I’ve been eager to go to Khao Ito to try out the downhill track for a while now, and today I made that 2-hour drive to Prachinburi.

The day didn’t start off so well, totally disorganized, it took me an hour to leave the house because I kept forgetting stuff and I had to run back & forth before finally getting my act together.

As soon as I reached the Rangsit-Nakhon Naiyok Road my enthusiasm dropped by 20%, I really hate this road, it is always congested, the 100-kilometer journey takes 2 hours, that’s 50 kph…..

Anyway, I finally reached the Khao Ito Bike Club camp at 11.30 hrs. and even though it was near lunch time I decided to skip it because I thought I’ll do the ride first, and finish it off with a good plate of something or another and a cool drink of some sort 😉

So off I go, there is no signage, and no one to ask what the blue and pink ribbons mean, and being a good tracker I got lost. Came across a pack of rather fangy dogs, who looked like they could do with some juicy cycling calf, luckily a villager took charge and pointed me in the right direction, or so I thought.

I ended up at the Big Buddha, and as I was about to head back down thinking this was the START, I saw a sign hinting where I should go. I ended up on a tar road that snaked through the hills, the climb was quite steep, I was huffing & puffing as the midday sun was beating down on me, it was so hot I was frying on the saddle.

Finally made it up to the summit where I enjoyed a moment of silence, listening to my heart as it peaked at 179 bpm. A power bar and some H2O brought back some energy.

I quickly discovered that the downhill track was no walk in the park, especially for an old fart on a hardtail. For safety sakes I chickened out of the top segment, and took my descent at a more timid point. Here’s the video of my up & down.