On the map the road to camp looked reasonable, and the word was that there was just a little bit of water to cross - no big deal. It was a great motorcycle road - well maintained, with great views of the Crystal Basin Wilderness area - absolutely spectacular. Alas when I arrived at the water crossing it looked a little more intimidating than I had expected. Had I been on my own, I would have turned around and returned home, but with an audience and a bit of egging on I decided to give it a try. Of course not being experienced in crossing streams on my motorcycle, I made it half way across and promptly fell over into the water. No harm done, just my pride and my iPhone which was in my pocket on my wet side.
The bike is too heavy for me to pick up on a flat pavement never mind a flowing stream so a bit of assistance was required - thanks guys for dragging me out of the water. Of course they took me over the stream so there was no point in turning back at that point so I pressed on to the camp, gaining a lot of experience with water and rough road on the way. Way more water than I was expecting.
The Rubicon Trail is an old trail through the Sierras that has become the domain of the 4-Wheel community. Hikers and back packers leave it well alone and seek solitude elsewhere. For the 4-Wheelers it is quite a challenging trail (as you can perhaps see from the photos) and it becomes a slow and technical crawl over bolders and slabs of granite. You can truly hike it faster than they can drive it.
A good time was had by all, and on the way out I nailed the stream crossing - it didn't look quite as intimidating on the way out, as you can see below.
