since i did not get a chance to go, at least i want to see some pics!:flipoff2:

Sorry - no pics from me - I ended up breaking 2 ribs on Thursday night sparring :(
The thought of being tugged down Cadillac Hill by 2 Golden Retrievers was not tops on my fun list. So while you guys were wheeling and having fun, I was chewing Codine and sitting by my pool :(

Hope everyone had FUN and there were no injuries on the trail.

Now let's see some CARNAGE!!

Mmmmmm Codine!

Rubithon was the best yet for me!

Did not do any trail committee, went in Thursday with my wife and we hung out in John Kuzma's camp with Ross, Neal, Dave West and a couple others... great crowd, great fun, great laughs! Lots of PMC folks spread all through the bluffs, the springs themselves looked like a ghost town.

I fixed baked chicken, rice and broccoli in my Dutch Oven Thursday and made pineapple upside down cake on Friday.

My truck performed great and nothing broke, tried out my new high pinion w/ Detroit in the front, new Alcans and twin stick.

I actually remembered the names of many folks!!!

Paul Elbisser and Chris Fryman (Those Guys) were there from the East Coast and they were as crazy as ever. I did hear of lots of broken parts though...

Also, I dropped my pocket watch somewhere between the trail head and buck Island Lake. Its silver, no chain, and I hope someone found it and can return it, I can even offer a small reward (T-shirt and mess of stickers or something).

Ran the trail backwards on Sunday, home by 7.

thanks to everyone who went and made it such a great event.

take care....

Had a good time. Our group had some breakage, so we went kinda slow. Hung out at Buck most of the time. My 55 did fine, just broke a rear view mirror.

Here's my write-up (http://www.birfield.com/~morgan/rubithon2002).

Morgan

Just like Morgan, I brought my camera and four rolls of film but they never made it out of my bag.
This was a Yin and Yang Rubithon for me. I had some really good moments and few crappy ones. Crazy Lotion Girl and I ran in with the thursday morning breakfast group. Met some nice people on the run, but we were moving REALLLY SLOWWW. Most of the day it was hurry up and wait. We had a big group so that was understandable.
The highlight of that first day was doing Old Sluice with Pismojim. I'll let him post the details, and I know he has some good pics, but I can tell you that it was impressive watching his sprung over 60 negotiate the tight turns and pinch rock! Great job Jim! Another highlight was meeting up with the wagons from PMC at Buck Island thursday night and hanging out for another day. Cool group.
The worst part of the trip was when another local cruiserhead, Patrick broke a rear short side axle climbing the steps out of Buck Island. He hiked into the Springs to find a spare, then back again to start repairs. We motored into the springs with Morgan and the rest of the wagons and then I dug out all of my spare axle seals, gaskets, c-clips and tools and Kristina and I hiked back up to help make repairs. Patrick had help from Marlin in the mean time and had him back on the road by late afternoon.
We ran most of the way back to the Springs in order to make it back in time for dinner, but when we got there, they had just run out of food. Damn!
When Patrick limped into camp later that evening I discovered that he had trashed the the front diff and a spring hanger on the way down Old Sluice. He and I worked 'till midnight prepairing to swap a new third member in, but in the end found some other friends that were willing to strap him up Cadillac Hill on Sunday.
The climb up Cadillac was uneventful except for the rookie in front of me with open diffs and 31s who ripped a sidewall and had a spare in such bad shape that it wouldn't hold air. But the bleu-cheese bacon burger at the Bridgetender in Tahoe City made up for everything!

Craig, it was good to see you and Kristina again. I felt bad about not going back up to help Patrick, but I had to think about Sam and Lauren first. Sounds like he had a very rough run!

I liked the pace we kept from Buck to Big Sluice. Wish it was always like that. :)

Let's do another run together soon. I'm itching to do Fordyce.

Morgan

Morgan:
No worries. I felt bad about not spotting him down Big Sluice too, but he seemed to be running fine after we got the rear axle replaced. So we hiked ahead. Kristina had already spent the day reading her book while watching me wrench on someone elses rig. I didn't want her to miss dinner too, but we were just a little late.
When I found out he blew the pinion up front I felt really bad for him. It looks like the pinion retaining nut backed off, allowing the pinion to drop into the housing and get chewed.
Remember people: Stake your nuts!
Kristina and I really enjoyed hangin out with everybody at Buck. Good food, good laughs and a big ol' mosquito repelling fire... nothing better. I would love to do Fordyce sometime this summer. Or maybe Dusy. Let's keep in touch.

Survived another Rubithon!

Yep, got lot's of cool pictures to sift through - give a me a few days.

I wheeled in Thursday morning behind a FZJ80, FJ55 and FJ60. No offense to the shorties, but it was awesome to look ahead and see the line of wagons moving down the trail. Plenty of long wheel base lines to watch for a change.

I always wanted to see a FZJ80 on the trail so it was great to watch Pat's FZJ80 on 37-inch MTRs. It had no problems on the trail. It was amazing to watch the big rig slip through the tight spots. Some day I must take my 80 Series through. Meantime, "Knuckles" my FJ60 did another great job getting me through the 'Con and home.

At Little Sluice we watched the Klune V boys in the box. IIRC, the FJ40 with ~176:1 crawled though without backing up. It was impressive - I NEED GEARS !!!

The trip's high point was when I joined Shipwreck for a trip down the Old Sluice. I honestly did not know what I was getting into. I had seen a few pictures and even walked part of the trail a few years ago. I didn't think it would be that bad for my long wheel based wagon. The fact was I had to kick my wheeling skills up a level to make it through this one.

I'm thankful for Craig's positive vibes and encouragement. Also the others that caught up to us at the pinch rock were very supportive too. Thanks Joe, et al. It's really great to have the support of the experienced hard core drivers in situations like this. No one ragging my ass for bringing a wagon etc. (believe me, I was starting to rag my own ass - what the Hell was I thinking?) In the end I think they were rewarded with a good show. :)

Afterward, I was pumped full of adrenaline and beside myself. We pulled into Buck Island Lake and found wagons everywhere. 80's, 60's and 55's it was very cool. I quickly downed a couple of beers to calm my excitment - it didn't help much. The group at Buck was fun and let us crash in their camp. Thanks.

Friday I blew out the inside sidewall on one of my MTRs. The same tires I've been bragging about - hmm. I think the heavy wagon needs a bit more pressure than 13 psi. Plus, I need take it easier on them. That was about it for my carnage, except my motor mount let go on Cadillac Hill. Not too bad, just chewed my plastic fan a little every time I torqued the motor. Also, a couple of new dents during the "easy" parts of the trail.

My old LCC sliders bent up and blocked my door from opening - again. They'll be cut off soon. I'll have strong sliders next time. But, the new rear corner protection performed awesome - and I used it often.

We left about 9:00 AM on Sunday. It wasn't crowded at all. Most people left Saturday night. Going out I followed another 80 Series. Again, no problems and we were back in Pismo at 10:00 PM. It always amazes me to run the trail and drive home 350 miles with the AC and stereo blasting.

Land Cruisers + Rubicon = FUN

Picture soon...

Ran out backwards on Sunday morning had to go real slow had a Cruiser full of Raffle Prizes. We didn't want any of them to fall out . Had a good time
Taylor

Originally posted by Taylor
Ran out backwards on Sunday morning had to go real slow had a Cruiser full of Raffle Prizes. We didn't want any of them to fall out . Had a good time
Taylor

Yeah, but Roger, how may bazillion dollars worth of tickets did ya have to buy??:rasta: Luckily, on this years run you did not have some joker in his wife's stock grocery getter to deal with!:eek: Cheers, Andy

I had an absolute blast this year. A few of us wheeled into Spider lake thursday night, ran soup bowl, the box and any thing else that seemed like fun. Friday morning moved onto the springs. Met up with 55guy just before big sluice. I think the funnest part of the weekend though was going up Cadilac hill on sunday with another 40 in tow with only front wheel drive and no locker. That made me really appreciate the big-block. I'm just looking forward to next year now.

had a great time ! best year yet !! I met lots of really nice people !!!

Originally posted by KrustyKruiser


Yeah, but Roger, how may bazillion dollars worth of tickets did ya have to buy??:rasta: Luckily, on this years run you did not have some joker in his wife's stock grocery getter to deal with!:eek: Cheers, Andy


Andy I missed not seeing you there what happen wife put the clamps on you because of what you did to her 60 last year.
I spent 50 bucks on tickets. Me and Tim put our bucks together and spilt the tickets and I gave him his choice of tickets he choose wrong . I walked a way with about 1,000 bucks in prizes
Taylor

me ......of course:D
http://www.rockrawler.com/Image070.jpg
Stinky......
http://www.rockrawler.com/rubi68.jpg
The stock cruiser........wew, that sucked, 3 blown tires and a bunch of body damage isn't too bad I guess.......
http://www.rockrawler.com/rubi56.jpg
Jack......
http://www.rockrawler.com/rubi53.jpg
and one drunk brutha........
http://www.rockrawler.com/rubi89.jpg

Pat's FZJ80 w/ 37 MT/Rs on Big Sluice:

Mark's FZJ80 climbing Cadillac Hill:

Alan Kuper's FJ60 on Walker hill:

Must be a Jeep owner.:flipoff2:

Eric's (I think, I'm terrible with names) Fj55 on Walker hill:

Buck Island Lake Wagons:

More Buck Island Lake Wagons:

Gettin It on the Little Sluice:

Tight spot for a wagon...:flipoff2:

i haven't been on the trail before... wut happens if someone gets
stuck and you can't pass them? wut happens? are they holdin up
the rest of the group, or does everyone help out....

-LCL

People just run over you and continue on! :laughing: Well at least that's what happend to me last year when my junk broke a pinion on the way out to Tahoma. :shaking:

I'll steal from a sig I read a while ago. It goes something like this. "Lead, follow, or become the trail" :eek:

Seriously though. If you break there are usually more people willing to help you out fixing the break than you can use. At the very least they will help you off the trail before continuing on. The trail camaraderie is unprecedented on the 'con. Sure there's always a jerk or two on the trail, but what can you do?

Hope this answers your question.

Later.

Jimmy :usa: :beer: :smokin:

Originally posted by LCL
i haven't been on the trail before... wut happens if someone gets
stuck and you can't pass them? wut happens? are they holdin up
the rest of the group, or does everyone help out....

-LCL