Pedaling from Durango to Moab (Planning)

A couple of years ago a friend invited me on a 7 day mountain bike trip from Colorado to Utah.  It was kind of a last minute deal, so I didn't seriously consider it, but the seed was planted......

Last fall I decided it was time round up a group of friends and do the ride.  The "ride" is a 215-230 mile mountain bike trip from Durango Colorado to Moab Utah via the San Juan Hut System.  The real hook for this ride is that the huts have all of the supplies you need for each day (food, shelter, sleeping gear and BEER) so all you have to do is pedal you and your bike (and some warm clothes and spare bike parts) from hut to hut each day.  "Adventure without the weight" is how they advertise it.  I was somehow able to sell it to 5 other guys, so we will have a team of 6.

To give you a better idea of what we are getting ourselves into, here are a few articles about the route:

YouTube trip report

Mountain Flyer

Tail Winds

Desert Leaf

Bike Setup

Even though we are staying in huts each night, we still need to lug a fair amount of clothes and bike repair stuff with us (extra tires, tubes, derailer etc.....).  Fortunately, the recent surge in the  popularity of bike packing has yielded a whole bunch of really slick products to help make this easier than carrying it all on your back.  Here's what I did:

Revelate Viscacha seat bag

Revelate frame bag and "Gas Tank" bag

Rarin to go!

We drive to Moab on Friday (8/8/14) and then after leaving a car, will shuttle to Durango on Saturday to prepare for a Sunday departure.  With any luck we will arrive in Moab on Saturday 8/16.