There are few trails that illicit as many ‘ohhhs’ and ‘ahhhs’ as the legendary Rubicon trail. But what is it about this particular trail that makes it so iconic? Without leaving the greater Sierra Nevada area, there are certainly longer trails, much harder trails, and arguably more scenic trails, however, few trails have seen as much publicity the last decade though, with ‘Rubicon’ becoming a now household name among anyone who has ever walked through a mall parking lot.  Every once in a while, we’ve got to get out and stretch our legs, take a few pictures, and prove that we’re more than just part hucksters here at Poly Performance. For once, we actually planned a trip ahead, and set the date. This allowed ample time to prepare the vehicles, pre-make some food, and get everything loaded. We left San Luis Obispo on a Thursday morning and made a leisurely drive through the rolling amber hills of California’s central valley. The summer heat was in full effect, but once we stopped in Pollock Pines to top off the tanks before hitting the trail we could already feel the heat breaking.

There are many ways to ‘run’ the Rubicon, but we’ll always be a fan of the ‘old fashioned’ way, starting at Loon Lake and heading East/North-East. While the legendary Gate Keeper obstacle is now a shadow of its former glory, it’s still a good wake up to get your juices flowing before the rest of the trail. We enjoyed picture perfect sunset light in the granite bowl before heading into the Camp Ground at Ellis Creek for the night. As luck would have it, the campground was completely vacant, and someone had even left some fresh firewood. After a late night staring at the stars, and consuming approximately 5 pounds of spaghetti per person, we finally turned in.

With the broken pig finally fixed and out of the way, we beat feet all the way down to Buck Island lake, and the promise of a refreshing soak in some of the Sierra’s most pristine meltwater, as fast as we could. A few old friends had made their way in earlier in the week and staked out one of the premium venues by the water, so we let ourselves in and found a few cozy places to lay our sleeping bags for the night. We had traveled light, so we made ample attempts to mooch whatever food and drinks we could and did not go hungry. I picked a tiny granite patch just above the high tide line and stayed warm and dry; probably the best night sleep I’ll have all year with the Milky Way casually walking across the sky above me reminding me just how small we really are. The next morning, some of us woke to beautiful warm rays brushing across our faces, while others woke to a lake that had risen 6” overnight. No hats or shoes were lost, but there were some soggy sleeping bags and Action packers to be dealt with.

Luckily, our Saturday breakfast plans were better than our Friday dinner plans, and we all enjoyed a homemade, pre-wrapped breakfast burrito. Perfect. A few of us heard quite a ruckus happening down in the Big Sluice on our morning nature walks and decided we’d rather avoid the commotion, so after saying some goodbyes we decided to beat the traffic out of the Buck Island Lake area and head back up the off-cambered granite slabs of Indian Trail towards our campsite at Ellis Creek. Yet again, we were rewarded with almost zero traffic, beautiful weather and wonderfully photogenic lighting.

On the way back, we ran into a few scummy looking partiers hanging out in the Little Sluice, and although their spirits were high they had a K-5 with a very broken LS swap…if only they had a welder, they said they would be able to repair the failed motor mounts. Interestingly enough, our buggy almost never goes anywhere without a Ready Welder. This briefcase sized contraption holds a spool gun with flux core wire, can be run with 2-3 batteries in series, and is more than capable of gluing ¼” plate back together, at least long enough to get you home. As many of us know, trail welds are actually the best welds. It didn’t take long to get the mount repaired, but not ¼ of a mile further we ran into yet another broken rig, this time a Jeep CJ minus 5 wheel studs 50ft from where the Iron Pig lost steering the day before. This otherwise innocuous little section of trail will forever be known as ‘Stud Alley’.

Which brings us to what I can only describe as one of the most creative recoveries I’ve yet been involved in, after 15 years of wheeling. Remember the broken Land Cruiser from Friday? Well, our resident drone pilot took advantage of the 6-hour layover to get some practice in, and do some aerial exploration. Unfortunately, one of the nearby trees mistook the drone for a beehive and grabbed it straight out of the sky. We let it hang out for a night to brainstorm how to get a drone out of the top of a 50’ tall, mostly dead pine tree without any climbing gear…with the broken CJ going nowhere fast, we got to thinking, if only we could shake the drone loose, it might slowly fall down. Using a very dead, fallen tree as a makeshift ladder, I again got voluntold to be the guy scampering up the tree to wrap a tow strap around it. Even with 4 guys we couldn’t budge the tree’s 3-foot trunk, but there just happened to be a 4800 Ultra4 car stuck in traffic who was more than willing to help. A couple quick tugs from the race car and the drone was free and tumbling down, but got stuck even worse, still about 20ft up. Sure enough, my makeshift tree ladder was juuuust long enough to whack the drone free from its new resting place. Our drone pilot, being a Toyota driver and naturally evolved to carry spare everythings, swapped out a few of the broken props and had the drone flying before sunset.

When we left for Buck Lake Friday morning, most of our cooking supplies and one of the trucks stayed at our VIP spot in Ellis Creek, so we didn’t have much work to setup camp Saturday night. We took a quick trip out to the granite bowl for another beautiful Sierra sunset trip to Beer Tree, then made our way back to camp and some gourmet port infused cheeseburgers, with olive oil drizzled asparagus. Did you know we really take food seriously too? At least as serious as we take parts, maybe more. Saturday night passed way too quickly into the morning, and before we knew it we were back in SLO writing this article, intermittently checking Craigslist for the next cheap project to build into a rock crawler. Until next time, stay safe, and have fun wheeling everyone!