Riding A Ridge Line

[Tonto21]

....I need to get off my duff and score some recent pics of my own. Stay tuned.....

anyone been out riding. Or THINKING about riding?

55555555555555

I'm sitting here still in my shorts after an epic morning in uncharted territory. Tonto21 and I climbed a ridge and then tried two different forest trails down to a paved road that ends up at Maetamon on the Mae Taeng River. No luck on those first two trails and not much in the way of photos as the trails were more like tunnels with vines overhead. Quite a fun ride until they dead-ended and we had to climb back out. Our bikes were dripping with water from all the vegetation we were busting through. We finally did find a route down that had some fantastic downhill with varied technical and go-fast sections. Tonto had his camera running so he might upload another video. It seems like we could ride a new trail here every day. We paid our dues today.

Hi. Yes, great outing this morning........I will post a short vid of this ridge we rode today, (have to do it first)..........Great ride,

Nice one T-Dog.

[burgdawg]

..tunnel of green?

No posion oak or ivy I hope....

no whiplash from face slappers?

sounds very cool......I took my Yamaha WR250X (2 smoke) out for a squirt of dirt....fun stuff.

But the sand nearby is too deep in the arroyo (wadi, sand river bed).

had fun......

work interferes with my pedaling, a crying shame!

5555555555555

[burgdawg]

BTW---Tonto y T_Dog.....do you carry hand saws and snippers?

For every 3 motorcyclists, we pack a chainsaw.

Yes, a passel of 20 motorcyclists means 6-8 chainsaws. No pack(rider cell) over 4 riders.

Our motto is "...we not only know where the trails are, but where they are going to be!"

funny, yet very true.....

[T_Dog]

..tunnel of green?

No posion oak or ivy I hope....

no whiplash from face slappers?

sounds very cool......I took my Yamaha WR250X (2 smoke) out for a squirt of dirt....fun stuff.

But the sand nearby is too deep in the arroyo (wadi, sand river bed).

had fun......

work interferes with my pedaling, a crying shame!

5555555555555

Haven't run into any ivy's like that in Thailand. I normally wear long pants bushwacking on new trails but yesterday was an exception. You do have to watch out for the thorny mimosa in the low lands as that stuff can rip you apart in an instant when you ride by. I've had many cuts with picturesque blood flow!

Regarding the whiplash, we did a lot of weaving on the trails yesterday. At one point I was going pretty fast and dodged some overhanging leaves only to catch a branch on my right shoulder. Didn't knock me off the bike but there is a small hematoma there where it hit.

Burgdawg you are going to have to get up here and ride with us. We'll even let you carry the chain saw!

[Tonto21]

Here's the ride we did yesterday, sorry to say one file was corrupted, so I could not edit from……..But you get the idea of the trail.

Hope you like!

[T_Dog]

That corrupted file must have had the clip of my lung hanging out on some of those steep climbs at the end..... Nice video, but it sure doesn't do justice to the wild quality of that trail.

[Tonto21]

That corrupted file must have had the clip of my lung hanging out on some of those steep climbs at the end..... Nice video, but it sure doesn't do justice to the wild quality of that trail.

Yer.......I think that file was a long'gish one and had the 'thick' part of the 'mushroonming' trail......And 'lungs like hover bags' hills on........Ha ha.

[T_Dog]

I think it is the top trail so far, or will be the next time as we won't be exploring any dead ends. Great dirt!

[burgdawg]

,,sweet vid, very nice!

Recognized "Wicked Game" right away and then the "Miste" song made me recall Brother's Johnson "..I'll Be Good to You"

and "Strawberry Letter #23."

Killer Dogs turned out to be pretty engaging and comical, faf.

Nice riding, am kii heung mak mak (jealous)

Looked like a little used access road for rubber tree harvesting?

Do many kon Tai cyclists pedal the little used tracks?

i know in my limited experience up in your neck of the woods, they were always in packs.

No lone wolf riders. Huge groups!

fine vid, thanks again!

[Tonto21]

,,sweet vid, very nice!

Recognized "Wicked Game" right away and then the "Miste" song made me recall Brother's Johnson "..I'll Be Good to You"

and "Strawberry Letter #23."

Killer Dogs turned out to be pretty engaging and comical, faf.

Nice riding, am kii heung mak mak (jealous)

Looked like a little used access road for rubber tree harvesting?

Do many kon Tai cyclists pedal the little used tracks?

i know in my limited experience up in your neck of the woods, they were always in packs.

No lone wolf riders. Huge groups!

fine vid, thanks again!

Hey......

In the 5 years I've not seen a single rider, farang or Thai up in the dirt here..........More for me.......He he

Edited August 9, 2012 by Tonto21

[burgdawg]

Tonto y T_Dog

say you guys are whizzing along some irrigation or rice ditch out in the boonies.

Kon Tai---farmhands---catch a glimpse of you pedaling, do they wave and smile?

Act curious? or go about their work tasks, ignoring you guys?

Just curious. I did not do much off road riding, sticking mainly to paved roads.

[villagefarang]

I find there is a wide range of reactions. Never had anything but positive responses if I stop to ask directions or take a picture. Often they are just afraid you will be babbling away incomprehensibly and they won’t know what to say or do.

[Tonto21]

I find there is a wide range of reactions. Never had anything but positive responses if I stop to ask directions or take a picture. Often they are just afraid you will be babbling away incomprehensibly and they won’t know what to say or do.

Yes, always on the friendly side, some smile, and wave, some are shy, some just gawp with vacant, (mouth open) expression….And some have their W-T-F face on, as I flash by……singing…(So out of tune and breath) along to ACDC on my MP3….Ha ha…..I pity them. Them farang……..What they like?

[burgdawg]

...yes, I was in some moobahn for the night near Den Chai, still in the mts.

Many open mouths in amazement.

I thought that my spoken Tai was off pitch, so I wrote out in script what I was trying to say.

This elicted all sorts of catcalls and Tai-specific whoops of glee. They went bonkers. They knew what I was saying, they were still

gaped-mouth.

I rented a room for the night, but then found myself writing correspondence for various elders to their family members in Uttaradit

that did not possess a cell phone. Pony Express.

That was funny....falang write letters for kon Tai.

I mentioned to a friend "..yeah, I think they thought I was from another planet."

My friend added "...you are---look in a plate glass window sometime. Pedaling a machine that MIGHT look like a bicycle, but lights flashing. Then you have

all these tubes and wires all over the place. You are an alien."

Fun stuff pedaling throughout the Kingdom. A smile works everytime. Everytime I wear my yellow cycling jersey, I hear "LANCE!" yelled out at me.

[Tonto21]

...yes, I was in some moobahn for the night near Den Chai, still in the mts.

Many open mouths in amazement.

I thought that my spoken Tai was off pitch, so I wrote out in script what I was trying to say.

This elicted all sorts of catcalls and Tai-specific whoops of glee. They went bonkers. They knew what I was saying, they were still

gaped-mouth.

I rented a room for the night, but then found myself writing correspondence for various elders to their family members in Uttaradit

that did not possess a cell phone. Pony Express.

That was funny....falang write letters for kon Tai.

I mentioned to a friend "..yeah, I think they thought I was from another planet."

My friend added "...you are---look in a plate glass window sometime. Pedaling a machine that MIGHT look like a bicycle, but lights flashing. Then you have

all these tubes and wires all over the place. You are an alien."

Fun stuff pedaling throughout the Kingdom. A smile works everytime. Everytime I wear my yellow cycling jersey, I hear "LANCE!" yelled out at me.

"LANCE'........Your lucky, I had a young schoolboy shout out......."hello.......I love you"...... Ha ha ha....And not just the once.........Kids, what they like....Lol

[burgdawg]

....here are some pics of my sturdy ride as I pedaled from Chiang Mai to Den Chai. This location is east of Lamphang.

Lotsa fun up and downs....

Big change from pictured kit is that I bought a low slung front rack (Old Man Mountain.com) with some front panniers.

I got tired of my front end becoming unstable going no-handed....

[villagefarang]

This is the last shot I got today before the heavens opened up and things went from bad to worse.

Starting out it didn't look all that bad but I did end up behind those hills to the left.

[burgdawg]

VF

nice pics! Ruts. RUTS!

Ruts deluxe. Worse than muddy ruts are rock-hard dry ruts! On a bicycle or motorbike, ruts will rip the handlebars from one's mitts.

Nice pic of the blue sky and green fields---that is more like it!

[T_Dog]

Went out this morning to try to find a connector route to a trail Tonto and I call Heartbreak Ridge. First, had to knock the puffer toad out of my bike shoe. This makes the fourth day he has been in the left shoe of this pair of biking shoes, and why he chose that as home is beyond me. The shoe was up in a rack so he has to climb to get up there. Then on a short section of road Tonto told me has a lot snakes, that story proved to be true this morning as a couple of tree snakes scrambled to get out of my way right at eye height and inches away. All the branches were shaking as the snakes literally flew through the tree. Found a connector trail but got turned around several times even with a GPS is hand. Biggest help was yesterdays hard rain which made seeing my tracks on trails I had already been on easy to see. So many trails up there in the hills that it will take a while to get them mapped out. To top off the trip, I ran into a Thai guy on a mountain bike a bit closer to civilization but still on single track. We both expressed surprise on seeing someone.

[burgdawg]

"..snakes at eye level?"

Trust that Tonto got this action on his GoPro..."Ngoo" would make an interesting series of You Tube vids. Just a collection of snakes caught on tape

while pedaling would be interesting enough. But one would have to have the camera angle and everything just so with a huge quotient of luck to catch these critters....

Or to have one's bike festooned with GoPros to capture the squirming footage.

I'm not too squeamish about snakes......but when I see them fly across a river or body of water, jump across branches

up in the tree canopy, it gets my attention and respect.

At some caveman level of snakes even near one's eyeballs leads to massive claustrophobia of the First Order.

Poisonous snakes I assume?

[T_Dog]

Tonto has been busy gardening and we often ride solo as well. So no camera this morning as I was ducking my head under the branches. Snakes don't bother me too much as very few of them hunt humans. I've run into a few cougars in the Pacific Northwest and those are encounters that get the hair on one's neck to harden right up! They have absolutely no fear of man that I can tell.

[burgdawg]

...everyone too busy with gardening and rain to ride much of late?

Bicycling goes with the ebb and flow of the tides.....

[villagefarang]

Okay here is a recent ride to Tat Khwan Waterfall and reservoir about 18km from my house.

[T_Dog]

burgdawg.... Still riding here, but a few projects did keep me off the trails for a few days. This morning I went out and did some scouting after heavy rains yesterday.

Forest was damp, trails a bit soft, spiderwebs everywhere, but ran into birds I had never seen before. The place Tonto and I call Heartbreak Ridge is so park-like and it seems almost designed for mountain biking. A great ride, but a creek bottom that looked hopeful for a trail was a dead end.

villagefarang... beautiful photos again. If you are up for visitors, would love to come up and ride up to that waterfall some day.

[burgdawg]

VF

wow...amazing photos. The green hurts my desert eyes!

My fave had to be the moody clouds reflected in the lake/reservoir with a lean-to in the foreground.

Appreciate the fact that you include some semblance of humanity in your compositions.

Looks like you dialed in primo track conditions, how did you manage that?

T_Dog...I know, we all get too busy with daily whatevers.....

[villagefarang]

Don’t have much time as the wife and I are heading to town for the day. Running errands, lunch and perhaps a movie or massage is the plan.

The waterfall route is probably not one I would choose as an introduction to the dirt trails of Phaya Mengrai. It is 30km of road and only around 6km on dirt. If you came for a ride I would recommend a much more varied mix of terrain with only a little more distance.

The dirt is different from most places around here with a grayish color and apparent mix of silt and sand. It didn’t stick like the red clay. As I said on the blog I was trying to get in a ride before the storm that never really materialized. Thanks for the comments guys. More later.

[T_Dog]

burgdawg..... How is the desert riding? I remember riding in Tuscon and getting endless thorn flats.

Tonto and I are headed out this morning to do a backwards ride on the route we found last week. It rained quite hard here this morning and now the sun is out

so it should be a great day in the forest. First I have to de-frog my bike shoes.......

[villagefarang]

In case anyone is actually considering a visit to VF’vill, truth in advertising requires the following admission.

We live more that 50 km from town, so you can’t easily pop down to the 7eleven, meaning you will have to eat my wife’s cooking. We don’t smoke or drink and don’t allow smoking in the house. Since we don’t stock alcohol or pole dancers, there is a strict bring your own policy for both.

Then there are the dogs. We have a few noisy outdoor dogs and one very loud Golden Retriever who rules the indoors. The cat is no problem and the fish are confined to the pond. Nighttime entertainment is good old-fashioned conversation, movies or the internet. There is a private bedroom and bathroom, with A/C and a very nice kingsized bed, a little on the firm side.

For reservations contact reception. As a rule my wife is busy taking university classes on the weekend so midweek is probably better, though she does spend a fair amount of time on her homework.

[T_Dog]

Reception? I certainly hope you haven't been posting photos on this thread as advertising.

[villagefarang]

Reception? I certainly hope you haven't been posting photos on this thread as advertising.

Just my clumsy attempt at humor. That is one of our "receptionists" out in the yard.

Edited August 25, 2012 by villagefarang