Mustang Enduro MTB

Our first real riding and what a day! It has it all…great riding and stunning nature. You start the day by winding your way out of Kathmandu on small lanes, again seeing the Kathmandu that few visitors ever do. Leaving the city behind you ride through small villages and rice fields as you climb up to the valley rim. Here you join the small black-topped road that winds its way up to Kakani, a hilltop village at about 2075m with stunning views of the Himalayan Range.

From Kakani, you ride into the Shivapuri National Park, which lies in the transition zone between subtropical and temperate zone. The vegetation consists of a variety of natural forest types including pine, oak, and rhododendron, depending on altitude and aspect. Recorded wildlife in the park includes Himalayan black bear, leopard, jungle cat, deer, and rhesus monkey. This little park is also home to an amazing 177 species of birds, including 9 threatened species. Once inside the National Park, you will ride one of Nepal’s most famous single trails, the Scar Route! It is an awesome trail which winds its way through the forest around the northern perimeter of the park and it takes us almost all the way to your Hotel for the night. Set above Budhanilkantha overlooking the Kathmandu valley this is a great place to relax after our first day on the bikes.

Accommodation: Shivapuri Heights

Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

The scar route © Chris Reichel

We have an early morning as we need to get one super ride in here in Kathmandu before we head off to Pokhara. We transfer into the Shivapuri National Park to the top of a hill on the Northern rim of the valley, from we ride a couple of the most famous trails in the valley, Heaven and the helipad trail. We ride through the 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 before heading to the airport, where we catch our plane to Pokhara.

This is an incredible flight along with the Himalayan Range with spectacular views, to say the very least! It gets better as we arrive too – Pokhara is a stunning lakeside town with amazing views up to the high Himalayas.

Accommodation: Mums Garden Resort

Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Lower Helipad trail © Chris Reichel

This morning we have one of the most stunning flights in the world ahead of us, going up between Dhaulagiri and Annapurna I. Because of the mountainous terrain, the flight is very early in the morning, so we head off to the airport before dawn with our bikes packed. After we arrive in Jomsom we will have breakfast and put our bikes together before shuttling up 1000m and ride the exciting lower part of the Tilicho to Jomsom trail. To help our acclimatising, we ride the 12 km mostly flat ride up along the Kali Gandaki River to Kagbeni, an ancient fortress town, where we will stay tonight.

Accommodation: Red House

Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Tilicho Trail © Sterling Lorence

After breakfast,  we drive up to the most famous of the trails in Mustang, the Lupra trail. From Kagbeni we drive up to Ranipauwa, where all the pilgrims park their cars before going to the famous Muktinath temple. The drive up here is stunning in all seasons, looking across the valley you see the village of Dzong and we pass the striking village of Jharkot, sitting starkly on a ridge protruding out into the valley. From Ranipauwa, we leave the main road and keep climbing on a small jeep trail to the top of the Lupra pass. We stop at the pass and unload our bikes, while enjoying the amazing views of Mt. Daulagiri, Mt. Nilgiri, and the valleys below.

We ride along the ridge for a while in a small jeep trail, this is a perfect place for photo stops with the big mountains in the background! Then we contour along an off camber section of single trail to another small pass. Now the fun really begins as we drop into the valley on very technical trails with rocks, sand, and some fun switchbacks. We have a little climb before another great section of trail, riding along a ridgeline right above the village of Lupra, the only Bon (Pre Buddhism, animist religion) village of Mustang. More fun, fast, downhill flow before a final loose section down to the road above Eklai Bhatti, at total drop of over 1000m in 12km, what a trail this is!

From Eklai Bhatti, we cross the river and once again start a big climb in the jeeps. We go though the villages of Pangling and Phalyak, we cross the Tiri La pass at 3855m before a little descent and then another little climb to a small pass at 3800m. This is where we leave the road to Dolpo and start our downhill on the bikes. We start out on a small jeep trail, it is fast and fun but lookout for the ruts! At a couple of little houses down the hill we leave the jeep track and continue on a fun single track which is loose and, at times, off camber. There may be some tri-podding along this section of trail but the fun factor is high! We cross another little jeep track and for the final downhill to the beautiful village of Tiri we are on a bigger single track with stunning views.

If the wind has picked up early we will have a good headwind for the final couple of kilometers to Kagbeni, an ancient fortress town, where we will stay tonight. We head straight to lunch and then ride to our hotel for the night afterwards. The rest of the afternoon is free to explore town or relax.

Accommodation: Red House

Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Lupra Trail © Sterling Lorence

After breakfast, we jump in the jeeps and head up to Muktinath, high above the valley floor. We head out on our bikes past this sacred temple and pilgrimage site on single and jeep trails as we make our way across the valley. We leave the jeep trail behind for now and climb up a gradual single trail to the high point of our trip, the 4577 meter high Gyu La (pass). The pass is the border with the restricted area of Upper Mustang and from here we can see a long way into this legendary forbidden kingdom. We then backtrack downhill on the 7 km single trail we just climbed but it is much more fun going down! We rejoin the jeep trail and stay on it most of the way back down to Kagbeni where we will have a late lunch.

Accommodation: Red House

Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

The Gyu La Trail © Arun Karki

Today we have a fun day ahead of us with plenty of single trails but first we have to backtrack on the jeep trail down to Jomsom. Here we get on the single trails on the opposite side of the valley from the runway you landed on a few days back.

For the first few kilometres we are on and off small jeep tracks, we climb for about 1.5 km to a little hill from where there are excellent views of Jomsom, Marpha and the mountains. We then get onto a 5 kilometre super single trail which is technically challenging, but lots of fun! We even ride down some short sections of steps before getting to a flatter section which brings us to the bridge to the famous Thakali village of Tukuche.

We cross the river and check out this stunning village, we may even try their famous apple brandy and have a bite of lunch. We then recross the river and continue down the valley. It is another 14kilometres of great single trails –there are some short sections of uphill which aren’t rideable, but the overall ride is fast and fun.

Accommodation: Kalopani Guest house

Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Riding in the forest below Kalopani © Arun Karki

We have a big day ahead of us but at the end of today awaits drinks on the lakeside in Pokhara.We start out with a lovely bit of single trail in the forest right below Kalopani. The trail comes out to the road below Lete and from here we drop really fast, in the next 20 km we drop over 1000m. Have fun, but look out for traffic behaving unexpectedly, also dogs/goats/cows! We ride through the old village on Ghasa, which is lovely, and rejoin the road to Rupse Chhahara waterfall. Another few km on the road and we cross the river at Dana to be on the lovely old walking trail on the other side, almost all the way to the end at Tatopani. At Tatopani we have lunch and load the bikes for the drive back towards Pokhara.

After about 3 hours in the car we get out at Naudanda, where we have great views not only of the Annapurna mountain range but also towards Pokhara and the Phewa lake. We get our bikes ready for the last amazing 20km down to Pokhara, we have around 750m descent but be warned there also also one little climb. Riding here on this small track down to the lake is so different from anything we have ridden the last many days, we are now in a subtropical climate and everything around us is lush and green.

We get to the lake at Kapaudi, where there are lots of lovely bars and restaurant overlooking the lake. We can chose to end the ride here and have a drink for sunset on the lake or ride the last 5km back to the hotel, have a shower and then head out for dinner.

Accommodation: Mums Garden Resort

Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch

Crossing the gorge © Arun Karki

Today we take that awesome flight back to Kathmandu and pack for the journey home. The rest of the day is free for shopping, relaxing, checking out the mad street life, or optional sightseeing of Kathmandu. If you book a late afternoon or evening flight, you can depart this same day.

Accommodation: None

Meals included: Breakfast