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7-2-98 The Rubicon Summer, Writings captured by Mike Kuperstein:

Preparations:
I started out on my vacation on the 2nd of July.  I drove up to my friend Michael Cline's place in Seattle.  We had a couple of things to do before we left, including exterminating a computer virus from his family's church computer systems.  We were in the middle of our work when the church secretary left, leaving the alarm system on.  Little did we know that it was a motion detector, so a few minutes later the alarm sounded.  A few minutes later we got a phone call from the security agency, and of course we didn't know the password.  So yet more minutes later the police stormed the building, forcing us to talk our way out of it with the help of the groundskeeper.  What a start to a vacation, nearly ending up in jail!

Some pre-Rubicon fun:
Over the next three days Michael replaced or improved various parts on the Blazer preparing it for the Rubicon.  We replaced the front left U-joint that had been bad for probably a year, complete with pulverized bearings.  We also discovered that one of the rear brake pads had disintegrated from the force of keeping the Blazer from rolling backwards down excessively steep jeep trails.  I helped Michael a little with the truck repairs, did some house work, reading, and relaxing at the Cline residence.

Then on Thursday, after a good meal provided by Michael's good cooking and a restful night's sleep, Michael, his father, and I headed down the coast because it was much more scenic, much more pleasant than I-5 in a convertible blazer, and much cooler than inland.  Bob was driving his 4Runner as a backup vehicle because he lacked faith that the Blazer would survive the Rubicon trail.  On the way through the Oregon Dunes we attempted to play on the sand, but we couldn't even drive up the slightest hill, even with front and rear differentials locked, because we didn't lower the tire pressure due to the hassle of filling huge balloon tires back up to freeway pressures.  We wound our way down the coast, picking up the occasional hitchhiker and stopping at viewpoints to rest.  We eventually headed inland through Placerville to camp in the Eldorado Wilderness before starting the Rubicon on Sunday morning.

The Rubicon:

We drove around the beautiful Loon Lake, past many jeeps coming out of the Rubicon trail on the gigantic granite slab that marks the beginning of the Rubicon.  A mere quarter mile in, and Michael was faced with his first rock obstacle.  After taking one look at boulders much bigger than his tires, apparently intended to keep out the riff-raff, Bob decided to park his 4Runner.  After transferring our gear to the Blazer and removing the doors from the Blazer we headed in, passing quite a few broken vehicles either limping along in two or three wheel drive or being towed out.  All had lifts, lots of body armor and tires 33" or larger.

Loon Lake, CA!
This is where the Rubicon trail begins.  It takes you over many rocky mountains and past several pristine lakes all the way to Lake Tahoe, CA.  The total trip length is about 2.5 days, or 22 miles. 		Granite Slabs!
These endless slabs are the first section of the Rubicon!  There are no road signs, you simply follow the oil trail and occasional broken jeep parts.

The Rubicon trail is best characterized as stretches of little boulders punctuated by piles of very large boulders. Not too far in, we got a cut in a tire sidewall, which was patched a few minutes later.  We drove carefully over or around endless obstacles until we came to a bunch of Jeeps parked various places in the sparse forest.  We took a look ahead and recognized it as the Little Sluice, which has broken many a vehicle.  Apparently two Jeeps had rolled earlier that day because people didn't stack the rocks properly.  Normally there can be as many as one hundred spectators watching, but the only spectators at the time were two trucks belonging to the Pirates of the Rubicon Club (the name befits them).  We watched a Jeep winch himself up the rocks next to big boulders in the Little Sluice.  Since it looked like a challenge but not impossible, we decided to forgo the cheater trail around the entire Sluice.  We stacked some rocks, Michael maneuvered a bit, and managed to get the Blazer to clamber up and over the same cheater rocks without the aid of a winch, but with much tire squealing on the rocks.  We drove a mere hundred feet and made camp next to Spider Lake (lots of spiders around).  It was a fine lake, warm and clear, and wonderful to swim in.

Little Sluice!
This was one of the first major challenges facing us.  By the way, we prevailed... 		Big Sluice!
 This evil place was too narrow for my truck to pass.  Unfortunately I had to compress my truck slightly to get through.

We awoke the next morning to a helicopter ferrying people and equipment for Jeep Jamboree U.S.A.  Chrysler pays Jeep Jamboree to take about 30 stock Jeeps driven by their dealers from around the world through the Rubicon every two days.  This particular trip it was 28 Jeeps driven by a bunch of dealers from Italy, complete with their "everything for the woman" attitude.  We left long before the Jeeps arrived, and thus enjoyed nearly an entire day of four-wheeling without seeing a single other vehicle.  The Big Sluice was quite a problem for the Blazer, as we attempted to go through one section which was about two inches two narrow.  So Michael backed up the steep slope and came down the other side, which was none too pretty either.  We had originally planned on running the Rubicon backwards, but after narrowly escaping the Big Sluice, Michael thought going back up the Big Sluice would destroy bodywork on the Blazer.  Traveling on, we came to a long water filled trench in Rubicon Springs.  Of course Michael HAD to drive through to test his water modifications instead of driving around.  The water nearly went over the hood, which was nearly chest height, managed to soak the passenger side seat, soaked a CD and other assorted items in the bottom of the center console and soaked a few wettable things such as tents and pads.  We had packed with full knowledge of deep water.  After coming up an incredibly steep rocky hill that overheated the steering fluid, we made camp.

Midnight on the Rubicon!
Due to absolute fatigue from driving, I fell asleep while exposing this night picture.  Originally there was no moon, however,  I awoke several hours later laying on a bunch of rocks with the moon shining in my eyes, and coyotes howling all around me.  For at least a minute I had no idea where I was or how I got there... Star discussion!		 Lake Tahoe Limo!
The Rubicon trail dumps you out right on Lake Tahoe among all the tourists and wealth.  After three days away from civilization, I took great pleasure parking here, as the limo seemed to compliment my poor bleeding truck quite nicely.

The next day the Italians driving the Jeeps went past us as the helicopter buzzed the area taking pictures and we packed our things.  Some time later we followed, arriving at Lake Tahoe a short while later, nearly completely unscathed from the Rubicon!!  We had lunch and swam at the southern tip of Lake Tahoe, then drove back to Loon Lake to retrieve the 4Runner, which we had left back at the beginning of the Rubicon trail.  We then camped at Loon Lake, woke up to a beautiful day, swam in the frigid lake, and generally had a good relaxing time.  We left camp at nearly 5:00 pm, driving across CA, not knowing where we were going to end up that evening.  I called my grandparents in San Francisco, and they very graciously invited us in for the evening.  We got up the next morning to a breakfast ready made for us.  Michael fixed some things on the Blazer and then since my grandfather's computer was acting horribly we then proceeded to completely reformat my grandfather's computer and reinstall everything from scratch.  Last I heard it works great.

We then drove up the Sonoma Valley, stopping in at the Cline winery to reload the Cline cellars in Seattle.  On our way we managed to contact a guy using ham radio who told us of a wonderful camp called Bullfrog Pond.  It was a pretty good spot, although it was definitely Bullfrog Pond, and came complete with thieving raccoons, feral pigs, rattlesnakes, and unknown other critters that made noises in the night.

The next day we continued up the coast, picking up hitchhikers along the way.  They really loved the convertible Blazer and the gorgeous coastal view in the wonderful weather.  We really lucked out when we picked up a guy just returning from Germany en route back home to Mendocino, CA.  He guided us to the Mendo Cafe, where he bought us drinks, and proceeded to introduce us to the owner of the Mendo Cafe several other people, and a Russian Stout of which the Clines later bought several cases.  We had a great time with wonderful food, but alas, we had to continue on.  Up the road quite some ways we came upon a prime spot alongside what we later discovered was the Eel River.  As we were making camp the 'Caretaker', affectionately known as "Rambo", complete with rifle, nearly toothless grin, and dog, stopped by just to check up on who was there.  The next morning we woke up and had a wonderful time swimming in a prime swimming hole complete with rope swing, little round biting critters and bottom fish to spear.  We left as the heat of the day came and the river bank got crowded.

River Camping, OR!
I don't remember where this was but it was a beautiful place along a relatively warm river.  We were greeted by a "rifle-bearing Rambo look-alike" who turned out to be very friendly.  He wished us the best and went on his way.  		Rambo's Dog!
This cute hound accompanied the "rifle-bearing Rambo look-alike" who greeted us at our campsite in Oregon.

We drove on up the coast and once again we camped at the Oregon Dunes.  The next morning we unloaded all unnecessary equipment from the vehicles and lowered the tire pressure down to about 12psi and headed out to the dunes.  This time we could drive along on the sand in two wheel drive with open differentials just like on a highway!  We played a little near the beach, where the Blazer proved itself more than worthy once again.  Then we drove down a long, wide sand road which opened up into The Dunes!  It was several miles of nothing but sand dunes.  Michael was in heaven, and quickly discovered the Blazer could do amazing things on sand.  It had nowhere near a dune buggy's capabilities, but because it had a good power range, it could rocket up and over all but the tallest dunes.  As we were leaving, we noticed the Sheriff had gotten stuck in the dunes.  It's very difficult to detect drop-offs because there is very little depth perception in the sand, and the Sheriff had come up on one, stomped on the brakes, and promptly sank in the sand.  We pulled him out, naturally capturing it on video.  We then went our merry way along the dunes.  We came out of the dunes on another road that was actually a stream that was deep enough to splash up over the hood and windshield of Bob's 4Runner.  Several smaller four-wheelers saw the deep water and chickened out.  After having our fill of the Dunes, we went back to camp, packed up, and then split up, with Bob going to Eugene for a hot date Sunday night, and Michael and I drove up I-5 to Portland, where I fixed dinner, and we watched the video we had made.  While I went to bed early for work the next day, Michael stayed up extremely late as his usual, and was kind enough to edit down all four hours of video footage from the two weeks onto various tapes for ourselves and friends.

Now, while I'm back at work, Michael Cline is a homeless and jobless ex-student, but still quite self-sufficient.  Last I heard he was starting another company and doing some volunteering and foreign traveling on the side..

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