Nina Harmon

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St. James Cycle Trail Trip Report

TRAIL TYPE

A mixture of fire road, double track and singletrack 

TRIP OVERVIEW 

Judging by the trail description the trip could be done in one day, but where’s the fun in that? We split the adventure into two days by cutting out the shuttle option and leaving mid-day. This also gave us an excuse to test out our bike packing gear and stay overnight in a remote hut. We made it to the Guyon Hut in just over 5 hours and narrowly caught sunset. It was unreal.

Suunto GPS Movie of Day One's Journey on the St. James Trail

On day two we set out in the morning for some serious saddle time: 7 hours and 53 minutes of mountain passes, stream crossings and wild terrain. Our packs were heavy, but the journey was pure magic. The corners of my mouth hurt from smiling so much.    

ELEVATION GAINED

2030 meters

Distance Traveled

92+ kilometers 

Weather and conditions

Mix of sun and cloud. We marched through a headwind on day one but any hints of a storm circled around and passed us.  

Getting settled at the Guyon Hut after our first day on the St. James Trail

Company

Was great, as always. We only encountered one or two other groups over the entire 12+ hours of trail time. 

Dan admiring the view. 

Bike

Yeti Sb5c and a Giant Reign 

Wildflower hitching a ride on Dan's bike

Key pieces of gear

  • Any weight we could move from our backs to our bikes made life easier. I used a bar bag, back packing pack and kept my repair kit under my saddle.
  • My Suunto GPS watch kept us on track and helped manage our food and rest stops.  

Bridge crossing selfie

Don't Underestimate...

How serious the sand fly issue is: Bring bug spray! 

Dan climbing up out of the valley

Check out Dan's PinkBike Photo Essay:

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