Mountain Biking St. Martin Island

Mountain Biking

The Island of St. Martin

Southeastern Caribbean Sea

Not your run-of-the-mill biking scene, but fun none the less.

02/2004 - by Christopher Burk, Outdoor Travels

It was another gorgeous day in the Caribbean. The sun was shining; the temperature was a comfortable 80 degrees with just a few puffy white clouds passing by - perfect weather to get out and explore an island. Of course, standing in the middle of a junkyard was not exactly the most scenic or motivating location to begin an exploration. Besides, why would someone travel all the way to the Caribbean just to go mountain biking when there are so many relaxing island-type activities to do? Activities such as surfing, shopping, scuba diving, windsurfing, sunbathing or just laying in a hammock drinking a cold beverage are generally associated with such a tropical environment.

True, mountain biking probably doesn’t rank high on the Caribbean activity scale but when you stop to think that most of the southeastern islands are nothing more than mountains sticking out of the ocean, why would you not consider shredding a little tropical single track?

My Caribbean mountain biking excursion was to take me through portions of Marigot, the capital of the French side of St. Martin. St. Martin has the distinction of being the smallest island owned by two different countries, namely the French and the Dutch. Because of this “dual-citizenship” you will see the island’s name spelled two different ways, Saint Martin or Sint Maarten.

The original inhabitants named the island Soualiga or “salt island” after its main mineral deposit. The remains of the Great Salt Pond can still be seen in Philipsburg today. According to legend, the island got its modern name from Christopher Columbus. He first sighted Soualiga on November 11, 1493, the holy day of St. Martin of Tours, and he named the island after him. The 11th of November is celebrated to this day, as St. Martin/St. Maarten's Day.

Like most other Caribbean islands during the 1600’s, St. Martin was an object of colonial imperialism, changing hands from the Spanish, French and Dutch. The Dutch and the French finally took possession of the island in 1644 having successfully driven the Spanish out. In 1648, both countries agreed to divide the island although the official border continued to be disputed until 1817.

Philipsburg is the capital of the Dutch portion of the island (St. Maarten). It’s located on the southern portion of the island and is usually the port of entry when arriving on the island when traveling by cruise ship or commercial airline.

Marigot is the capital of the French portion of the island (St. Martin). Although it does not offer the large port for giant cruise ships, its harbor is filled with smaller pleasure boats and yachts from around the world. For movie buffs, Marigot was also where the climatic ending to Speed 2 where the boat crashes through the pier was filmed.

Although there is a distinctive border between the two sections of the island, traveling between them is as simple as traveling between two neighborhoods.

After testing out our borrowed rides in the aforementioned junkyard, we set out on our island exploration. Although St. Martin’s topography features several small peaks and ridges ideal for single-track riding, the majority of our riding was spent on the roads. Granted several of the roads were unimproved, but for the most part I would categorize our ride as a road ride with one small section of single track thrown it.

Our ride took us up and around the hills surrounding Marigot and offered a wonderful view of the city and the island of Anguilla off in the distance. This was also the only single-track section of the ride. It was a nice section but all too short.

Once back on the roads, our trip took us inland through the small village of Colombier. Along the way we passed some wonderful scenery and several small homes perched high along the hillside. Our ride inland stopped at the gates of an old plantation home. It was difficult to imagine how the plantation’s former workers tended the crops that once grew on the very steep hillsides that framed the plantation.

Our return trip to the sea was a spirited downhill run along more dirt roads concluding at Friar’s Beach where old friends awaited me – an ice-cold beer or two.

As I sat on the beach, gazing across the white sand and the crystal blue waters, I reflected on the day’s ride. Would I consider booking a trip to St. Martin just to ride? Probably not. But since I was already there and always in search of good adventure and a few cold beers, it definitely fit the bill. Besides, how many people do you know who can say they’ve been mountain biking in the Caribbean?