Webster, Saints John, Swan River, Georgia Passes

[Chris]

Barb decided she wanted to run Red Cone so we headed up there this morning. It didn't take long on Webster for me to veto Red Cone due to trail conditions. They had a lot of rain and I didn't think it was wise to do it when wet and when alone. Instead we took Webster from 285 to Monetzuma and picked up Saints John heading back towards 285.

I had never even heard Saints John mentioned but it's a great trail. Wow, probably shouldn't have done it for the same reasons I passed on Red Cone. It's got incredible views, lots of steep inclines and declines and even more fantastic views. As Barb said "This is beautiful and a little bit scary!" We did have hail, snow, rain, thunder and lightening which made me a bit nervous but I'd do it all over again simply for the fun of it all and the great views.

We came back to Jefferson on some combination of North and Middle Fork of Swam River, hard to really know in that tangle of trails but it was nice to be below the tree line and free of precipitation. We finished up by taking Georgia Pass which I understood was easy which it was except for a long section that was very wet, lots of water, holes and a fair amount of mud. Again, that was fun.

All in all a great day with Saints John being the highlight and somewhere I plan on revisiting. Hopefully it will be warmer and sunny next time.

A few pics...

[Smash]

Wow.


:bow:

[Rob]

Does that trail keep going (in the first picture)?

[Funrover]

Glad you all had fun.. I need to get back to St. Johns, I have only run part of it in snow

[Chris]

Does that trail keep going (in the first picture)?

It sure does, I'll be hitting it again in the Spring after the snow melts. Fantastic trail especially since we didn't expect to find such views.

[Roostercruiser]

nice . ineed to get out agian:(

[RicardoJM]

How was the washout near the top of Webster? We were there yesterday and after looking it over decided we would have to get pretty high on the rock and off camber a bit more than we were comfortable with. Here is a photo of what it looked like yesterday.http://www.risingsun4x4club.org/uploads/ricardojm/webster2009/w_washout.jpg

[Mporter]

dang....just punch it!

[Brody]

I am not a big fan of that stuff myself....nor is LaDawn. I do like a little road under my tires and prefer to have a few trees that I know will keep me from rolling 1,000' down some hillside. The off camber just adds to the "I am not a big fan" equation...

Give me big knarly rocks any day....One of the reasons that we seldom do trails with large drop off shelf roads on them. Red Cone has quite enough and one of the reasons we didn't do Webster was that it was rated harder than Red Cone and we had heard that there was spooky sections like your picture....and the reason that we didn't do Radical Hill. Nor do we especially like the nose of the rig over some big drop off when we are having to back and tack to get around some switchback.

I simply don't trust any vehicle all that much, no matter how well built or maintained. That kinda stuff I'll leave for rock and ice climbing where I know that what I am relying on is my own physical and mental strength, not some piece of mechanical garbage....