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To say the least that was an incredible event! It's difficult to sum up and all will be explained in detail in my official trip report. Until then here is what went down in a large nutshell:One week before the TacoBox run, 4 of the Tacomas had pulled out due to illnesses and scheduling conflicts.Monday Sept 11: One day to go Wyatt had to pull out due to his front Currie unit bearings failing and his only replacement parts, Dynatrac free-spin kit, not eaisly compatible with his axle setup.Tuesday: Earlier that summer I had invited our premier Canadian distributor Nathan from The Gear Shop to provide video coverage of both the TacoBox run and the Round Up. He drove his 4.7-liter V8 powered 4th gen 4Runner down from Alberta and on Tuesday morning he made it safely to our shop... The day we were supposed to leave... And I wasn't ready... Nathan and I spent the day getting last minute stuff done on the TacomaWednesday: A day behind schedule and minus 5 trucks, Nathan and I finally left for the Rubicon!Thursday: On the trail just past 5pm we were over half-way to our first camp when both our trucks broke down within 100 feet of one another. We were able to get my truck back together in the dark with spare parts I had, but none of my remaining spares fit Nathan's 4Runner. We abandoned his truck on the trail, loaded up his necessities into my Tacoma (LOVE THAT ACCESSCAB!), turned around, and drove out in the dark as gingerly as possible without any extra spare parts.All will be explained in my trip report. The breakage was simple, straightforward, and a real crash course for me and the strength of the IFS system. Nathan has been building and wheel'n late model Toyota IFS on trails like the Rubicon for about a decade and this was a first for him. The freak experience left us both with an eerie feeling; Felt like anything could break at anytime on the way back out. Getting back out took way longer than it should have as I kept getting stuck taking awkward lines trying to reduce loads on the front end. We made it back to pavement, aired up, and about 2 hrs later had managed to find a hotel room in the mining town of Placerville, CA at 1am Friday morning. Friday: We drove back down to the valley and all over the place picking up multiple spare parts for both our trucks and was able to contact, coordinate, and pick-up one of my employees in the valley, who I had previously scheduled to leave the Springs campground this same day to meet our main Marlin Crawler group up at Lake Tahoe to pick him up and help carry in the massive amount of supplies that it takes to put on an event of this magnitude. I then drove back into the trail late that day with two passengers (first time I had ever wheeled with more than 1 passenger as I've never had back seats before).By this late in the week, we decided to avoid the rush of 300-something people all trying to get to our Round Up event by taking the Official Rubicon Trail Entrance discussed in reply #77 of my Trip Report thread thereby becoming at that point the first 3rd Gen Tacoma to officially attempt the Rubicon trail! The three of us entered the trail through Wentworth Springs as the sun was setting. This was my first time ever through Wentworth Springs literally since I was a toddler.We got to Nathan's 4Runner long after dark, got it back together, and then began a long sequence of getting lost in the dark and backtracking twice on the Slabs, then lost on the Rubicon Trail Foundation's new property as our first time there while trying to avoid an overcrowded Buck Island Lake campground, and finally giving up and continuing on to Buck and luckily finding a small campsite at 1am Saturday morning.Saturday: *This is the main day of our Round Up event so we were now late to our own event* We hammered through the rest of the trail, encountered a lot of traffic, and made it to the Springs Campground before 2pm.It was quite the welcoming party at the Springs! As President it is my honor to kick-off the main Springs Campground event and wish everyone a farewell from the stage. Event staff were asking every other truck entering the Springs if they had seen BigMike, to which they had either (1) never seen a new white 3rd gen Tacoma anywhere on the trail, or (2) had only seen the broken down black 4Runner not even halfway to the Springs---as we were on the old, traditional trail entrance of Wentworth Springs plus only traveling mostly by night. So as you can imagine it was pretty cool rolling in when there were already hundreds of people at the Springs welcoming us to another awesome Marlin Crawler Round Up experience!!Sunday: Because we are in charge of the entire Springs Campground it's our annual duty to remain in camp as the last to leave to ensure all trash is picked up and the 'Con left better than we found it after the 300-400 event participants have left. I had more issues with the Tacoma on my way up and out to Lake Tahoe and ended up warping my driver's rear brake drum from an on-going issue that was first experienced at the FJ Summit and which other Tacoma owners have reported that their rear brakes fail to unlock after the release of the e-brake. In the end, I got home just before 3am Monday morning! WHEW! Such an awesome trip!! Can't wait to do it all over again in Sept 2018!!!I'm really looking forward to posting my full trip report. Definitely, the inexperience I have with this new Tacoma adds many brownie points to the epic meter. The last time I had such an epic adventure on the Rubicon was with Tim aka "TURBO" during MCR7 in 2008 where my lightweight 4cyl Hilux had to tow a heavy 6cyl 4Runner that had broke an axle and was experiencing charging issues on the Rubicon in the dark, not getting home until sunrise! These are the trips I'll never forget and I'm always grateful for having experienced!
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