What a bicycle ride! Seems to be a real country bike kinda bike ride. -JimD On Feb 13, 2012, at 8:30 AM, Earl Grey wrote:
> Today Paul (on his Rivendell Sam) and I (on my still new Rawland > rSogn) decided to explore a road at the far point of our usual 50km > mixed surface "SW" loop here in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We met up at > 8:15 at the local market, had some hot fresh soymilk and tiny Thai- > Chinese donuts (pa thong koh) from a street vendor, and headed south. > Where the long dirt section dumps you back on tarmac past the halfway > point, we have always gone left/downhill/back to town. Today we > decided to go right, which on our GPS map meandered along a stream for > perhaps 5km, and then seemed to dead-end. Sounded pretty, anyway. > > We had stopped at our usual watering-place, a Hmong village along the > longest dirt section, where we were unable to buy liter bottles of > water. Instead, not for the first time, our bottles were refilled from > a big 20 liter jug, and payment was steadfastly refused, which gave me > no choice but to buy a kilo of local mandarin oranges (for the even > here ridiculous price of 30 cents) and stuff the bag in my handlebar > bag. We would be glad to have them later. > > The new to us road took us over a ridge, and then dropped us along a > narrow paved section into the next valley. The road was being widened, > and the operator of an excavator blocking the entire road as it was > chipping away at the cliff somehow saw us coming over his shoulder, > suspended work and let us sneak by with a nod. No flagmen, here. > Dropping down into the valley we found a merry creek and a lush valley > floor, a welcome sight here at the height of the dry season. We began > climbing up the valley past a couple of little villages and well- > tended fields, and a few remaining forest giants above us on the lower > slopes. The paved road ended at a little wat (Buddhist temple), where > we took a brief rest and admired the plaster buddha statue under > construction. > > Photos start here: > http://www.flickr.com/photos/gernothuber/6870180197/in/photostream > > We continued along a dirt road into the remote upper reaches of the > valley. After a couple of short steep climbs the valley flattened out > again, and an occasional seepage of water from the slope to the left > cooled the air and turned a section of road into rutted near-mud. This > may not be a good ride in the wet season. As the road narrowed to a > motorcycle trail, the creek started meandering like crazy from one > side of the valley to the other, which meant that the trail, which ran > more or less straight, crossed and re-crossed the stream every couple > hundred meters on its way through orchards and tiny pastures. We > counted 15 crossings before we had to turn around and recross them > all. After making it through the first 3 or 4 unscathed (on 42mm > Marathon Extremes and 42mm Grand Bois, respectively) we got cocky and > really started to enjoy each crossing, Paul without fenders getting > quite wet in the process, a welcome cool-down in the 90+ F / 30+ > Centigrade heat. Some of the banks were quite steep and clay-y, which > posed a bit of a challenge on the Hetres, especially since the water > was deep enough that it was hard to maintain momentum all the way > through the creek. So we didn't make it all the way up the far bank > every time, but we did make it back onto dry ground every time. We > started getting out our phone cameras to attempt some photography, but > without too much success. We shall return with a real camera (and a > dry bag, just in case). > > Having tarried, we needed to haul @ss back to town, as I had a yoga > class to teach at 1 pm. Pushing hard climbing back over the ridge we > got smiles and thumbs-up from the concrete-pouring crew. Somewhere > along the way, running on empty, we made an emergency stop for a Coke, > and had our water bottles forcibly refilled by the grandmotherly > proprietor with water and ice. By the time we got back to the flat > road home I was pretty bushed since I hadn't been riding much aside > from my super short commute for the last couple of months, so Paul > pulled us all the way back home in a mad 15km sprint. I got home, > jumped in the shower, got on the scooter because my sit bones were > hurting to the point where even sitting on the scooter was painful and > riding a bike not to be contemplated. I got to the studio in time and > taught my class basically without sitting down (I couldn't). A couple > hours later the pain fortunately receded. I never had this happen > quite this bad, and that even though I had swapped my most comfy B-17 > from my own commuter/kid-hauler Sam Hillborne to my rSogn the night > before. The sitbones (and attached hamstring tendons) felt mostly > fine until the sprint, but during those last 30 minutes got > progressively worse, slowing me down even more than the jello in my > legs. Next time we'll take more time and add a few more stream > crossings, hopefully following the creek all the way to the head of > the valley. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
