Rubicon trail
- Thread starter JKU08
- Start date
Holster642
New member
A few of us are planning on running the trail mid June also. How long does it usually take to drive from Tahoe to the trail head at loon lake? Then does everyone car pool back around to grab their tow rigs? I also see people running it in a couple days and some say 3-4. Curious what I should plane for. We are running pretty built Jk's so hopefully we don't get slowed down to much. Any input would help. Thanks in advance.
LOL!! Good luck running it in June. With the crazy record breaking amount of snow we've had and are still getting this winter, I think we'll be lucky to run it in mid July. This was from July 4th 2011.
As far as time goes, it takes about an hour and a half from South Lake Tahoe to get to Loon Lake. Nobody I know tows their rigs to the Rubicon but if you were to do it, I'd leave them at the staging area on the Tahoma side. Regarding time to run the trail, depends on what you're wanting out of your trip. The fastest I've run it is about 5 hours but I typically make it into a 2 night trip because we enjoy being out there.
Holster642
New member
I'm guessing you're probably right on the snow this year. One of my semi drivers got stuck below Donner pass for a few days this winter, he said it was nuts the amount of snow this year. We are coming from southern Idaho (700 miles) so that would be the reason for towing and a few guys have buggies so just looking for the easiest way on and off the trail. We aren't in a huge hurry to get through the trail so we were planning on doing it in 3 days. Any other advice for a rubicon newbie?
LOL! 700 miles, that's it? If your buggie friends aren't street legal, you might want to trailer them to Loon Lake and then run the trail back to them. Because of all the snow, the mosquitos are going to be swarming - pack a LOT of Deet! If you're camping at Rubicon Springs, it is privately owned and you will need cash on hand - $10 for each night that you're there. So that it's clear, this isn't a normal winter by any stretch. I would imagine, it was a winter like this that gave Donner Pass it's name. Unless the snow stops falling (which there's no sign of that) and everything starts warming up, I might recommend you push your run date to July or August. The video I posted was of a "good" year of snow and that was opening weekend.
Desert Crawler
New member
They got a few more feet of the white stuff today.
MTG
Caught the Bug
Love that video!
For selfish reasons I'm going to suggest a Wayalife Rubicon run after July 17th. :yup:
ChiliDawg
New member
We have snow still piling up on the valley floor in Reno, and it's now March. They're calling for a brief dry spell now but we've heard that before, haven't had many dry spells this winter. Sierras keep getting dumped on.
I'm jonesing to do my first Rubicon run too though so I'll be down for a WAYALIFE expedition.
Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app
I'm jonesing to do my first Rubicon run too though so I'll be down for a WAYALIFE expedition.
Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app
I know, it's totally nuts how much snow we've been getting down here in Carson City and well in to March. The weather forecast show more precipitation on the way next week too! :rolleyes2:
Here's a couple of shot from a decent year of snow, up by the Blue Lakes and taken July 16th!!
We were literally having to cross over 12' snow drifts and could barely get to the campground which is normally a paved road! :crazyeyes:
NevadaZielmeister
Caught the Bug
I am going to go out on a limb and predict that the trail will not be totally snow free until August 2017. Since moving to Reno in 2005, I have never seen this much snow.
My curiosity is how much will this impact people's trail plans? I wonder how much it will force people to stack up with others in order to run the trail, placing even more short term pressure on the trail. My thoughts are that instead of having 6 months to run it now might be as short as 3-4 months. Scary.
My curiosity is how much will this impact people's trail plans? I wonder how much it will force people to stack up with others in order to run the trail, placing even more short term pressure on the trail. My thoughts are that instead of having 6 months to run it now might be as short as 3-4 months. Scary.
WillyRockIt
New member
We are planning a mid September run this year. None of us have done the Rubicon before but it's on all our bucket lists. Hopefully the snow, meat bees and mosquitos ( OH MY) have mellowed by then.
Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app
Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app
Man, its gona be a mess on the 65th !! Got my tickets to go should be insane.
Lacey says its booked so 500 participants, about another 150 rigs which are support and media.
Think I'll be leaving 5:30 +- from Loon Thursday. Got to get in front of all the 1st timers which now number over 50%
If I was smart I'd leave Saturday afternoon not Sunday to beat the traffic jam on Cadillac .
Lacey says its booked so 500 participants, about another 150 rigs which are support and media.
Think I'll be leaving 5:30 +- from Loon Thursday. Got to get in front of all the 1st timers which now number over 50%
If I was smart I'd leave Saturday afternoon not Sunday to beat the traffic jam on Cadillac .