Play is the highest form of research.-Albert Einstein
This past weekend a few of our board members went to the Rubicon Trail and provided some education about the trail, gave out WAG Bags & Spill Kits, and had fun meeting and greeting users of the Rubicon Trail.
One of the main goals of the foundation is to provide education and help answer any questions about the trail. We all met so many new wheelers who had never been before, to also seeing old faces who had to be on the trail even though Cantina for the Con was not happening.
We taught a whole group of brand new trail users all about WAG Bags, locations on the trail and then also some on how to use a Spill Kit.
It was great to see families having family time and unplugging from devices that are all too time consuming-
Hopefully everyone had a safe and fun Labor Day!
If you are interested in volunteering and making a difference on the Rubicon Trail please contact us at 888-678-2426 or email us at [email protected].
All kit contents were bought by the Rubicon Trail Foundation and our generous donors.
Mission: To enhance the future health and use of the Rubicon trail, while ensuring responsible, motorized, year-round trail access.
Vision: To be the trusted stewards of the Rubicon Trail, ensuring sustainability for the experience of the users.
I guess everyone knows by now that I’m the day to day poo truck driver for RTF. At this point it is also common knowledge that El Dorado County next season will take over this service. We (RTF) couldn’t be happier! When we built the poo truck, we did so as proof of concept. A little history, in 2010, the anti-Rubicon closurists were watching the trail intently. They campaigned the agencies (El Dorado County and the Forest Service), saying they couldn’t spend money putting bathrooms on the trail because they had no way to service them, and of course that they couldn’t spend money building a service truck because there was nothing to service. Chicken and egg, if you will. RTF built the truck and started providing the service to help solve the sanitation problem on the trail because it needed to be done, the same way the county built the bathrooms…because it needed to be done. Now that RTF has proven it can be done, it’s time for a government agency (the County) to take it over.
So on to the original subject. A typical day for me on the Unimog starts at Spider Lake. I pack a lunch, fill the mog with water and leave as early as I can. It takes me about five hours to go to the far end of Buck Island Lake, suck out the four toilets (about 350 gallons of poo slurry) and return to Spider, pumping the Arnold’s Rock toilet on the way back. From there it’s another two hours to the Ellis vault to dump, and two hours back to Spider. So a nine hour day. The following day, thankfully, is much shorter. It usually takes about 5 hours to do that. On the trail I chat with people on the trail, educate and just try to be friendly.
Sounds simple, and it is, usually. Of course, sometimes things don’t go as well. I’ve popped tires turning a nine hour day into a three day extravaganza trailering a new 250 pound tire and wheel in and changing it. I’ve also run out of gas in the pump and had to beg borrow, and steal fuel, ok mostly beg, from trail users (yeah, I know, dumb). Of course, users create roadblocks too. I HATE wipes. They clog the machine and must be removed using a hook and pliers. Please, please, don’t put wipes in the toilets! I’ve found some interesting stuff in toilets too…many pairs of underwear (men’s and women’s), pajamas, lots of random trash, full bags of trash, and one of my favorites, a block of cheddar cheese. Who does that? All of this stuff has to be removed, bagged, and placed in a leak proof bucket to be taken off the trail and placed in the trash. Yes, that happens in my personal rig.
It is with sadness that we give tribute to one of the true Rubicon Legends, Steve Morris. On Saturday, July 27, 2019 at the 67th Jeepers Jamboree in Rubicon Springs, Steve passed on. Steve was a true pioneer of the Rubicon Trail, participating at the beginning of the Jeepers Jamboree with Mark Smith, a partial owner of Rubicon Springs, the first President of Cal4Wheel, a 2019 inductee of the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame, Rubicon Trail Foundation Rock Award winner and the name behind Morris Rock on Cadillac Hill. Steve had dedicated his life to spreading the message on the beauty of Rubicon Springs and through ownership, making sure the Rubicon Springs is available to everyone. Steve couldn’t have written a better life script passing away at Rubicon Springs after being with his family and so many friends during the event he loved so much. He will be missed and remembered by so many for generations to come. The Rubicon Trail Foundation sends it’s sympathies to Steve’s family.
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