Our Durango to Moab Hut Trip August 2023
We had been talking for several years about wanting to do one of the San Juan Hut trips so were beyond excited when two friends - Cori and Carey - that Irena and her hubby had met on a ski trip expressed interest as well. Here’s how the San Juan Huts system works: You gather up to 8 people, choose your overall route (based on start/end points), and make a reservation for a specific start date. You ride from one hut to the next each day, following the provided GPX files. Some days offer several route options (gravel or singletrack) and others only gravel. The huts are stocked with food, water, beverages (beer and cider if you pay a little extra), cooking gear, sleeping bags, and bunkbeds. You carry everything else on your bike (including a sleeping bag liner). Irena’s friend Andrea joined in as well and lucky for us, there were no other folks who wanted the same start date so the five of us had the 8-person cabins to ourselves.
We chose the Durango to Moab route. Coordinating the shuttling of people, vehicle, bikes, and gear between the start and finish was rather complicated. Carey the logistics goddess handled most of it for us - thank you Carey! We somehow pulled it all off and set out on August 1, 2023.
Day 1: Molas Pass to Bolam Pass, 21 miles / 4,400 feet
We chose the singletrack option for the first day because in our research, we’d learned that most folks find the views to be more mind-scrambling on the singletrack version. It follows the Colorado Trail, which we were super excited to check out. We were warned however that it was technical and could make for a long day. That proved to be accurate. There was a lot of hiking our bikes.
The weather was typical for the San Juans - pretty calm in the morning and then thunderstorms, hail, rain, and sun all intermingling for most of the afternoon. The wildflowers and views were epic. We finished the day exhausted, wet, and cold but elated. Unfortunately, there was no dry firewood at the hut so we weren’t able to start a fire to help warm up and dry out our gear but we made a delicious dinner and went to sleep happy anyway.
Day 2: Bolam Pass to Black Mesa, 28 miles / 3,307 feet
While the often-technical singletrack on day 1 provided jawdropping views, it made for a long, slow day so we decided to take the gravel alternate on day 2 so we could pedal more. It was a lovely sunny morning which we were grateful for, since our shoes and clothing were still wet from the day before. The terrain was nice gravel for most of the day, with long, rideable, steady climbs which felt good after all the hike-a-bike yesterday.
We got to the Black Mesa hut mid-afternoon, which allowed time to dry our gear in the sun and enjoy the incredible views 100 or so yards behind the hut. Andrea made curry for dinner which really hit the spot. That evening, an intense thunderstorm moved through at the precise moment that Irena was in the outhouse. We had good laughs after she made a mad dash through the downpour and arrived back inside the hut safely.
Day 3: Black Mesa to Dry Creek Basin, 38 miles / 2,600 feet
Today started with a lovely gravel downhill with views of Groundhog Reservoir in the valley below. From there, we enjoyed some supremely chunky, bumpy descents in riverbed-style roads that were fun but bone-jarring. At mile 11, Andrea, Irena, and I peeled off separately to take the Goat Creek singletrack alternate while Cori and Carey opted for the gravel route. We made sure we all had each other’s InReach addresses and arranged that we’d meet back up at the hut. The Goat Creek alternate was a nice, steady climb on gravel and cobble followed by a winding descent on a primitive, overgrown, somewhat rocky trail through thick brush and aspen groves. We were fortunate enough to spot some elk browsing the forage.
Exiting the Goat Creek alternate, we were treated with champagne gravel on the main route for the rest of the day. We had some excitement in the last 10 miles or so when we crested a ridge and spotted a large storm system with black clouds and downpours off in the distance. It appeared to be creeping along a trajectory that would intersect our route and/or our hut location. Sarah and Irena put the hammer down for an all out sprint to the hut. We really didn’t feel like dealing with soaking wet gear again if it could be prevented. We made it to the hut without getting rained on but that’s because the storm bypassed it anyway! Oh well. It was still worth it. Riding bikes fast is fun!
The Dry Creek hut was located in sagebrush scrub on a plateau with lovely views. It was quite hot when we arrived so we sat on the deck in the shade enjoying cold beverages and talking and laughing. Cori made pork and bean burritos for dinner which we all loved.
Day 4: Dry Creek Basin to Wedding Bell Hut, 34 miles / 1,447 feet
We anticipated that today would be hot so we were up and rolling out before 8am. Within the first couple of miles, both of us managed to roll into some peanut butter mud but were able to warn the others in time fortunately. The early miles today were on nice dirt or gravel with rolling hills in wide open scrub landscapes. We were thankful the wind was gentle since we were pretty exposed. At a certain point, we started to climb a little and the rock colors and ecosystem changed slightly and then BAM we rounded a corner and it was like we had been dropped into Utah red rock territory. We couldn’t get over the views! And the Wedding Bell hut was perched on a promontory that overlooked all of it. We were gobsmacked. It was so incredible. The temps inside the hut were sweltering until long past sunset so most of this afternoon and evening were spent enjoying the views and trying to manage the heat.
Day 5: Wedding Bell Hut to Paradox Valley, 32 miles / 2,526 feet
We got another early-ish start today in an attempt to beat the heat. Riding through red rock canyons in the morning light was really beautiful. This was followed by a steady climb up to a plateau that overlooked Paradox Valley. To get down into the valley, we had to make our way down the vertigo-inducing Catch-em Up trail - a double-black diamond trail dominated by rocks and boulders that drops over 1,000 feet in 1.2 miles. Needless to say, it was slow-going. At the bottom, everyone except Sarah (with all the mines around here, no thanks!) took a dip in the Dolores River and we continued the eight remaining easy-rolling gravel miles to the Paradox Valley hut. Sarah’s Wahoo showed a temp of 108 in these miles.
Located in unshaded scrub, the hut was unsurprisingly sweltering. We relaxed a bit and took care of chores like bike maintenance and dinner prep while trying to stay cool. Sarah pre-made pancakes for tomorrow’s breakfast. Big laughs ensued as we tried various ridiculous things to cool ourselves down with wet bandannas and soda cans. Irena was hilariously miserable. She is crazy tough but extreme heat breaks her which Sarah finds hysterically funny.
Even though it was hot, we talked about how grateful we were that it was dry. We had ridden through some long stretches of clayey dirt that we knew would be unpassable mud if it were to rain. In the hut guestbooks, we read terrible stories from previous riders about trip-ending mud. We felt we lucked out big time with the conditions we had on the whole trip. We went to sleep knowing that tomorrow would be our biggest climbing day.
Day 6: Paradox Valley Hut to Geyser Pass, 22 miles / 5,190 feet
Big climbing day today! At mile 2.7, we started the first and most consistently steep climb of the day which was 3.5 miles with an average grade of 9.6%. It’s a good way to wake up fast, that’s for sure! Since the route climbed consistently in elevation for the whole route today, our group was stretched out across space and time more than usual. We had periodic regroupings to make sure everyone was safe. It was beautiful country with ecosystems changing significantly as we gained elevation. The hut was located in an aspen grove at the edge of a meadow. We were so happy to have cooler temperatures and a hut in the shade. A trail led from the back of the hut to another meadow with mountain views.
It was on this evening that Sarah incurred her dumbest bike trip injury yet - and it wasn’t even while actually biking. Running to open the screen door for Irena who was bringing in a water jug, she accidentally smashed her hand into the food cabinet, dislocating a finger (she would later learn it had likely been broken, when the ligament tore away a piece of bone). A buddy-tape job did the trick to manage it for the rest of the trip. For dinner, Cori made an encore of her crowd-pleasing mac n’ cheese with tomatoes and chicken.
Day 7: Geyser Pass to Moab, 39 miles / 2,113 feet
Last day of the trip! We opted to do the basic gravel route as opposed to the Whole Enchilada. We want to come back and do that on unloaded full squish bikes another time. We started today with a little bit of climbing from the hut through an old burn that opened up to wide expansive views of Spanish Valley and the surrounding red rocks. We had some nice gravel downhill and gentle climbing on pavement before starting the final descent on gravel and slickrock (including a section of the Kokopelli trail) into the town of Moab. Cool rock features and hoodoos lined the route, much to our delight. It was beautiful and epic and we ate it up.
When we got to town, we rode straight to our hotel (the awesome Field Station — 10 thumbs up!). Carey’s car was waiting for us there, having been driven to Moab from Durango by a service Carey hired. Carey brought Sarah and her bike to Poison Spider Bicycles, who Sarah paid to box it up for her as it would be on a plane with her to Washington the next morning. They did a meticulous and thorough job, having it ready within just a few hours, for which Sarah was immeasurably grateful. After washing 7 days’ worth of grime from our bodies, we headed out to a huge Mexican food dinner followed by ice cream cones from a food truck before returning to the hotel to relax by the pool.
The next morning, Carey, Cori, Andrea, and Irena and all their bikes left in Carey’s car for the drive back to Idaho and Washington. Sarah and her boxed bike boarded the Moab Express shuttle (they were punctual, safe, and clean and had plenty of room for the bike box - Sarah was very pleased!) to the Moab airport to fly back to Washington.
Our thoughts on the trip in summary:
It was amazing. Absolutely 100% worth the money. We were so impressed with the locations of the huts and the scenery of the routes. We had friends that we weren’t able to convince to join us on this trip because they feared their technical riding skills were insufficient. None of us are particularly strong technical riders so when things got spicy, we just hopped off and walked. We think the best asset for this trip in terms of ability is being a strong climber.
In general, the San Juan Huts does a great job with keeping the huts well-maintained and stocked. However, note that the GPX files they provided were really confusing. Some files contained multiple days of routes, the naming was wrong on some, there were duplicates, etc. It required a bunch of extra legwork to figure it all out before the trip. Also, we were disappointed to see that they provided items in the huts like sunscreen, bug spray, first aid, etc but no emergency stashes of feminine sanitary products.
The food options were great. We never lacked for interesting dinner and breakfast ideas. Our staples for breakfast were eggs, oatmeal, and coffee. For trail food, we made nutella and banana tortillas, PB&Js, filled ziploc bags with snacks like Goldfish crackers, pretzels, nuts, trail mix, and M&Ms. There were also plenty of single-serve items like Snickers bars, nut rolls, Scratch bars, etc. We were very pleased with the food situation overall.
We had no issues with water. We brought filters with us but hardly needed them.
