Day 4: Lake, Waterfall, and Tea

Thursday, 10/24/2024

Woke up at 5:30am and could not get back to sleep, so just got up, organized my stuff and packed up the bag and put on my riding gear.

I then walked around a bit to take some photos of the places as it has been nearly dark when we arrived.

My cabin

Creek running next to the cabins

At 7:00am I went over for breakfast.  After eating I brought the bag over to get put on the truck and setup the tank bag and cameras on the bike.  I adjusted the straps again a little for the tank bag and will see how that works out.

Today we are going to split the group again, one group doing the off-road trails, the other staying on more paved and graded roads.  4 of us have chosen to go the off-road route, the other 3 will do the on road (basically same split we had yesterday afternoon).

To start though, we will all do a short single-track section near where we are staying to get out of the area.

We got on the bikes about 8:00am and headed back down the steep hill to get into the valley again.  We then headed back out on the same road we brought into the valley, but turned off the road after just a  1.5km (1 mile) or so.

This route onto a narrow path was a steep downhill toward the river and then crossing a bamboo bridge over the river.

The bridge would only allow one bike at a time for weight reasons.  I was 3rd in line to cross after the guide and one other.  The bridge surface was a bit slippery with the bamboo poles, so had to put my feet down to keep balanced on not fall into the river!

Crossing the bridge. (Screen capture from Tammy's video)

A short distance past the bridge and the trail just went to shit!  Narrow, single-track path, and more snot slick mud that was impossible to gain traction on.  Not much standing water or thick mud, but sliding all over the place.

I found it very difficult to keep bike balanced due to the pain in my lower back, every move to shift my body to adjust came with a sharp pain and I was slower to react than needed, which made me wobble more than I liked.  That movement on the mud made things less than ideal.

At one narrow point I over balanced and the front wheel slid into the brush at the edge of the trail which dropped down a few inches.  I angled the wheel back toward the trail and gave it some power, pushed forward 6 inches and dropped a foot into a large hole (or more likely the bank just quit there, but could not see anything under the thick plant over growth.)

I had to get off the bike and drag it back up the incline onto the path, then with barely enough room to stand and hold the bike, get back on the bike without falling over into the brush, or off the other side which was a 3.5 meter (12 foot) drop into the fields below.  Did it, but talk about stressful!

The trail stayed this messy until we got back onto the paved roads after 30 minutes of that stuff.

We stopped at the bottom of the hill in a small village to let everyone re-group.  At this point, Joe, Atti, and myself decided that we had had enough mud and did not need to push things by doing more of it.

Since the off-road trail today would likely be as bad or worse according to the guide, the 3 of us decided to join the on-road group.  That left just Long and Jerry on the off-road section.  I really wanted to go, but my back is just not going to let me safely ride the more difficult trails today.

They took off and the rest of us headed onto the back road lanes which were mostly paved or hard packed dirt, though still rough in spots and a lot of loose material on the roads making things interesting at times.

We first headed up a very steep incline into the hills which wound around in switch-backs and along narrow paths on the edge of a cliff.

We then went down into a valley, crossed it and then over the hills on the other side.

Twisty roads on steep hill with great views.

Very steep hills (10-12% grades here)

Break stop with a view

We eventually came out of the hills to get fuel.  Then we headed down the highway to reach a scenic overlook and café where we would take a break.

On the way down we had to slow down for a traffic jam where they were removing a totally burned-out semi-truck from the side of the road.  Currently had a crane lifting the trailer over onto another flatbed truck.

Looked like truck had lost control.  He was right next to the run-away truck ramp, but either missed the ramp, or never saw it, rolled onto the ground next to it and burned.  Trailer was also half burned up. 

Bit farther past that and we pulled off at a stop and parked the bikes up along the edge of the dirt lot.  We then walked a path down the hill to the overlook which had the café built right onto the edge of the cliff overlooking the valley below.

We all ordered drinks, I had tea with longan fruit in it.  Odd tasting, but not too bad.

Café overlooking the valley below

The view from the overlook was nice, but it was very hazy out because all the farmers were finishing up the rice harvest and they burn off the excess plant material, so small fires going all over the place putting a lot of smoky haze into the air.  Visibility was down looking out over the valley below and colors a bit washed out.

Bit hazy due to smoke.

We walked back and got onto the bikes, then headed back up the same hill, past the wreck again (they were now working on the remains of the tractor cab itself).  We then went past the fuel station in the other direction.

We eventually turned off onto the small, narrow back lanes again that brought us through the hills and areas overlooking a large lake. (Hoa Binh Lake, formed by a dam on the Da [Black] River.)

We stopped a few times to take photos and then continued on down the hill as the lake left our view.

We then had to stop again as Mark somehow managed to get another flat on his rear tire!  2nd flat for him in 2 days.

As we were close to the lunch stop by now, Tan decided to just ride the bike down the hill so they could fix it at the stop where the truck was already waiting versus having him come up to us and trying to work on the side of the narrow road.

He took that bike and had Mark ride his bike down the hill, but we did make one other short stop along the road where there was a great view over a waterfall on a small creek that ran into the lake below.

Narrow roads make for some fun passing!

At the bottom of the hill, we came to a small village and stopped at a restaurant.  We had our lunch here, same food as other days.  We then sat and talked for a bit, and Jerry and Long showed up as well and joined us, though they had already eaten lunch a bit earlier.  Long and Tan also fixed the flat on Marks bike.

Lunch stop

We then rode as a group, back tracking toward the lake again and taking another road at a junction away from the area.

Here we had some nice winding roads that were more level in areas where we could get up some speed and have some fun.

We eventually came to a turn off for another waterfall where we would stop for a bit.  We parked up in a small lot and hiked up to the waterfall (Thac Tat Nang) which was quite large, both in width and a decent height as well.  Spent about 30 minutes here hiking around the base of the falls and crawling out onto some of the rocks along the base, taking lots of photos and videos.

We then got back onto the bikes and back on the road, again heading off onto the smaller lanes. These are very twisty and heading up hill again.  This time the road surface was rough, so had to be careful.  I eventually fell behind the lead bikes who were going much faster than I felt comfortable going, but I was still ahead of the other half of the group going much slower.

At one point I had to stop and let a huge truck pass over a one lane section around a landslide area, so I gave up on catching the leaders at that point and slowed down to enjoy the view a bit more, but still having some fun on the corners.

The typical view along the roads today.

I caught up with the leaders a bit later on the side of the road where we waited for the full group to catch up.  Here the leader offered to take us on a little detour through a tea plantation and we all thought that would be cool, even though it would involve some more single-track trails, but not as rough or muddy.

We rode onward until the turn for the plantation came up, then moved onto the narrow lanes which soon became a single dirt track.  Eventually we were just riding on a grassy path through the middle of the tea fields, quite surreal.

Photo by Joe

Group shot in the tea fields. (Photo by Joe)

We stopped in an area with great views around us and took photos and admired the scenery (while the plantation workers just went about their business, guess this must happen often).

We then rode out of the plantation and back onto the lanes in the town of Che Den which was in the midst of the Moc Chau region where we reached our hotel for the night.

We rode around to the back side and put the bikes in a small garage, then went up to the main floor to reception to get our room keys.  I had a room on the 5th floor with a decent view of the surrounding hills and the city below.

View from room.

Room for tonight.

Thảo Nguyên Hotel - Mộc Châu [taken next morning, was getting dark when we arrived]

Sorted my gear, then took a nice shower.  Put all the batteries on the chargers and worked on posting the days photos and videos on Facebook.

I then updated the pins of our general route on Google Maps.

While I had internet access here, many spots had no reception in the back country, but the GPS still worked.  I could find our spot (or close to it) on the map and I would screen capture the Latitude and Longitude.

Back on the internet, I could look up those locations and drop a pin onto my Maps profile that would show where we were when I did the screen shot.  I would try to do this anytime we stopped (though did forget a few times) so I could retrace our route later.  I had forgot to do this at all on the first day of riding, so was trying to be better about it today.

I then wrote the journal up to the present.

Dinner will be at 7:00pm at a nearby restaurant, we will meet up in the lobby to figure out the rest.  Since that is 10 minutes from when I write this, I guess I should finish getting dressed!

We all met downstairs in the hotel lobby and then took taxis and the support truck over to the restaurant about 1.5km (1 mile) away.   Not much different this time, only a few minor variations on the food.

Once done, we again took taxis back to the hotel and then all retired to our rooms as it had been a long day.  I finished off the journal for the day, swapped out batteries on the charger and checked a few things online.

Breakfast will be between 6:30 and 7:00am and wheels up by 8:30am latest.

I will try reading a bit tonight and then see how I sleep.  Back is really hurting again tonight (never stopped, but did loosen up while I was riding).  Also, the mattress on this bed is very hard, more like sleeping on the box spring than a mattress!  Guess we will see. 

Goodnight!