St. James Cycle Trail Trip Report
Check out the trip report from our first bike packing over night trip in New Zealand.
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.
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:
The Summer Of Us: 6 Months of Bikes & Adventure
Dan and I have left our jobs in British Columbia to explore the Southern Hemisphere for a while. I'm planning to mountain bike, hike, swim and trail run my little heart out. Our adventure begins now!
Dan and I have left our jobs in British Columbia to explore the southern hemisphere. We'll be kicking off our trip by traveling around around New Zealand's South Island, an absolute playground for mountain biking, trekking (aka tramping), swimming and trail running.
We've bought an adventure mobile:
We tested out the camping gear in a quiet bay just outside of Christchurch:
