Hey Guys,
A freind and me will be running the rubicon for the first time 4th of July weekend. We will be driving up from So Cal Wed evening, and starting the trail on Thursday...hopefully. Where is a good place to spend the night before starting the trail? Hopefully not to far from the trailhead. Also, where are the best places to camp along the trail, and how do we know when we get there. We are planning on doing the 3 day 2 night route.
Thanks for the help,
Bryan

With that much time you want to spend on night at spider lake. From spider lake you can make it to rubicon spring and stay the night and all the next day from there it's not that much further to get out of the trail. The Rubicon trail is a great place to just kick back and relax. Just my 2 cents. Have fun

Joe


Hey Guys,
A freind and me will be running the rubicon for the first time 4th of July weekend. We will be driving up from So Cal Wed evening, and starting the trail on Thursday...hopefully. Where is a good place to spend the night before starting the trail? Hopefully not to far from the trailhead. Also, where are the best places to camp along the trail, and how do we know when we get there. We are planning on doing the 3 day 2 night route.
Thanks for the help,
Bryan

You can camp at Loon Lake when you get there. There's plenty of open space at the spillway.

From there it's an easy 2 hour run to Spider Lake. Great place to camp and drown some bait.

Next good camp would be Buck Island. Great scenary and fishing! It's an easy 2 hours from Spider.

Next place would be Rubicon Springs. Great camp along the Rubicon River. A definate must for your first trip!

There are many other places along the way but those are the best IMO. Try to hook up with someone that can help guide you through. Be prepared for a large crowd that weekend and expect some delays.

Have a great trip!

I was thinking it might be crowded, that is why we are starting on Thursday. I was hoping to beat the crowds. Do most people take 3 days to run it?
Bryan

If you're there on Saturday the 3rd there should be a good show at noon in the Little Sluice. ;)

I was thinking it might be crowded, that is why we are starting on Thursday. I was hoping to beat the crowds. Do most people take 3 days to run it?
Bryan

If you go in Thursday, you'll beat most of the crowd. Most people will stop at Spider so the crowd will drop off beyond there.

It can be done in a day if you're in a hurry. I like at least 2 days but prefer 3 so I can relax and enjoy the experience;)

have a great trip ,i usually take 5 days just to enjoy the scenery,buck island is awsome i like to spend at least 2 nights there rubicrawler is right after spider the trail will be less traveled again enjoy

As others have said, Spider, Buck and the Springs are the good campsites. I would plan on three days wheeling and as many extra as you have to hang out. While guys who know the trail and have rigs that are up to it can do the whole thing in a day I don't think this is realistic for your first run. Allow a whole day to get to Spider, and then a half day to Buck from there, then another half day to the Springs and a final half day out. You should do way better than that but you have to allow for stucks, breaks and traffic.

Yeah that is a funny thought. The first time I hit the con it seemed like a whole day to get from Loon to Spider and I was excited and amazed the whole way. Now I can make it from Loon to the Springs in 4 hours with little or no problems. It is crazy how you view things in different ways after you are used to it. I cant say that wheeling the Con is the same way or as hard as it was the first few times I wheeled it but I can say I am more addicted to being up there than I ever was. We are lucky fawkers to have this place in our back yards!

Roc Dog...I ditto that.

I was sitting here remembering the first time I ran the trail and realizing how I thought about it then as opposed to now. Loon to spider was more wheelin in one day than I had ever done. This was in 1992. We camped at Buck that night and completed the trip the next day. What a rush it was. Sadly, I don't get that rush any more. I think that is something you get from the first trip...no lockers...33's...and 3" lift..., but now I find myself getting the itch every weekend. I realized today that I haven't gone for the last 5 weekends because I've been doing a major overhaul on the drivetrain. It is time to go...and Memorial is coming. Fordyce is the plan this year to avoid the insanity on the con.

I am just glad we have these trails to go to. That is more reason to fight like hell to keep them open and support the efforts of people like Del and FOTR. I want my kids to enjoy this like I do!

We went last year for our first time and the whole trail took twelve hours we took eight hours the first day spent the night at buck island and about four hours travel time to get to tahoe.But we went in august after the jeep jambo and there was very little traffic after the little sluice we only saw about 6 rigs.We will do it again this year.HAVE FUN

Rubicrawler has it down. Have fun.

dude if its your first time going dont go on the 4th... it will be hell there will be like 5-800 rigs there... it will take you 8 hours just to get to spyder go on a random weekend it will be way better

To me, Rubicon on the 4th is like New Years in Vegas...You should do it once, but only once. Expect a pretty good crowd, even on Thursday. It will get progressively worse throughout the weekend. Plan on driving all the way through the trail to Tahoe, coming back out to Loon at the wrong time can pretty much get you killed.

Don't rule out wentworth, the original trailhead. I'd highly reccomend going in that way to see some of the history etc. That way is much less traveled. Nice campground too..