In 1989, the Toyota Land Cruiser Association launched a little event called the Rubithon, an event designed for taking people over the Rubicon Trail in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of northern California. The Rubithon has since become one of the largest gatherings of Toyota Land Cruisers anywhere in the world.
The TLCA's Rubithon is also one of the best opportunities for less experienced four-wheelers to traverse the Rubicon with knowledgeable trail guides who are there to assist them with advice on how to pick the best lines and keep their rigs upright.
With so many participants eager to tackle this famous trail, the event coordinators stage drivers in small groups and then, beginning Wednesday morning, start launching them toward the Loon Lake trail head every couple of hours. This reduces the amount of congestion on the trail and helps to ensure that everyone has a good time.
This year, once everyone had arrived at the Loon Lake trail head on Friday morning, our group headed out. Moving past Loon Lake, we were soon confronted with the Granite Bowl. One of the other trucks earlier that day had experienced their first rollover at this point. One of the Toyotas had gotten a little too far off camber and found itself upside-down. There were no serious injuries, but the truck didn't have a straight body panel left afterward.
Once we'd made it out of the Granite Bowl, the trail wandered up through the trees, providing us with a few uphill climbs and some tight turns on the way to the base of Walker Hill. This part of the trail requires picking the correct line and keeping the rig geared down for traction.
Because the Rubithon is the first large, organized trail event of the year, the stretch from Walker Hill to the Little Sluice is usually still recovering from the effects of a long winter. This year was no different. About halfway up Walker there was a large boulder with a hole just on the other side. Quite a few eyes opened wide because of a little tipping, but everyone made it safely through to the top.
This year a large slab had slid off the left side of the Little Sluice wall, changing the previous line for successful travel through the sluice. The best line for the Toyota Land Cruisers seemed to be a figure S. The monster Canadian rigs with 44s, on the other hand, simply drove straight through.
After playing here for a while, we hit the trail and made our way down the next leg to Buck Island. As usual, the rocks were a real challenge, but all of the trees that had fallen during the wintertime had been cleared a few weeks earlier by the Marauders.
From the Little Sluice you have three choices to get to Buck Island: You can either travel across the off-camber granite slabs toward the bottom edge; travel across the top of the slabs, then turn and take the steep, easier route down the slabs; or you can turn right and take the True Big Sluice, which is only for die-hard rockcrawlers. Our trail leader took the high slab route with some of the rigs, while a few of us took the lower off-camber route at the bottom edge of the granite slab. Once you're through the slabs, the trails merge again and take you down through the trees to Buck Island.
The passage from Buck Island to the Rubicon Springs camp is probably the hardest part of the trail. You begin by climbing several rocks at different angles and negotiating tight turns. But the real excitement starts at the 90-degree turn on the Big Sluice. Once we arrived at this part of the trail, there was already a large crowd of spectators.
With a little help from the trail guides and some good 'wheeling down the huge boulders, our group made it through in a few hours and then headed to the bridge that crosses the Rubicon River. The only damage we suffered was to a steering box on one of the Land Cruisers, but a trail repair was done at the bottom of the sluice before the trip into the springs. By Friday evening, we were safely at base camp at Rubicon Springs.
On Saturday morning, the camp came alive with everything from kids' games to volleyball and horseshoes for the adults. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and enjoying the beautiful scenery. After dinner that night, the raffle was held, and quite a few people went back to their tents with smiling faces and new parts. Gathering around the roaring campfire, many folks spent the remainder of the evening telling stories and laughing.
On Sunday morning, the camp packed up and everyone started up the trail again. Much of this portion travels over dirt, with a couple of water crossings thrown in for good measure. But after that, it is time to climb Cadillac Hill and the V rock. With some trail delays due to repairs, this section was a little slow. We arrived at the lookout around 1 p.m. and took the time to check out the spectacular view from the peak.
Once you descend from the lookout point, it is an easy trail down into the western Lake Tahoe area, past some of the most scenic areas in the world. After arriving at the trail's end, it was time to air up the tires and head back home.
After attending the 12th annual Rubithon, there was no mystery as to why it is so popular. Not only are there some great four-wheeling trails to be had, but also fantastic family entertainment for all ages. If you're a Toyota owner, the Rubithon is a spectacular event that should be on your list of trails for next year.
Information
For more information about the 2001 Rubithon, contact: The Toyota Land Cruiser Association, Dept. 4WDSU, P.O. Box 210, Windsor, CA 95492, (707) 568-5338, www.tlca.org.
Toyota Trails
In 1990, Gary Bjork assumed responsibility for reproducing the TLCA's newsletter, Toyota Trails. Over the course of the past decade, Gary has turned it into one of the best association publications around. He has since received the United Four Wheel Drive Associations' Editor's Award for his outstanding work and has contributed immensely to the TLCA, which has become the largest Toyota four-wheel-drive association in the world.