First Time on the Rubicon with Our Gladiator

wayoflife

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Last week, Cindy and I got a last minute invite from our good friends Mel and Lisa and it was to run the Rubicon. Apparently, their long time friends Jarod and Lapai had never run the trail before and so they were going to show them what it was all about. Fortunately for us, we were home for the weekend and so we jumped on the opportunity! Certainly, we'd be meaning to take our Gladiator out on the trail since last year and were super eager to test him out. Now, I should note that we were planning on making this trip into a video but unfortunately, decided to give up on it about half way through the first day. The obscene amount of rigs we encountered, the constant push to get going whenever we got a chance and all the waiting we had to do thanks to the endless traffic jams, just made it way too hard to stay motivated. Or at least, to still have a good time and enjoy the company of our friends. Needless to say, the following pics are really all that we managed to take from the trip but I hope you'll enjoy seeing them none the less.

Mel drove their Gladiator up from Long Beach but Jarod had to trailer his old Bronco. Of course, we were all too happy to let him store his truck and trailer at our place.
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Being that nobody was in a hurry, we took our time eating breakfast in Carson City and then made our way up to South Lake Tahoe around 11 am. Here we are topping off our tanks before heading down to the trailhead.
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Down at the Loon Lake Dam, airing down and getting ready to hit the trail!
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Here we go - Rubicon time! And, I should say that it's always fun seeing old iron out on the trail regardless of the make.
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The 42's on Mel's Gladiator sure looked good and made big rocks look small.
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What a crazy beautiful day to be out on the Rubicon!
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Ready to move on out.
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It's so crazy how small these ledges look when a Gladiator running 42" Trail Grapplers is sitting on them especially being they can really give a 2-door a hell of a time.
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Leaving the Granite Bowl.
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Back into the boulders and dust.
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If there's one thing you can be sure of whenever you run the Rubicon, breaks will happen. Even if it's not on your Jeep, it'll be on someone's and depending on where it happens, the whole trail can be blocked for everyone. After waiting a better part of an hour in a pretty long line of rigs I decided to make my way up to the front to see what was going on. And, as it turns out the leader of a small group of JK's had barber polled his rear drive shaft and had a big boulder wedged in between his front axle and crossmember.
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With rigs building up on both sides of the wounded Jeep, someone finally got it pulled out of the way or at least, just enough to let traffic flow again. And, by the time we got back to our Gladiator, Ripley had taken over the wheel and was ready to go.
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I know I keep talking about the 42's on Mel's Gladiator but as you can see, they're literally as tall as the rocks he's on.
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After sitting around as long as we had, it was nice to give our Gladiator a bit of a stretch.
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Where there's smoke, there's fire. Here's our first look at what we would later find to be, the massive Tamarack Fire.
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And, it was right about here that we encountered another big traffic jam. With little to no hope of pulling into Buck Island Lake before dark and even less hope of finding a decent campsite, we decided to call it a day and setup camp where we were.
 
For all the times that Cindy and I have run the Rubicon, this was the very first time that we just camped along the side of the trail and really, I have to say it was an awesome experience. After it got dark, no more rigs drove by and we literally had the mountain to ourselves. Also, by morning, the trail was free and clear of any traffic and that allowed us to cover a lot of ground quickly.
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And there it is... Buck Island Lake.
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For some reason, I thought this off camber drop on the trail would feel a lot worse in our tall Gladiator but surprisingly, I hardly noticed it.
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If anything, I think Jarod felt a lot more pucker in his Bronco.
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Mel getting ready to make the drop.
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This is always a great spot to get all twisted up.
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And, just like that, our grace period was up. Just before we got to Buck Island Lake, we encountered another traffic jam. I should note that the group of Yota's coming up were nice enough to pull out of the way for us but as soon as they did, a BIG group of SXS behind them decided to use the opportunity to get by them and by any means possible. Needless to say, we were forced to pull out of the way for them.
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And, it was right about here that I saw something I never expected to see again. Snorkels!
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Just before pulling into the first set of campsites at Buck Island Lake, there's a V-notch that can give you some grief. Turns out the SXS were having a hell of a time climbing it and that's what boogered everything up and what got other rigs going around them making things worse. Anyway, here's a few shots of us coming down it.
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Finally! There were times when I thought we'd never get here.
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Looking nice and full. It's been a while since I've seen it like this.
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This is where a long wheel base can really shine.
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On the climb out from the dam area, we ran into another group of Jeeps and one of which had a break they were trying to fix. Fortunately, they had good trail etiquette and made sure to clear the way before breaking out the wrenches. That allowed us to motor through without any dealy.
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For those of you who know the trail, just as you leave Buck Island Lake, there's a big ass boulder that you have to wiggle around and on some years, it can be a real challenge. Well, as you can see from the drill below, that boulder may no longer be there after this post. Crews were actively working on taking it apart.
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Working our way down the Big Sluice.
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Jarod's Bronco squeezing by what we had to climb.
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This used to be a really tough spot along the Big Sluice, super tight and enough so that I typically had to go around the tree that once stood there and descend really big rocks instead. Well, the tree has been felled and it's no problem now.
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As much as this may look like a gratuitous flex shot, I can assure you that it is not. The rocks on the Big Sluice always move and at the time of this run, this big boulder decided to sit right in the middle of the trail.
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Of course, the Bronco slipped by but Mel decided to take on the other boulder.
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Flexing out like he's Moby.
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After clearing yet another jam on the trail, we hurried down the Bastard section and made our way to the bridge as quickly as we could. Before we got stuck again.
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Home for the night!
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Now this... this is what Ripley has been waiting for!
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I totally get it but it's still a bummer when you can't have a fire at Rubicon Springs. Everyone ends up turning in early and I suppose, that's not a terrible thing unless you're Ripley's bed all night long.
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Nice... quite... and beautiful morning.
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Cadillac Hill, here we come!
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With nobody in front of us, we just motored on up!
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And just like that, we were up on top!
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All in all, our Gladiator did amazing and the only damage we suffered was from the rear corner guards that I just installed, you know, thinking that they would help. I knew it could be a problem but without the extra brackets installed on the factory bumper, they just bend up and caused what you see here. I mean, I'm gonna bet that I wouldn't have gotten damage had they not been there.
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Anyway, those were pics from our first ever run on the Rubicon with our Gladiator. I hope you enjoyed see the few pics we were able to take. :cool:
 
Looks like an amazing trip besides all the traffic! One day I’m gonna ship a rig up there and run it… one day. Thanks for sharing as usual!
 
Looks like an amazing trip besides all the traffic! One day I’m gonna ship a rig up there and run it… one day. Thanks for sharing as usual!
Yeah, unfortunately, a weekend is the only time that most people can run the trail and so, it can get pretty bad. I have to say that I'm really having a harder and harder time with the SXS guys. At the risk of sounding old, they were a big part of the traffic jams and they really are jacking up the trail by driving over everything and making new bypasses wherever they please. Also, they have ZERO trail etiquette.

If you do ever make it out, let me know. If we're available, we'd love to run it with you.
 
Yeah, unfortunately, a weekend is the only time that most people can run the trail and so, it can get pretty bad. I have to say that I'm really having a harder and harder time with the SXS guys. At the risk of sounding old, they were a big part of the traffic jams and they really are jacking up the trail by driving over everything and making new bypasses wherever they please. Also, they have ZERO trail etiquette.

If you do ever make it out, let me know. If we're available, we'd love to run it with you.
Thanks for the offer! Yeah I’ve noticed the same thing here over the last few years regarding the sxs guys. A lot of them want to go fast on the old ranch roads and fire breaks here. I’ll pull over and let them pass… without even touching their brakes, they’ll fly past me and have kicked up enough rocks to where my paint chipped off the JK. Pissed me off to a whole different level. If I didn’t have my family with me I probably would’ve put the enforcer suspension to the test and chased them down. Lol. But yeah, generally they’re assholes.
 
Looks amazing!! Love seeing the monsters out there flexing, but I’ve got to say the old bronco looked at home out there! And as always, Ripley looked like she was having the time of her life out there.
 
Am I missing something here or is the exhaust pipe on the wrong side on this one?AC9A26D4-1DDA-4A1B-B8EC-3DCD1F960345.jpeg
 
I agree with the SXSs really hurting the trails snd the experiences, they can really ruin a run.

Looks like a beautiful run other than that, the JTs made it look easy and the classic Bronco is great to see out on the trail. Someday I’ll make it out there
 
That looks like such a great trip! You guys got some really good photos. I hope I can make that trip some day. I’m with you also on the SXS. I really can’t stand them on the trails.
 
Great write up as always and of course, great to see that you guys got to take the JT out for its first rubicon trip. Looking forward to our trip out there next month.
 
Pictures can be just as good as video sometimes, and with no video no one can get upset with your music choices. And it looked like Ripley was having a blast in the water.
 
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