I will try to keep this brief. I don't have room for all the tips I would like to include. With that said, if you are every considering doing this trip feel free to PM me, I will happily answer questions. This is trip was truly epic. Seven days of riding, five of it had unreal single track to include The Whole Enchilada from the top of Burro Pass into Moab on day seven. There were six of us on the trip. Myself and my buddy were on AM bikes with only backpacks.....no bar, frame or seatpost bags. The other four had a combination of panniers and assorted frame bags and rode hard tails. Those four opted out of most of the single track, sticking to the main route which is a combination of fire roads and Jeep trails. The trip is a combination of dealing with weather, navigation and being self reliant for bike repairs etc. based on the fact the the majority of the trip keeps you in very remote areas. In my opinion, a satellite communication device (Delorme or a Spot) is a must have because cell service was nonexistent for 95% of the time. The San Juan Hut to Hut people recommend that you stay at the Durango Mtn Resort (DMR) the night before you leave on your trip. That is fine if you are going to take the fire road route that essentially leaves from there. A draw back to that is that you are stuck at the resort, which is actually 30 miles from Durango, with no vehicle, having left it in Moab. Day #1 singletrack option is 15 miles away from DMR and includes 21 miles of 100% singletrack on the Colorado Trail. If you miss this option, you are insane. That trailhead is only 6 miles from Silverton, CO (9318 ft.) which is an amazing place to stay prior to your trip, with multiple restaurants, shops and a brewery all within walking distance. We stayed here two days prior to leaving on the trip, rode some local trails and tried to get used to the altitude. I would recommend looking up the Triangle Motel (trianglemotel.com). It's family owned, reasonable and they can hook you up with a shuttle to the trailhead. You don't have to read between the lines to see I'm a huge fan of Silverton. Trying to to get used to the altitude on a spin above Silverton. Greene St. In Silverton......29ers and 27.5s are so this century Trail on day one. The high point was 12,700 ft. More day one. Afternoon clouds coming in. We got hailed on and spent an hour taking shelter as a lightning storm passed over us. To be continued....
RR continued Hut on day two View from day 2 hut Day three hut....apparently there are bear issues here. The door was solid steel. Day three singletrack.....exposed and technical.
RR continued Day way four...getting ready to drop into the Paradox Valley. "Drying tree" day four. Hut on day 6.... The stoves were appreciated at the huts above 10,000 ft. Day 7...On top of Burro Pass in the La Sal Mtns. Looking at the San Juans where we started 200 miles ago. Image below....almost done and enjoying every inch of the trail despite the 95 degree heat.
Sweet! And congrats! I want to do that ride...sooooooooooo bad. My buddy did it and said it was his best vacation ever.
Fantastic job on a sweet looking outing! Thanks for sharing the pix and stoke. I appreciate a brief report...but would not be offended if you added to it. Cheers :beer: I rode briefly with a group of old boys doing this ride. I can see why they were all jacked up. So it's on my radar already, climbing the list now. It looks like a perfect length of a ride with just the right accoms and varied terrain. Must do!...
My sister just got back from hiking Utah (Brianhead) and brought me tons of maps and literature on Utah. I'll be hitting it soon; just saw a Half Marathon happening on the day of my birthday next month; if I can't ride might as well run. Thanks for the share and the stoke. *Binh, I better be invited when you and Liz plan this trip or there will be hell to pay...lol
Awesome! Do you happen to have a break down of mileage per day and elevation? I'd love to do some epic week long trail riding in the future. Thanks for sharing!
How does the logistic work? You guys brought your own food and water for 7 days? Doesn't look like you are carrying much. thanks
Yeah what's the logistics? Your home bases was the little hut? Total miles riding? Sorry for the questions but with your awesome pictures I wanna try this out! Thanks for sharing!
Looks like they rode supported using a group like this: http://www.backcountrybiker.com/cbb_bike_trips.html They move your bivy gear from hut to hut and have all the food and beverages waiting for you. They move your car as well iirc. You go for a point-point day ride every day essentially. I read about a trip CO BCB supported and it sounded wicked fun. Here is that piece: http://www.backcountrybiker.com/images/Ward.ColoradoHuts.pdf
The San Juan Hut to Hut system includes a series of 6 huts between Durango ( more accurately Silverton,CO) and Moab, UT. They also have a shorter trip offered (4 nights) between Telluride, CO and Moab. The huts are stocked with food, water, cooking utensils, propane shove/lights and sleeping bags. The huts are restocked after a certain number of people/days. The first hurdle of the trip is leaving your vehicle in Moab and getting a shuttle to Durango or Silverton. We brought a pre-posted USPS box so we could have some things for our two days in Silverton that we didn't want to pedal back to UT. My pack weighed about 27 pounds loaded with water. I found it surprisingly manageable on technical trails but did notice that it definitely excellerated saddle/butt issues on long seated climbs. On days where we had water available I would carry less to save weight and filter it if I needed it. As far as what I carried, I had a pretty good amount of bike repair stuff: tools, derailure hanger, spokes, rim tape, tubes, lube, cassette tool, chain links, assorted spare bolts and one spare chain for each 3 riders and 1 spare tire for each 3 riders. I also had a Delorme InReach (satellite communicator/GPS), emergency blanket, fire starting stuff , duct tape and a pretty big first aide kit. Basically, our opinion was that we needed to be prepared to spend the night out in the woods if we didn't make it to a hut for some reason. Three out of the six of us are paramedics and that came in handy when one of the group separated his shoulder. Here is a chart that shows mileage. Five of the seven days we took "single track options" which increased or mileage. Our final total was around 230 miles. I have our daily climbing and decent totals somewhere, I can post them when I find them. Here is the website of the company we used. They are not perfect, but they do a good job. http://www.sanjuanhuts.com/index.php/mtb/durango-moab
This is fricken cool. Thanks for taking the time and sharing. With kids, wife, and a serious work load I don't seem to have time like this anymore but I love dreaming about it. Day 6 looks like it could be painful.
thanks for sharing! I did Telluride to Moab in 2006, and had a blast. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. How did you like the elevated crappers?? For anyone thinking about doing it, it's really an awesome time.
