All-Weather dirt trails SW of Doi Suthep

[KTMphil]

All-Weather dirt trails SW of Doi Suthep

With the heavy rain in the last few days, the Ping river has been 20cm below flood level.

A bit concerned about how wet the trails might be, Alex & I planned a route today that we hoped would be ok & it worked.




The trails we picked had lots of rock and sand, which could have been done at any time of the year

Even the clay sections were pretty dry and there were very very few greasy sections

The stream and river levels weren't as high as I was expecting



Lots of very sandy trails on this route, meaning that the rain water soaks through quickly leaving the surface very predictable






Couple of muddy areas, this was about the worst of it

 

[KTMphil]

AT the SW end of the trail there is a very cool wooden bridge made of tree branches. map of it's location below:



Trail entry GPS co-ords from R1269 (Samoeng loop road southern side) are:

18 deg 46 17.4 north

98 deg 52 00.5 east


Tracks indicate that pickup could get across this branch bridge which was pretty interesting

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In the map above, where the trail come out onto R 1269, there is a government guard hut - Alex thinks that they will tell you that you cannot eneter by motor biked there (he says there's also a sign indicating the same), so it may be best to come from the north as we did. It would be better clockwise (entering from the south, from R 1269), as you would be going up the mountain with lots of up hill sections.

 

[KTMphil]

Beautiful views in rainy season on this route




Some concrete section in the worst steep areas




More great trails

 

[alexuk]

Sisaphan(?) waterfall is supposed to be along there, but I havent found it yet.
An interesting start trying to find the right path in the village

 

[KTMphil]

Alex there was some notation on Auk'e GPS map that there was a waterfall north west of this point, maybe where i've put the "X" on the map below, I'll ask Auke if that's the Sisaphan waterfall.

Sisaphan(?) waterfall is supposed to be along there, but I havent found it yet.
An interesting start trying to find the right path in the village

 

[AlexUSA]

Sisaphan(?) waterfall is supposed to be along there, but I havent found it yet.

If you're coming from the North, you exit the area with the Lynchee trees and stuff (after you've passed the last wooden bridge) and the road changes from mountain truck road to sandy, graded national park road. At this junction, you can go left or right (me and you went left a few months ago when we did this).

If you go right, you drive not far (a hundred meters? can't remember) and you see a well-marked (in Thai) sign directing you down a walking trail to the waterfall.

Edit: Yeah I think that's it on Phil's map

 

[MastaMax]

good to see some off road action

 

[KTMphil]

good to see some off road action

Max- you could take Fon on those trails on her KLX 110 no problem - In fact Keld is attempting them 2-up on a BMW F650 gs later today.

 

[Lightemup]

Ahh..Maybe not after the rain squall we just had.
Think I will sit it out for now.

 

[KTMphil]

Ahh..Maybe not after the rain squall we just had.
Think I will sit it out for now.

Wise choice i think!

 

[alexuk]

Ended up doing it again
Nobody I know was going anywhere today,and so I Was headed for the MX track at Mae Rim today, but Dom wasnt there to open up, and someone came round to see the klx300 but it wouldnt start. So sure enough, 5 minutes after he left it started, so I put some new brake pads in and headed up Doi Suthep road to recharge the battery,and get some fotos so I can sell it then go back to the hotel and go out on the new KLX.The road was packed on the other side, I thought no way was I gonna enjoy the ride down in all the traffic so decided to go over the mountain, The bike felt good to ride again, more power. As I got up near the temple the traffic got really bad again, I managed to get through but realised how bad the road over the top would be as its mostly singlelane to the village, and there'd be too many cars on the dirt road down,
So I turned off to the tourist village, which was packed, got a drink, then drove right through the tourists and stalls to the tourist waterfall

and on my way down this track

I did a right at the junction, both tracks join up later
There was nobody on the trails, fresh air, great scenery, and a couple of hours on the bike

This little bridge is really nice place to stop

This bridge isn't a good place to stop, as I found out when I tried to get back on it

I guess if you're in a car you're probably still stuck on Doi Suthep in all the traffic

Happy New Year