China Wall (3/26/16)

Patrol 14 had decided to head to China Wall instead of Kingston Peak for our March Run, the snow along the Front Range was still too deep and there are now Seasonal Gates on Kingston Peak.  So we changed our itinerary and headed to China Wall.  To my knowledge Patrol 14 hasn’t ever done this trail, Patrol 17 had ran that trail the previous weekend and I got a confirmation from them that the snow was light. The weather all week was looking pretty good for a nice day on trail.  Sadly when we headed to the meeting point in Bailey we encountered heavy snow fall and slick conditions all the way up 285 to Bailey.  When I arrived at the Conoco Sam & Elaine Sanford were there, ready and anxious to hit the trail (well Sam was anxious not sure about Elaine).  We had two guests joining us for this run, since the snow was so heavy we decided to wait and give them a chance to arrive.  Shortly thereafter everyone was at the meet point and we headed for the Trail.  China Wall is located just outside of Jefferson, I was hoping that once we crossed Kenosha Pass that the heavy snow would slow down, and my luck was with me as we dropped off Kenosha Pass the snow was much lighter.  We turned onto County Road 77 at Jefferson, the snow began to get heavier, since we had already gone this far there was no turning back.  After what seemed like an eternity we finally reached the trail head (which isn’t clearly marked).  After we were off the main road we Aired down (not knowing what to expect).  After airing down we headed to the trail, it was still snowing but the snow was much lighter.  The scenery on this trail is nice but the challenges are very limited.  When we did encounter some small challenges we took advantage of the opportunity to play around on the challenge.  When we hit the end of the trail so quickly we decided to run the trail backwards just to spend more time enjoying the scenery.  This would be a great trail for a Green Horn Run but it is short and the only trails close by take you back thru Colorado Springs.  Here are some pictures from the run: