On the Elephant Trail (for the first time)

[2wheels]

You know how sometimes you're smiling much of the time as you ride along?
Well, this was such a ride.

Day 1

Tim Gnasher and I departed Doi Saket on Saturday 8th on our CRFs with adventure in mind.

First stop was at the Samoeng Strawberry Festival.













It was a good track out from Samoeng along the 5032 heading for Wat Chan.



Past Mae Sap and Mae Khan and some nice views.





What I liked about this was the variety of riding it offered, the spectacular scenery and (because I often stopped to remove the helmet, stop the engine and listen) … the silence.
Crisp, cool and clear air made it all the better.

Past Ban Mae Tara and a few minutes to take in the views at the lookout.









Towards Mae Daet Noi.



Roadworks will eventually transform this ride into a bit of a speed way.



A fuel stop (55 baht per litre) and long chat with the Karen locals at Dong Sam Mun.









Then into the brown talcum powder!



Parts of this section were challenging but nothing due care and a reliable bike can't handle. Afterall, locals are riding this road every day on their little scooters, often 3 up!

Safely into Wat Chan and we checked into the A frame bungalows at the excellent Wat Chan Royal Project Resort. 800 baht for a reasonable room (worth 400). This is on the road to Pai (1265) at

N 19.07952
E 98.33498









Couthed up a bit and a couple of coldies then a 150 baht generous meal.







As you've gathered, with the photo and chat stops, the Strawberry Festival, the track conditions and the 'smell the roses' stops this 177 km section to Wat Chan took us all of 7 hours. What's the point of rushing through such wonderful scenery?

Day 2 following

 

[2wheels]

Day 2 On the Elephant Trail

It was freezing cold at Wat Chan but, luckily, the room had two very heavy blankets.

Sunday breakfast for 100 baht. Tim likes his bread!





Checked out and had a look at Wat Chan.





Bought some fuel from this Karen guy (a bargain at only 50 baht per litre) and had a long chat.





A couple of 500Xs arrived, indicating that the first leg can be done on a road bike.
They had a hard time doing it though and chose not to ride the next leg into Mae Hong Son, retreating to Pai instead.

OK, off towards Mae Hong Son and we noticed a brand new service station at Ban Wat Chan on our left!




Take the higher track heading to Huai Poo Ling.
(I've got to say here that I found the GT-Rider 'Mae Hong Son' map a very useful resource as my Garmin didn't have many village names.)







This Karen chap called us into his property and gave us glasses of warm tea and we were able to confirm that we were OK with directions.

And that's one of the highlights of rural rides like this one; the Hilltribe folk are so helpful and friendly.
This is all part of the overall experience.



Magnificent riding through here. Lots of 'ambience stops'.
Again, some challenging (rocky and powdery) sections where due care was required.
It wouldn't be fun suffering a broken limb or frame out here.











We stopped at a junction and chatted to a Karen rider who was bringing his two sons home from a shopping spree in Mae Hong Son on his scooter with this front tyre!



N 19.22580
E 98.12748

Yesterday the older son (on my bike) was trying to take little brother for a ride but they had a fall and little brother came off (literally) worse for wear.





This Municipality of MHS sign is at this junction.



We said our 'goodbyes' and 'good lucks' and we headed towards Nong Khao and the 180 junction.



A large solar power project.



Again, a wide variety of riding conditions and some excellent scenery.











Mae Hong Son as I've never seen it before.



Sharp curves and powder after this lookout.



N 19.23415
E 98.00854

Ooops! Didn't see any wreck in the shrubs, thankfully.



We exited here at the 108 junction.
That leg was about 89 kms and we took about 5 hours to ride it, with lots of 1st and 2nd gear stuff.



N 19.25378
E 97.97118

And rode into MHS where we checked into the friendly and adequate Rom Thai Guest House for 500 baht.

N 19.29816
E 97.96867

They have a black lagoon which always has a stunning Water Lilly display.







Couthed up and off to the Sunflower Restaurant, which wasn't selling food until 5pm!!!!

So I had a bit of a walk around and waited for the lake-side food stalls to open.
Grabbed a few BBQ sausages then back to my room for some washing.







Later that night I discovered the excellent Kiang Doi Restaurant at

N 19.30041
E 97.96745

The usual evening reflections pic.




Day 3 following

 

[KTMphil]

Great photo's Ron, 7 hrs 1st day & 5 hrs 2nd day.

 

[2wheels]

Thanks Phil.
Yep, 'smelling the roses' again.
Don't see the sense or point in squeezing this ride into one frantic day.

 

[2wheels]

Monday morning the 10th and Tim decided to stay longer in the MHS area whilst I was keen to ride the Mae Chaem leg back into Doi Saket.

Stopped at this lookout area on the 1263 before Mae Chaem ...



... and met a guy who was riding his Honda Win 110 cc from Vietnam.
He said much of his day was in 1st gear!
He was wondering if his little bike would get him up Doi Inthanon.



Nice GPS system.



It's a different and somewhat eery landscape out here.
I think that's largely due to the CP company (will research).









Much-needed roadworks about 15 kms before Mae Chaem.





I had previously stopped at Nam Mae Ok Hu on 1088 and enjoyed a paddle with large groups of families, also a cold drink and snack.



N 18.54662
E 98.38265

However it now seems to have become abandoned.







It's still a recommended, and more peaceful, stop though.
Locals 'bip' their horns here as they go by because it's another one of those special sites.

Onward towards Doi Inthanon.

More roadworks, this time on 1263.



It was getting cooler, after a hot ride, the closer Inthanon loomed.



And once onto the main Chiang Mae to Hot Hwy 108 (which I hate) I hit to 'Go' button at San Patong and took dozens of back roads through small villages and past many Temples into Doi Saket.

So, that's the Elephant Trail done.

A total of 595 kms and a circuit I highly recommend.
(Wouldn't want to do it in the wet though!)

No falls.
No damage to the bikes.
No-one got lost.

Now, having ridden it, some research to come.

 

[Lone Rider]

Take the higher track heading to Huai Poo Ling.
(I've got to say here that I found the GT-Rider 'Mae Hong Son' map a very useful resource as my Garmin didn't have many village names.)

Ron, I guess you were using the Thailand ESRI map instead of the North Thailand map as the latter has the same number of villages as well as more of the side roads, gas stations, etc.

 

[2wheels]

A bit of info re The Elephant Trail.
(Please add more if you have it)

Old Elephant Trail. Centuries ago the route was busy with merchants travelling between Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai but with the construction of a road in the 1950s the trail was abandoned. After years of solitude, the trail is now the perfect route for adventurers and nature enthusiasts alike."


Apparently, the Elephant Trail was established in 1831.

 

[2wheels]

Auke, I believe I used the V121E map.

Will try to get my tracks into this story asap.

 

[2wheels]

re Ban Wat Chan Royal Project.

There are about 19 villages of some 5000 Karen people in the region.
In 1979 the King of Thailand visited Ban Wat Chan and initiated a Royal Project to help improve the villagers quality of life.
Twelve government departments united to establish the BWCRP.
The pine forest is the largest in Thailand and the Resort certainly employs a lot of locals.

 

[2wheels]

Why 'beep'?

"Any hill, mountain/khao, dpi (high place) in Thailand has a 'guardian spirit' and the Thai's beep to it/him/her for good luck and safe passage.. simple as that."

Not only restricted to elevated sites, as we know.

infallible 'ThaiVisa' source!

 

[KTMphil]

No falls.
No damage to the bikes.
No-one got lost.

Now, having ridden it, some research to come.[/FONT][/COLOR][/QUOTE]





Looking forward to this.

 

[Gnasher328]

Some more pics from the other bike.
The pit lane in Samoeng.


Road to the sky.


Now where?


Kids playing with a radio contrilled toy in the middle of nowhere. I reflected on how the father had bought that instead of a new tyre.


Definitely the 'Elephant Trail' then.


Seems we had been through a national park.


Altogether quite enjoyable.

 

[2wheels]

re CP (and others) in Mae Chaem area.



"Out of 25 Chiang Mai districts, including mountainous Mae Chaem, corn growing had become popular in nine districts with contract farmers. Some of the districts had 40% of their total areas burned. The researchers also found that six of the districts had at least 30,000 rai repeatedly burnt.

Dr Suthinee said mono-cropping in the North was worrisome as it expands every year In Mae Chaem alone, the area for corn growing had expanded by 6,000 rai a year since the research began and had also infringed on forest areas.

Dr Suthinee said corn growing was increasingly popular because the crop needs little care and fetches a sale price of six to eight baht per kilogramme.
Mr Nakorn, a farmer at Mae Chaem, said the villagers started growing corn intensively because major agribusinesses approached them several years ago offering good prices[/B]. But few farmers had ended up with large profits when taking into account farm costs. Mr Nakorn said the villagers started encroaching on forest areas to increase their profits.

"They need to burn the fields so they can quickly clear them for the next growing season," said Mr Nakorn, who has grown corn crops in 50 rai of forest area.
Mr Bunpot said the current regulations were difficult to enforce as they involved the livelihoods of poor people.

"That's the reality. It's really difficult and complicated to deal with this problem," said Mr Bunpot, who has been liaising with locals to try to find a voluntary solution to the problem.
Charoen Pokphand Produce, a subsidiary of Charoen Pokphand, Thailand's largest agribusiness firm, was named by the farmers as one of the companies they sold corn to.

In an email, the company said it had promoted corn production in the North, including in Mae Chaem, but it had no policy to encourage farmers to grow corn in forests.

The company said it selects suitable areas and farmers for growing. The farmers must have land title deeds and the growing areas must not be located in forests, watersheds or in national parks. Under the project, farmers must not burn corn stalks and must follow farm experts' guidance. The company's products carry a warning not to grow in forest reserves.

This year, 370 farmers in Mae Chaem participated in Charoen Pokphand Produce's project, with a growing area of 4,700 rai.

"We have no policy to promote forest encroachment under our contract farming system," the company said. "We don't want to blame anyone and we don't want to be accused either as there are several other corn production firms."

Dr Suthinee said it is time for the government to decide whether it wants to keep forest areas intact, or open them up for large-scale farming."


(Bangkok Post 1-4-2012)

 

[2wheels]

Some info about the Karen.

Karen Hilltribe

[FONT=Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif]"There are an estimated 320,000 Karen in Thailand alone, which makes up half of the total hill tribe population in Thai territory."[/FONT]

 

[Lone Rider]

A bit of info re The Elephant Trail.
(Please add more if you have it)

Old Elephant Trail. Centuries ago the route was busy with merchants travelling between Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai but with the construction of a road in the 1950s
the trail was abandoned. After years of solitude, the trail is now the perfect route for adventurers and nature enthusiasts alike."

Apparently the Elephant Trail was established in 1831.[

Don't have a lot to add but an uncle of my wife told me a long time ago (around 1987 or so) that, when he was younger, he walked often to Mae Hong Son as that was the fastest way to get there. Around 1977 or so the road from Mae Hong Son to Pai was just a dirt trail (at that time the trail was considerable further to the north) and I still remember that, once we had been trekking over there and were on our way back with an old freight truck converted for passenger use, we had to push and pull the old truck over the hills. It had been raining and the trail was slippery as hell. Don't remember any more what time we stopped pushing and pulling (quite late as it had been dark already for quite some time) and we just had to camp along the trail and we all shared the little food which we and some people had brought along.

 

[2wheels]

Another angle on the Elephant Trail;

"Mae Hong Son was set up to breed elephants that were walked along the trail to Chiang Mai


(GreatHolidayCollection.com)

 

[steaminjungle]

What a beautiful girl at the top there. Nice photos as always Ron but no f........... elephants . Bit like walking Street and only tuk-tuks. Just a thought. There was a baby 'phant in Maechan main drag last week , looked lost it did and camera at home as often happens.

 

[2wheels]

No Chang 'Steamin'.
It must have been quite a ride back in The Day though.
We did, however, see a few 'Farang' hiking the trail; that would be fun too.

 

[The Bigfella]

I can confirm that the Elephant Trail does indeed get very slippery when its wet

 

[2wheels]

When was that BF?

 

[KTMphil]

An interesting account here:


http://www.rideasia.net/motorcycle-forum/trail-riding-reports/375-mae-hong-son-loop-dirty-way.html

 

[The Bigfella]

When was that BF?

November 10, 2012

.... I lost the rear brake coming down into MHS too.... boiled the fluid

 

[2wheels]

Missed that one of Justin's originally.
He does it well.
Great pic by him …

 

[The Bigfella]

I hadn't seen that report before. Brilliant work Justin.

Nice bike too....

 

[2wheels]

The route.
From MHS Tim's will be quite different!



Thank you Auke.

 

[The Bigfella]

Remember this section? Looked a bit greasy.. but it turned out to be OK

 

[Gnasher328]

Looks like one of those places I can't decide whether to stay on the high bit and risk slipping into a rut or just follow one.

 

[2wheels]

Shared a meal at 'Oldies' with Greg Frazier a couple of nights ago and he mentioned, as an aside, that he's recently ridden
the Samoeng-Wat Chan track on a 1964 Vespa 150cc! Respect to bike and rider.
I'll get a pic of the bike (which is now for sale at Oldies).

 

[2wheels]

The little green giant mentioned above.

 

[steaminjungle]

'ere that BSA behind looks about the same vintage.

 

[2wheels]

Many interesting bikes there SJ.
The green monster is going for 'only 40,000 baht'.

 

[2wheels]

I mentioned that Greg Frazier took this Vespa for a ride along the track, here's his report.





http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/284/18114/Motorcycle-Article/Dr--Fraziers-Vespa-Adventure-Ride.aspx

Thanks Greg.

 

[2wheels]

Thanks for repairing this old report Bob.
I was researching for a ride and had noticed that a lot of the previously white text had turned black.

 

[The Bigfella]

I went past Old Timers today. Gone. Something else there in it's place... very quiet and the biggest bike was a 200

 

[2wheels]

That's a pity.
'Oldies' was a pleasant place; good food, good service, friendly people, live music and many interesting bikes and cars.
Must check if they exist elsewhere.