Nanthaburi National Park, Nan

[Oddvar]

4 days of puttering around in Nanthaburi National Park in Nan.
Most of the area is farm land, but some areas is pristine.
Nice trials all over the area. Some mapped, some not.

A couple of dead ends, but most trials goes through to other trials. Once over the mountain from Santipap, most trial will lead to 1082.

A lots of cows were grassing in the area. New barbed fences indicate that this is big business.

Just about to join up with a mapped track. This is about 5km south of 1082 in the eastern part.

This is all you can see from 1082.

Chinese money here as well. On the way to Ban Santipap.

This is an interesting 3-way intersection. The one to the right lead to the valley to the east, and a road back to the Nan road as well as up to 1082.
The one in the middle curves around the mountain going west, and join up with the farm roads to the west.
The one to left I will leave to next time, however, there is many promising trials on the west side of this mountain.

Time for lunch and a nap.

Thanks to rain the night before the air was fairly clear. Note the land slide in the centre of the picture. That served as a landmark. It is just south of 1082 and the trail which took me to 1082 yesterday.

Dead end in the "eastern valley". Google Maps shows more roads here, but there are none, yet!

The land slide close up, or as close as I could ride.

The next day I checked out the trials around Ban Santipap. They did only lead into Dead end Valleys. With a new tyre I would have checked this out. Trust me, It's way steeper than it looks like.

The trial north of Ban Santipap ended up in this stream. I checked it out from the west the day after. Very rugged terrain in the area, but you never know. Need to checked out..

More burning and more crops.

This is one of the trail on the west side of the mountain. Looks like a "disused" road/trial. Turned in to a single track a bit further down. Need another go here.

This is the end of the "middle" track and connecting to trial and farm roads in the western valley.

This was too steep for me on my worn down tyres. This is not more than 800m from where I ended up in the stream yesterday. But the elevation difference is about 500m. Will check this out with a fresh set of tyres.

Yes, It's all about the corn. For animal food.

Not so many river crossing in this area. This one was a perfect lunch spot.

Edited picture links to SmugMug.

 

[DavidFL]

Wow all good stuff there Odd var. You're certainly getting out there & enjoying the sights of Nan. Well done. Keep going.

 

[Ian Bungy]

Very Nice Oddvar,
I always said as We Blast around Nan on Our Road Bikes there must be an amazing amount of Trails to Explore around such a Vast Area. Great Stuff. A Beautiful Countryside!

 

[TonyBKK]

Nice! :thumbup:

I've got to get the dirtbike up to Nan one of these days!!

 

[brian_bkk]

Nice one.. Have to park KLX II up in Nan and do some exploring too.

Great stuff.. really interested to see the trails. As Bungy said.. When on road bikes we zoom right on past.
More than a few times I wanted to head down a trail.. The Ninja would not have thanked me

Cheers
Brian

 

[Oddvar]

This loop will be over 50% dirt if the trial in red can be confirmed. I need some riding buddies to do that one as the start looks to be a bit touch. Or maybe I was too lazy to walk and have a look before turning around.
The trail from the "red" trail and going east a really nice trial. Following the ridges, and bamboo forest.
Nan is not just for racing street bikes, so much unexplored areas left.

 

[Oddvar]

Here is a short video from the area with some nice music.

 

[Oddvar]

After more looking for the "non existent" 1172 I came back to 1082 and tried another trial leading to Ban Santipap.
Some sections of this trial are not in use, but for a CRF and fairly new tires, it was a nice ride.

It does not look like there are anymore trials to the south of this one. But as progress is progressing here, who knows in a few years.

Most of this trial is in the woods.

But "progress" will soon claim this trial too.

Strange to ride here. Vast new farmland to the north and pristine jungle on the south side of the trial.

There is a lot of new farm roads, but they all lead up to 1082 or towards this trial.

More burning.

The trial followed several ridges.

The condition of this bridge is not too good. It leads up to a Ranger station.

By cutting down some branches I got around this fallen tree. No traces of traffic in this part of the trail.

Nice and cool in the shades of the larger trees.


Edited links to save on GT-R

 

[Oddvar]

A update on 1172.
This time I tried from the North. As in the southern part evidence of construction of this elusive road was evident. The jungle has reclaimed about 6 km of this road.
The locals working the land, if burning can be called work, confirmed that "long time" ago it was possible to get thru on a motorbike. They did not mention mines, tigers or communist as the Rangers station in the south say. But they did mention landslide.

About 6 km as the crow fly is "gone".

A tiny piece of tarmac is evidence that there was a construction of a road here once.

In the southern part there is two "bridges" like this.

This is as far as I got this time.

But as progress comes to Doi Pha Chang Wildlife preserve area there might be a need for a road for the hunters.
I saw 2 squirrels and 4 men with long rifles. Soon they might call it "Old Hunters Preserve Area"

 

[Oddvar]

This is what Nanthaburi National Park has revealed this “Dry Season”.
The only significant trails are the “Suan Ya Luang” and Doi Pha Chang.

Doi Pha Chang is a Wild life preserve area but don’t expect to se much of that, however, you will se many locals with rifles. I saw some with new rifles and scopes too. A sniper worthy?

Suan Ya Luang came as a big surprise. A nice ride up from Ban San Charoen through fruit trees and into the jungle. The top is about 1600 MSL and fairly bare with a very nice view in all directions. It even got a camping ground that is staffed during holidays in the peak season.
Many large trees falls down on the west side, so make sure you have fuel to turn around!

Do Wao is another peak around 1600 MSL, not part of a loop but a really nice ride with continually changing nature. There is a camping ground at the Forrest ranger station a few km of 1082.

Colin found the “Yellow loop” at the south side. We tried this one earlier this year but one bike did not manage to get through the tall grass.
Later this year this trail was cleared by the locals. It was not cleared last year.

All “significant” trails have been uploaded to OSM.

 

[DavidFL]

Oddvar;304981 wrote: A update on 1172.
This time I tried from the North. As in the southern part evidence of construction of this elusive road was evident. The jungle has reclaimed about 6 km of this road.
The locals working the land, if burning can be called work, confirmed that "long time" ago it was possible to get thru on a motorbike. They did not mention mines, tigers or communist as the Rangers station in the south say. But they did mention landslide.

About 6 km as the crow fly is "gone".

A tiny piece of tarmac is evidence that there was a construction of a road here once.

In the southern part there is two "bridges" like this.

This is as far as I got this time.

But as progress comes to Doi Pha Chang Wildlife preserve area there might be a need for a road for the hunters.
I saw 2 squirrels and 4 men with long rifles. Soon they might call it "Old Hunters Preserve Area"

The bridges & Doi Phachi....I found some history, that I remembered from years ago, but it has taken a long time to find confirmation in English on the web

In late 1999, ethnic minority Mien farmers in Phayao Province of Thailand’s north used drastic measures to defend their farmland and their rights. Having petitioned all levels of provincial and national authorities for years, the farmers resorted to an act of sabotage, burning down several buildings at a wildlife sanctuary’s headquarters. At no time did the protesting farmers convey themselves as ethnic minority peoples. In their letters, in the confrontation with sanctuary staff, and at the many meetings that followed the burning, the farmers presented themselves as national—Thai—in language, manners, aspirations, frustrations, and claims on the state

In 1981, the Royal Forestry Department established a Wildlife Sanctuary in the sub district of Pha Chang Noi, in Pong district of Phayao province, to close off a former area of CPT insurgent bases in the forest. By 1992, the RFD declared five of six registered villages illegal and announced their eviction. Nothing happened at the time. After the protest in 1999, there was still no change. In 2003, the RFD declared the whole sub district a Primary Watershed (Class A1); all settlement and farming was illegal and should be erased. Judging from a visit in 2005 and from correspondence in late 2008, the villages are still in place and farming continues

 

[Oddvar]

Nanthaburi never stop to surprise me. A couple of picture from a recent ride. I had reason to believe a 'new' trail would hook up, and it did.

The trial starts at this location. A new sign for elephants, monkeys and tigers has been set up since I was here last. Fake news I suppose.

The farmland soon gave way to the pristine jungle in this area.

So far, so good. The trial I hopes was there is here. Let's hope in connects up.

In and out of the jungle, and in and out of clearings. Just to let you se the beauty of this place. The overnight rain did clear some of the haze.

Fo some reason 'they' clear out the tracks every other year. Don't know why, but I do appreciate it.

Well, not ever track is cleared out every year.

How about riding here. Nanthaburi NP got it all.

This is from the Ranger Station and camping ground looking north toward Song Kwae.

On the home stretch, or not.

I've spent a lot of time looking for trial out of this valley, so far i've not found any trial.

They year they have really cleared out the south east part of the 'National Park'.

I had to go and check out a trial Brian and me checked out two years ago that ended in a Bamboo forrest. This time I did not get that far. This is 100m from our 'record' two years ago.

They build these shelters on windy spots with a nice view. Nice for lunch and a nap.

After 4 years the CRF if holding up in an impressive way. A 48 rear sprocket compensate for the low power. And after
90k km it still runs like a clock.

If this is the government point of view there is not much hope for the beautiful and important jungle in Nan.

 

[blackb15]

Excellent photos and report.
Safe riding
Paul

 

[Jurgen]

Great pictures and a nice "Nan" story - a province of never ending amazements !

 

[DavidFL]

R1172 that bridge that was burned down the Hmong not long after it was built.

this was early - mid 1980s I think from memory. I'm trying to find my notes & will update.

The road into Doi Phachi, the Hmong village

There's another GTR report from Ian, about this old communist area here
Communist Village & Natural Wonders Of Phayao...

There's also another report with photos of those communist memorials & graves.
Return to Nan & back to the future?
A few bits on the end of this report.

I hope you can get out there again Oddvar.
I'm chasing up the story about the communist memorial at San Charoen on the other side & will report once I get the info.