Truckee, California

First order of business after getting the motorhome situated was to address our tire issues.  Stone's Country Tires was conveniently just a 1/4 mile down the road from the RV Park.  We had them replace our sheared valve stem and remove a nail and plug the hole on another tire.  To our surprise they did it all at "No charge". 

Buck Lake

Look who's else is enjoying this beautiful lake

Bear Lake

Lunch spot

Lake Tahoe

Snowflower Lake

Annie trying to get the white line

Ready to poke our nose up Fordyce Trial.  Not sure what we will find.

Annie is ready to go

Fordyce Creek Trail is filled with six water crossings that'll flood anything sporting less than 35-inch tires. In addition there are multiple obstacles throughout the trail.

Our first water crossing

Ken and Mike trying to figure out how deep it is

Others working on a repair

Some talking about it

After our group decided the water was too deep for us to cross along comes 3 more Jeeps that crossed with no hesitation.

Jeep 1

Jeep 2

Jeep 3

Eagle Lake

Tom playing on the obstacle

Boat ramp

Lake Valley Reservoir

The Rubicon Trail, California

The Rubicon Trail is located in the California High Sierra, due west of Lake Tahoe.  This world-renowned 4-wheel drive route leads from Loon Lake to Tahoma near Lake Tahoe.  The trail is about 12 miles long and winds through the trees and rugged granite common to the area.  The trail is a non-maintained County road located in El Dorado and Placer Counties. Parts of the trail pass through the Eldorado National Forest and portions of private lands.  Elevations run from approximately 5,400 to over 7,000 feet.  

Loon Lake mile marker 0.0

Group shot
We had 14 vehicles, 30 people, 3 of which were children ages 6, 3, & 11 months plus 2 dogs

Mile marker 1.5

Crossing over the dam at Buck Island Reservoir

Buck Island Reservoir

Camping over night at Buck Island

See that lime green tent? It may have been on its last adventure but it has seen more than a few. It went across the USA with Dave in 1976 on his bicycle. It has been on numerous Sierra backpacking trips. It was slept in on the beach in Baja, and there was still some sand in it from our days of tent camping in the Imperial Sand Dunes. It now has a few tears in it and the fabric is starting to deteriorate. We'll have to think about a proper way to dispose of it, it has served Dave well over 40 years!

Mile marker 5.75

The Big Sluice is another challenging section.
This downhill section offers rock after rock to crawl over.

Found this one broke down on the trail

 Note reads:  Sheared transfer case mount.
Hiking out to Loon Lake.  Will be back to fix ASAP 7/06/18
with his name and phone number

Trail rash.
 We're not sure when and where this happened.  So many options.

Crossing over the Rubicon River

Rubicon Springs

Originally a Native American Trail connecting the Sacramento Valley and Lake Tahoe, the Rubicon Trail was re-discovered by European immigrants in the 1840s.  By the 1890s, the trail had become an actual road of the days standards and was used to reach Rubicon Springs Resort & Hotel.   

 The first car into Rubicon Springs arrived in 1908, driven by a woman from Lake Tahoe.

Oh no we've got a breakdown

Our Beauty and Tom's Beast

Repairing Wes's Jeep

Nothing a little welding won't fix

I can't imagine pulling a trailer over this trail

Observation Point
Just above Cadillac Hill

We all made it!
12 miles and 2 days

At the air up spot we noticed we had broken another valve stem but the core was still in place and holding air.

Wes depositing his used gear oil from his earlier repair.

Back on the pavement

Some of us stopped to look at Lake Tahoe on the way back to Loon Lake.
70 miles via the asphalt.