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Excerpted from St. John Off The
Beaten Track ©
2006 Gerald Singer
The Maria Hope Trail follows an old Danish road that runs between
the Josie Gut Estate on the Reef Bay Trail and Maho Bay on the
north shore.
Until early in the nineteenth century, people couldn’t
travel all the way from east to west on what was then called
Konge Vey (King’s Road) and which is now known as Centerline
Rd or Route 10. The road was divided in two by a gorge located
at the saddle of the Maho Bay Valley on the north and the Reef
Bay Valley on the south. This gorge was known as the defile and
was impassable by donkey cart or horseback.
When travelers on horseback or wagon going between the Coral
Bay side of St. John and the Cruz Bay side came to the defile,
they had three options:
Option 1: There were corrals for horses on both sides of the
defile. They could leave their horses in the corral on one side,
cross the defile on foot and arrange to take another horse to
continue east.
Option 2: They could take the road that today corresponds to
the Reef Bay Trail down the valley to the south coast and continue
east on the south shore.
Option 3: They could take the Maria Hope Road down the Maho
Bay Valley to the north and continue east on the north shore.
Around the year 1800, the defile was filled in, and the two
sides of the island were connected by one road for the first
time.
When Centerline Road was constructed along the mountain ridge,
hundreds of tons of fill were brought in to make the road passable
by motor vehicle. In the process, the Old Works Estate and the
uppermost section of the Maria Hope Road were completely covered
over.
In 2005, the Maria Hope Road was cleared and made passable through
the efforts of the Trail Bandit and a local hiking society.
This section of trail is 0.8 mile long and begins across from
the Reef Bay trailhead on Centerline Road and descends the
western side of the Maho Bay Valley, following a gut, and emerging
on the North Shore Road at the end of the steep hairpin turn
west of the beach at Maho Bay.
The northern half of the Maria Hope Trail is not an official
Park trail, nor does it go through Park property. The trail
is not regularly maintained. Access to both ends of the trail
involve steep (but short) scrambles. The change in elevation
is almost 900 feet, so pace yourself if ascending the trail.
Most of the valley is currently owned by a complicated association
of National Park and private interests. There has been talk about
the possibility of development, but for the near term the valley
is a beautiful example of natural St. John forest. Enjoy it while
you can.
The construction of Centerline Road created an embankment across
the old Maria Hope Road, which you’ll need to scramble
down to get to the trail. This access has been cleared, but
it is still steep going for about ten yards. Go slow and watch
your footing. Once you reach the remains of the old road, which
was leveled out and retained on the lower side by an old dry
stacked rock wall, the going is relatively easy.
At the top of the old road you can see the old stone walls of
a horse corral and the retaining wall for the old Konge Vey.
The trail descends through a shady and lush moist forest. Tall
trees such as West Indian locust and hog plums tower above as
you pass trough magnificent stands of bay rum and guavaberry
trees.
In the fall of 2005, the guavaberry trees were rich with both
purple and orange varieties of guavaberries, prized for their
use in guavaberry wine and guavaberry pastries. Also noteworthy
are the beautiful rock formations, teyer palm and heart leaf
and scrub brush anthuriums.
About half way down the trail, there are beautiful views of
Maho Bay to the north and out to West End, Tortola to the northeast.
Hikers can make a loop by walking west along the North Shore
Road to Cinnamon Bay, taking the Cinnamon Bay Trail back up to
Centerline Road, and then walk east back about a mile to the
Maria Hope trailhead.
The Maria Hope trail also offers an option for those serious
hikers staying at either Cinnamon Bay or Maho Bay Campgrounds
to access the Reef Bay Trail without having to arrange vehicle
transportation.
From Centerline Road, the Maria Hope Trail follows the old Danish
road through dry forest and leads back to the Reef Bay Trail
just below the Josie Gut Estate.
Because of the enormous amount of fill used to create Centerline
Road, access to the southern half of the Maria Hope Trail is
extremely difficult at this original juncture. However, a spur
trail, cut by a local hiking society, found at the entrance to
the Bordeaux Mountain Road just east of the mailboxes provides
a difficult, although passable, access to the Maria Hope Trail.
This is not an official Park trail, it is only semi-improved
and is not regularly maintained. Be extremely careful. The trail
is very steep and slippery.
The southern section of the Maria Hope Trail lies at the end
of this spur. It is passable, but with some difficulty, especially
toward the bottom of the trail. Turn left. To the right, the
trail ends just below Centerline Road. Proceeding to the left,
the trail leads to two spur trails. The first spur goes to the
Paquerau Ruins and the second to the more extensive Estate Hope
ruins, which include the remains of the greathouse, the horsemill,
a cistern and an animal watering trough. Continuing south, the
trail leads to the Reef Bay Trail just below the Josie Gut Ruins.
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