Ultimate Upper Mustang Enduro MTB

This morning we head off to the domestic airport in Kathmandu pretty early as we have a long day ahead of us. Our flight to Pokhara is incredible to say the very least, as we fly along the Himalayan Range with spectacular views! It gets better as we arrive too – Pokhara is a stunning lakeside town with amazing views up to the high Himalayas.

Pokhara will however have to wait until we are done with the awesome adventures that await us in Upper and Lower Mustang, so we get in our jeeps and head straight out of town. Our drive to Mustang first climbs out of the Pokhara valley and if the weather is clear this means even better views of the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri ranges. We drive along the ridgeline for a while before beginning a long descent into the valley below and at the bottom we get to Kushma, a big town set high above the Kali Gandaki river. We stop for lunch here and break the journey.

After lunch we leave Kushma and follow the Kali Gandaki river which will be with us for the rest of our journey. We head north into the deepest gorge in the world, set between the 8000m peaks of Annapurna and Dhaulagiri. As we head deeper into the mountains we also start climbing and leave the subtropical climate we have been in for most of the day and by the time we reach our destination at Kalopani in 2500m, the vegetation and temperature has changed a lot already.

If we have time this afternoon we will get the bikes out for a short, fun loop in the forest below the village, a great way to get the legs going again before we really start riding tomorrow. The rest of the day is free for you to relax and enjoy the amazing view we have from our hotel.

Accommodation: Kalopani guest house

Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Riding in the forest below Kalopani and Lete © Krzysztof Sielski

This morning we start out our riding with a bang! After breakfast we load up our bikes and drive up the valley to Jomsom. Here we cross the Kali Gandaki and use the jeeps for a 1000m uplift to an amazing viewpoint high above the valley. We have view of all the big mountains and all the way up into Upper Mustang and the Tibetan border on a clear day. We then ride the exciting lower part of the Tilicho to Jomsom trail. This is a fast, very fun trail with some exposure at times. Do remember this is only the first day of many to come, so enjoy the riding without going all out!

Back down at Jomsom we once again load up the bikes and drive north along the river to just before Ekle Bhatti, where 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

You have amazing views from the Tilicho trail © Joey Carrara

While Upper Mustang is the destination for today, we start with another ride in lower Mustang, probably the most famous of the trails here, 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!

We now load up the bikes and start our drive into Upper Mustang. The drive is not long, only 55km, till we get out of the jeeps for our next ride, but this road is not fast, so be prepared for it to take a little while. We will stop on the way for lunch at Syangboche, it’s a two horse village but we get a good local meal at the tea house here! After lunch we cross a little pass to the Ghiling valley and then have a final climb to the Nyi La pass, where we take our bikes off the jeeps again and get ready to ride.

We have 5.5km of downhill, down to Ghami and our hotel for the night. The trail is super fun and runs above the road down from the pass. The first little bit is steep and fast, then more level for a while to the Ghami pass, then we have a steep and loose section before the final fast blast into town. Ghami is a super charming, ancient village so after a shower, we head out to explore the village before dinner.

Accommodation: Royal Mustang

Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

View from the Lupra Pass © Joey Carrara

We leave Ghami in our jeeps, heading the long, but fun, way to the capital of Upper Mustang, Lo Manthang. From Ghami we drive up into the Dhakmar valley, passing the longest mani wall (prayer wall) in Mustang. We pass the striking, red cliffs of Dhakmar and drive through the little village before climbing to a small pass above the escarpment. We then descend on an easy but very fun and fast trail down to Charang. It is 6.5km of pure joy and an amazing way to start our day.

In Charang, we have a quick cup of tea or coffee before driving north towards Lo Manthang. Before long we leave the main road and take a small jeep track up towards a pass called the Marang La. We don’t go all the way to the pass but get out of the jeep where we cross the single track coming from Marang village to Lo Manthang. It is 4 very fun kilometres to Lo Manthang and our hotel for the next two nights. We have lunch here before heading out of town for our afternoon ride.

This afternoon we climb very high above Lo Manthang to the highest golf course in the world. There are a number of options available for our downhill from here, all of them very fun pick-your-own-line style rides down into the valley. The total ride distance back to Lo Manthang is about 10km. If the weather behaves and the wind doesn’t pick up too much, we might have the option to do two different descents from the golf course. We arrive back in Lo Manthang with time to explore the anicent city inside the wall, after a shower. We’ll have dinner at the hotel and get ready for another great day tomorrow.

Accommodation: Hotel Mandala

Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Riding through Thinkar village © Mads Mathiasen

Today, we set out to explore some amazing trails to the northeast of Lo Manthang. We drive north towards the border with Tibet, but only a few kilometres up the road we cross the river to the village of Nemyul. A little further along we pass through a village of unusually low houses, built close together. This is Namashung, the new home of the people who relocated from the Samdzong village, the destination of our first ride today. To get to the start of the trail, our jeeps take us a further 3 km up to the top of a high ridge. We unload the bikes and climb along the ridgeline for 1.5km, to get to the Gongmo Chhe (4057m) pass from where we will start one of the most spectacular rides in all of Mustang. We drop off the ridge to the east, plunging steeply down through the colourful cliffs, dotted with caves, into the Samdzong valley below. The descent is only 1.5km but is just so stunning, you will never forget it! Once at the bottom we ascend gently for 3km to the abandoned, yet beautiful village of Samdzong.

Our jeeps will meet us at Samdzong and take us back up to the ridge, where we once again do the 1.5km climb to the pass. We now have an amazing 2 km ridgeline descent to the west and reach the jeep road between Nemyul and Namashung. We can choose to load the bikes into the jeeps or ride gently north along the jeep trails through stunning villages for 4.5km to Garphu where we will have a simple lunch in a local restaurant.

After lunch we visit the old monastery in Garphu and then the local Chosar caves, so you can get a little glimpse into how people used to live in this landscape, millennia ago. We then drive back to Lo Manthang or, if the afternoon wind has not picked up too much, we might do a little secret extra ride. Back in Lo Manthang we shower and then go to see some of the amazing monasteries inside the city walls.

Accommodation: Hotel Mandala

Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Samdzong valley scenery © Mads Mathiasen

We leave Lo Manthang early in the morning today, as we have a big day of riding ahead of us! Our first trail of the day, starts not far out of Lo Manthang on the top of the pass just above town. From here it is 10km to Dhi village at the Kali Gandaki river. The first 4.5 km has some climbing and the last little bit to the top of Dadunkha hill you will have to hike a bike. The view from the top is amazing, giving us a 360 degree view of Upper Mustang. From the top, we start the descent with an exposed but fun bit of trail, then we have a bit of flat before the last 3.5km of steep, loose, amazing, stunning downhill to Dhi. Some of the chutes are like a bob sled track, it doesn’t get much more fun than this!

Bikes packed into the tray of the jeeps, we now drive south along the Kali Gandaki for 5-6km before crossing the river to the eastern bank, where we climb very high above the river for 7.5km, towards another abandoned village, Dehe. We unload the jeeps and have a super fun descent down to New Dehe where we have lunch.

After lunch we once again drive up to the same point above New Dehe. Another super fun drop down to the Kali Gandaki follows, on a 5km long trail which has some super-fast sections but also some loose bits where it is good to pay extra attention. At the bottom we load up the jeeps again and cross the Kali Gandaki back to the western bank from where we drive up to the stunning village of Charang. There is time to relax and explore the village which has a big old monastery and ancient royal palace/fort.

Accommodation: Maya's Heritage

Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Descending to Dhi village © Mads Mathiasen

This is our last day in Upper Mustang, so we get up early to make the most of it. A short drive brings us to the same pass above Dhakmar, from where we rode down to Charang a few days ago. We now descend the short but fun, steep trail down to the red cliffs of Dhakmar. We ride through the village before a short climb on the trail towards Ghami. We have amazing views of the stunning cliffs and the landscape around Dhakmar from this trail up till the little pass above Ghami, from here it is a super fun, fast decent to the river below the village and then a short hike a bike up to Ghami. All in all, this is 6.5km with 65m of uphill, a very nice way to start the day!

In Ghami we load up the jeeps, so we can climb to the Nyi La pass between Ghami and Ghiling. We now have the biggest hike a bike on the whole trip. It is less than a kilometer to the top on the ridgeline between the road pass and, although it is the alternative walking trail between Ghami and Ghiling, very little of it is ridable. Even so it should only take us about half an hour before we stand on top and look down towards the exciting single trail below us … to get there we have 300-400m of pick your own line riding, who finds the best line? The first bit of the single trail is not very steep, but very fast and fun. We then cross into the Ghiling valley and, after a short section of off camber trail, we start the real downhill. There is a short, but manageable section of loose trail and then the remaining of the 4km downhill into the village is a blast!

Sadly, this is the end of the riding in Upper Mustang, so while we have lunch our bikes get packed in the jeeps and we head south after lunch. We end the day in Kalopani, where we shower and freshen up before a well-deserved dinner.

Accommodation: Kalopani guest house

Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Looking at Ghami village © Mads Mathiasen

We have a big day ahead of us, but at the end of today awaits celebratory drinks on the lakeside in Pokhara. We get up early and drive back up to Tukuche where we cross the river and ride the single trail on the other side of the valley. We ride through the small villages of Sauru and Sirkung before hitting a little stretch of road with a tough climb to a little village called Dhampu. Not long after Dhampu, we cross the river again and we are back in Kalopani after 12 lovely km of riding. We might graph a coffee before hitting the trail in the forest below, we know this trail from our first day in the mountains and it is lovely to be back in the forest on familiar trails.

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 to Pokhara.

The drive into Pokhara takes about 3 hours and we will arrive in time to enjoy the sunset and a couple of cold beverages by the lake.

Accommodation: Hotel Barahi

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