The Colorado Kayak Chronicle: Winter kayak self support on the Lower Box, New Mexico

Saturday, January 15, 2011

So with Northern New Mexico not getting much snow, It was time for a nice overnight trip down the class 2-3+(at flows of 600cfs) lower Box. The Lower Box is a great 15 mile wilderness run deep in a basalt gorge just west of Taos, NM. My friends Nate and Duke had never been on a kayak self support trip before and were amped to give it a try. We headed out Dec 10th, 2010. Although the 2 days were fairly warm, the night time temps were still getting down below freezing. So we packed tons of firewood, duralogs, food, beer, very warm sleeping bags and bivy's. Our kayaks probably weighed about 100lbs each. This was not a lightweight trip by any means. I was excited to just get away for a couple days and enjoy the beauty of the basalt canyon. We saw tons of Bighorn sheep. They were reintroduced to the area a couple years ago and are thriving. In our kayaks we were able to slowly drift by them as they were feeding. Pretty darn cool. This a great mellow run for a first time self support. The new Burn handled the tons of gear great. A must have in the winter time when kayaking is a good Drysuit. I slept in the fleece that I wore under the suit in the day, and I was totally dry. Helps in the event of a swim or rescue also. We had a fantastic time. Now I wish it would snow like crazy! happy New year. Beers, Atom....

A vid of our good times...

Keeping an eye on our progress