mid december san juan packrafting

this is my answer to the fact that we have no snow in the san juan mountains yet.
three day hike,bike, packraft tour of the san juan river.
day one: push, pull, carry, drop, drag bikes 1200vertical feet down into the canyon bottom



i didnt know it, but this was about to be the most gnarly downhill hike a bike i'd ever done.


yes glen down there...
glen isn't too keen on heights, but the option of turning around kept him going!
i'll just throw this little warning out there in case you are planning a repeat of this trip.
dont try this in december if the weather is looking anything but sweet! there is very little sun in the canyon bottom in december, the weather forecast was calm with highs in the 50's but it was pretty damn cold on the river!
these snow blower gloves i picked up on the way out of town suck for boating.
the first of many, stop, empty boat, try to warm up breaks

looks all warm and fuzzy, but we were pretty much freezing.
not sure what happened to this guy, but he had some pretty nice doom gear.
taking advantage of the small amount of sun we had


take out junk show /try to let your gear dry out as much as possible before you stuff it onto your bike.

glen demonstrating the fine art of taking your bike for a walk

an early morning veiw or the san juan from near camp.
great camp, sheltered from a westerly wind, with a natural kitchen table too.
we finished day two here after paddling most of the day and then pushing our bikes up and out of the canyon bottom for about an hour or so.
the road is perched on a high shelf above the river for many of it's 40 or so miles back to our put in.
about to walk our bikes downhill again




we did ride our bikes a little bit...
i promised glen that i'd get a least a few shots of him actually riding his bike.

ouch... freshly graded roadbed=slow painful progress



the only vehicle we saw in three days