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 1600 HRS: The motley crue caravan, consisting of 4 jeeps and 1 Xterra decided to take a plant watering break on a service road between Mt. Shast and the California/Nevada border. A dust cloud comes storming down the road and Jeep JK driven by a guy named Chris slowly emerges. This thing looks like it rolled off a magazine cover. Dana 60s, 38's and every other toy you could want. Chris sees the line of rigs and stops to see what the story is. We tell him we're a bunch of Oregon kids who are going to try and run the 'Con, despite the fact that no one in the group has ever seen or been on the trail before. Chris can't believe us at first, but seems entertained by our revelation and states that he wish he could join us just to watch. He gave us a few tips and we gave him an Ike's sticker. He promises to check the web site later for pics. Cool dude. 1900 HRS: The crew rolls in to Reno and tries to find some parking near the Circus Circus Casino. Shawn wastes a half a tank of gas (good think it's cheap... oh wait) driving around downtown Reno in search of an oversized parking spot big enough for the X and the Seadoo jetski he's pulling. As luck would have it, it's also the last day of "Hot August Nights," and trying to find an oversized parking spot is like trying to find blackjack dealer who never deals himself a face card. After learning that the increased police presence in town was due to an overwhelming number of SoCal gang members who were at odds over who would get to deal the most drugs during the big car show weekend, we all decide that RENO SUCKS... 1500 HRS: Check into the resort on the north side of Lake Tahoe. Drop off the jet ski and head for South Lake and Hwy 50. 1830 HRS: Arrive at Robb's Valley Resort near the end of Icehouse Rd. First thing we see when we pull into the parking is this;  Shortly after checking in we learn that the restaurant is out of food because of a busy weekend. We should have taken that as a sign of things to come. Regardless, we pay for our tent sites and set up camp. 1930 HRS: We head into the restaurant after choking down some camp food for a quick beer.  One of the local boys brings in his Great Danes, which apparently consider this place their home. That thing has a bigger melon than Tony...  The guy next to the dog is Mike, a local boy and member of the Pirates of the Rubicon. He teaches everybody what a "pirate shot" is (don't ask) and we learn that it's his Toyota on 40's that's parked outside.  Mike has a few more drinks, talks about "The Box" (Little Sluice) and the Hammers in Johnson Valley. Mike has a couple more drinks and ends up planting a kiss on Larraine's cheek before calling it a night. Only at Robb's...  At some point during the night John sneaks over the chalkboard. If we had known what he was doing we probably would have told him not to, but that's John for ya.  0830 HRS: The bartender tells us that we could probably reach our intended first night destination, Rubicon Springs, within 4 to 6 hours. As a result, we decided it's ok to sleep in a little bit before we hit the trail head.      1000 HRS: We slowly clear the granite slabs and head into the first rocky trail (where the Gatekeeper used to be). Pictured below is a well built XJ that was part of a 2 Jeep group just in front of us. We followed them for a short period of time but we were moving much slower...       
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