Rubicon Trail Maintenance Efforts

Back in the old days, The Lake Tahoe Hi-Lo’s were the official Adopt-A-Trail club for the Tahoe side and the Sacramento Jeepers were the Adopt-A-Trail club for the west side. This worked out only okay. The trail was cleaned occasionally but big work projects were few and far between.

The NEW Rubicon resurgence in 2000, began with the threat of possible closure of the Rubicon Trail on the Tahoe side. This threat sponned Friends of the Rubicon. And in 2001, 200+ volunteers worked for two days moving 180 tons of crushed rock creating 28 rolling dips on the trail within the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. The rest is history. FOTR has completed dozens if not scores of projects on the Rubicon Trail.

Currently, the Rubicon Trail is a county road in both El Dorado and Placer Counties. This eliminates the old Adopt-A-Trail plan that was used by the Forest Service. Both counties are currently working on paperwork to allow clubs to work on the Trail. It is unknown how the counties will manage the new program.

Clubs and individuals can still perform work on the Trail. The Forest Service and the Counties are all asking that it be kept to cleaning and blocking illegal bypasses. No rehabilitation work should be performed because there is always the possibility that the rehabilitation could disturb an archeological site. Just block the bypass at the Trail and inform the appropriate county. Any larger projects need to be pre-approved by the right county, in writing, prior to any work being performed. The line between El Dorado and Placer is at the Tahoe side of the Rubicon Springs property.

El Dorado County has been very active in trail maintenance. Although the Trail is listed as an “unmaintained county road”, El Dorado County has stepped up with men and material, most recently to fix the water hole and drainage issues near Wentworth Springs.

Placer County is great to work with. They have worked to get grants for rock to fill water holes on the Tahoe side. One grant was just approved (summer 2008) and the money should be available 2009. They have paperwork in place to cover all volunteers, on County approved work projects, with workers compensation insurance.

Eldorado National Forest no longer controls or maintains the Rubicon Trail although they are still vocal at the Rubicon Oversight Committee. The FS concerns are that conditions on the Trail with affect the surrounding forests. And they are correct, so they still have a small say in how and what happens.

Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit is involved with the first couple of miles of Trail out of the Tahoe staging area. They were very much involved in the 2001 Rolling Dip project. Again, the Trail is a county road but the FS is still involved, primarily because the Tahoe Staging area is FS property. Currently, the FS is planning doing a lot of work around the staging area. Read as clearing out the under brush. The Rubicon Trail Foundation will be trying to re-work the staging area during the summer of 2009, including building a kiosk.

Tahoe National Forest is my personal favorite forest to work with. They have an actual live person assigned to OHV management and she’s fantastic to work with. The TNF has been very open to projects aimed at getting water off the trail.