Guatemalan Highlands Hut to Hut

Over the past year or so we have been working to open a few new routes out in the Western highlands of Guatemala.  This has always been one of our favorite areas to ride as its aboslutely criss-crossed in single track.  One of the challenges of riding up here is that to truly get out there and away from it all it unfortunately means that you will also be away from any sort of lodging.  

We wanted to open a route like those epic rides in Colorado or Europe where cyclists can basically leave the worry behind of camping gear and cooking and focus on what you are there for: the riding!

We came across a couple pretty cool communities on our rides that have started to create some basic lodging options in the way of community hostals or posadas.  Last year we started working to find creative ways to link these hostals together to create a pretty unique adventure mountain biking experience.  

The trails are great, the scenery is even better and there is a cultural freshness to the rides that is second to none, anywhere!  The going is tough in some places, hell, most places but to reach such untouched, unridden areas means that you will have to push you bike at some points.  The beauty is that you can do this and not have to carry mush with you in terms of camping gear.  At the end of each day there is a warm bed, good filling food and in most cases cold beers, and if no beers there’s most likely moonshine.

About the same time that we were thinking to head out to link all the rides together, about 5 or 6 days depending on how you do it, we were contacted by none other than Hans No Way Rey who was coming to Guatemala and wanted to do something unique.  He was en route to hand out about 50 bicycles to school kids in need via his NGO Wheels For Life in the Antigua valley and was looking for something to do afterwards. 

This seemed like the perfect opportunity to head out into the Guatemalan backcountry with a couple seasoned pros.  Over the next 5 days we would push through areas that rarely receive foreign travelers, much less on bikes, and ride a huge swath of Guatemala much of which probably hasn’t ever seen a mountain bike.

This area of Guatemala between Huehuetenango and Quiche doesn't receive that much tourism. Let alone mountain bikers pushing through the backcountry and villages where roads ad power are non-existent.  If you are looking for a unique once in a lifetime sort of ride, our new Highlands Hut to Hut is it. Get in touch with us a Old Town and ask for it. 

See us on the trail!

Beast of the East Rail Trail Fundraiser ride

Its that time of year again...time for one of my favorite mountain bike tours!  Each year we set out with the good lads at the Phoenix Project to help them raise funds to support their educational programs, teacher salaries and schools for the under privileged rural Guatemalan youth.  It really is a quite cool program.  Check 'em out online for more info.
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The ride follows the old United Fruit Company railroad line that connected the Capital with the banana plantations of the East to the Atlantic Coast port.  It is definitely a throw back to a time long past.  We ride through cool old tunnels, across big steel trestles and through dilapidated train stations.  It really is a rolling tour through Guatemala's history.

We ride 5 days from the outskirts of Guatemala City camping each night along the line passing through terrain that doesn't see too much in the way of tourism.  Being a rail trail the ride itself is pretty non technical as there are no huge climbs or descents and the terrain is pretty moderately graded at %5.  Most of the rails and ties have been pulled up long ago leaving behind a beautiful single track that traces the rolling hills and remote river canyon and valleys of the Eastern deserts of Guatemala.  The bird life is pretty stunning and you might even get a glimpse of a rare Gila monster.

Our support van meets us for lunch each afternoon and at the end of the day to haul luggage, hand out cold beers, set up the horseshoe set and cook up tasty food at camp.  The rides are about 50 kms on average but the heat can make them feel longer.  We have found a couple sweet campsites, a couple along rivers and another in a very cool old Farmstead house.  It even has a pool!

If you're looking to do something new, see a unique side to Guatemala and are interested in helping us help the locals, this is your trip!  It combines an amazing mountain bike tour that has cool and quirky cultural and historical components to it with some quality opportunities to get involved and give back with an amazing grass roots NGO program.  It is tourism with a moral compass !

It's probably too late to get involved in this years ride, but you can still DONATE or sign up for next years ride.
Hope to see ya on the trail.
-Matt Hartell

Here's some footage from a recent trip out to some of our favorite riding.  We've spent a lot of time rolling across the altiplano in search of some of Guate's best singletrack.  Here is a short video of some of it.
Enjoy and hope to see you out on the trail.  Get in touch with us at www.adventureguatemala.com or come by the shop in Antigua and we'll get ya out on the trail.

El Hato Training Ride

Upon joining the team at Old Town I discovered I needed a little training to get me up to speed for the local climbs. The x-country mountain biking here in Antigua, Guatemala is pretty amazing but the climbs can be large. Training is key. This little ride, the El Hato Training Ride includes a good size climb; about 1/2 an hour or 40 minutes to the town of El Hato. From El Hato, a nice chunk of single track drops you back into San Felipe just outside Antigua. It's the perfect little training ride.

It just so happens this classic trail ride was technical enough to buck me on camera, making this a classic mountain biking video. You don't always get a good digger on camera! Happy to oblige y'all.

Enjoy, Tim!