We continued on and after weaving through some trees and crossing a few wet spots, we reached the iconic green bridge.
Group shots
A couple individual shots of my rig
We continued on and quickly reached Rubicon Springs. While we initially balked at the $20 per vehicle camping fee, we had a chance to talk to the guy managing the property later on in the day and found out that the money actually gets put to good use.
Cliff Notes version of the story (as I remember it a couple of weeks later) is that the 400 acres of property through which this portion of the trail passes was originally owned by a lumber company. They sold it to PG&E who wanted the water rights for hydro electricity. That didn't work out so well for them so they sold it to another lumber company. That company decided to put it up for sale at which time the Forest Service expressed interest in buying it and shutting down the trail. A group of 16 folks got together, many of them from the surrounding area, and purchased the land in order to keep the trail open. As they are constantly hit with lawsuits from environmentalists that would like to see the trail closed, they collect money from trail users, campers, and event coordinators to put together a legal fund to fight back with.
He answered a bunch of other questions for us and updated us on the status of various legal battles revolving around other parts of the trail. Knowing what my money was going toward made me feel better about the $20. The huge pile of fire wood he dumped at our campsite made me feel even better still...
Camp at the "Dirty Dozen" camping area, named for the Dirty Dozen Off-Road Club that built a large BBQ/fire pit there (in case you were wondering why they called it that)
Day five began with the sound of a helicopter sling loading in supplies for the Jamboree participants coming in for the weekend. We were getting out of there just in time!
I was up early and went for a solo hike to the top of the granite ridge behind our campground, overlooking the Rubicon Springs valley
The valley on the other side of the ridge
A small pond on top of the ridge
We ate breakfast and got packed up again. Art headed out early, knowing we wouldn't be too far behind if he ran into trouble. My camera battery was dying and my memory card was full so I didn't get too many shots from Cadillac Hill. Kind of a shame as this ended up being one of my favorite parts of the whole trail. A wide variety of challenging obstacles and a lot of wooded areas made for a very enjoyable final day on the trail.
Kelly going for a nice little climb
Me on the way up Cadillac Hill
The remainder of the group at the overlook
Mike & Jazzy --> Kelly --> Me (Tony) --> Eric
We reached the Tahoe side staging area and it hit me that my adventure was coming to an end. While it was a relief to know that I had made it through in one piece, I was sad that it was over and that it was time to get back to reality.
The Rubicon did not disappoint, everything came together for a truly memorable run. Great group of guys with plenty of experience, perfect weather, nice campsites, amazing scenery, a beautiful hike, no major damage to the rig. Who could ask for anything more? Can't wait to do it again!
member was this this at Buck? (URF crew don't answer, and if you were on the Rubicon with us please don't say who!)
