Once upon a time, there was an Indian trade route over the Sierra. White man came and the first route he took westbound over the Sierra was the Rubicon Trail (at least down to what is now the Rubicon River, then he turned right toward what is now Hell Hole Reservoir). Decades later, the route was turned into a stagecoach route (exiting in Georgetown). In 1908, a woman was the first to drive the Rubicon Trail, from the Tahoe side down to Rubicon Springs. After World War II, returning GIs bought surplus Jeeps and headed up the trail. The rest is history.
Someone was unhappy that the Jeeps travelling the Rubicon Trail within the Lake Tahoe basin and made accusations that the Jeeps were causing erosion, sedimentation entering the creeks and thus not Keeping Tahoe Blue.
The Lahontan Water Authority was notified, and the trail was shut down, at least on paper. The Lahontan Water Authority issued a ‘Cease & Desist’ order to Placer County. placer was ordered to close the trail.
Word got out and one man set out to stop the closure. Del Albright met with a few friends and those friends became ‘Friends of the Rubicon’.
Del brought 20+ clubs together and had 200+ volunteers show up to move 180 tons of crushed rock. The creek crossings were rock lined, there was no more erosion, there was no more sedimentation entering the waterways, Lake Tahoe would stay blue.
But this didn’t happen in a day. Del worked with Placer County on a plan. Here are those plans made almost 25 years ago.
