Anyone walked Wandelroute coastal trail?

Has anyone walked the Wandelroute Point Blanche coastal trail? It starts across the valley from the pier at the end of Pelican Rd, which appears to be about 2km/1.6mi from the pier, and follows the coast up to Guana Bay Point at Guana Bay beach. We wondered if anyone tried walking thru the maze of streets to get to Pelican Rd? ... or did you take a cab? And would the closest cab back be another 2 km north at the Westin Dawn Beach resort?

Was the hike pretty? Thx!

-Bob

Bob - was searching CC and had seen that you have asked a few times about this... We are going to be in St. Martin the week of March 7th. This is on our list of things to do. I'll see if I can take some pics and report back if we accomplish this task.

 

-Sean

Hey Sean,

So there actually is a fellow hiker on the ships! I bumped up this Wandleroute thread with this reply to get out of the water taxi thread and not hijack it further. We were there a few weeks ago and we decided to walk to the trainhead at the end of Gullen road instead of taking a cab. Going through the residential area we met a guy from the ship who was on his way back from climbing the hill beside the port across from Monta Vista hill, don’t know the name. It was a hot day, and he was soaked. Too much work for us. Monta Vista would be a hard walk but probably great views.

The route to the trailhead is quite clear on Google Earthview, right turn off the dock area and go down to Grounddove on a little walkway beside the ditch. Left onto Grounddove and down to the World Mart dead end. Left onto Goldfinch, follow it along the coast, left on Pigeon, right onto Peacock, right onto Pelican, and right onto Gullin. After the World Mart it becomes a nice residential area, gated, well maintained, and good signage, a rarity on the islands. There are 2 trailheads, one out the back end of the basketball court, which was flooded and unusable, and overgrown. Walk back up Gullen maybe 20 yards and on the right there is a chain link stretched across what looks like a spot to park a car. This is a high enough area not to be flooded, go under the chain and that path leads to the coast and the main trail, maybe 50 yards.

The only other people on the trail were a young couple about 50 yards ahead of us, we gave each other a wave. After about 100 yards the trail goes right down beside the edge of the cliff, rocks and surf way below. The trail is squeezed between the cliff and some large rocks, it’s about 1.5 feet wide, and for about 20 feet it tilts towards the cliff edge, there are jagged stones sticking up in it, and lots of loose sand and grit that would make sliding over the cliff really easy. The couple ahead went through mostly down on their hands, we wondered why they were doing that until we got up there. We looked at this booger for a bit, and our main prob was that the trail slanted toward the cliff edge, if your shoe skidded you’d be gone. We’ve hiked all over the world and never been spooked like this. Finally my DW said “I’ve got a free booze package, free specialty dinners, and OBC to spend, and I’d be really mad if I fell over this cliff.” I couldn’t argue with that, and we went back.

But the trail is a lovely coastal walk. We were going to go at least as far as Guana Bay Point lookout. After that we couldn’t tell from Google if the trail went further along the coast up to the Westin Resort at Dawn Beach, or need to take Wavy Clam road to get there.

So we’d love to hear how you made out.

Are you looking for hikes/walks on your other stops?

-Bob

Thanks for the information. I would have been right there with your wife!:eek::D

Are you looking for hikes/walks on your other stops?

-Bob

Bob -

This is great information! We love to hike at the ports, city or country it's nice to get out and put down some miles, meet the locals and just soak in the surroundings.

Currently our next cruise get us to Labadee, San Juan, ST Marteen and St. Kitts.

Not much to hike at Labadee, San Juan will be city hiking, St. Marteen we are planning on trying to get from Pointe Blanche to Guana Bay. In St. Kitts we have a Catamaran scheduled for the AM but we wanted to get a quick hike in the afternoon up to Timothy Hill for some views.

For the hike from Point Blanche to Guana, looking at google maps it looks pretty hilly and rocky along that one section of trail but not so overgrown that you couldn't go back up off the trail to get away from the cliff. I'm sure the shrubbery and paths have changed a little since the google maps image was taken.

It looks like once you get past that one cliff that it's pretty clear cruising out to the rock cropping and on to Geneve Bay where there is a natural tidal pools. Thats our goal for the hike. When we are there high tide will be at 7am which might be a good thing as by 8-9am it should be closer to mid tide and make for a fun dip in the tidal pools.

It looks like there is some information on this hike from both Tri Sport and Island Routes both taking the hike from Guana bay south to Geneve Bay and back to Guana. I am really glad we found this hike. We will really enjoy the lack of tourists along this route and into Guana Bay. Certainly prefer the natural uncrowded hikes rather than the beaches laden with lolo's, bars and drunken cruisers.

We tend to be a little more on the thrill seeking side of things so of course we are going to attempt the hike from Pointe Blanche. We will most likely come back through the city to the ship. From the map it looks about 5 - 6 miles total round trip when you add the stint out to Guana point and spend some time along the beach in Guana Bay.

We are hoping to start out 1st thing in the am around 7-7:30 and be back around 12:30 - 1pm before it gets too hot in the afternoon.

It also looks like there are quite a few other hikes here in St. Marteen, most prominently the Sentier de Froussards, from Anse Marcel to Eastern Point and back. That might be a fun one to put away for another trip.

-Sean

Bob -

 

This is great information! We love to hike at the ports, city or country it's nice to get out and put down some miles, meet the locals and just soak in the surroundings.

 

Currently our next cruise get us to Labadee, San Juan, ST Marteen and St. Kitts.

 

Not much to hike at Labadee, San Juan will be city hiking, St. Marteen we are planning on trying to get from Pointe Blanche to Guana Bay. In St. Kitts we have a Catamaran scheduled for the AM but we wanted to get a quick hike in the afternoon up to Timothy Hill for some views.

 

For the hike from Point Blanche to Guana, looking at google maps it looks pretty hilly and rocky along that one section of trail but not so overgrown that you couldn't go back up off the trail to get away from the cliff. I'm sure the shrubbery and paths have changed a little since the google maps image was taken.

 

It looks like once you get past that one cliff that it's pretty clear cruising out to the rock cropping and on to Geneve Bay where there is a natural tidal pools. Thats our goal for the hike. When we are there high tide will be at 7am which might be a good thing as by 8-9am it should be closer to mid tide and make for a fun dip in the tidal pools.

 

It looks like there is some information on this hike from both Tri Sport and Island Routes both taking the hike from Guana bay south to Geneve Bay and back to Guana. I am really glad we found this hike. We will really enjoy the lack of tourists along this route and into Guana Bay. Certainly prefer the natural uncrowded hikes rather than the beaches laden with lolo's, bars and drunken cruisers.

 

We tend to be a little more on the thrill seeking side of things so of course we are going to attempt the hike from Pointe Blanche. We will most likely come back through the city to the ship. From the map it looks about 5 - 6 miles total round trip when you add the stint out to Guana point and spend some time along the beach in Guana Bay.

 

We are hoping to start out 1st thing in the am around 7-7:30 and be back around 12:30 - 1pm before it gets too hot in the afternoon.

 

It also looks like there are quite a few other hikes here in St. Marteen, most prominently the Sentier de Froussards, from Anse Marcel to Eastern Point and back. That might be a fun one to put away for another trip.

 

-Sean

You might want to look into the hike up Peak Paradise from Lotterie Farm. It's not an easy hike but it was a well taken care of path when we did it.

Hey Sean,

I showed my DW your post and the part about going up the hill around the boulders to avoid the cliff edge, and why we didn’t do that, and we think it was b/c it was too steep. Now I just know that when you get there, after hearing our scary story and prepping for the worst, you’ll find that it’s a piece of cake, and if so, you are totally allowed to call us wimps. However if you go over the cliff, send us a quick text before you land, and we’ll tell CC’ers to be careful there. Yes the part you circled in red looks like the spot, here’s a Google view from above. Sooo neat to have a dip in those pools, and be able to cool off. Geez you even have the tides figured out, next we’ll see you on Survivorman.

Yes we also thought about walking from Guana Bay lookout back to town, taking the Guana Bay Road through Upper Prince’s Quarters, then through Hope Estate to Suckergarden Road, which goes back into Phillipsburg. Looks like about 2.5 miles, and neat to be able to see the countryside. If you were pooped when you got to Suckergarden there would be lots of cabs along there. We didn’t think personal safety was a concern, the area isn’t tin shacks, loitering, etc. Here’s the route back we planned if we ever got to Guana Lookout and didn’t want to try for the Westin.

It’s actually a pretty good little workout getting from the ship to the trailhead, those streets through the residential part are quite hilly, I’d consider a cab to Gullin St if it was hot.

In San Juan we like doing the walk along the coast from the ship to the Morro fort, up the back way to the top of the fort, and then through the grassy meadow back to town, which leads right into the back streets where she loves the shopping, the streets about 2 or 3 blocks behind the boardwalk, Calle Fortalezia and around there. They even have a Marshall’s.

Got an idea for you for St. Kitts, we planned to do this but got sidetracked, it’s walking through the East Peninsula on the Simmons road, ocean on each side. We were going to take a cab out to the far end, probably the Salt Plague restaurant near the marina, $24 for 2 ppl, and walk back to the Timothy Hill area, probably to Carambola Beach Club or Shipwreck Beach for drinks, then a cab or water taxi to town. Here’s a shot of it below, taken I think from Timothy Hill. We ended up only walking the boardwalk around the bay and back.

You might want to look into the hike up Peak Paradise from Lotterie Farm. It's not an easy hike but it was a well taken care of path when we did it.

Thx for the tip!

-Bob

Hey Sean,

I showed my DW your post and the part about going up the hill around the boulders to avoid the cliff edge, and why we didn’t do that, and we think it was b/c it was too steep.

 

Thx for the tip!

-Bob

Hey Bob - we are almost 9 months back from our cruise and we did do this hike! It was pretty awesome. Sorry I've taken so long to repost here but we took some pictures of the route and destination along the way.

Getting off the ship you hang a right instead of left. You are going through the what looks to be the more industrial part of town.

After you go through that you cut up through a neighborhood. Your typical Island neighbors, a few dogs, cats, etc.

As you get to the top of that hill you can look back and see the ships.

Once over the hill you have a nice view of the ocean on the other side. You can see the road on the other side of the valley in this picture that is the beginning of the trail.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

You still have to walk down through this neighborhood to get to the trail..

Finally we made it to the beginning of the trail. It was over a mile to the trailhead. And it was HOT. We were all well on our way to sunburned but the excitement of the adventure that lie ahead made us forget all of that.

We met a few locals on the way and grateful that we did. This place was very hidden and hard to find unless you knew just where to look for it. Some more on that in a minute - here is some of the trail along the ocean

This was the steepest/hardest part of the trail. It wasn't that bad. Nothing you couldn't easily walk along. We did have to go single file and one at a time through some of it and the kids made me nervous but certainly nothing requiring any skill other than walking. If you were afraid of heights it could be a little nerve wracking.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Here is the point where you come up to the bluff overlooking the little tidal pools (it's just ahead to the right before you get to that mound on the end). Unless you are right on the very edge looking down you won't see the pools.

We went past this point initially and started up the trail over the hill on the other side (very steep and a little bit of climbing rocks to get up) we were almost to the top of the hill. Here are the kids climbing up behind me -

And my wife noticed one of the locals at the bottom of the hill we just climbed waving to us and making a swimming motion. So after a short conversation we figured she was trying to tell us we went past the pools. So back down we went.

Walked right up to the edge of the cliff and looked down and saw this -

Couldn't keep the kids from running down the cliff fast enough

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Here are a few more pics -

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Overall it was an awesome hike. One of our top 10 favorites.

I wish we could have continued on the trail but we only packed a couple snacks, didn't bring enough sunscreen and stayed way to long in the pool. So we just went back the way we came. Maybe on our next trip.

It was really nice. We met about 6 other people while we were there. It's a good 2 mile hike there and another 2 back with very little to no shade the entire way.

If you get a chance to go again you could cheat by getting a cab to drop you off at the head of the trail and that would cut about 1 mile walking out. Unless you called the cab driver back there is no way to get a cab to come back. If you did get a driver to come get you that would save another mile back to the ship.

Hope you do get a chance to go!

-Sean

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Hey Sean, I just got an alert of your post. Very interesting, good to get the whole story. The shot of your kids on their hands going around that rock on the cliff edge looks just like the spot where we chickened out. Next time I'll tell my DW that if kids can crawl around it, so can we. Yes we took the same route to get there, walking thru the residential area. We talked to a lady in her yard who said we were the first cruisers she ever saw come that way. The distance is probably about the same as walking downtown from the ship, but way more hills. Very pretty hike, thx for the update.

-Bob