St James Cycle Trail Loop

 

Map of the cycle trail. We took our time and did an overnight trip, starting and ending at the St James Homestead, in a counter-clockwise direction.

Start of the trail at the homestead. We started rather late in the afternoon.

Praying for a safe journey before heading off.

...and we're off. Traversing Tophouse Road, to get to our first stop - Maling Pass carpark. To our right is the Clarence River.

Stopping for a break, and checking our supplies if they are still intact.

Made it to Maling Pass carpark.

Scouting the area, or soaking the view, perhaps?

Heading into Maling Pass. This leads onto one (of many) climbs and hike-a-bikes!

At the top of Maling Pass. Jake and his son were very helpful and kind throughout this trip, always waiting for me in the climbs. Behind them, the track goes downhill. It was both a scary and exciting descent to the bottom of the valley. There were loose, slippery & sharp rocks which I was trying to evade in order to prevent tyre punctures. To our right were steep drops. Concentration was paramount!

A sigh of relief (after that long bike downhill), and we are traversing the Valley. To our right is the Waiau River. We saw some 4WD'ers that were camping out for the night before the end of the 4WD access. At this point there is still ways to go before reaching our camp for the night - Lake Guyon Hut.

Finally managed to reach the junction that leads to Lake Guyon Hut (to the left). At this point I was super tired, and we were starting to lose daylight.

Another climb! Being super exhausted, I just hiked-a-bike. After the crest of this hill, it was all a mild bike downhill towards Lake Guyon.

Dinner, finally! A lot has happened since crossing that crest - chasing whatever remains of the daylight, crossing tricky streams, setting up camp (hut was full when we arrived), and cooking food.

One particular unfortunate event was cracking the screen of my phone. I fell off the bike while crossing a tricky stream. Panicking a little bit, I checked my phone and the inevitable happened. Oh well, that's one (of many) lessons learned during this trip.

The next day. Lake Guyon on the right, and hut to the left. It was cloudy and drizzly, but there were moments when the sky cleared up a little bit, and this was one of them.

Nature putting on a little show.

Back on our bikes to continue the journey. 

One of the many track markers along the whole trail. We had a map and a general idea of what the trail looks like, but these markers were helpful as well. 

Pointing at Saddle Spur Bridge (on the left), one of the three hanging bridges we crossed.

Looking back at the vista we've covered so far, after crossing Saddle Spur Bridge (the dark area on the right is where we've been). Further to my left are the famous wild horses of the St. James Trail, which we will see shortly.

The wild horses of St. James Trail. (Photo by Jake)

More cycling southwards, and we eventually got to the newly reconstructed McArthur Bridge.

The old bridge was washed away apparently due to high floodwaters. One could not complete the loop prior to the reconstruction of this new bridge, and that was also the reason why this trip was deferred since its inception 2 years ago.

Of particular interest are the huge white bags that are scattered in the area (white dots in the mid-right of the photo). Perhaps they were used during the bridge's construction?

More hike-a-bike, albeit for me (Photo by Jake).

In hindsight, I should have used a smaller chainring (32T or 30T) to get more leverage on the climbs. I was using a 34T chainring, which proved to be unnecessary as we were not in a hurry anyway. Being on clipless pedals worked well though. 

After a few more hike-a-bikes, another bridge crossing (Scotties Hut) a final hill climb (which was the hardest of all) and a mad dash downhill, I finally made it to the finish line.

I was emotional at this point, with all the experience running past my mind. Experiencing this track for the first time, and finishing it, is the best bike adventure of my life (so far).

The bike after the trip. Super proud with the performance of this bike - it's never let me down. I was running TPU tubes and luckily I did not get any punctures. Weirdly enough, the punctures happened after cleaning the bike (after this photo).