So, funny story; several years ago, early 90s, a buddy and I decided to take his wife’s new Jeep Wrangler on a little journey one bright Sunday morning. We were living In Carson City at the time so decided to head up to Lake Tahoe and take one of the trails we had heard about. That trail happened to be called “The Rubicon”. As we had both lived in the area for several years we were both very familiar with the stories, and we also knew that once a year Jeep would come through and take VIPs on a catered trip using “stock” wranglers. So, we figured since we had a stock wrangler we should be good to go.
We started in Tahoma (typically the end point) and after navigating the residential area made our way to the trail head to start our adventure (wrong way). Our first gatekeeper we came to was Cadillac Hill. The whole way down we kept saying “glad we don’t have to come back up this!” For those of you that have navigated it, you know it’s a bit rocky. After several hours we made our way to rubicon springs, by this time our two bottles of water, 6-pack of beer and bag of chips was running low.
as we approached the staging area in rubicon springs we say a dusty old timer looking at us and shaking his head, we stopped and he came up and said “you will never make it out the other side”, we figured he was just some crazy old mountain man, and ignored him and went on our way, for about another 1,000ft, before we got the Jeep stuck between a large Boulder and a tree stump. By this point we had dented the gas tank, broke one mirror, bent one rim, and several different fluids were leaking.And we were now out of food and water, sooo, after using the only thing we had with us, the stock scissor jack, we got unstuck, turned around and limped back to rubicon springs. We then had to make our way back up Cadillac hill ( several more hours) and try to get back home.
Lessons from that journey? Many, many
- jamboree Jeeps are not “stock” they have larger tires, sway bar disconnected, and rock sliders.
- you can’t drive the rubicon on a Sunday afternoon
- when you go off road, you should probably pack some tools
- you should also probably bring some food and lots of water
- having another vehicle is what is meant by “don’t go alone”
- plan for the best, prepare for the worst
needless to say, my buddies wife was none too pleased with the condition of her new wrangler; however, we did learn from our bad decision and spent the next several years honing our off-road skills. Eventually we hosted an annual event called “Tahoe Tom’s Wrongway Rock Crawl” we both ended up with built 72 blazers, loaded with tools and equipment, I moved to Oregon in 2000 and my buddy became one of the trail guides and mechanics for the annual jamboree. The other lesson we learned, is that if you come across a dusty old timer shaking his head while looking at your vehicle, you probably should listen to what he has to say. Turned out he was THE trail boss for the Jamboree!
Happy Trails to all of you future Bronco Trail Busters
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Ordered: 4-Door First Edition - Rapid Red - Black Seats - MIC Top - Build Date: 10/25
In Garage: ‘62 Red Vette - ‘07 Black Shelby Ragtop - ‘21 F150 Platinum PowerBoost - Rapid Red