Mellow Yellow, 2003 JEEPY: Male Wheeler of Year!
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Machelle and I rolled out for our much anticipated Rubicon Trail trip, from San Diego at about 7pm. Jeep was running great, and we made good time going through LA. I-5 North, through the San Joaquin valley is the most boring drive in the world. Long, straight, and flat, like driving through Kansas, without the corn.
About 1am, I see a sign for gas, getting close to needing it and could use a stretch, so I pull in. Reg unleaded is $2.05, I decided that is too much, next gas is 32 miles, figure I can make it...figured wrong. I managed to get pulled over under a street light, on an off ramp to no where. After about an hour, a CHP rolls by, I flag him down. Tell him I'm out of gas, he says nearest gas is a couple of miles up the road, he can give Machelle a ride up there, but not back, not allowed to carry gas in his car. I'm thinking, this is just great, going to cost me $60 for a tow truck to bring Machelle back with some gas.
As luck would have it, the CHP officer gave Machelle a ride back. The gas can that Machelle bought held 2 gallons, and was better suited for a lawn mower. It had some fancy spring loaded nozzle on it, the tail light interference prevented it from working. No biggie, I decide to take the tail light off, now the CHP thinks I'm crazy, till he see's that what I did works.
Next thing you know, someone makes an illegal U-turn in the median. CHP says "I gotta go", and was off.
We proceeded with no problems into Sacramento. I had just made the transition onto Hwy 50, when I see a just rolled Chevy Blazer, laying on the driver's side on the shoulder of the road. I pull over, Machelle calls 911 on her cell phone, I run back to the Chevy with my Mag Lite. When I get to it, the engine is still running, but no one is in it, strange. I pulled the windshield back, reached in and shut it off. Looked around up the road with a couple of others that had stopped, no evidence of a driver. CHP shows up, tell him what I know, and we are on our way again.
We got to Loon Lake around 8am Saturday morning, set up camp, went back down the mountain to call Danny, to tell him where we were camped. On the way back to camp, we stopped at Do Robbs, had one of Frank's kick ass Margueritas, and a burger. When we got back to camp, we took a nap. After our naps, we inflated the 2 man kayak we brought, took it down to the lake and paddled around a little.
Danny, and his buddy Chris showed up Sunday morning, could hear them coming for miles. Danny had blown a hole in his exhaust pipe. A few hose clamps and a pork and bean's can made short work of that repair.
Monday morning, we were supposed to meet up with a guy named Mark, driving a Toyota, and Paul Nasvik, at noon. Deciding we had time, we packed up, went back down to Do Robbs, and had another burger and Marguerita. We also ran into Mark there. We caravaned back to the trail head, where Paul met up with us.
No problems getting across "The Slabs", Paul pointed out the landmarks to get to the dirt trail head. Danny rolled a tire off the bead going through Gatekeeper, Paul and Mark played a little at Soup Bowl, Mark finally taking a winch pull from Paul to get through it.
When we got to Spider Lake, we decided to camp at Pirate Camp, so we'd hear anyone coming in to battle the infamous "Little Sluice". Tuesday was a no travel day, Danny and Chris confirmed there are no fish in Spider Lake, Machelle and I, and later Danny and Chris explored Spider Lake in the kayak.
Mark decided to push on, he was going to meet a friend in Lake Tahoe, and meet us at Rubicon Springs. We never saw him again, guess he changed his mind.
The highlight of the day was watching some PRETTY Jeeps from Mount Logan Offroad/Wolford Body Shop, go through the Little Sluice. With some rock stacking, those boys liked their paint. Paul supplied the entertainment with the appropriate amount of heckling. Later on, Paul drove his TJ up and DOWN the Sluice. Both runs were pretty clean, I was impressed what the 4 banger TJ on 38.5" TSL/SX's could do (D44's, 5.38 gears).
Wednesday morning we got up, packed and headed for Rubicon Springs. I generally don't look to do the harder lines when on the Rubicon or Dusy Ershim type trails, risk of carnage is high enough as it is.
Paul took the high line into the Big Sluice, Danny took the less adventurous low line. I looked at Pauls line, knew I was going to have a problem with a rock at the exit, tried it anyway. I worked it for a while, just couldn't get my front axle over that rock. I might have made it eventually, but finally had a rock stacked to get me over.
I felt pretty good after running the Big Sluice, had developed a feel for how the Jeep handled with all of the weight, especially the high weight in the roof bag, so I started playing a little bit. We came to a sharp right turn, with a rock in front of the left front tire. Rather than back up to miss the rock, I elected to drive over it, which was easy enough, it was the landing that sucked. Bent my front driveshaft. we were close enough to Rubicon Springs that I could make it in 2Low, so I pulled the drive shaft, and off we went.
Got into Rubicon Springs, set up camp at Jaeger Point. Lee, one of the caretakers came around shortly, to collect our money for camping, and shoot the breeze with us. He told us that DC had a group coming in, so there'd be a bar set up at Main Camp that night, live band, the works. He also told us of a few problem bears that had been visiting.
Paul and I straightened my driveshaft into working condition. Paul had a novel idea after my ideas failed, we stuck the driveshaft in a crack in a rock vertically, then Paul drove up it with his Jeep. Crude, ugly, but it worked. I was very relieved, didn't look forward to running up Cadillac Hill on the way out in 2wd and winching.
As dusk fell, Danny and Chris decided to go check out the DC party. As it got dark, I decided to head across the rocks to answer natures call, taking a Mag Light with me.
As I started across the granite slabs, I heard scratching on the rocks ahead of me. I was thinking it might be Danny and Chris, who didn't take a flashlight, trying to find camp. Shining my light out across the slabs, I see a damn bear! I yelled for Paul to come look, he got to where I was, just as the bear entered the tree line, he wasn't sure if he had seen it or not.
We all turned in for the night a short time later. I had stacked my coolers and food boxes under the Jeep prior to going to bed.
Sometime later, I wake up and hear a noise, a lot of noise, looking out the door of our 2 man tent, I see a bear ransacking Danny and Chris' coolers and food boxes. The bear gets done with their food...turns...and heads straight at me! A bolt of fear went through me that I had never experienced before, and hope to never experience again.
The bear sniffed around our tent, I could see and hear it's breath against the tent fabric. Finally it turned it's attention to getting my cooler's out from under the Jeep. Just as it suceeded in getting the meat cooler out, I heard Danny and Chris coming down the road from Main Camp.
They both sounded as if they'd been giving the Japanese and Venezuelan dealers at the DC party drinking lessons. I yelled out to them that there was a bear in camp. They replied that that just wasn't possible, as the bear was back at Main Camp, it had come within 20 feet of the party!
Then they saw the bear, as it lumbered off. Then they saw what was left of there victuals, and the river of tears ensued. I inspected my goods, most everything was still there, bear had started with a big bag of Hooters peanuts, and MY FREAKIN' OREO'S! I repacked my cooler, rearranged everything under the Jeep again, because that had worked so well the first time, heheh, and we all went back to bed.
A little later, I hear the bear digging under my Jeep again, I start yelling, bear seems to leave...bear is back. This time I can hear him throwing stuff around and eating. Yelling does no good this time, homey is hungry.
Finally, Paul, who slept through the first visit, gets up to try and light the fire. He's on one side of my Jeep, furiously blowing on kindling and coals to get a fire going, while the bear is on the other side, eating my food. Paul and I are talking to each other the whole time, and Paul has his Mag Light aimed at the bear, so the bear can see what he's eating. Finally Paul starts his Jeep to see if that will effect the bear. It was either the Jeep, or he ran out of stuff to eat, but the bear left.
This bear had ZERO fear of humans. I'd estimate it was 4ft at the shoulders.
I got up, Paul and I stayed up the rest of the night, talking, and keeping the fire going.
That morning, we inventoried our food supplies, I had a can of Dinty Moore, and some Sphagettio's left, couple of MRE's in our survival bag if things got bad. Danny had a can of Chunky Soup. We decided that another night with the bear wasn't worth it, besides, Danny and Chris were out of beer.
We decided to head out, and packed up. Paul was going back to Spider Lake, as he was on the volunteer trail repair crew, doing some cement work on the bypass on the Little Sluice.
The work was coordinated with the responsible agencies, by The Friends of the Rubicon. Many thanks to Del Albright, and all of his crew from the FOTR for the work they do keeping the trail open. I'd like to think I did my little part, picked up a bag of trash, and a broken inner, outer, and u-joint in the area around Pirate Camp before leaving Wednesday morning.
As we all started our engines, Danny's wouldn't start, seems he'd left his 12v cooler plugged in overnight, dead battery. Paul pulls around, gives him a jump, we say our good bye's and Paul is off. Shortly thereafter, Danny and I head out for Cadillac Hill. We make it up with no problems, my drive shaft held.
Later, we run into an IFS Toyota Truck with a broken front axle. He has help, parts on the way, and declined our offers of water. I head on down the trail. After a 1/4 or mile or so, I still don't see Danny behind me, turn around to go see what's up.
I get back to where we had stopped with the Toy, Danny's rig won't start. Then more traffic shows up from behind us. We're blocking the trail, so I throw a strap on Danny, and pull him to a wide spot in the trail.
Danny's battery seems dead again, brand new Optima. I've heard stories about Optima's not taking a charge after being run down, as Danny's was. I carry one of those emergency jumper battery packs, we secure that in the engine bay with zip ties, I give Danny a jump, and off we go, hoping my battery pack will take a charge. It doesn't.
Danny's battery, keeps draining down as we get off the trail. Charge it again, we get into Tahoe City and it's dead again. I go ahead to see if I can find a new battery. The nearest parts store has a battery for $60, alternator is in stock, $166. I take the battery, head back and get it installed in Danny's Jeep. Volt meter still indicates a low charge condition, so it's the alternator. We decide to see how it goes, and head for Sacramento.
Danny's rig will make it about 100 miles between battery charges. We stop in Roseville that afternoon, get hotel rooms, clean up, go eat, and pass out.
Next morning, we chowed down on the Continental Breakfast the hotel offered and hit the road, again stopping every 100 miles or so to charge Danny's battery. Then my serpentine belt let's go. Pull over, install the spare belt, quickly on our way again.
At the last charge stop for Danny, I get a brainstorm, why not swap MY fully charged battery into Danny's Jeep, rather than sitting with jumper cables hooked up for 20 minutes. We swap batteries, Danny jump starts me, this time, and off we go. Made it over 200 miles, the rest of the way home, by swapping batteries, should have done that hours ago.
It was just dusk when we got home. The whole day had been a race against the clock, if Danny had to use headlights, we were in trouble, battery would have drained rapidly.
All in all, we had a blast, do it again in a heart beat...and just might go back next month!
Lesson's learned...you bet. Next time we'll have one of those portable canned boat air horns to try and scare bears off, or wake up the whole valley, depending on how you look at it. Trees are mostly pine on the Rubicon. In general there are no stout branches with which to hang your coolers. I'll either have a metal bear box to keep coolers in, or possibly use ratchet straps to secure them to the axle under the Jeep.
I'm not a gun person in general, but I'll also have a gun. That bear coming straight at my tent, and I with nothing to defend myself and my wife with but a Mag Light, was a bad feeling. Shooting a bear would be the absolute last resort, but I want that option.
Bear repellent is available, although I have heard that some bears like it. Steve Baker said that road flares will spook them, another good idea possibly, although, I wouldn't light one in a tent, unless you don't like the tent you have.
I'm sure I'll miss some items here, so call it a partial list, from Danny...
Two loaves of bread, hamburger, crackers, lunchmeat. Dented two cans of Chunky Soup, piercing one of them in four places.
From us, it got...
Big bag of Hooter's peanuts, didn't eat the shells, two pounds of bacon, sausage, wedge of Gouda cheese, lunchmeat, fruit cups, pudding cups, and pierced a can of orange Mt.Dew to wash it down with. Oh, and the rotten bastich ate MY OREO'S! Hope he had indegestion!
Pics can be found here, in chronological order...
http://www.dehesa4x4.com/mckay/images/Bob's%20Rubi%20pics/
Bob  http://www.jeepaholics.com/rides/view.asp?id=147 Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to know "why" I look this way. I've traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved. <Will Rogers> Fat City Racing 2009 Baja 1000 Class Champions Dust Junkies Racing 1706
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