I have been in NM a little over a year, spent most of my time moutainbiking all over NM, UT, CO and AZ, Looking to do some PR now. Interested in mellow day trips, some WW and overnight/weekend stuff in NM, but also parts of UT and CO. Hit me up if interested.
Cheers,
Patrick
Just relocated from AK to CO, and found very few people here are aware of or interested in Packrafting. I think from what I have found 11 mile Canyon on the South Platte River would be a decent run after May. The snowpack is very poor so one shouldn’t encounter much class 4-5. I looks like the trip could be extended down toward Cheesman Resivoir. Always best to scout the route 1st for any sweeper/strainers.
I also wouldn’t mind traveling up toward the Colorado River out west, Rio Grande in NM, or just a quick shot down to the Arkansas from Buena Vista…not sure if I would want to shoot Royal Gorge in an Alpacka yet? Anyone with Alpacka experience between Buena Vista and Cañon City?
I cut my teeth in AK packrafting (figuratively). Wished I would have done some more up there, PR paradise, but super cold water. And let’s face it, never was too warm out in the summer when you step out of the boat. Brrrr. I look forward to not always having to wear my drysuit and numb hands. Anyways, there are possibilities out this way. Some sections of the Rio Grande to do up by Taos and south of there. Rio Chama has some runs I hear. Just a matter of research I guess, and hopefully linking up with like minded folks.
Thanks for the suggstions. If you would like to arrange a overnight trip near Taos, I would be able to show up. Would late Mar through April be too cold. Got a drysuit, an spraydeck so hopefully prepared either way? I drove from Taos to Bendelier…I believe the Rio runs along the route for quite awhile with plenty of put/ins along the way. I might be able to make a weekend trip down that way this year to visit the ruins again. I wouldn’t mind getting some rafting in also.
We do a little packrafting, and have done a few runs that you might take a look at. Below is a vid of a few NM runs we did last year. The issue with the Middle Box is the shuttle. It’d be nice to work out a hike, but for our trip we shuttled it with a vehicle. We did from La junta to John Dunn Bridge, and the hike down was chill. This video also has a short clip of the Rio Chama day run and the Rio Grande Race Course, both of which are easy mountain bike rides, or even hike. These 3 are good places to start. Also check out the Upper (Second Box) Piedra River near Pagosa. It has a mellow 10 mile hike, and good free camping at the take out. (We started a Piedra thread here with pics). The rapids on all of the above sections are scoutable and even portage-able, and have easy pools for swimmers to recover and get boats, etc.
We are currently looking at the Gila and San Francisco River, and Verde River, options for packrafting loops, and would enjoy having others along to carry all of our stuff for us. Just kidding. Spring 2014 (March/April).
hi there, i have done runs on the chama between el vado and abiquiu lakes, they release water from el vado dam a few weekends in the may timeframe and you can get a permit for it, we turned it into a 3 day trip so we could hike and enjoy… mostly small rapids with a couple of decent ones.
As far as the gila… i did a heart stopping trip in 2010 through the middle box from below bill evans lake to red rock NM… couldnt find any info on it so we kinda ran blind and once you are in the box there are very few places to “pull over and re-assess my decision”… we lived though and it was not as bad as my imagination told me it could be, camped on a sandbar in the box and slept fitfully to the sound of unknown whitewater ahead…
HUGE ISSUE with that gila run… NOWHERE to pull out in red rock… all private all around the bridge, etc, that was a major pain to deal with
trying to find data on the rio grande from espanola to cochiti lake, all i find starts at the bridge on the way to las alamos, didnt know if anyone started that run in espanola??
I was going to try a bikraft loop from the bridge to Cochiti, and back around by bike. Not sure what weekend I’l try it. contact me if you want to try it or other stuff. southwestbackcountry at g mail dot com
The Rio Chama is a fantastic river. Perfect for pack rafts.