Cycling in Asia forum

There is more than one HCM trail as far as today's roads are concerned and I think most are paved. North of Hue you can go to Dong Ha then inland towards Khe Sanh (Route 9) then take a right onto the road that runs north all the way to its junction with Route 15 north of Dong Hoi.

Take a look at the map I made on post 13 of this thread the northern stuff, where they go inland makes use of the HCM trail (or bits of it anyway.

madmac, it's in all three -- the network crisscrossed back and forward over the border. Route 14 (running north of Kontum) and then north again of Khe Sanh are considered to follow the path of one of the original trails. You'll see it marked on some Vietnamese maps as duong Ho Chi Minh (Ho Chi Minh Rd/St).

Posted from within Vietnam.

madmac - while i don't dispute your point, the fact that you are presenting a travel company's website as, well, fact, is a bit debatable to say the least. Active Travel Vietnam is selling a product, and are at least somewhat biased...
Now, the HCM trail was certainly in all three countries, to what extent in each is, perhaps, something that may be lost to history since it was quite secret even when it was current.
But, as a cyclist traveling within Vietnam, clearly I'm primarily inquiring about the "twisted" Vietnamese modern version, since that's where I'm at and that's what I'm trying to see :-)
For sure it might not be wholly authentic, but it ought to be at least somewhat scenic.
For the record, time permitting I think we're going to ride from Hue to Dong Ha, perhaps 2 days total, though I'm fearful that the tropical storm en route could cause us some problems...

Thanks for the "suggestions" and the "discussion"

OK obviously it did cross into Vietnam from multiple points. That was the whole point of the trail - it was a supply and infiltration route for the NVA and Vietcong. That's all clear enough. But the terminus points are in South Vietnam. The principal "trail" - the collection of north to south roads that the NVA used as a main supply route - ran through Laos and Cambodia. The sub-routes running into vietnam were small because they had to be. Once in South Vietnam, they were well and truly vulnerable to ground interdiction which was not much of a concern in Laos or Cambodia, the major operation around Tschepone not withstanding.