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More old pics...

13K views 53 replies 32 participants last post by  Blue Devil Toyota 
#1 ·
Sent out through my club, linked to UCD Davis...




 
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5
#2 ·
Let's play identify the place on the trail...

Also, it looks like those little wheels are spinning and creating dust, even back in the day. Surprise, surprise.

Randii
 
#26 ·
The second is lost trail, third looks like near Little Sluice, fourth is right on!! and the fifth looks like near Buck or Wentworth, not sure.
 
#9 ·
great pic sluice box- i have pics like that in my albums taken from 70's and 80's. that pic would be early 80's i guess. do you remember the phone someone removed from a payphone booth and bolted it to the tree on the right hand side of the trail at turn just past all those signs? there was a triple A towing sign bolted to the tree above the pay phone with a phone number on it to call for a emergency tow.
 
#8 · (Edited)
Is that bill Monahan's old rust bucket of a flatty mixed in there? :D



Gotta love the New one he has.... Desoto hemi flatty

Yep big sluice and gotta be late 80s early 1990's
 
#13 ·
Walker Hill?
 
#19 · (Edited)
I miss the signs too, but had to make it PC compliant. I remember how the trail route was different in the 80s. Behind loon lake there was some old Scouts left along the trail and stripped for parts. little sluice was easy just tight in some areas.
 
#20 ·
Ok hopefully you guys won't blow me up too hard on this question. What the hell happened to the trail. I mean specifically the little sluice. I've done the 'con a couple of times and I know it is not even close.

Did knuckle heads tear it up, or just bigger and bigger rigs and buggies or other? Just curious.
 
#21 ·
In the early 90's some knuckleheads pushed/pulled some large boulders into Little Sluice. Nature herself has done the same over the years to add to the mess, and the Sluice in spring is a fast-flowing drainage... and tire-spin (both larger and small tires!) has also moved stuff around.

Combine gravity, water, tires, and knuckleheads, and there have been substantial changes... now which of the above issues is the primary cause, you'll never get agreement on, nor should we try here.


One more note -- the pictures that date back to around 1900 illustrate significant maintenance efforts, blasting larger rocks into smaller rocks, and moving many smaller rocks in amidst the larger rocks to fill the gaps and permit wagon-travel. The trail is not currently maintained to that level, nor is it practical to do so.

So in summary -- nature (gravity and water), tires, and knuckleheads have caused change, with minimal maintenance has allowed slow, steady change in this section of the trail.

Now, back to the pictures...

 
#22 ·
the first time i saw pictures of the studebakers going through the small sluice that randii posted up was 1982 or 83 i believe. i was camped out for a week at the con with some friends. it was the week before the jeepers jamboree. doc bliss came into our camp and asked us if we could do him and the jeepers jamboree a favor. we drove up the big sluice in our jeeps and took care of the problem for them. the next day we visited his camp to confirm we were successfull in our mission. he smiled and thanked us. he then produced all of these pics for us to look at. 2 of them caught my eye-the studebakers in the small sluice and a pic of the studebakers and a 1920's truck all parked in front of the rubicon springs motel in the 1920's while it was a operating resort. doc bliss gave me the negatives to those 2 pics and his home phone number and address so i could mail them back after steve,don,and i got some pics from the negatives. i mailed the negatives back and phoned him to thank him again and make sure he recieved them. doc bliss made a lasting impression on me. i've talked to other people that knew him and was told doc was like that to every one he met. i still have those pics hung up on my wall and think of him every time i look at them.
 
#29 ·
trail splits-stay left and you head down the slabs. stay right and trail stays in tree line-little ways up there is a large rock you crawl up and then immediately have to drop off-always stay to right hand side of rock-the left hand side is almost sucicide in a street legal rig. the bronco caught fire and burned right on top of that rock. i also know who owned that bronco. pic of it was hung up on the wall where he worked for a while. if you continued on the trail in the tree line it takes you to "old sluice" part of trail. there is a rock in old sluice that lots of paint on it in the 80's. good pic sluice box-keep them coming. if any one in bay area near livermore has a good digi camera and wants to shoot pics of some of the old pics i have and post them up let me know. the pic i have of the rubicon springs hotel with the studebakers parked in front of it would probably be of interest to some people.
 
#30 ·
if any one in bay area near livermore has a good digi camera and wants to shoot pics of some of the old pics i have and post them up let me know. the pic i have of the rubicon springs hotel with the studebakers parked in front of it would probably be of interest to some people.
Dave, I'll be in the area with a good camera on the morning of the 10th or again the morning of the 16th if you want to get together and take those pics. I'll be happy to leave you a CD with them on there.

I talked to Rip a day or so after...that was a clean bronco, I woulda been devestated, he seemd to shrug it off! :eek:
 
#31 ·
That would be Chappie rock?? I saw a video before my first trip to Rubicon and I called it barking rock because of the tire sound when trying to climb it.
 
#35 ·
In the old days everyone that ran the trail maintained it. The smaller tires required rock staking and grooming in the rough spots. The jeepers jamboree did a lot to bring in the stock jeeps in the early years. Now some people are tring to see how rough they can make for the guy behind them.
 
#37 ·
Intentional or otherwise, it is fact. The trail is getting harder in a general sense. Stockers still go through every year, I am a part of that. there are spots that used to be difficult that are now easier, same goes for some spots that were easy.
 
#43 ·
I love all the old pic's that have been posted up here. It really gives me an Idea of how much it's changed over the years. I can't wait to be able to see this wonderful trail in person. If everything works out right My wife and I should be out there on it sometime this summer. Please keep the pic's coming it's great to see the differnce's and to get the history on the trail and all that is around and near it.

Thank you all, I am enjoying it:)
Mike
 
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