China Wall 2008 Trip Report
After the cold, blustery days on Thursday and Friday a few people expressed some serious concerns about the condition of the trail as we grouped together at Safeway early on Saturday morning. Even though Saturday started off very cold with a hard frost it had warmed up about 20 degrees by the time we left Safeway. We had 9 vehicles meet up with us at Safeway to travel together to the trail. We even had 2 new couples brave the cold to come out and to join the club.
We started off from the Safeway store a few minutes after 9:00 AM with Tom Thompson in the lead and Buddy Beach sliding back to take the important final slot to keep us congregated together into a group. After a short drive we arrived at the trail head with everyone intact. Pete Johns joined us shortly after we started up the trail. We didn't have a vehicle problem until we started to play on the rock slab before the descent into the Tarryall Creek area. Pete tweaked his tie rod a little then showed off his mechanical skills by using a winch and a bottle jack to straighten the tie rod. A very impressive trail repair. Check out the photos to see how he did this alignment on the trail.
While picnicing at the Tarryall Creek a couple of people expressed an interest in trying the obstacle into the China Wall on FR204. After several other people expressed an interest in watching we decided to take this slight detour so a couple of our drivers could show off their driving skills and the capabilities of their vehicles. Everyone was impressed that Josh was able to make it down and back up this obstacle without the use of lockers. After this fun detour we returned back to FR212 and after a brief stop at the top of the loop for photos we were able to leave the trail for home by 4:00 PM.
Even though we worried about the trail conditions and weather earlier in the day God truly Blessed us with a warm comfortable day, great trail conditions, and no significant problems on the trail.
