muang khong - wiang heang enduro track

Jun 21, 2006
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The thought of riding along the pai river from muang khong to wiang heang had the muppets tingly all over. so we rented a truck from north wheels chiang mai. justin wasnt completely at ease with the honkys driving style though

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and headed on up to chiang dao for the night. we had looked at the map and figured 30mins to do the road over to muang khong. how worng we were what looked like a fairly straight run over was inf act a long run of continuos hairpin bends and narrow c road. it took us most of the morning and it was gone 11 by the time we hit muang khong.
we had lunch if as much to gain credence with the owner when we left our truck right in front of his shop. wouldnt want a 500,000baht pick up go missing would we.

after faffing around a bit more unloading and gearing up we were off onto the track

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not 10kms into our trip and we came across our first problem. a long hanging footbridge crossing the river. i dont know of any motorcyclist that has gone acroosd this bridge and when we started to walk it and it started swinging and creaking there was no way i was taking my precious honda across there. so we headed for option b.

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option b looked a little something like this

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sticks were levered inbetween the spokes and even though it looks a little dodgy i didnt at one point fear the bike would go down. the loclas relieved of 200baht a bike for helping us whcih i had no problem paying as it was either that or back to the truck.

at the next crossing our californian friend was clearly feeling a little braver and announced he would conquer this raging river, to be fair the little yamaha made it further than his orange fairy did the other day but in the end same-ish result. i.e failure!

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once this little episode was over we got down to real business letting loose the bikes on what has to be soime of the best rding off-road in the area

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at this point the trail was awesome , grip was good, scenery was stunning, we werent loaded up with overnight gear either so were simply enjoying riding fast.

some great corners here

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after latish tea in wiang heang we were faced with the choice of either riding back down through sam moen and the huai nam dang area or riding what we had just come through again. a resounding yes to going back down the same route had us off again for ther 30odd kilomtre dash.

going a bit slower this time round we took in more of the scenery, and remarkably not scared off by the sounds of our exhausts i came around one corner to be greeted by this little rotter. bignsmall thought it was an orangutan but i assured him it was infact the asian chimpanzee native to central and north thailand

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look at the way way the local david knight takes on the trails, this guy had great style

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predictably there was some posing for the cameras aswell

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on our way back over the same river we had come along though there no-one to be seen. panick stricken the muppets decided to look for alternative ways across the river, nothing. any other trails, nope not unless we morphed into 2 mountain goats. panick struck in, even taking its toll on one local boy who felt our anxiety

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the only thing i could think of after our scrams and cries had gone unheard was to turn the bike on and rev the crap out of it until someone heard and came to rescue the stricken western explorers, eventually they arrived and helped us back across

justin lowering my bike down the bank

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after this it was plain sailing back to muang khong and back into the rim doi resort in chiang dao for rest and recuperation muppets style.

the track is probably about 45mins riding time, not including river crossings of which there are 3. we were taking photos and gossiping so it took us about 5hours round trip. the trail is a ripper and anyone who enjoys offroading and lives in chiang mai who hasnt ridden it yet should be hung drawn and quartered, what are you waitng for guys get out there!!
maybe wait till dry season though! hate to see a bike dissapear down the river

over and out
the honky.
 
Oct 12, 2005
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After further evaluation I believe the creature is the rare African male Silverback Gorilla. Its been discovered that these wise creatures after grieving for Jane Goodalls murder formed a brain trust and began earning heinous profits rigging elections for Mugabe in Zimbabwe. Once sufficient funds were secured they hired C130's to airlift them into northern Thailand to begin a Re-populating program. Further profits are being generated by the highly adaptable Gorillas by sending their teenage off sping into Spotlight bar to compete with the Lisu gals for customers.

Although Happy Feet being the esteemed head honcho of know it all tour company TransmotoSport I shall defer to his opinion of the Francois's langur species.
 

Rhodie

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Mar 5, 2006
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BignTall wrote: After further evaluation I believe the creature is the rare African male Silverback Gorilla. Its been discovered that these wise creatures after grieving for Jane Goodalls murder formed a brain trust and began earning heinous profits rigging elections for Mugabe in Zimbabwe.
Apart from your spot-on Silverback sentiments, Dame Jane is very much alive. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Goodall
Me thinks you were maybe mixing your species and meant the late Dian Fossey? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dian_Fossey

Gorilla emerging from the mist???
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Truly cracking pix by the way...
Where did the Yam come from??[/i]
 

Pikey

www.tbbtours.com
SilverHawk,

I think you have just unwittingly created B&T's new Avatar - funny as hell!

Great report HH and as you have thrown the gauntlet down at us no so active (read that as injured/working) CNX dirt riders, I guess I'll have to brush the XR down at some point and show you muppets how to 180 and highside round a few of those sweet dirt corners! ;)

Cheers,

Pikey.
 
Oct 12, 2005
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Oh boy. Fossey, Goodall, ex- lovers and girl friends, it all seems to get a bit fuzzy at times, eh? Haha. Now its Chimps and Gorillas swapping positions in my mind and misted caverns :shock: , does it ever stop!!

This reports a hoot!! So a few trinkets have been unwraveled(Good work Rhodie) but not all; the Yamaha is original equipment on this particular ride. However the "mist" is shielding another secret...are the readers up to the task of...finding Waldo?????????????? Time will tell. Now get to work you minions.

After a night out with Rossi and Lukester last night, and occupying our familiar seats amongst the "spotlight", sadly Silverhawks created image is a bit telltale this morning. Nice work Dave!!

Jeff the rivers after getting their appretites a bit "whet" are hungry for a larger morsel, ala XR 400. "Come here little boy" says the voice with a hand extended offering some hard candy......next ride shall be coming up shortly.

Getting back to reality, the ride is gorgous singletrack along this section of trail and other than Davids mistaken misrepresentation of the road to Muang khong from Chiang Dao all is as God intended. Some of the nicer forests around are in this area of Thailand so if you enjoy pristine jungle and unspoiled hilltribes get your derriere to thee...on a dirt bike.
 
Jun 21, 2006
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rhodie, bignsmall had me rushing for google aswell to check if indeed jane goodall had been murdered!!
dave that monkey/SP creation is awesome how do you do that?, the picture really captures the michievous nature of the SP! great banter boys !

wherever this particular mixture of soil is found seems to make for great riding, we noted a fair amount of sand in the consistency, the good thing being that when it rains the tyres can still get great grip and not spoil a ride like our beloved cat shit clay.
phayao also has a lot of this type of soil, if anyone knows any other areas please inform as it makes for awesome dirt riding.
 

Pikey

www.tbbtours.com
Lukester,

On our recent road trip to Pua me and Bungy were discussing just how much 2 track was visible from the 1148 - seems like there could be a lot of opportunities in that area. Could be worthwhile slinging the bikes on the back of a truck and heading over sometime.....

Cheers,

Pikey.
 
Jun 21, 2006
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have noted them aswell jeff and a trip is definitely in the pipeline, with the amount of agriculture going on there must be hundreds of trails over there. looks like it could be quite a lot of clay based trails though, we will have to wait for a good stint of sunshine!
 
Mar 15, 2003
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www.daveearly.com
Apparently you guy's were quite fortunate to run across the monkey in the wild. Those opportunities may not be around long.....

A global review of the world's primates says 48% of species face extinction, an outlook described as "depressing" by conservationists.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species says the main threat is habitat loss, primarily through the burning and clearing of tropical forests.

More than 70% of primates in Asia are now listed as Endangered, it adds.

The findings form part of the most detailed survey of the Earth's mammals, which will be published in October.......

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7541192.stm
They also state that ......

Nations with the highest percentage of threatened species:
Cambodia - 90%
Vietnam - 86%
Indonesia - 84%
Laos - 83%
China - 79%


Really pretty sad :(