Thread: Satonic's epic adventure - Retracing the Elephant Trail

Cows!

Great vids, Sat. Thanks for that.

A few faces.

Top notch thread, Tonic!!

Kudos!

Was a shame you got sick and had to go home Satonic- I know it's hard to believe, but every day was better than the last!

Picking up where you left off-

Good morning from Mae Sariang, Thailand! Well rested and ready to ride! Brekkie at the North West Guest House because they were one of the only places open. Food not bad, service real slow, waitress a cutie but should try smiling some time...


We topped up at the big PTT in town and hit the road! 108 east for 14km, then north towards Mae Um Pok-


It was kind of funny- when we busted out the GT Rider map the folks at all the other tables also pulled out the same map and we had a good time comparing routes, places visited, and places worth going. Seems the GT Rider map is the only good English language map for this part of Thailand.

Once we turned north off the 108 the road starts off nicely paved, then gets rough and eventually turns to dirt road, then dirt track. Good stuff!



I love hot springs, but that wasn't on the menu for today. Maybe next time!

We stopped at an unmarked junction to try and figure out which way to go when a really nice guy rocked up on a scooter and greeted us in near perfect English. Turns out he's a teacher in a local school and graduate of Chiang Mai University. He told us we were almost at Mae Um Pok, looked at our bikes, and asked if we wanted to go the "normal" way or the "adventure" way.

"Adventure!" of course!!

He told us to hang a left towards Papae, and once there to ask someone to point us in the direction of the track to La Up. The track isn't on any map, but it's there!

I love stuff like this! We got a little turned around in Papae itself, then spent the next couple hours trying to sniff out the track to La Up. It wasn't easy!



We spent a lot of time riding down tracks that would either fade into the jungle or end at farms with rice paddies that would go down to the river, but no obvious way to cross the paddies or get across the river...


There was no one about to ask for directions, so we just kept trying different tracks. I did a fair bit of hiking and was enjoying the search. Trent's not into hiking but was doing his best to be patient




Getting down was easy, getting back up, sometimes less so, but nothing we couldn't handle-

Dirt tires on dirt bikes for riding in dirt, what on earth were we thinking?!


Woohoo! I found the missing link!!


Cool little hand made bridge- made it across no drama, so went back to find Trent.


I'd reached this point by bushwhacking across a bunch of rice paddies and Trent wasn't keen to follow. Now that I'd found the bridge I was able to follow the trail back and found Trent. I told him this bridge and the cool track that led to it would make up for all the farking around

Unfortunately I ran out of memory on my Contour camera the day before so no video of the track, which is a shame because it's the best single track we encountered the whole trip. Next time I'll bring extra memory cards!





Here comes Trent!


Looking back the way we came-

Great stuff Tony, you too Sicknote

Looks a lot of fun

Thanks for adding to this thread tonybkk! Hang around, the teakdoor guys don't bite!

The single track eventually hooked up with a dirt trail that hooked up with a dirt road that brought us to the small mountain village of La Up and the paved route 1266/1270-




We bought some pricey fuel in La Up and had some snacks and drinks at a little roadside shack.


Returning to Mae Chaem we rode a bit of pavement north-east on the 1266 before finding a nice dirt track that went north, then east through the villages of Huai Ha and Kok Noi-


The last section to Mae Chaem was route 4065 was on an interesting road that was a mix of pavement and cobblestones. I'd never seen a cobblestone road in Thailand before. I can't imagine the amount of man-hours it must have taken to lay all those cobblestones! Approaching Mae Chaem from the mountains in the west on route 4065-


Amazing views of Mae Chaem as we're coming down the mountain on the 4065- I just had to stop to take it all in and snap a pic-


Back to the Mae Chaem resort; the girls there were happy to see us again


We hooked up with a couple Aussie riders that we'd met that morning in Mae Sariang. They were on rented CBR250R's and they'd had a rough day. They had planned to take the nicely paved route to Mae Chaem but some practical joker sent them on a rough as guts dirt road and they'd had a tough go. One of them crashed but damage to bike was only cosmetic and rider was unhurt.

I checked the GT Rider website for restaurant recommendations and it directed us to "Krua Kong Jan" a few km outside of town.

Good grub and million dollar views!


The sunset view from the restaurant (man my phone takes crappy pics in low light...)


Afterwards we rode around with the Aussie dudes looking for a karaoke joint that someone had told us about. Finally found it and was unimpressed. Had a few rounds there and the temperature was dropping fast. Stopped at the PTT to grab a few things before bed and discovered some cuties washing bikes-

Was tempted to have them give my bike a rub down, they seemed like they were up for it Use your imagination for the rest

Don't leave us hangin bro... did ya get a root?

Originally Posted by TonyBKK

they seemed like they were up for it Use your imagination for the rest

Still waiting to hear the full story tonybkk....

The final day of our tour has arrived and I don't want it to end! In fact, I've had so much fun that I've decided to leave my bike at Dave's house in Chiang Mai so that I can return in a couple weeks to continue exploring

Today we will ride from Mae Chaem to Chiang Mai. Trent needs to be at the train station by ~4pm to put his bike on the train and then fly back to Bangkok. I plan to meet up with Dave for a late lunch / early dinner at Ian Bungy's X-Centre.

Today's route goes something like this-

Mae Chaem to Mae Na Chon, then a long dirt track east to Mae Chon Luang, the north-east to Huai Tong and depending on what time we reach Huai Tong we'll decide which way to go from there.

We grab a coffee and hot sandwiches at the Mae Chaem PTT before we roll out of town.

We cross the river and take the fantastic dirt track through Sop Chok and Na Hong Tai that we'd ridden with Jake a few days ago, but this time we're looking for a river crossing. It isn't on any map, but I reckon the locals MUST have a crossing to reach the fields on the other side of the Mae Chaem river. Without a crossing they'd have to drive/walk many kilometers to reach their fields.

Sure enough, we sniff it out-


Hmmmm, not sure about taking bikes across this flimsy 2 foot wide bamboo bridge... On the far side (east) the water is pretty deep and fast moving, if we drop a bike in the deep end it'll be a pain in the butt...


Trent tests out the bridge and is none too impressed


Ok, last day, we need to get to CM today, let's not risk it Maybe next time...


We continue a little further north and discover a proper concrete bridge in Sop Chok and we promptly get lost in the corn and lavender fields on the other side

Can you spot Trent in this picture??




We soon find a fantastic track through the fields that climbs up to the tree line and then back down to the main road (1263)


Remember the mountains of corn chaff that we'd been playing in a few days earlier?


Well today they looked like this


I though "oh shit" did we do that?! But to my relief, as we continued to ride we noticed that all of the corn chaff piles had been torched, so it wasn't us, thank goodness! (Trent and I sent the pics to Jake and told him that the cops were looking for him and we had him going for days before we let him in on the little joke)

We stop in Mae Na Chon to top off the tanks and I spot this really cool suspension bridge-


There's a funny old Thai guy who is egging us on to cross it with our bikes, but this bridge swings like crazy and we chicken out...


Some cute kids playing on the suspension bridge in Mae Na Chon, Thailand-


From Mae Na Chon we climb a steep dirt track and I realize once again that I really ought to make an effort to learn to read Thai...


We guess which way to go and end up in this nice lady's yard-


A lovely young hilltribe girl with a baby on her back surprises me with her excellent English and gets us headed in the right direction again, but we've perfected the art of getting lost and soon find ourselves on a lovely forest track that ends at a Buddhist retreat on top of a mountain near Huai Tong-


Here we meet Phra Kong, a monk who is very interested in our journey and map and invites us for lunch (even though he can't eat). We politely decline his offer but spend some time talking with him and learning about the retreat and surrounding area.


Trent and Phra Kong-


It's getting a bit late and Trent is worried about getting to the train station on time so we agree to split up at Mae Win and he'll ride directly to the train station while I will continue north on the dirt track that connects Mae Win with Samoeng. As much as I enjoyed riding with my mates, it's also nice to get out and cruise solo from time to time.


I pass the Khun Khan National Park headquarters and spot an interesting looking track that goes down to a river-


You can't ride the Samoeng loop without stopping for a picture at the Samoeng Forest overlook-


Hooked up with Dave (at Ian's X-Centre and enjoyed a great lunch-

Dave had already replaced the clutch on his F800GS but was out on his hooligan KTM today

Ian had just returned from a ride to Myanmar and regaled us with some epic stories from their groundbreaking trip. Only a small handful of people have been allowed to ride in Myanmar and Ian's group was one of the first.

After the X-Centre I followed Dave back to his place. He hauls ass on that KTM of his and I enjoyed trying to keep up! Parked the bike at his house, got cleaned up and headed to the airport for the flight back to Bangkok-


I got this picture from goofball Trent- he flew back in full gear on Bangkok Air!


Arrival in Bangkok-


Home sweet home!


Headed back to Chiang Mai on Friday for another tour! Can't wait!!

Yeah thanks for that tony, I felt bad for days! Fire starter

Fantastic stuff!

Almost feel like moving back to Chiang Mai, stopping off in Kawa to pick up a KLX on the way.

Very good tread... thanks

Good stuff Sat nav looks like your having a great time

Just caught this thread as well.

Bloody incredible stuff. I first rode the Mae hong song loop in 87 on a Honda 250 X but did not go off road.

You guys kick arse.

Bloody freezing up there in those mountains though.

We done it in December, froze our nuts off but sunny clear blinding days, Freezing nights.

You'll have to ride with us one day Tel, we have a few rides planned