LMS and two guys out of control

[esspressolungo]

So here we go again... George and me decided to have a go at "Last Man Standing". At 10 am we took off and cruised around behind the Night Safari, to see if we could find some more connecting trails. No, nothing new. The 53 teeth rear sprocket on my XR plus the new Yoshimura (Copy) exhaust made riding my bike so much more fun, a little noisy I must admit. Everything went smooth uphill, the terrain was even rougher after all the rain we had around here. The we met two guys on mountain bikes climbing the hill...I never seen anybody doing this...downhill ok...but uphill with a mountain bike. At the canyon where the road splits we stopped and talked a little. A few minutes later the guys with the mountain bikes arrived.

We chatted a little and discussed which track would be more appropriate for them. So now we where ready for the final section and the steep hill climb on LMS. No problems at all. For the first time I made it up in one go without stopping. George had more trouble with his bike ( as usual). Anyway he still made it up with a few stops on different levels. The next section was a very rocky terrain with moss on top of it, the soil felt like quick sand and our tires kept spinning without much traction. This section was about 100 m and took about 45 minutes to master...now we were quiet confident that nothing could stand in our way to make it up there...Wrong, so wrong. When we crossed the small waterfall just before another hill climb I could sense that the condition of the terrain was just too bad...nevertheless we tried to continue.

This section took about another hour or so, several attempts to get up there were unsuccessful. We couldn't get enough speed to get bike going, no traction whatsoever....It must have been my 6th or 7th attempt, when I finally made it in one go. George couldn't believe it. We pulled his bike up with a rope, which safe us a little time.


Pheeeeeww, another section behind us. A few corners further we were stuck at another hill climb we the same kind of surface as I mentioned before...I was exhausted, mostly from pulling G's bike and running up and down the hill. To our regret we had no choice then turning around the
section was impossible to climbs with out bikes and I had enough pulling already. We just turned around. On the way back we stopped at the waterfall and I took a bath in my combat gear...

 

[KTMphil]

This one could be in Playgirl Rudi !

The LMS trail is an amazing test in many respects - bike, rider, stamina etc....... The perfect gradient to test everything.

 

[esspressolungo]

I rode this track so many times and never had to turn around, that's the first time ever, I don't think it's all that hard...but as I said the condition yesterday where rough

 

[Grathiam]

Ah, safety first...
Is that a yellow floatation device he wore under his jacket... :G

 

[esspressolungo]

Grathiam, yes indeed...by the way is your name Garlic in Thai?

 

[LUFC]

Hi Rudi,

I'm thinking you and George must do a different route to the usual LMS, I don't ever remember seeing a waterfall on the route, unless you avoided the big hill, which you say you didn't.

I did a run earlier this morning and took a full video (too big to upload to YouTube) and it took me just over 22 minutes to get from start behind night safari to the tarmac road that leads to the tourist village, but again I didn't cross any waterfalls.

If you're out again this week let me know as I'd like to ride some more interesting stuff with you and G.

Darren

 

[esspressolungo]

Wow Darren, if you were on the same track, then I would be more then surprised that you made it up there...I mean where else could we have gone?
The section where everyone turns on the helmet cam to show how far they get was not a problem at all, I went up there in one go...after that it got messy and traction was almost not existent, the waterfall I am taking about is maybe more like a river crossing or a small creek or something, I don't find the right word for it in English in German we would say "Rinnsal" after that there's another bend to the right just before another hill climb, this was very messy and many attempts very necessary to get up there, but by the next section we were done....yeah Darren, lets do it together the next time, so we know we're in the same boat

 

[KTMphil]

Rudi - Below is the "Last man Standing" trail, it doesn't have a waterfall on it at all, i'm wondering where your trail is in relation to this. I've also noticed that the "chicken run" parts of the LMS trail isn't on this older version of the North Thailand GPS map, which forks off to the right 3/4 of the way up the LMS trail. Can you draw on this where your trail is?

 

[KTMphil]

i know Darren and Jon have been doing this single track NW of LMS - I wonder if this is it?

 

[esspressolungo]

This is going to be a hard one, as I didn't take a gps along, but we rode this track pretty often and George confirmed that this is LMS, but nevertheless I wasn't initiated by anyone else, so I don't really know if it's the same track or not, normally it comes out just one curve before hell's gate, this I know for sure. The section that you marked was the easiest part between the two square boxes.

 

[KMA]

I think I know where those waterfall photos were taken. Were those taken only about 10 minutes into the ride from the bottom? After you leave that falls area you climb up a pretty steep hill (shown in photo) and then traverse left across the hill and then join up with another road and turn right going uphill? At that point you would be on the lower section of LMS, maybe 2 kilos into it

 

[jkrfjessjess]

Wow Darren, if you were on the same track, then I would be more then surprised that you made it up there...I mean where else could we have gone?
The section where everyone turns on the helmet cam to show how far they get was not a problem at all, I went up there in one go...after that it got messy and traction was almost not existent, the waterfall I am taking about is maybe more like a river crossing or a small creek or something, I don't find the right word for it in English in German we would say "Rinnsal" after that there's another bend to the right just before another hill climb, this was very messy and many attempts very necessary to get up there, but by the next section we were done....yeah Darren, lets do it together the next time, so we know we're in the same boat

Their have been so many " fishing stories " about tough trails that it would be a good thing for everyone to be singing from the same hymn sheet.The same thing happened a while ago when Max found a hill climb in the neck o the woods and the hill half way along the "turtle track " where someone reckoned they got up on some sort of converted moped .

 

[esspressolungo]

i know Darren and Jon have been doing this single track NW of LMS - I wonder if this is it?



[attachment=0:2mm7lse1]single track nw of lms.jpg[/attachment:2mm7lse1]

Phil, no that's not the track we've been on

 

[esspressolungo]

Wow Darren, if you were on the same track, then I would be more then surprised that you made it up there...I mean where else could we have gone?
The section where everyone turns on the helmet cam to show how far they get was not a problem at all, I went up there in one go...after that it got messy and traction was almost not existent, the waterfall I am taking about is maybe more like a river crossing or a small creek or something, I don't find the right word for it in English in German we would say "Rinnsal" after that there's another bend to the right just before another hill climb, this was very messy and many attempts very necessary to get up there, but by the next section we were done....yeah Darren, lets do it together the next time, so we know we're in the same boat

Their have been so many " fishing stories " about tough trails that it would be a good thing for everyone to be singing from the same hymn sheet.The same thing happened a while ago when Max found a hill climb in the neck o the woods and the hill half way along the "turtle track " where someone reckoned they got up on some sort of converted moped .

I agree to this...this is a very good point of view...

 

[esspressolungo]

I think I know where those waterfall photos were taken. Were those taken only about 10 minutes into the ride from the bottom? After you leave that falls area you climb up a pretty steep hill (shown in photo) and then traverse left across the hill and then join up with another road and turn right going uphill? At that point you would be on the lower section of LMS, maybe 2 kilos into it

Yes the waterfall on the bottom is only ten minutes away from main road....not so the other waterfall or "rinsal", this is just the very last section before getting out on Doi Pui...

 

[MastaMax]

I think I know exactly where you went. This is very close to LMS, this is the trail Alex and me went up in the late afternoon, and about 200m before connecting to the concrete road it started to get too steep with no traction, so we turned around and on the way back I got lost in the dark.

Here is my suggestion:

 

[LUFC]

But Rudi said he went up the very steep hill on LMS so I dont think that is correct Max.

 

[esspressolungo]

Max, yes could be.. I am really not sure...next time I will try to post without the name of the track in the topic, to cut out any confusion...it is hard to figure out something if you don't have the exact coordinates

 

[LUFC]

When I went up yesterday, there was one section not far from the tob, that looked like it had been churned over with a tractor, soil thrown evreywhere and lots of ruts, I think this place in the video may be where you got stuck Rudi and took you 6-7 attempts to get to the top?

This video is about a year old, the ruts and soil are everywhere now. This is looking down, you would have been coming up like Jani on the KTM, and I guess you took the same line to the left like he did.

 

[esspressolungo]

O.k guys I uploaded some video footage from my mobile phone maybe this helps: Here's what I think is the steep section on LMS, I went up in one go George struggled:

This is just after the steep hill climb, the rocks were mossy and the humus soil was difficult:

Darren, I just saw your post with the video, yes that's it exactly that section and yes I took the left and made it up, George however we had to pull up with a rope, the next hill climb we had to turn around

 

[LUFC]

It's the same route then 100% certain.

I looked back at my video, the small waterfall, is it on a tricky left hand corner, then soon after have to go to the left a little bit to avoid a fallen tree before turning right into the deep soil section?

 

[esspressolungo]

Yes Sir, here you go...it's exactly there...You are the one...thanks man