As the Feature Editor for the worlds largest off road magazine people often assume that I’ve seen it all and been to every trail on the planet. As much as I wish that was the case, it’s far from the truth. Since moving to the West coast nearly three years ago from my hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina I have tried my best to find new trails and learn more about the off road areas around my new digs in So Cal. Ever since I moved here there has been one trail that I have tried and tried to make time for, but never seemed to be able to pull it off. That was until last weekend when I finally loaded up and headed north to Lake Tahoe to finally wheel the Rubicon trail.
After years of putting it off I managed to wrangle a few friends together for my first trek through the ‘Con. My original plan was to take the UA Z71, but I needed to test a couple of new items on my ’97 4-cylinder Wrangler to I said “what the heck” and took it instead. With only 33-inch tall tires and a short arm kit, I can’t say that I didn’t scrap and bang a little along the way, but I still had an absolute blast.
Making sure that I didn’t get lost along the way was my friend Mel Wade, owner of Off Road Evolution. While my little TJ didn’t want any part of the Little Sluice, Mel shot through with his 4-door JK on 42’s with virtually no problems.
Overall it was by far one of the most scenic and enjoyable camping and wheeling trips that I have taken in a good while.