Back in 1996, our good friend Mel from EVO started a tradition of running the Rubicon Trail with his family and friends on Father's Day weekend and it was one that lasted for about 10 years. Of course, like many things as time passes by and new business ventures take off, this tradition unfortunately fell by the way side or at least, until this past weekend. Fortunately, Cindy and I got the invite to join he, his wife Melissa, his daughter Harley and son, Melvin, to start this tradition once again and along with our friends Marshall, Harris, Jeremy from Disciple Off Road and his son Austin, Harley's boyfriend Antonio and his parents, Julio and Laura. Needless to say, the following few pics are of the fun that we had.
Honestly, is there any trip that Cindy and I are on that doesn't involve a pre-party with a few libations?
I did say "a few", right? CHEERS!!
Sign on the bathroom wall says it all.
Closing out an awesome evening with a beautiful sunset.
Bright and early the following morning, all packed up and ready to roll.
Topping off one last time and unfortunately, in California.
OUCH!!
Meeting up with everyone and with skies that were definitely saying it was gonna be a great day!
Crossing over the Loon Lake Dam after a nice long drive through the tress is always a welcome sight.
And here we are, the Rubicon Trail.
Time to lock the hubs and air down.
Unfortunately but not surprisingly, the start of the trail was PACKED with a TON of rigs and most to attend a bigass poker run. So, we just got in the line up and cruised with the traffic.
For those of you who know the trail, you know that the fun starts off right away. Here's a shot of Mel in his very nice, 392.
Of course, this is us in our big Gladiator, JAWS.
And, here's Marshall with BBG riding shotgun in his 392.
This is Jeremy in his Ultra4 inspired JK.
Being that we were in the flow of traffic, it was difficult to snap as many pics as we would have preferred so I'll show pics of Harley and Antonio as well as Julio and Laura later on. For now, it's time to run back to the Jeep and hitch a ride for a while.
Time to cross the Granite Bowl.
As we left the Granite Bowl, so did we leave a bulk of the traffic being that the poker run was headed out toward Ellis Creek.
And just like that, we were back in the woods.. and mud... and mosquitos.
If you really need it, this is the one place you can reliably get cell service and recently, someone added the following sign to let newbies know.
Because of issues with her lockers, Mel decided to move Harley and Antonio to the front of the line up and just behind him, just in case they needed some help on the harder obstacles.
Antonio is a damn good driver and very little help was needed if at all.
Being that this was more of just a camping trip than anything, we decided to pass on the Soup Bowl and press on to camp.
Obviously, that would also include the the hardest part of the Little Sluice as well.
It didn't take much persuading for Mel to let me give it a go though.
Unfortunately, I had been having transmission problems and couldn't get 1st gear to work or at least, reliably and so I couldn't crawl slow enough to make things work. Really sucked. But, that gave more time for Jeremy to kill it with the help of Mel spotting him through.
Honestly, is there any trip that Cindy and I are on that doesn't involve a pre-party with a few libations?
I did say "a few", right? CHEERS!!
Sign on the bathroom wall says it all.
Closing out an awesome evening with a beautiful sunset.
Bright and early the following morning, all packed up and ready to roll.
Topping off one last time and unfortunately, in California.
OUCH!!
Meeting up with everyone and with skies that were definitely saying it was gonna be a great day!
Crossing over the Loon Lake Dam after a nice long drive through the tress is always a welcome sight.
And here we are, the Rubicon Trail.
Time to lock the hubs and air down.
Unfortunately but not surprisingly, the start of the trail was PACKED with a TON of rigs and most to attend a bigass poker run. So, we just got in the line up and cruised with the traffic.
For those of you who know the trail, you know that the fun starts off right away. Here's a shot of Mel in his very nice, 392.
Of course, this is us in our big Gladiator, JAWS.
And, here's Marshall with BBG riding shotgun in his 392.
This is Jeremy in his Ultra4 inspired JK.
Being that we were in the flow of traffic, it was difficult to snap as many pics as we would have preferred so I'll show pics of Harley and Antonio as well as Julio and Laura later on. For now, it's time to run back to the Jeep and hitch a ride for a while.
Time to cross the Granite Bowl.
As we left the Granite Bowl, so did we leave a bulk of the traffic being that the poker run was headed out toward Ellis Creek.
And just like that, we were back in the woods.. and mud... and mosquitos.
If you really need it, this is the one place you can reliably get cell service and recently, someone added the following sign to let newbies know.
Because of issues with her lockers, Mel decided to move Harley and Antonio to the front of the line up and just behind him, just in case they needed some help on the harder obstacles.
Antonio is a damn good driver and very little help was needed if at all.
Being that this was more of just a camping trip than anything, we decided to pass on the Soup Bowl and press on to camp.
Obviously, that would also include the the hardest part of the Little Sluice as well.
It didn't take much persuading for Mel to let me give it a go though.
Unfortunately, I had been having transmission problems and couldn't get 1st gear to work or at least, reliably and so I couldn't crawl slow enough to make things work. Really sucked. But, that gave more time for Jeremy to kill it with the help of Mel spotting him through.
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I’m definitely buying some of those tire patch kits though lol 
