Los Pinos

[COUNT]

So I must have heard at least 4 groups talking about getting in there and it sounds like at least 1 actually did. Any TR's? How was it? Flows, quality, etc?

[tj@cu]

i know of at least 3 groups that went in there and the general feeling was that it is a great wilderness/adventure run but the whitewater is not worth the effort. That being said, most people I talked to said they would go back in.

[tboner]

donde es los pinos?

[kayakfreakus]

No hablo español, but I think you asked:

Los Pinos

[doublet]

We ran it last year on the low side. We tried to shorten our shuttle with an alternate hike in that is definitely not recommended. The Pinos is a TON of work, but there is some excellent whitewater. There is also a lot of portaging around manky bullshit.

I know of at least one group who got it at a good flow this year, and it sounds like they only ran 1 good drop we didn't, so high flows don't reduce your portage count by much. It does sound like the run overall is higher quality with more water.

Our low flows were nice for the lower half of the run, but painfully scrapey for the upper half. It sounds like the high water crew had more fun in the upper half and had to deal with very continuous big water V down low. The big water section is likely really fun with higher flows, but there would be long sections without eddies, so scouting for wood might take awhile.

I definitely would do it again, but I'd go expecting a lot of work. Now that I know the run I'd feel a little more confident dropping in there with a lot of juice. That is one of the most spectacular places I've ever been in a kayak, but if your goal is to just paddle a bunch of nice drops without big portages go lap Valle.

[tk]

Originally Posted by doublet

but if your goal is to just paddle a bunch of nice drops without big portages go lap Valle.

We did it a few weeks ago and I would echo most of what was said here. In the Quality drops/mile of hiking category, its no where close to Vallecito IMO. But its a great workout, a beautiful remote valley, cool wildlife (Moose, Beaver, etc), and a super long shuttle! Maybe after a year I would do it again, but if it was flowing now I would probably do another run instead.

[E-Ro]

Small trip report and photos: The Colorado Kayak Chronicle

Evan