China Wall
Though the trip to the trailhead was long it was worth the drive to this little-known trail in the Tarryall Mountains. We had a sunny, nice day in November and we didn't see any other offroaders on the trail.
There were a lot of places where people had driven off the trail and made a mess but many places were cabled off so the area can regrow. Even with the spurs everywhere it was easy to find the trail (don't take that first left on 212, just keep going to the base of the mountain).
We took the right fork up the mountain and the left fork down on the way out. It starts out with some nice rocky areas to climb and it continued that way. We would drive a little stretch of flat dirt road, then have a few rocks to climb, then more dirt road, then rocks. It was a nice mix.
We took FR 204 and had a blast on the rock hill. There are lots of flexy places all through these trails. Having a disconnected sway bar will do wonders on this trail -- otherwise your tires are going to be hanging in mid-air all day.
We saw a couple trucks in the Box Canyon parking area but didn't see anyone. We took 204-B out to the end and had lunch there. You could fit about four Jeeps down there but not many more. We followed 204 past Box Canyon but it was just dirt road (that's how the trucks got in -- we were wondering how they fit through the tight curve on the rock hill).
Though 204 was fun there were some good challenges on the other half of 212 too. The best was probably the flexy rocks. It was fun going through them the first time with the biggest rock as a drop-off, but the other way through was challenging too. We both scraped a little something on the rock but nothing major. Someone had stacked rocks a little bit so it was a little easier to get through.
We were going to do Georgia Pass on the way home but it was too snowy up there. Most of the time we had our windows down and we didn't need coats because the weather was so nice and the trail isn't that high in elevation. This would be a great winter trail. The worst part of it would be getting to it on CR 77, as it wouldn't be that well maintained. This is a fun trail -- it's too bad it's so far out of the way!
Reports from Other Days: 8
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