Mae Sai Visa run offroad trip

Feb 13, 2010
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I had to make a quick walk across the boarder for another 15 days. Just picked up a Honda XR and decided to take it out for a few days and see how it rides. Yes, just had the stitches out the day before leaving and was ready to go.

I mapped out a route to take me over Mae Kuang Reservoir and offroad to Chiang Mai which took the first day about 10 hours.

The 2nd day I shot up to Mae Sai and went across the boarder and back and was on the road by 12. The idea was offorad up to the North West corner up to Nam Mae Kham. I soon found out the road up to there is pretty much all newly paved and not a bad ride. Just at the top I broke off for a bit of double track and a nice single track that went around the corner. I planned on a few more trails that I had seen on the way up but decided to pass those up as it was getting late.

The idea was to head to Mae Sarong and south through trails to Fang, then up to Ob Khan and along the boarder then south trails to Pie. However being late in the day I decided to go right to Fang following the hard top through Mae Sarong.

The last day I go on the dirt by 730 in the morning and didn't get off until about 5 in the afternoon. Double track mostly not far from Fang heading north back up close to Mae Sarong then south east and ending in Chiang Rai. Though mid way it became a rough single track, steep, wet and muddy, and one point had that "green moss" which was like "ice"..... I took a spill there and sprained my wrist. Taking it easy I was happy to be on the hard top again and then shot home from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai on the highway.

I had planned to meet up with everyone Sunday morning and unfortunately couldn't and decided to give my wrist some rest.

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On the left is the new WBT-202 I got to simply record tracks every 2 - 3 meters to have precise tracking and simply to have a back-up. The idea was also to get into photo geo-tagging and have precise coordinates for them. Then I can have photo way points which would help my poor memory that I have when figuring for future trips and planning. I have to say either the 202 or I've heard the 200 works a bit better as the 202 has some bugs, though either one can pick up for about 3,900 at Eagle GPS baht which I think is a steal for the application use.

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This is Mae Kuang Reservoir which I wonder if you can rent the speed boats there??? Anyways, I saw were you can rent a ferry for 200 Baht, though I tried going around the East side which I found a single track that skirted the edge but became unsuccessful to make it fully around. I wonder if there is away on teh west side which later I saw a park. So anyways, I had a coke at a small shack and caught the ferry across.....

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Just after the ferry is a paved road that isn't that bad and a nice short ride. About half way down I found some trails off it which were flat and a nice off road truck trail. As well I found a short single track that was a fun ride.

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Again this is why I want the Geo-Tagging as I don't remember where this photo was exactly. The road had bits of pavement in the beginning but at this point it was all dirt on to Chiang Rai which for estimate I would say about 60 Km. Easy ride not technical with a bunch of small stream crossings.

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I had to re-adjust things and took a break while checking I was on the right path. The bungy cords kept breaking in which I then took out some rope I had, and tied the pack down. (""" I would like to know where I could by some proper decent Bungy chords... I don't mind spending the cash if they are good""")

Looks like I have a lot, and this was sort of a trial run to to see how much stuff I could bring for a cross country tour and trip into Laos, also a possible moto / trekking trip. Wanted to see how it would be offroad and could say the load was ok for a dirt road but not a technical one and certainly not a single track. Will have to work on lightening the load.

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You might be saying what's up with the bear??? I found that one on the road last trip I took, some kid throwing him off. I stuck him on the bike and the hill tribe kids and people seem to get a kick when they see him. On this day I found a Tweety bird hanging off a tree down some random single track....

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This is just before coming out at Chiang Rai....

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The next day I was up and on the way to Mae Sai crossed the boarder and this was on the way up to Nam Mae Kham.

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Brand new road up to Mae Kham with just one spot in the middle they haven't paved yet though is flat hard dirt about to be paved.

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This is along the double off road track up in the corner.

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I brought my Nikon D80 for two reasons... One to keep me from going to fast as I wouldn't want to fall with it around my shoulder (though I took a few spills anyways), and two... I love that camera and every time I'm out riding I wish I had it with me to grab a shot like this. I'll be thinking of making that my permanent travel and trip camera.

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Buddha statue on the way back that I missed. Just after this I headed south to Mae Sarong which was also a nice ride though the road had its wear....

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The temple and the Jedi in Mae Sarong... I do like Mae Sarong, it was 26 degree's "cold" and unique little town. Later I discovered bunch of trail riding and tons of hill tribe south of there. Easily can spend a few days riding the trails and heading back for rest and sleep in Mae Sarong.

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From Mae Sarong a nice ride to Fang. Great views this one showing how green the jungle is from the recent rains.... Air was pure and clear as the burning in this area seems to be over....

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Random shot just before Fang...

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Spent the night in Fang and this is the dirt road the next morning that I had gone on....

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This is the bridge to cross the Mae Nam Tok river... Shortly after crossing and heading back North West I ran into Rex who was on the Honda 125 Mae Hong Song loop and GT - Board member. Pretty trippy running into someone on some random dirt road in the middle of no where.... I think there will be more chance encounters like this in the future.

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It was mostly a wide road trail easy up to the bridge, after the bridge there were some fantastic views and few tough spots but nothing that bad. Though just south of Mae Sarong it turned single track with this gate being the start. It got steep, rough, slippery, green moss that was like ice, and I would have rather probably passed on it... Definitely don't want to be alone next time I go. At one point though I made it to a whole fenced off area with a man made bamboo gate. I figured some village must be just beyond though I didn't go and open the door and push through ..... wonder what is down there though?

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Great views at the end of the single track as I came up to a village. After which it was a wide dirt road which was a relief.

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Wasn't more then about 10 K until I was back in Chiang Rai.... bit bruised with a sore wrist so I cruised on down the highway and made it back home.....

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I'm wondering if there is a way to load the .GPX file on the message board??? If there is I'll load. Otherwise I'm working on sorting a .KMZ link to goggle earth looking to have geo-tagged photos.... working on that now...

I think it was Hanz telling me to write more and give more detail on a trip report... I hope this suffices and if there is anything I can add let me know...

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Feb 13, 2010
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The WBT-202 I believe (not 100%) has the same satellite tracking chip set as the 60 and 76CSx. I put a 2 gig SD Card allowing to save something like 12 million points, so I can then set it to record every 1 or 3 meters to have a precise recording. Once I import the GPX file into mapsource it's exactly as the 60CSx would look having time, speed intervals, elevation......

Again I use it for a back up and on top of having the precise readings which make for a nice track (especially for if I'm returning to follow a single track) but also for the Geo-Tagging which i think would be good to have precise coordinates as well. Only downside is it's not waterproof though I wrapped mine in some plastic with some tape in case I took a fall in a river crossing.
 
Aug 29, 2008
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hi jd,
just opened your gpx link
it shows a route around nimmanhemin rd
interesting report ,I'd like to do some of it too

have a good time yesterday??
 
Feb 13, 2010
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Hey Alrikki,

Off at work now so will be away from my bike for 30 - 45 days :-(

Had a good time yesterday with Danial, though in the end he sprained his ankle.... (Boots are necessity for dirt bike riding and armor). Anyways, we had taken that route to Pang Yang just north of the route we had taken. Though the route had more of those 2 wheel pavement deals which I don't especially like and the track came out about 700 meters up from the viewpoint which we had to back track and go to take a break.

So I would say that middle track you and I took was perfect to go from the 700 year stadium to Pong Yang with a nice break at the view point in between.

Ya Danial took me up and showed me a single track that shot North and then came down to Samoeng. We then followed a track that I wanted to take to Ob Khan.....

It was a hellish single track on the side of a mountain though we only made it about 1 K until we had to turn back due to the annkle....

Will hit you up for a ride when I'm back in town.