Well sorry to admit but I've gone dormant in regards to posting up any rides. I will apologize in advance as I never plan to pen any ride reports so there will only be a few pics.
Friends and I wer bored last month when it was peeing down rain incessantly. A couple friends ( Paul and Niel) and I decided we needed a couple days of slippery singeltrack. So thought a ride to Pai offroad, then next day north of Pai to the Burma border offroad and back to Pai. Then the third day off road back to Chiang Mai.
As always, only a few pics.
Since it was a ride with Niel n Paul it was time to park the KTM 500 and break out the lightweight bike for the ride. since I have to use a godamn CPAP to sleep I need more than a small backpack. Slapped on some sidepanel protection on the 250 so the Coyote bag wouldn't scuff the plastics.
and loaded the Altrider Hemishphere with Tools, Spares, CPAP, enough food to keep my diabetic body happy and hit the trail.
On the way to the trails even the tarmac was proper dodgy.
Slipping all over the place already. Carnage was just beginning.
Single track from Mae Rim, to Ba Pae, grabbed some snacks, hit the trails, binned it into a ditch, lost the GPS so had to backtrack and find it, etc. All the usual trail riding shenanigans. On for another good day.
After Bapae the rain had subsided and things began to look fun. Prior to Bapae it was a nightmare. The below video link at the bottom of the post shows some of the mayhem.
Dry trails after Bapae.
After this pic the heavens opened up and no more pics were taken.
We had all lowered our tire air pressure down to single digits trying to maintain traction on the slick stuff.
Rolled into Pai, checked in at Medio De Pai
Medio De Pai
A few parking spots for bikes, pool, and walking distance to everything.
and began to rack up the bar tab at the pub next door.
We had a plan the next day to ride to Sappong and up some single track that joins the singletrack up to the Huey helicopter crashed at the summit above. Roll on.
Next pic I have is of us at the Heli. Crashes, slips and slides ensued. One log crossing I gassed it to loft the front wheel over...…….but no.....rear wheel spun and I ran front wheel first into the log and over the bars I went. Definitely will not be entering Erzberg any time soon.
The singletrack leading to the heli from Sappong was in cracking nick and that side of the hill going up had some sand base in so was nothing but smiles.
About 15 KM off the top of the Heli summit I was going to peel off on some singletrack back towards Pai whilst Niel and Paul were heading to see if they could get along to the Burma Border.
I peeled off while the prepubescent boys went exploring.
I last headed down this bit of singletrack about 4 years ago. Lovely trail...…...well it was four years ago. Since then it has been abandoned by the locals on their scooters and so was completely overgrown. Countless times I'm just bushwhacking trying to find the trail. overgrown and the trail was missing once I got 200 meters into it. Just continued bushwhacking between the overgrown sections trying to connect the dots between places that I could find the track. Needless to say lots of effort and zig zagging in first gear looking for the trail. The first pic I took was an hour and half into it.
More of this for another 30 minutes.
Lets just say I was cream crackered……………...…….Knackered
At this spot I decided it was perfect for lunch. Hmmmmmm. Reality was I had just binned it and was too tired to continued. Niel and Paul said they would come down this track on the way back. They ride waaaaay better and faster than do and yet they had not caught up to me yet. Hmmmmm maybe they aren't coming down the trail...…..
Well after 30 minutes no sign of the boys so continue to plod and wreck down to the bottom. Turned a corner and thought hmmmmmm.
As always the pics make everything glook easy. This was a a downhill, onto a vertical meter drop that ends onto a 2 X 6 inch plank. Under the plank is a 5 foot drop onto rocks.
From above.
Now I was really wishing the boys were here. I looked at the GPS and I was only a couple KM from a main dirt road. Close but no cigar. Since I was alone and nobody was around it was onward through the fog. I slowly dropped the front end onto the plank. I was shitting myself at this point as I didn't know if I could get the rear wheel onto the plank without out divebombing off the plank. Bit of a pickle at this point. Plus even once I get the bike onto the plank its no guarantee I could ride across it without falling off and climb out the bank on the other side. Doh. As I'm pondering my fate a dog barks up at me from the other side. I look up and a hunter is walking up the trail. He see's me and starts speaking hill tribe and I don't understand a thing. I utter a few workds of Thai and he understands. I get him on the front of the bike whilst I lower the rear wheel onto the plank. Awesome. bike is now on the plank. Just then I hear a two stroke bike. Never been so glad to see the boys before. Niel rocks up to me with his video playing. it's in the Video at the end of the post.
With a bunch of guys we can wrestle all 3 bikes across which makes me the happiest camper in the world as It saves me from attempting to ride across the plank and up the bank. My hunter gets tipped well for his help as he wanders off probably wondering why the daft foriegners are bringing bikes down a trail you can barely walk along. We are truly dopey in his eyes I'm sure.
We get acroos and contune to the nex village where we down much needed sugar drinks. I'm relieved as hell and think its just a short fireroad back to Pai. 20KM and beer and food await. Then again I'm riding with Niel and Paul. "there's another tasty bit of easy singletrack to get to Pai from just over here" was the cleavage Niel showed me. As you can imagine. We got lost, turned around, bushwhacked and even denied access by monks so it was a bit longer than planned to make it back to Pai.
Another night at the bar and good farang food at a place I forgot the name of whilst it continued to rain gloriously all night.
Next day was offroad back to Pai. Good trails and reasonably dry to treat us well. Had a blast riding with the boys as usual.
Here is a Video of the ride put together by Niel. Glad someone does these things.
Friends and I wer bored last month when it was peeing down rain incessantly. A couple friends ( Paul and Niel) and I decided we needed a couple days of slippery singeltrack. So thought a ride to Pai offroad, then next day north of Pai to the Burma border offroad and back to Pai. Then the third day off road back to Chiang Mai.
As always, only a few pics.
Since it was a ride with Niel n Paul it was time to park the KTM 500 and break out the lightweight bike for the ride. since I have to use a godamn CPAP to sleep I need more than a small backpack. Slapped on some sidepanel protection on the 250 so the Coyote bag wouldn't scuff the plastics.
and loaded the Altrider Hemishphere with Tools, Spares, CPAP, enough food to keep my diabetic body happy and hit the trail.
On the way to the trails even the tarmac was proper dodgy.
Slipping all over the place already. Carnage was just beginning.
Single track from Mae Rim, to Ba Pae, grabbed some snacks, hit the trails, binned it into a ditch, lost the GPS so had to backtrack and find it, etc. All the usual trail riding shenanigans. On for another good day.
After Bapae the rain had subsided and things began to look fun. Prior to Bapae it was a nightmare. The below video link at the bottom of the post shows some of the mayhem.
Dry trails after Bapae.
After this pic the heavens opened up and no more pics were taken.
We had all lowered our tire air pressure down to single digits trying to maintain traction on the slick stuff.
Rolled into Pai, checked in at Medio De Pai
Medio De Pai
A few parking spots for bikes, pool, and walking distance to everything.
and began to rack up the bar tab at the pub next door.
We had a plan the next day to ride to Sappong and up some single track that joins the singletrack up to the Huey helicopter crashed at the summit above. Roll on.
Next pic I have is of us at the Heli. Crashes, slips and slides ensued. One log crossing I gassed it to loft the front wheel over...…….but no.....rear wheel spun and I ran front wheel first into the log and over the bars I went. Definitely will not be entering Erzberg any time soon.
The singletrack leading to the heli from Sappong was in cracking nick and that side of the hill going up had some sand base in so was nothing but smiles.
About 15 KM off the top of the Heli summit I was going to peel off on some singletrack back towards Pai whilst Niel and Paul were heading to see if they could get along to the Burma Border.
I peeled off while the prepubescent boys went exploring.
I last headed down this bit of singletrack about 4 years ago. Lovely trail...…...well it was four years ago. Since then it has been abandoned by the locals on their scooters and so was completely overgrown. Countless times I'm just bushwhacking trying to find the trail. overgrown and the trail was missing once I got 200 meters into it. Just continued bushwhacking between the overgrown sections trying to connect the dots between places that I could find the track. Needless to say lots of effort and zig zagging in first gear looking for the trail. The first pic I took was an hour and half into it.
More of this for another 30 minutes.
Lets just say I was cream crackered……………...…….Knackered
At this spot I decided it was perfect for lunch. Hmmmmmm. Reality was I had just binned it and was too tired to continued. Niel and Paul said they would come down this track on the way back. They ride waaaaay better and faster than do and yet they had not caught up to me yet. Hmmmmm maybe they aren't coming down the trail...…..
Well after 30 minutes no sign of the boys so continue to plod and wreck down to the bottom. Turned a corner and thought hmmmmmm.
As always the pics make everything glook easy. This was a a downhill, onto a vertical meter drop that ends onto a 2 X 6 inch plank. Under the plank is a 5 foot drop onto rocks.
From above.
Now I was really wishing the boys were here. I looked at the GPS and I was only a couple KM from a main dirt road. Close but no cigar. Since I was alone and nobody was around it was onward through the fog. I slowly dropped the front end onto the plank. I was shitting myself at this point as I didn't know if I could get the rear wheel onto the plank without out divebombing off the plank. Bit of a pickle at this point. Plus even once I get the bike onto the plank its no guarantee I could ride across it without falling off and climb out the bank on the other side. Doh. As I'm pondering my fate a dog barks up at me from the other side. I look up and a hunter is walking up the trail. He see's me and starts speaking hill tribe and I don't understand a thing. I utter a few workds of Thai and he understands. I get him on the front of the bike whilst I lower the rear wheel onto the plank. Awesome. bike is now on the plank. Just then I hear a two stroke bike. Never been so glad to see the boys before. Niel rocks up to me with his video playing. it's in the Video at the end of the post.
With a bunch of guys we can wrestle all 3 bikes across which makes me the happiest camper in the world as It saves me from attempting to ride across the plank and up the bank. My hunter gets tipped well for his help as he wanders off probably wondering why the daft foriegners are bringing bikes down a trail you can barely walk along. We are truly dopey in his eyes I'm sure.
We get acroos and contune to the nex village where we down much needed sugar drinks. I'm relieved as hell and think its just a short fireroad back to Pai. 20KM and beer and food await. Then again I'm riding with Niel and Paul. "there's another tasty bit of easy singletrack to get to Pai from just over here" was the cleavage Niel showed me. As you can imagine. We got lost, turned around, bushwhacked and even denied access by monks so it was a bit longer than planned to make it back to Pai.
Another night at the bar and good farang food at a place I forgot the name of whilst it continued to rain gloriously all night.
Next day was offroad back to Pai. Good trails and reasonably dry to treat us well. Had a blast riding with the boys as usual.
Here is a Video of the ride put together by Niel. Glad someone does these things.
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