D-Trackers to Samoeng

Ally

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Dec 13, 2007
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This ride was suggested by Unk on the GT-Rider forum and we thought that due to so many D-Trackers being out there on the forum, there might be a good turnout.

Art, Yui, David & I met at Miguels in Nong Hoi and took the 106 down to the 121 & turned right for Samoeng.

After a couple of posed photos passing the beautiful blooms along the 1269, we finally made our way through the curves & twists of the west side of the loop up to Samoeng.

After a stop & a drink, David & Yui headed back to Chiang Mai via the 1096 to Mae Rim but Art & I took a slightly longer route via the 6033, up to Samoeng Nuea and then down to Pong Yaeng on the hard pack track which was seeing progressive development, much of it now being concreted as we rode it.

I said farewell to Art at the 1096 and I turned right back towards Samoeng and eventually turned left & back down the 1269.

This part of the journey was a little different for me. I made my first ‘Hide’ of a Geocache.

After hearing about this hobby a few years ago, I never got around to it due to being so darned busy with dogs in the meantime. But now with more time on my hands, I have decided to take up this game / interest / obsession (haven’t understood it fully yet!) and this week I prepared my first little waterproof plastic container along with a log sheet, some instructions for any finder of it & some novelty objects to start of the cache.

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Thanks again to David for suggesting this theme ride and look forward to any other rides that might come about in the future.

Ally
 

DavidFL

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Twas a nice half day out for me, before rushing back to Chiang Mai & the airport to catch the plane to Bkk & Hanoi; only to find out at the airport I had my outward & inward flight times mixed up & we were 6 hrs early.
:lol: :lol: :lol: Ha. Ha. Meow was not impressed, so back home it was to sleep for the rest of the day. But lucky it was early & not late.

Anyway a few pics from me
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The "early" morning breakfast at Miguel's was free & something that Fishenough has kindly offered to all GT Riders who want to start early with breakfast at Miguels. I think we were the first, so don't let him get away with this folks. Drop by & enjoy his breakfast burritos, before your rides. And then swing by in the evening for a truly fine Mexican meal in cool cool air-con comfort (that you can reciprocate & pay for.)

The magnificent blooming trees on R1269.
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The Samoeng drink stop at Suphanee Restaurant
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After I returned quickly to Cnx with Miss Yui to try & catch the wrong flight to Bkk. Ho. Ho.

But there was last photo stop with Yui
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where she learned the hard way the trick of stopping on a slope & not putting your foot down on the low side...and being the gentleman that I am I picked the bike up for her, instead of taking a photo. Now if it had of been one of the boys.. :p :p

D-Tracker riders please propose some more "Sunday" rides.......

:idea: :idea:
 
Mar 15, 2003
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www.daveearly.com
This part of the journey was a little different for me. I made my first ‘Hide’ of a Geocache.
Ally-

I am quite surprised at how few "'caches" there are in N. Thailand. With all the riding and trekking in the area one would think it would be more popular. I made a couple of finds a while back, and I thought I would hide some of my own. Due to the perceived "lack of interest" I never did place them. It's good to see someone trying this and perhaps you will stir up some interest. It does seem to be an interesting hobby that would fit well with our biking travels. :thumbup:
 
Apr 20, 2009
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Ally and I met up the other day and were talking about this. I was once interested in geocaching around here too, but what put me off was all the rules and restrictions on the geocaching.com website, and how lousy most of the caches currently around Chiang Mai are. Almost all of the caches listed right now are inside Chiang Mai city, and several of them are just blatant attempts to get you into someone's restaurant or shop.

The rules on geocaching.com, posted here: http://www.geocaching.com/about/guidelines.aspx basically require you to submit a maintenance plan along with your submission if your cache is more than a certain distance from the home address on your profile. It's too much of a headache and it's no wonder that so few people are involved.

I think it would be great if the GT Rider community started listing our own caches here and skipped the whole geocaching.com website. I think the type of cache motorcyclists want to hunt for is different than the type they post over there anyway. For example, I have no interest in hiking 10 km through the woods in my motorcycle gear looking for a cache that some hiker hid. I think it would be much better if we had some GT Rider only caches, posted here, made specifically for the motorcyclist.

It's good to see someone trying this and perhaps you will stir up some interest.
Agreed! Count me in!
 
Apr 20, 2009
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Ally, here is the notice that I told you about. I wrote it up and translated it into Thai to print and leave in my cache. Thought it might be useful to anyone interested.

??????????????????????????? ??????????? (Geocaching Game)
???????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????? (G.P.S.)
??????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????? ???? ?????????????????????????

This box is part of a game called “Geocaching”. People from all over the world find these hidden boxes using G.P.S. and then mark their names in the notebook. If you have found this box and are not part of the game, please leave it hidden where you found it. Thank you.
 

Ally

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Dec 13, 2007
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Well how timely.

I just this minute returned from finding a cache and scoping the area of another that's currently too hard to get to !

The one at night safari is one placed by 'highonthai' from pitstop, placed there in 2008 & has about 6 entries in the log book.

Thanks Dave for commenting, yes I think this fits just right into our community and intend to raise it's profile. After talking to Liam the other day, I am convinced there will be a few more interested riders.

Liam, I tend to agree with you but personally I will be interested in covering both bases rather than 'instead of'. For novices (& that includes me) I think the technique or process behind the recording, finding & stashing is a learned set of tools that maybe the geocaching community can teach us, so to think the non-geocache community would be interested in conforming to 'the plot' / the game, as it were is a bit of a big leap of faith at this time.

The 'muggle' factor is the biggest issue needing to be addressed, otherwise it becomes a waste of effort.

Please don't get me wrong, I am not black hatting it just stating the obvious.

Thanks for the translation too Liam, that will come in very handy.

I will be stashing my second cache tomorrow.

Ally
 
Mar 15, 2003
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www.daveearly.com
I have to agree with Ally on this one. Rather than re-invent the wheel it would probably be wise to start with existing and known resources. There is a learning curve and people will only attempt that if the interest is there. The "audience" may still be limited on GT-Rider for such a project. Equally, there would be a limited number of caches and everyone would be pursuing the same targets until it was better established. If it progressed through the Geocache site, perhaps a section could be made on GT-Rider. It sounds like you guys are pretty enthused. Good to see.
 
Nov 2, 2008
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Was unable to join you on Sunday, but had a great day riding this area the past Saturday. Spent the day just riding some of our favorite roads to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. Our plan to ride from Samoeng to the 1013, Mae Wing area, was changed as rains were threatening after 15kms of dirt.

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So we puttered our way back to the 4029, which we both enjoy; either on motorcycle or peddle power.

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And enjoyed the clear weather onto Mae Rim, the highlights being the clear air and green again scenery.

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David I will happily cook up a free pre-ride breakfast, maybe I can pick a day to do a pre-ride check of the back ride to Doi Inthanon with breakfast for anyone willing to join. Once again I'm unable to join Ally proposed ride on Sunday the 30th.

Many fisherman have tried my breakfast burritos,but not enough riders.

Regards,
Kevin
 
Jan 14, 2010
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Fishenough wrote: Many fisherman have tried my breakfast burritos,but not enough riders.

Regards,
Kevin
Perhaps that's because most fishermen are up at the crack of dawn, raring to go. Most riders I know struggle to get out of bed in time for breakfast :lol-sign:
 

Ally

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Dec 13, 2007
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Fishenough said:
Once again I'm unable to join Ally proposed ride on Sunday the 30th.
Kevin, you could always propose a ride at a time suitable for you... I would be happy to ride mid week.

Maybe suit others too?

Ally
 

Mark H

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Jan 20, 2009
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Having read so much about D-Trackers around CM etc on one of our trips, 11th June my son and I decided to hire a couple and set off on a reasonably Hard Days Ride. Both fairly experienced we decided on a reasonable loop and having had a good brekky in Chiang Mai at around 9 am we headed off up the 107.

We turned onto the 1095 towards Pai, taking in a slight detour to visit the Pong Dueat Hot Spring then onwards to Pai, stopping once for fuel where we found that although identical bikes, his riding style appeared to be much less economical then mine. In fact the pump showed he was using around 25% more fuel than me, but we were both having a great time. Road was not busy and the weather was reasonably good, we stopped between the heavy showers and made reasonable progress arriving in Pai around 1 pm for an excellent lunch down by the river.

Refuelling to the brim just outside Pai at around 2.30 pm we set off up the 1265 which has just been resurfaced and is in fantastic condition for a good fast ride to Ban Chan.
From Ban Chan we took the 5032 Dirt Road over the top through Mae Daet and Bo Kaeo towards Samoeng and found that the going became somewhat tougher as the track basically disintegrated before us.

We soldiered on, stopping for the occasional drink and even found the odd village shop to replenish our stores. The track was very hard going, loose and slippery, probably a KLX would have been a much better choice for this bit, but we both agreed the D-Tracker had been great for the normal road and was handling the rough quite well too.

Shortly after Samoeng we picked up asphalt again on the 1269 and carried on down towards Ban Pong, where my sons fuel light came on indicating approximately 1 ltr remaining on board. The weather was closing in, dark skies, thunder clouds and lightning storms were soon upon us as we soldiered on relentlessly. Finding a fuel pump in a village we popped 50 baht into his tank and resumed our slow run towards the main road and the 108 back to Chiang Mai, now in extremely heavy rain and getting very wet.
I was getting concerned that my fuel light had not yet activated and although I knew he had used more than me on the run to Pai, I was sure that there couldnt be much difference when we had both been covering the rough stuff all the way back. Eventuall y my Fuel indicator did start to flash, just as we were approaching Chiang Mai Airport, suggesting I had ridden the 170 km or so back on just 6 litres of fuel !!!

Arriving back in Chiang Mai sometime after 7 pm we decided that although it had been an amazing 300+ Km days ride, next time we would set off earlier and possibly try different bikes next time. MY choice would be something with a bit more power maybe a decent 400 Transalp, but for Fuel consumption, especially where it is a little critical on a trip such as this, the D-Tracker takes some beating.

I have many pictures of the trip, however I am posting this from work where I will be for the next month or so and Photobucket is blocked - sorry guys.

Cheers, Mark