It was Saturday morning, the ground was wet, but spirits were high. We packed up our gear, and headed out to get our fishing licenses and tons of ice. After topping off our tanks we were off! At this point, we had our four Jeeps, and the two from Oregon. All six Jeeps handled the hour long drive to the trail head just fine. Once at Loon Lake, we aired down and prepared our vehicles for the trail. It was then that I noticed our second mishap! My front hub bolts were all loose on the right hub! How did I miss those? No problem, I’ll just tighten them up! Ya right. On the sixth bolt, I must have gotten a little to excited. I broke that sucker right off! Darn, now what. It is already getting late in the morning. I decided that since a lot of Jeeps only have five hub bolts anyway, I would run with five of the six. I had the parts, but changing the whole assembly would take to much time right now. So off we went! The trail starts off tough right away. We ran into a bottleneck at the first obstacle. The Oregon guys were having trouble with one of their Jeeps. After we all got through, we were off to the granite slab. Once at the granite slab, Brian in the Oregon CJ5, lost his starter. While they were trying to fix the starter, we all had an early lunch and a nap. After deciding that they could not fix the starter, they decided to return to town. So, we started back up the trail to make up some time. With only four vehicles now in our group, we made some great time on the trail. We were moving along very well until we got to a huge bottleneck up ahead. It seems that some buggy club was coming down the trail in their two wheel drive rock buggies! While we were waiting for them to get out of the way, some guy in an early Bronco rolled right behind Heather. Since we were the only ones around with a winch, and we couldn’t go anywhere with the buggies in the way, we decided to help this guy out. We turned around Heather’s TJ and started setting up the winch. After arguing with the guy on the proper way to hook up the winch, we pulled him right back onto his wheels! He never even said thanks. We thought, "now lets get out of here." After a few more hours on the trail, we arrived at the Little Sluice. We were all tired so we went on the bypass around the sluice. It was starting to get dark and looked like the rain was coming. Those clouds were black! In the process of finding a place to camp, the rain started pouring down! And pour down it did for like three or four hours straight! We all sat in our vehicles and waited out the storm. Heather and Chris both had tops on their Jeeps, so they were fine. Robert and I covered my Jeep with the tarp that I brought. At the same time, Bill and David were doing the same thing. Once back in the Jeeps, we waited, and waited, and waited for the rain to stop. We were starting to get hungry, so we set up the grill in the rain next a tree, and Chef Bill cooked us up some great hamburgers and steaks. David cooked up some beans, and the feast was on! Now at least we were only wet. Not wet, and hungry. After a while the rain let up and we were able to set up our tents. Most of us slept fine, but a few of s found out that our tents are not very water resistant! Oh well, it all adds to the adventure.

The next morning the sun was out, we were rested and ready to go find the Old Sluice! After breakfast, we started out on the trail. The trail was a lot less crowded this day. Maybe the rain sent some people home? We just moved along from one set of rocks to the next. We were making great time when we arrived at what we hoped was the turn off to the Old Sluice. Well it was, and the rocks got bigger and bigger. We finally arrived at the start of the Old Sluice! There were people all over waiting for us to "Get some body damage!" Sorry to disappoint them, but we are the Dirt Devils! We all spotted each other all the way to the bottom without a problem! That was some tough wheeling! All through the Old Sluice we had great views of Buck Island Lake in the background. After another mile or so of trail, we stopped at Buck Island Lake for some lunch and some fishing. Not the best time to fish but we had fun trying! I guess that is why they call fishing, not catching! After lunch we packed up and headed for our next stop, Rubicon Springs. But first we had to go down the Big Sluice. This was going fine until David got hung up on some rocks. We figured that Chris, who was right behind, could just tug him out. Well he got him out, but broke a front axle u-joint in the process. Since it was getting late in the day, and Chris had lockers front and rear, he decided to proceed in three wheel drive! Once at the bottom of the Big Sluice, we crossed the bridge over the Rubicon River. After going trough some major mud bogs and lots more rocks, we finally arrived at Rubicon Springs. That place was packed. All the good camping places were full. Now what? Camp here and listen to the parties and battle of the loud stereos, or keep going and find something else. The group voted! Keep going and find somewhere peaceful! After a ways, we realized that we were at the bottom of Cadillac Hill. It was getting dark and starting to sprinkle. We decided to get to the top and camp there, at the overlook. Well I thought we would walk right up Cadillac, but I was wrong. I was the first to get stuck in the mud. My drum brakes were wet and my breaks weren’t holding. This made it hard to go back and forth on the rocky obstacle where I was hung up. Finally tired of trying, I hooked up my winch and it pulled me right up. Everyone else made it no problem. We all did fine until the last rocky obstacle. It was wet and slippery. It was dark and we were tired! Heather was first to try. After several attempts in the TJ, with the front locker engaged, Heather gave up. Well, I talked her into the winch! After Heather was up, It was my turn. If Heather couldn’t do it in the TJ, I sure wasn’t going to crawl up. I decided to try the heavy foot approach. Well lets just say, after seeing only the stars and sky out my front window, I decided I’d winch up the climb. After I was up, Chris already had his winch ready. With the ground wet, his Jeep only in three wheel drive, he wisely decided to winch up! Last was David. I think I over heard something to the effect of: "I’m going to show them how to climb this hill!" After a few tries, David was forced to use his winch too! Cadillac Hill: 4, Dirt Devils: 0. On to camp. We finally arrived at the top about nine or ten o’clock. While we all set up camp, Heather made everybody some great chili and tamales! After dinner the clouds were gone. No more rain, just clear skies all around. We all retired for the evening. We had a long drive home in the morning so we needed to get our sleep.

The rest of the way off the trail was easy. Once aired up we started for Placerville to get Robert’s truck. Traffic was a bear. The rest of our trip home was fine until that tire on Robert’s truck blew out. A front tire no less! After fixing that we hurried home. I think we arrived home around 1:00am or so. The trip was a great adventure! We all stuck together, no matter what happened, and we were always laughing! Thanks to all who were there, I had a great time! We will be defiantly going back to the Rubicon again real soon! C-Ya, Macgyver.