Friday's Off-road torture

[esspressolungo]

George and me decided to go exploring some new tracks around Doi Pui, lucky enough we discovered a beautiful waterfall, we had a rope with us, because we knew we gonna get some slippery parts at the waterfall, the track seemed to end just at the waterfall, so we turned around and tried another section uphill...what a nice hill climb, it carried us to the top of the mountain and granted us some great views over Chiang Mai. We were riding parallel to the waterfall and the sections became steeper and steeper, from what I could tell, we were not too far away from the Doi Pui Ranger station, but this is just a guess...we had to stop because there was a small canyon and only some tree logs made up as a bridge for the tribes...it looked not too good and I was not sure about our mission right now...a second later George had the bike up on the first tree log and trying to drive over it, at the very last section on of the logs cracked and the back wheel got stuck. Lucky enough he had the front wheel up already. Somehow we managed to get over this delicate section. After this nerve wrecking action we were facing another steep hill climb. Not too steep but the underground was one mess, it was almost impossible to get traction, I forced myself to keep going and George followed...we reached another 150 m or so and then we had to give up...totally exhausted we turned around and crossed the tree log bridge one more time, this time I almost dropped my bike in the canyon...after cooling down a bit, we found a new track in we followed that, out of a sudden I recognized this track, this track carried us towards Doi Pui, then a green enduro bike was coming down the hill...it was Alex from the U.K. We stopped had a small talk and were ready for some coffee at Doi Pui Coffe shop. The clock was striking four and I had to return home...G. and I took hell's gate downhill...

Not a long distance ride but for sure some very interesting tracks...

 

[esspressolungo]

 

[KTMphil]

Looks pretty gnarly, nice job guys!

 

[esspressolungo]

GNARLY INDEED, THE WORST PART WAS GETTING THOSE BIKES OVER THE PIPES AND THEN THE SECTION WITH THE BRIDGE, THE REST WAS MORE OR LESS PEANUTS

 

[KTMphil]

Trying to figure out where that waterfall is?

 

[esspressolungo]

Secret...o.k, one day I will show you..promise...here's the video from the trip:

 

[alexuk]

I know the little bridge, I ride my bike over it.

Was planning to make a jump over it, but was told it had been done before but a mountainbike tour company destroyed it

 

[esspressolungo]

Alex, this is pretty brave, George rode the bike over it, at the very last section it broke and it wasn't in a stable condition anymore...for me it was much harder to get it over and riding was not an option at all, I was thinking about jumping over the gap, but not with a XR 250 and another 130 kg on board...Did you go downhill? We tried to get up the hill climb after the bridge but the surface didn't allow any further movements

 

[alexuk]

Fantastic fotos espresso
maybe not same bridge- I was on my downhill bike-to right of the road going up doi suthep main road

 

[esspressolungo]

Then this is a different bridge for sure, looks very similar indeed, coordinates at: 18.82821, 98.92558, maybe you can check it and see if it's the same bridge, but as I said the gap over the canyon was at least 3 m, would be very risky to jump over there, the bike only could be pulled out by rope

 

[KTMphil]

Just had a look where that bridge is Rudi, looks like a trail not used much north of the river/ waterfall

Then this is a different bridge for sure, looks very similar indeed, coordinates at: 18.82821, 98.92558, maybe you can check it and see if it's the same bridge, but as I said the gap over the canyon was at least 3 m, would be very risky to jump over there, the bike only could be pulled out by rope

 

[esspressolungo]

With off-road machine it is pretty heavy to reach, maybe with mountain bikes easy coming downhill. The section at the waterfall is very dangerous and not to be recomanded as it could fatal especially in the rainy season...next time we will try the hill climb again, just after the bridge and will see where we get out..