mountain biking in guatemala

So, way back in August, I decided to bring my mountain bike with me when I moved down to Guatemala. I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit this, but the decision was in part based on a story in Bike magazine that said Guatemala has some amazing riding. It does. But the Bike magazine writers toured the country with a guide the whole time, had a car to bring them wherever they wanted to go, and were able to find, and stick to, reasonably well established mountain bike trails.

I'm glad I brought the bike, and if I hadn't, I'd go insane living in a country with this landscape without any chance to explore, but needless to say, my experience has been a bit more frustrating than a magazine travel piece.

There have always been a few trails just down the road from our house - great singletrack, but it's just 25-30 min worth of riding, and every time I've gotten excited about a new trail I find back there, it dead ends. And finding other good trails to ride has been tough, particularly around the lake.

This is great. But it took less than 15 min to get here, and the trail ends in 200 ft.

One of the reasons it's tough to ride near the lake is that the slope down to the water is just too steep, and the trails have become heavily rutted by erosion. Nerd alert: the International Mountain Bike Association recommends following the rule of half when building trails. Trails should be no greater than half as steep as the fall line of the hill they occupy in order for water to run off properly. Trails here weren't built - they formed through years of farmers and animals walking to their fields, and Guatemalans tend to spit in the face of the rule of half, walking straight up the fall line.


Riding to the top of the ridge above the lake seems to be the recipe for good rides though, as the mountains beyond the Atitlan crater have a gentler slope and there are actually a few parks built for recreation, as opposed to trails just leading to a farmer's field. Still though, there are frustrations.

View from somewhere near Santa Clara.

hello.

First of all, to get to the top of that ridge you have to ascend about 2100 vertical feet, not including the half dozen smaller hills on the way to base of the main climb to Santa Clara. To get to the next ridge after Santa Clara (and the downhill through a park called ChuiraXamolo is awesome): another 1500 or so feet vertical. For me, all that climbing on the road is boring, and since I'm not in the best shape right now, it leaves my body pretty wasted for the fun part, the actual trail riding.

It's a bit hard to see the switchbacks on the road below, but this isn't even all the way up the climb. No fun.

Lately, I've been resorting to what mountain bikers in the US call "shuttling," although in the U.S. that typically means having a buddy drive you to the top of a mountain so you can ride down. Here it means I tie my bike to the side of a pickup truck or the top of a minivan and hop in the back with 15-20 campesinos, who all think I look funny in my bike shoes. Even with the pickup, there's no such thing as a flat ride here, and I invariably have to do tons of climbing, so I don't feel too lazy.

Tied on with a piece of nylon cord. Safety first.

Terrible video of the pickup truck. In case you were wondering about Guatemalan public transportation.

Second, the U.S. has established trail networks, and Guatemala does not. My rides generally consist of spotting a promising-looking trail on the side of the road, and if it doesn't end in 100 yards, I ride for 10-20 minutes before popping out on a dirt road somewhere. Then repeat. Sometimes I get the chance to ask a Guatemalan if there's a sendero, no un carretera o camino (singletrack, not another dirt road, goddammit) that goes to X town or X road. They invariably do not understand why I would want to ride the bike on anything besides the road, but 1/10 of the time I get some good directions that lead 20 min of great riding.

Also, there are a lot of obstacles. Not like logs on the trails or rocks that make the riding difficult, but other things. Best kinda-crash I've ever had: rode headtube first into a rope. One end was attached to a fence, the other end to a cow. Both of us went away unscathed.

More often, the obstacles are just of the hike-a-bike variety. The hills here are super steep, so it's pretty frequent I have to shoulder the bike for at least a few minutes every ride, even in parks like Corazon del Bosque.

I am getting effing serious about practicing my shoulder carries for next cyclocross season! Gonna be the fastest guy in the B's up the run-up, and first to the beer handup.

Partway up the stairs in the Corazon del Bosque park. Five minutes later, got chased by 3 dogs.

That being said, even though it can be a bit frustrating, and I never get the chance to ride on trail for an uninterrupted hour or two, when the riding's good, it's great. It's an awesome way to see the country, and it feels great to ride on singletrack knowing that it's been a while since the trail's seen a bike. The downhill from ChuiraXamolo to Santa Clara is one of the most fun I've ever ridden - 20-30 minutes of mostly downhill ranging from technical singletrack to super-fast, but still mildly sketchy doubletrack. Here a few extra pics from the last couple of weeks (most media in this entry is from my ride on Saturday).

Partway down from ChuiraXamolo to Santa Clara. Not too shabby.

Taking the trail down > the road.

Some people think PowerBars are the mid-ride snack of choice. I strongly disagree. I hope they didn't give me that plate just because I'm a gringo.

In other, unrelated news, Stacy spent Sunday away from the house, hanging out with a friend across the lake in Panajachel. This was her welcome home present. She is not thrilled.

.