Damnation Alley. Pai - Wat Chan - Khun Yuam.

[Gnasher328]

If anyone had suggested I do nearly 80km of rough trail after midday in the current heat and smog I would have told them to get stuffed.
So I decided to chill in Pai for a while before returning to the UK, but after one resonable day in one of the best situated (and expensive) resorts on the river woke up to thick smog, couldn't even see the hills just over the river. Sod that, aqmthai showed Chiang Mai pm10 still just around a hundred or so but Mae Hong Son at 270 so back to town it was, looking for air con and a pool.
I headed off for an easy bimble down the 1095 but when I got to the Wat Chan turning the little guy with the pitchfork on one one shoulder over ruled the little guy with a halo on the other so I turned down the road to Samoeng. The landscape was mainly withered and brown or burnt and with the smoke mhanging in the air I remembered an old Hawkwind song and a book 'Damnation Alley' about travelling through a post apocalyptic wasteland.











There were the odd green bits for contrast.

When I reached Wat Chan I stopped for some water and a look at the map and saw there was a trail runing SW to Khun Yuam - and pitchfork man won again.
I didn't expect to see a road like this there.



But it didn'tlast long.



As it turned out it was nearly pleasant, the altitude and shade kept the heat at bay and strangely enough considering so much seared landscape the smoke wasn't too bad.
The trail was challenging (for me), but not too daunting and quite fun in places. Wouldn't want to do it on anything bigger than the CRF though.





















I got to a real road at Ban Pang Ung and refreshed with about 1/2litre of water and a Magnum, then went on to KY to look for a bed. It was a great road with sweeping bends and looked familiar but as the sun went down the smog increased again so I was glad to quickly find the Yoont hotel and a nice clean bright room with A/C, wifi and a decent hong nam for 400Bht.

 

[2wheels]

Looking good Tim; well done!

 

[Captain_Slash]

A good find there Tim

 

[LivinLOS]

Theres so many fire roads out the back of Samoeng, Wat Chan, down to Inthanon and Khun Yuam, over to MHS.. So much more than just the elephant trail. Thats without even thinking of the single tracks you see. Really is loads of exploring not well mapped even here in our backyard.

They are closing in on finishing the Samoeng / Wat Chan route with a surface the whole way.. Once thats done skipping the current Pai route, with its million silver van maniacs will be obvious. Did it with my brother last month and its a great ride.

 

[KTMphil]

Theres so many fire roads out the back of Samoeng, Wat Chan, down to Inthanon and Khun Yuam, over to MHS.. So much more than just the elephant trail. Thats without even thinking of the single tracks you see. Really is loads of exploring not well mapped even here in our backyard.

They are closing in on finishing the Samoeng / Wat Chan route with a surface the whole way.. Once thats done skipping the current Pai route, with its million silver van maniacs will be obvious. Did it with my brother last month and its a great ride.

You think the silver minibuses will take this new route too?

 

[LivinLOS]

I would guess as its a longer route, they would be spending more time and money to go that way.. From a biz perspective unless theres some way they make a Samoeng / Pai double out of it, its unlikely.

That said.. I can see Samoeng doing a bit of a Pai tourism pickup in the next few years.. As Pai gets more and more crowded Samoeng could play the 'new' card..

 

[KTMphil]

Good point, you could see a huge pickup in tourist traffic around Samoeng from this road being paved all the way through to Pai.

 

[LivinLOS]

I think Samoeng has quite a bit to offer that way, with the river through it and the valley it can be quite scenic out there.. Strawberry farms etc..

Its proximity to CM also would help it.

 

[2wheels]

Agree, it's a wonderful area and nice people too.