok this may be a hair off subject, and this entire post should be moved to chit-chat but here goes: Any one ever walked through the tunnel at the dam at Buck Island, and if so how far......I hear it runs to loon. You can see light at the end, but it seems far..........

Originally posted by JerryRigs
Ok this may be a hair off subject, and this entire post should be moved to chit-chat but here goes: Any one ever walked through the tunnel at the dam at Buck Island, and if so how far......I hear it runs to loon. You can see light at the end, but it seems far..........

Yes it runs to Loon. It's several miles long. SMUD probably wouldn't be too happy to find you in there, though. ;)

I have heard a few stories about Vince Or maniac Catching trout in the pipe Been awhile though:D

Why would you want a paved road in??????

You would lose all the fun of wheelin' in.
Might be a good escape route if carnage occurs though.

The SMUD road crosses the saddle that lies between Mud and Hidden lakes (north to south) and Pleasant and Spider lakes (west to east). This road is fading a bit -- in places there are 4-inch diameter trees in its middle... it needs some brush cut back along the side, as well, in places -- it gets fairly narrow.... we've talked about FOTR doing some maintenance work there...

It is a private road, and vehicles are not allowed. MTB and hikers are allowed.... FWIW, I hope it remains limited-access, but I want the fire trucks to be able to get back into there -- and fast, since this road allows direct access to the south side of Loon Lake, the east side of Pleasant Lake, and the entirety of Hidden Lake, Lake Winnie, and Buck Island Reservoir, as well as Rockbound Lake and a section of the Desolation Wilderness Area. The road is pretty much the sole ground access to fire fighting efforts along the Rubicon Trail... trucks could get as far as Ellis Creek by taking the dirt road down from McKinstry Lake, and they might be able to get into the shadow of Devil's peak, but without the access road to the south of the trail, there's no easy way to get ground forces to a fire front...

If you want a *punishingly large* download, click here for a topo map of the area...
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=10&n=4320821&e=736356&s=25&size=l

Randii

The tunnel is pretty cool -- you can canoe into it from the Loon end when the water is low. :cool:

Loon and Buck are part of the Upper American River Project (UARP). Here's a presentation that overviews the history of the UARP: http://www.smud.org/relicensing/project/history.pdf

The license renewal general website flows out of: http://www.smud.org/relicensing/index.html

Here's a step-by-step map of the reservoirs and lakes, and the dams, ditches, tunnels, and turbines: http://www.smud.org/relicensing/project/stepbyst.pdf
I traced Rubicon River down to the Middle Fork of the American River -- it joins in a bit upstream of the Horseshoe Bar Tunnel (you know the Tunnel Chute rapid, I'm sure). FWIW, the UARP discharges into the South Fork, just upstream of Chili Bar.... kinda interesting that they can transplant the water out of one canyon into the other for the stretch that precedes Folsom Lake.

Randii

Originally posted by Robert
Why would you want a paved road in??????

You would lose all the fun of wheelin' in.
Might be a good escape route if carnage occurs though.

Hey, I never said anything about taking that road in. That would defeat the purpose of going to the 'Con;) . Paved road, or even grated.....no fun:flipoff2:

Jen

Originally posted by Dychen
Last thing we need is some smartass in his riced out honda sitting at spider


AMEN BROTHER!!! That's about the only place to get away from those bastards these days. :D

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/attachment.php?s=&postid=1109570
whatever yo i wann wheel my phat wrangler in an bump my fo 15's yo!!!

One thing not mentioned thus far: The road originates IN the bottom of LOON lake. It dips under buck island. It was graded before the dams were built and used for hauling construction equipment to and from buck island, rockbound and rubicon reservoir then covered with hundreds of feet of water when loon was filled.

Just a half buzzed thought, If this road does exist, and is drivable, and with the problem of lack of toilets. Could something be worked out to accomplish the human waste problem?

Jody

Here's a medium sized map that shows one of the old SMUD access roads (North is to the right). Originally, you could wheel into Rockbound and Rubicon Res. There was also another road punched in from Van Vleck's airstrip in the upper left corner of the map. This road was an evacuation route in case someone got injured during construction of the UARP.

Access to Rockbound Valley, Rockbound Lake, Fox Lake, Rubicon Res and Onion Valley. was blocked off in 1968 or 1969.