A report from John Briggs
I had the opportunity to run the Rubicon Trail in from the Staging area in Tahoma out just past Miller Lake on Sunday June 4th. It was just me and one other rig, a 2005 TJ Rubicon driven by a friend of mine. What would normally take about 20 minutes in the summer took us nearly 2 hours because of the ample amounts of snow still on the trail. There are large drifts across the trail in spots and areas where the water from snow melt is undermining the snow and creating large holes that once you drive into are difficult to get back out of. There are also deep tree wells that can be tricky to stay out of in some spots. We both had to winch out of one hole on the way in and another one on the way back out. There are numerous trees down along and across the trail. Miller Lake still had a covering of slushy snow and ice and there is still 3 – 5’ of snow at our Adopt-a- Campsite. We were able to make it a short way past the turnoff to Richardson Lake before we decided to turn around and head back out.
There is a group of guys that are trying to make it out to a vehicle that has been stranded on the trail since New Years. They have been spear heading the effort to clear the trail of downed trees and push further in on the trail each weekend. To date they have only been able to get a hundred yards or so past the “Y” at Barker Pass Rd. The stranded rig is about a mile short of Observation Point.
Here is a link to a write up about the two stranded rigs on the Rubicon:
Operation Glacier Girl
And lastly, here are two pictures I shot at Miller Lake. One is looking at Miller Lake towards where the little boat launch is located and the other is looking toward our Adopt-a-Camp. Notice the wooden sign in the background.
