This event was planned by John Ruiz, attended by John Ruiz, David Grubman, Dave and his two sons(a friend of John’s), CJ Arneson, Rick and Carol Yung, Mike and Renosa (sp) Cline, and myself. The idea was to head up to Ice House Campgroung on Friday the 5th, run the Rubicon on the 6th and come home on the 7th. Plans were for several of us to meet at my house and leave at 9:00am on friday. Plans got a little changed, but CJ arrived shortly after 8:00am. We loaded CJ’s Jeep on my trailer, strapped it down, and we were on the road by 8:43am. Wow ahead of time! We hooked up with John Ruiz at the brake check point on the pass. We went on up to a shopping center at El Dorado Hills, bought some lunch supplies and headed up to Ice House. Arrived there, were met by the Clines. Circled the campground a couple of times and landed in several campsites. The rest of the ground with the exception of the Yung’s all arrived and set up camp. I was planning on making a trip into Lake Tahoe and hoped to leave camp by 4:30, we left 4:16 for Tahoe. Wow ahead of time!. We went into Harrah’s and paid our respects, had dinner at Fatburgers and decided to meet up for the return trip at 8:00pm. We headed back to camp at 7:49. Wow ahead of time again! This has to be some sort of ED4 record. The Yung’s arrived into camp around 12-1:00 am, settled in. The plan was to leave camp at 7:30am for the trail, we left about 7:25am, some more to add to the record setting time table.
We arrived at Loon Lake, aired down and headed for the trail. A little trouble has had going through the Gate Keeper, but no damage. It was just a very beautifull day. Headed up through several obsticles. great spotting help by all. A few little scrapes here and there, but no breakage. We arrived up at the Little Sluece, had lunch and went for a hike up the sluece. Parts did not look that bad until you got the boulders that were 4-6 feet high in the middle of the trail. This was a nasty part for about 200 feet of so. We hiked up to the top of the hill so we could see Spyder Lake. What a beautiful view from up there. We decided it was time to start heading back. We did encounter several of our vehicles developing a little diff drip. We were just about back the Gate Keeper when Mike tore a shock right out of it’s mount. The shock was removed and within a few more minutes Mike reported he had lost the air bag suspension on the same corner where the shock had gone. Mike was able to drive his 4 door Wrangler Unlimited all the way out.
Inspections were made, scrapes on some, a little body damage on a couple, dents in gas tanks, which shrinks the capacity, but all of the smiles and grins made up for everything. Back to camp and heat up the chili. It was a long day of wheeling and bed time came by 10:30.
CJ and I left camp around 8:30 or so to start heading home. A slight detour to grab a few Bronco parts in Pine Grove and home in San Jose by 2:45 on Sunday.
This was only the second time that I have had the opportunity to be a passenger and really enjoy the surroundings of the trail. What a wonderful thing to be able to do. I thoughly enjoyed the driving ablilities of CJ and his’s attention to taking good lines.
I especially want to thank CJ for allowing me to ride along with him and get to know him.
Darell L. Kroeker