Unlike previous years, summer arrived up in the Sierra's a lot sooner than I've seen it in a really long time and, because of this, we decided to head up and do our annual Rockin Rubicon run a lot sooner than normal too. In fact, in spite of the fact that we ran the Con in June, the trail was surprisingly dry and with wildflowers already starting to wane. Also, while the terrain is typically a lot harder this early in the season, a lot of work has been done to make portions of the trail a lot easier. This is not to say that you can't find a hard line to challenge yourself with, just that the main route is unfortunately looking more and more like a paved road. But, if there's one thing that can be said that was still very much the same, I'd have to say it was the swarms of mosquitos that were out to suck you dry.
Now, I hope you don't get the wrong idea from my intro as we did in fact have an outstanding time with all our friends on one of the most beautiful trails you can run bar none. And for us, that's what wheeling is really all about. Here are some pics from trip, I hope you enjoy.
Here's a couple of shots from a quick pre-run trip we ran up to Genoa Peak...
The day before our run, we headed up to the top of Harraha's Casino to take in the view and have some breakfast...
As we were packing up for our run, Doug noticed he was having some issues with his rear differential and after taking things apart to do an inspection, he was officially out of the run - or, at least his rig was...
After making some calls and getting Doug's rig ready to make the drive home, we managed to talk him into still running the trail with us. Here's a shot from our pre-run dinner...
At the crack of dawn the day of our run and ready to rock!!
Airing down after a long, cool but nowhere near as cold as years past drive down to the Loon Lake staging area...
Time to do this!! Making our way through the Gatekeeper...
Taking in the view at the top of the Granite Bowl...
Climbing out of the Granite Bowl...
Working our way to Ellis Creek...
Stephanie giving Mike a little assist after he gets a bit hung up...
At Ellis Creek, we came across heavy equipment doing some more road building...
Fun ledge just past Ellis Creek...
Taking on a big line down the boulders just before the Soup Bowl...
You would never guess it but, right here on this very flat and easy stretch of trail, we once had a Jeep tip on it's side - you can never let your guard down as that's when things can go wrong...
Making a stop over at the Little Sluice to have some lunch, check out the bigass rocks and see what became of the old Cedar tree that had been standing guard for well over 100 years...
Really sad to see this once amazing old tree lying on the ground like this...
Pretty lilly pond near by...
On the move again, we were surprised to see there were still a few water crossings in spite of the lack of snow this year...
Being that we were ahead of schedule, we decided to take on the True Sluice or "Old Sluice" as some like to call it as opposed to just dropping down into Buck Island Lake via the slabs...
Toward the end of this length of trail, the walls become rocky and narrow...
The real fun comes at the very end with two tricky obstacles...
The rest of our group took the bypass and met up with us toward the bottom of the slabs...
Unfortunately, the True Sluice ended up eating a lot of our time and so, we decided to make a hard push to Rubicon Springs with the hopes of getting there before sundown. Needless to say, you'll have to wait until we get a video done to see images of our trek from Buck Island Lake to the Rubicon River, sorry. As you can see in these pics of us crossing the Rubicon Bridge, we were able to make it to our destination on time and as planned...
More pics below...
Now, I hope you don't get the wrong idea from my intro as we did in fact have an outstanding time with all our friends on one of the most beautiful trails you can run bar none. And for us, that's what wheeling is really all about. Here are some pics from trip, I hope you enjoy.
Here's a couple of shots from a quick pre-run trip we ran up to Genoa Peak...
The day before our run, we headed up to the top of Harraha's Casino to take in the view and have some breakfast...
As we were packing up for our run, Doug noticed he was having some issues with his rear differential and after taking things apart to do an inspection, he was officially out of the run - or, at least his rig was...
After making some calls and getting Doug's rig ready to make the drive home, we managed to talk him into still running the trail with us. Here's a shot from our pre-run dinner...
At the crack of dawn the day of our run and ready to rock!!
Airing down after a long, cool but nowhere near as cold as years past drive down to the Loon Lake staging area...
Time to do this!! Making our way through the Gatekeeper...
Taking in the view at the top of the Granite Bowl...
Climbing out of the Granite Bowl...
Working our way to Ellis Creek...
Stephanie giving Mike a little assist after he gets a bit hung up...
At Ellis Creek, we came across heavy equipment doing some more road building...
Fun ledge just past Ellis Creek...
Taking on a big line down the boulders just before the Soup Bowl...
You would never guess it but, right here on this very flat and easy stretch of trail, we once had a Jeep tip on it's side - you can never let your guard down as that's when things can go wrong...
Making a stop over at the Little Sluice to have some lunch, check out the bigass rocks and see what became of the old Cedar tree that had been standing guard for well over 100 years...
Really sad to see this once amazing old tree lying on the ground like this...
Pretty lilly pond near by...
On the move again, we were surprised to see there were still a few water crossings in spite of the lack of snow this year...
Being that we were ahead of schedule, we decided to take on the True Sluice or "Old Sluice" as some like to call it as opposed to just dropping down into Buck Island Lake via the slabs...
Toward the end of this length of trail, the walls become rocky and narrow...
The real fun comes at the very end with two tricky obstacles...
The rest of our group took the bypass and met up with us toward the bottom of the slabs...
Unfortunately, the True Sluice ended up eating a lot of our time and so, we decided to make a hard push to Rubicon Springs with the hopes of getting there before sundown. Needless to say, you'll have to wait until we get a video done to see images of our trek from Buck Island Lake to the Rubicon River, sorry. As you can see in these pics of us crossing the Rubicon Bridge, we were able to make it to our destination on time and as planned...
More pics below...
