South Canterbury Mountain Bike Club

Hey all,

Just a note to let everyone know that it’s that time of year again, (where has the summer gone?)

The Monday night, night rides are starting up again!

All riders are welcome (the more, the better!) and the rides will be a no-drop-ride!! i.e. riding pace will be set by the slowest rider!!

All riders should have their own lights capable of riding in the trees!!

We’ll be meeting at 6.00pm at the Church Street entrance to the Scenic.

Any queries, come and see me at the shop or email info@bikeinc.co.nz

Cheers

Darren

The Government recently purchased St James Station in the back of Hanmer and reverted it to a conservation area. Being 78,000 ha it has some great day and multi day rides in it and below are two of them.

The best one I have done so far is the Lake Guyon loop starting from Lake Tennyson over Maling Pass and down into the Waiau River valley to Lake Guyon.

Lake Guyon (above) has a small but comfortable DOC hut (below) on its shore.

The track then heads around the lake past the historic Stanleyvale Hut then turns to up to Fowlers Pass. Much of this section to the summit is un-rideable, after which is a great single track ride down to Tophouse Road then an 8km ride back to Lake Tennyson.

The second ride is over Edwards Pass and following the Edwards River until it meets the Waiau River.

Below is an old musterers hut called Scotties Camp which is still usable today.

The track up the Waiau River can suffer from washouts as shown below, this one was about 10m deep.

I headed up river hoping to cross at an old swing bridge as the river was high and unsafe to cross.

But on arrival I found the swing bridge closed and a bit unreliable.

So I had to back track to the car and head up to Lake Tennyson to do the Lake Guyon loop.

Above is the view of the Waiau River valley from Charlies Saddle.

Article and photos by Wally Guise

This is wide river valley on the edge of Arthurs Pass National Park and is a trial by DOC to see how mountain biking goes within a national park.  The ride starts from the Mt White road and drops down into the valley.

The track then generally follows the river up the valley on a well formed 4WD track.

This track eventually runs out and you can either turn back at this point or as I did carry the bike for about 2km to the Poulter hut for a nights stay and explore the area.

There is a small amount of singetrack past the hut heading up to Lake Michin pictured below but probably better to walk I think.

Here’s a map…

Article & Photos by Wally Guise