In the morning, we also found a fresh pile of bear scat near the tents. Shiny food packaging foil poked through the feces. The smoking gun, as it were, although it was more steaming than smoking. Pam found one of our margarine containers several yards away that was ventiated with bear-sized teeth marks. Large grooves in the margarine betrayed the fact that a bear had obviously been showing the margarine a good time with its tongue. Ate like a bear, pooped like a bear, so it must have been a bear. To paraphrase Johny Cochrane, "If the glove fits, you must convict!" During the pre-breakfast muddling around, Armin had a look at his front axle and noticed he had snapped an axle shaft u-joint. Not surprising considering he was running a Dana 30 with 38" Swampers and 4:1 tcase gears. The break also ruined the yoke ears so he changed the inner/outer shafts as well. We got off to a late start and it was made even later about 50 meters from camp. Dave's Bronco lurched a bit and made some weird noises in the rear axle. We jacked it up, pulled the axle shaft (the lurching was on the same side as the new axle shaft). It was fine so we figured the Detroit Softlocker took some damage when the axle shaft snapped. Dave was now in 3WD. His Bronco has a tendency to break axle shaft u-joints so he had to be very careful not to overstress the front. That meant that when we reached difficult sectons, someone would have to tow him. But for now, there weren't any difficult sections coming up.

Armin discovers trail damage the day after the fact.

Pam recovers her margarine although she's reluctant to use it after the bear molested it.

Our next big section was the Big Sluice. This was approximately one mile of downhill trail, littered with huge rock steps and big boulders. Since it was all downhill, it wouldn't be too difficult for the Bronco to negotiate. It began when we made a tight, downhill left-hand turn. It looked like a deep, rock step stretching diagonally across the trail. Staying to the right would take you along the smoothest descent but put you at a precarious off-camber angle. Staying to the left would mean a vertical drop-off. The solution, of course, was to carefully straddle the two extremes. That was the beginning of Big Sluice. From then on, it was a seemingly endless process of dodging rocks and easing our tires over rock ledges. I couldn't help thinking how much fun it would be if we were heading in the opposite direction, climbing UP the Big Sluice. Dave's Bronco made it down without incident.

The start of the Big Sluice.	Dolores spots for Ron as he enters the Big Sluice.	We took the fun line whenever possible.
The start of the Big Sluice maxed-out Jonathan's suspension.	As you can see by his front fender flare, he needs to lengthen his bump stop...or hog out his fenders.	As shown by this slope indicator from Cascadia Instrumentation in Port Coquitlam, angles of 20 deg or more were very common on this trail. Jonathan's TJ handled side slopes with aplomb, thanks to its full-size axles.
Wide axles rock!	Ron poses for a Norman Rockwell moment.	Gord's nerf bars saved the Cherokee's rocker panels on many an occasion. This is one of them. He slid his Jeep over this rock.

Next stop was Rubicon Springs. Rubicon Springs is currently owned by Rubicon Soda Springs, Inc. They host the various Jeep Jamborees, corporate adventures, and even individual campers who show up looking for a great place to camp on the trail. The first building on the springs was a 2.5 story, 16-room hotel built in 1886. Guests came from Lake Tahoe and Georgetown using what is now known as the Rubicon Trail. The hotel's popularity eventually waned and the winter of 1953 brought the hotel down.

While we were at the springs, we had a brief conversation with the caretaker. He said they were expecting a group from Daimler-Chrysler later that day, and about 150 vehicles in the upcoming weekend's Jeep Jamboree (Jeep Jamboree USA). We watched for a while as Hughes 500 helicopters ferried in supplies and passengers. Just past the camp headquarters, we stopped at a beautiful rock slab "beach" by a very enticing stream. Although we were in a bit of a rush, we couldn't resist changing into our swimming gear and going for a swim. The cool water was a tonic for the heat and dust we had endured that morning. I was surprised to see a crayfish; I didn't know they lived in mountain streams. Walking around some rocks, we found a small waterfall. This would have been an absolutely fantastic place to camp. We lounged on the rocks and ate lunch. It was tough to leave but we did.

Here's a well-known landmark, the steel bridge leading into the Rubicon Springs camp.	Almost at the camp.	The only mud hole we encountered during the trip. Given the heat wave, we were surprised it even existed...and wondered how deep it would've been without the heat wave.
Incoming supplies.	Time for a swim!	Rock monkeys in repose.
We found this cool waterfall behind the creek.	Nice warning, only one day too late.	We were nearing the end of the trail but there was still plenty of fun to be had.

Because I was the only one with an automatic transmission, I was volunteered to help Dave climb all the way up Cadillac Hill. <sarcasm>Gosh, thanks for the honour. </sarcasm>

Around the corner from Rubicon Springs, just past Sid's Grave (a grave named in jest for Sid Mainwaring, one of the Jamboree committeemen and a Forest Service employee) Cadillac Hill was waiting for us. It wasn't particularly difficult except that I was pulling Dave's Bronco. It wasn't dead weight; he was driving it in 3WD. But I was pulling against its weight so that Dave didn't overstress his front axle. We stopped three times on the way up to let my transmission cool. During one of those stops, I noticed that Jonathan and Dolores were missing. We raised him on the CB and his said he was on his way. When they arrived (Dolores was walking in front of the TJ), Dolores explained what had happened while trying to catch her breath. Jonathan was at the crest of an obstacle that should have been driven around because the drop-off was too steep. However, he couldn't see the drop-off from his vantage point so he gestured with his hands to Dolores, who was shooting video, asking if he should continue going forward. She interpreted his gestures to mean, "go on ahead, don't bother shooting the video of me." (Jonathan has wonderfully expressive hands, almost like Arsenio Hall's). Dolores nodded her acknowledgement and began walking away. Jonathan saw her nod in answer to his question and began driving forward, right off the steepest part of the rock and immediately high-centred his Jeep. Much hijinx and mirth ensued.

Sniff...almost the end of the trail and the obligatory "last photo" location. Left to right: Gord Land, Marion and Armin Lippmann, Dolores and Ron Gooch, Sue and Larry Soo, Rob "RyeGuy" Bryce, John Barron, Jonathan Yim, Pam and Dave Lippmann

Upon reaching the top of Cadillac Hill, we arrived at the observation point and stopped for the obligatory photos. There were a few more interesting trail sections but after that, it was the end of the Rubicon Trail. We were pretty quiet on the drive down to south Lake Tahoe. It was a great adventure and now it was coming to an end. We were coming down off a rockcrawling high. Of course, we still had to retrieve Armin's pickup that we left at Icehouse Rd. Our first stop was in South Lake Tahoe where we feasted at the Cantina Bar and Grill, an excellent Mexican restaurant. My conscience dictates that I must apologize for the way I mis-treated their men's room toilet. It was unspeakably inhumane. We were easily the dirtiest customers there. By the time we were finished eating, it was late and we were tired. We checked in to the nearest motel and wake up at 4:30am - Pam had to be home by Saturday morning for her baseball game. We had seven 4x4s loaded with tools and camping gear and we were about to leave them parked outside the motel. Naturally, we asked the night clerk of the Motel 8 if there was a problem with auto theft in the area. The clerk looked at us, affixed a blank, robotic smile to her face, and said that "parking is provided to our guests as a convenience and we cannot be held responsible for any lost or stolen articles." Okay, great. Thanks for the concise response which I'm sure was a great answer...for someone else's question other than ours. Still reeling from that obtuse answer, we retired to our rooms, leaving items we felt we could afford to lose in our 4x4s.

Waiting for a table at the Cantina Bar and Grill.

Our waiting was rudely interrupted when we had to attend to an embarrassing coolant leak on Ron and Dolores' CJ7.

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