Our first real riding and what a day! It has it all… Today we ride a couple of the most famous trails in the valley, Heaven and the helipad trail. We ride through jungle with great views of the Kathmandu valley, before a short jeep trail climb. The trail then follows are great little ridgeline all the way into town. The ride is not super technical but will keep you interested all the way, it is a nice single trail to start your Nepal adventures on. We ride all the way to the big Stupa at Boudhanath, where we will have lunch.

After lunch you can choose to just jump in the cars and head directly up to Nagarkot and enjoy the afternoon and the view of the mountains. Or we can continue our ride across the valley to Bhaktapur, where we can be picked up and avoid the 12 km climb to Nagarkot.

Accommodation: Hotel Country Villa
Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Helipad Trail © Chris Reichel

Nagarkot is a great place to get a stunning view of the Himalayan peaks, so get up early and have a look at the view before breakfast. After breakfast, we set out on a mixture of single trails and jeep trails down the hill to Changunaryan temple, perched on a ridgetop with views to the Himalayas if the weather is with you.

From here we continue riding through the valley towards Kathmandu, on a mix of single trails, jeep trails, and some tarmac roads. The single trails take us through some of the remaining farmland around Bhaktapur, where we see a lot of vegetables in the fields. This is the food bowl of Kathmandu and it is a joy to ride through. Once we get to the outskirts of Kathmandu we will load up the bikes and transfer them to your hotel in a vehicle.

Accommodation: Hotel Manaslu
Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch

Chasing dreams © Dan Barham

We leave early morning, as we have a big day ahead of us. We follow a Japanese build road, through the mountains to the Sun Kosi River. We then follow the river down for a long time before crossing it and climbing up to Okhaldhunga. From here it’s about a 3-hour drive from the trailhead at Dhap.

The road from Okhaldhunga is a good blacktop road that climbs from 1560m at Okhaldhunga up to 2800m at Dhap.

At Dhap (or neighboring Sigane) we unload the bikes and get started riding, the trail follows a road under construction for the first few kilometers. The first village is called Japre (2920m). It’s perched above a deep valley with nice views of Everest and Numbur Himal. There’s a pretty little Gompa and Stupa here and we will make our first stop here for the night.

Accommodation: Tea House
Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Morning light Jhapre © Steve Kolodinsky

From Japre, the trail climbs up to a grassy ridge at Bhulbhule. There’s one lodge with no name and nice views of the Everest range from here.

Soon after Bhulbhule, the trail splits and we turn right to Pike Peak. We pass some old yak herders houses and a long Mani Stonewall. The trail then contours the hillside below Taklung Danda and goes through a beautiful forested trail, with many Rhododendrons. As we leave the forest it’s not far to Pike Peak base camp and we roll in there early afternoon.

There’s just one lodge here at 3640m, with four (draughty) rooms in a separate building, we’ll use the dining room as our hangout. It’s a short climb to the summit at 4065m but unless there’s an unusually clear evening it’s better to climb for sunrise.

Accommodation: Tea House
Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakdown View of Everest © Mads Mathiasen

We will have an early breakfast before we start our climb towards the top of Pike Peak, we will bring our bikes, so the climb takes around 1.5 hours. From the top we will have a stunning 360 degrees view of the main Himalayan range from Mt. Kanchenjunga (3rd highest mountain in the world) in the east to Annapurna in the west and including Mt Everest and even more peaks over 8000m in between. Panoramas just don’t get better than this!

We will spend an hour at the top to take pictures and to enjoy the views. Then we start our descent towards Salleri at the bottom of the valley, a drop of almost 2000 meters. This is one of the most amazing downhills you will find in Nepal and you will once again have great mountain views for most of the day. The descend starts out with some rocky sections but as we get further down the mountain we come into the forest and hit the amazing downhill section. It is around 20 km from the top to the bottom and, besides the views and forest single trails, we will also be riding through some beautiful villages towards the end of the ride.

When we get to the river we will jump in the jeeps and get a lift up to our tea house and enjoy the rest of the afternoon in relative comfort after roughing it a bit the last few days. Like the other days, our porters will take care of our kit bags and will meet us at the tea house in the afternoon. For those who cannot get enough riding and want to climb a bit, the climb up to the tea house from the river is of course an option.

Accommodation: Tea House
Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Everest from Pikey Peak © Arun Karki

The rides for the next 3 days can be mixed around as we come back to the same tea house each night, so we may not do them in this exact order.

Even from down here in the valley, the morning view is incredible as you wake up to the sight of Numbur Himal to the north. After a hearty breakfast, we load up the bikes on our jeeps and drive for around half an hour to a viewpoint on the ridge above us. This is called Ratnagi (3300m) and we will have a cup of tea and enjoy the view from here before starting our downhill.

Ratnagi is a traditional yak herders camp and you will still see the temporary shelters of the herders. They preserve the milk of their yaks and cattle by making cheese and butter. There is also a view tower here from where, once again, we will get a good view of Mt. Everest if the weather is clear.

Once we start the downhill we are almost completely inside the jungle for the entire ride. The 10 km downhill to Dorpu is almost 100% on the single trail which ranges from flowy to technical. In a couple of places, we have to cross a jeep trail to get back in the singletrail. We will have lunch at Dorpu and for those who want more, it is possible to go back up and do the downhill again. Otherwise, we pack up the bikes and drive back to the tea house where there will be chilled beers waiting.

Accommodation: Tea House
Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Forest Downhill © Dawa Sherpa

This morning after breakfast we drive back up to Ratnagi but instead of heading downhill straight away, we head south along Silgodee Danda. For the first few km, it is undulating and almost entirely on singletrack. We then start slightly downhill towards Chyalsa where we will stop for tea before another undulating section.

We now start a long section where there are no snacks of any kind to buy, so please make sure you carry snacks and plenty of water. The trail is mainly downhill with a big mix of forest, villages, and fields. We eventually reach Nele Bazaar. We will see if we can be here for a Tuesday which is the big market day for which people from near and far come to do their shopping. We will have a late lunch before packing up the bikes and driving back to our tea house.

Accommodation: Tea House
Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Numbur Himal from Ratnagi Danda © John Ehbrecht

Once again we start the day with a drive to Ratnagi but today we ride to the north, climbing along the ridgeline for a few kilometers. A short section in these first few km will not be rideable but it is a very short section and once we get to the top we have a brilliant 5 km of single track inside the jungle down to Taksindu. Here there is a famous monastery and it is also a stop on the old main trail to Everest Base Camp, so we could well meet trekkers and porters going further up in the mountains.

From Taksindu we have a short but very fun little downhill section down to Ringmo, another famous stop on the Everest trail. We stop here for lunch and hopefully some of their tasty apple pie made from locally grown apples.

After lunch, we ride back towards Phaplu and Salleri on a mix of a jeep and single trails. We have an early night as we need to get up early and be ready for our flight out tomorrow morning.

Accommodation: Tea House
Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Numbur Himal view from the ride © Dawa Sherpa

Today we bid farewell to the mountains and take the flight back into the Kathmandu Valley. In Kathmandu, we take you to your hotel.

The rest of the day is yours to relax and enjoy the luxuries of the city (and a hot shower!), just let us know if you would like any assistance organising anything for today.

Accommodation: Hotel Manaslu
Meals included: Breakfast

Phaplu airport © Finn Dyhr Jensen

Enjoy breakfast at your hotel and when it is time your guide will take you to the airport, help you with the formalities and fare you well before your flight to home.

Accommodation: None
Meals included: Breakfast

Young Monk at Chiwong Monastery © John Ehbrecht