KOTRT Annual Ride, Pos Mensun, 23-25 February 2001

There are four mosts to describe the Pos Mensun event this year - most widely published(thanks to KOTRT homepage, virtually every mountain biking groups in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand know about KOTRT's Pos Mensun trip), biggest turn out(over 60 riders), most geographically covered of the riders(KL(15), Penang(35) and Singapore(13)), most club participation(A2W, MTB eZone , KL Bike Hash, Paul's Bicycling Malaysia, PCC, Silence Thunderers, Singapore Bike Hash, Team Absolut). It is the biggest event that KOTRT has ever done! Over sixty riders turned out for the ride, and it has created nightmare for KOTRT on how to control the crowd and provision of accommodation! We even have last minute confirmation from number of riders from KL and Singapore that they are coming for the ride. Luckily, they would take care of their own accommodation in Cameron Highlands. They are mostly welcome to join us! We started the journey to the Cameron Highlands on Friday. I was supposed to go with my fiancée but she cancelled the plan in the last minute. I was quite disappointed because I had worked so hard to talk her into coming with me, but in the last she said couldn't go! Anyway, I couldn't cancel the trip in the last minute. If I do so, Azmi and the rest are going to kill me! So hafta say sorry to my love one lah. But look at the bright side. That means I don't have to get a room in the Equatorial Hotel, which will cost much more than squishing in the bungalow that we have been arranged for budget conscious Penangites like me. We are 3 K(Kiasu, Kiasi, Kiamsiap) lah! RM100 for two nights okay lah. But RM500 for two nights? Man, I can eat 250 plates of chay koay teow for RM500 man!

The ride did not start until Saturday. We all gathered at an empty ground in front of the entrance of the Habu's Boh Tea estate. After the last briefing about the ride, the ride began half an hour behind the schedule. The initial climb was kind of like "makan angin" type of climb. It was even much easier than the climb at the Air Itam Dam. I had no problem to tackle the climb with 2-3 combo. Since it was going to be a long ride and tough climbs waiting for me, I decided to take it easy. Azman the technoman of Alive also followed suit. We chatted while we climbed this easy slope. And then my radio clicked. It was apparently we had a late visitor from KL! I decided to wait for the late rider since I was appointed as the sweeper for this ride, unfortunately!. The late rider turned out to be our guest from Klang, Rhys of MTB eZone! Seeing him breathless when trying to catch up with the rest, I told him to take a short break at the middle of the climb. Seeing him suffering while I was very much enjoying the breathtaking view along the way, I even had time to take a picture of myself at the entrance of the Boh tea estate, I started to realize that KOTRT had gradually moved from purely recreational riders group to moderate/hardcore ones. It seems to me that he was trying to catch up with the rest by going over his physical ability. A big mistake. If you lost your patient, no matter how tough you are, you are going to lost your breath in much shorter time. We finally reached the first regroup point after an "agony" climb at the Boh Tea slope. Consider that we still had long way to go, I propose to my new found friend to take a rest first and asked the rest to go ahead. Since I have been to Pos Mensun trail twice, I had no problem to catch up with the rest!

I found that the so much acclaimed 20km "downhill" was not as fun as claimed by those who had tried it before. I had to be careful to deal with the ruts and loose sands. For me, down hill equals to high speed, or my scram unit will not activate! It happened to me at this section. Often time I had to be very careful to pick the right line to go down. You call this fun? I don't know man! The radio clicked again when I was trying very hard to descend at the rough terrain. My high school buddy radioed me that one of the lady riders from Penang was injured. The message was not clear due to the distance. ST responded the emergency calling. But he was already on his way to the second regroup point. So I had no choice but to speed up. It was strange, after hearing what happen to the rider at front, I automatically going faster and more dare to deal with certain difficult sections that I normally would walk rather than cycle. When I finally arrived at the point of the incidence, she was already being taken care of by our guest riders from Singapore. A big thanks to them! I was later learnt that she cut her knee, a deep one, when she was trying to clear the trail. A tree trunk with sharp edges sliced thru her knee. She did not realize about the injury until she looked down at horror that her knee was covered with blood! The edge must be very sharp! Or she would definitely feel the pain. I decided to leave the slow pack behind and proceeded to the regroup point to inform the another group leaders about what happen. At the same time, Gary arrived on his Reflex 200. He suggested to carry her to the next regroup point and another motorized sweeper would carry the repair station.

I finally reached the second regroup point, Kampung Kuala Boh, after twenty minutes of hard cranking. Fortunate to this lady rider, there was a rider who had a training in dealing with deep cut! The cut was huge! I just took a brief glance only, and I already wanted to throw out! Had lost my appetite to have my chocolate lunch after seeing that thing. I don't think I could take that if I were the one. My respect to you(sorry la folks, I had agreement with the rest of KOTRT that I would not reveal her name!)! After a brief lunch and settled the injured rider(she would be carried by Gary to the trail end and proceeded to Tanah Rata for further treatment. Her bike would have to stay at the orang asli kampung until we came back to pick it up on second day!), we continued our ride to Pos Mensun. The descent continued until we exited the village. The easy ride became a hard cranking. I was not fast enough to change the rear to gnarly cog though I managed to change the front one. It was okay for the few meters. Afterwards, when the village was out of sight and the gradient started to take a toll on me. I was breathing hard to continue the climb. If I force changed the rear to larger cog right now, I would have to kiss my newly bought XTR cassette bye bye! I decided to continue the climb. By the time I reached the top, I was already breathless! The thinner air in the highland plus the steep slope, what a killer! Shi Fun or Coke, as what she was called by Paul's group arrived minutes later. She was breathless to talk. I was tempted to give her an instant CPG. But cannot lah. And then Techno and Rhys showed up. All of them asked if it was the started of the 7km climb! Still a long way buddy. This was just a warm up! And Pos Mensun was still far away! But I did not spoil their mood, so Dr. Francis's famous "too kilometer" philosophy came into play. I told them there were only "too" kilometers away from Pos Mensun, and we would take a break there. I would go first and waited for them. Actually, I wanted to go fast and enjoyed myself. But duty calls, so I had to find a way to enjoy the ride instead of accompanied for every single stops!

I wonder if they realized that they had arrived at Pos Mensun when they made the right turn at the junction. They surprised me when they continued the ride up to the 7km climb! It was steep! And the sun was cooking us alive! The cool temperature at the highland was not helping at all! I tried to stay on the saddle, but I had to climb down when the front rider blocked my way. I tried to capture the steep slope on my 10 year old Kadak camera but it was not very successful. I tried again after a brief stop at the slope. I managed to stay on saddle for a short while only, and I would have to stop and catch my breath. For those who could climb all the way at one breath must be the one with iron lungs! I was already way behind when I did my third attempt. This time I managed to clear the steepest section, and in front of me was a welcoming flatter terrain! My radio was clicked like hell when I was doing the third attempt to climb the so called Everest Climb. It sounded to me like someone who was desperate to be rescued! This time I decided to play the "too" more philosophy again. I radioed back to tell them there were only "too" more climbs and that was all. I do not know if they bought the idea or not, but by the time I cleared another steep but not as steep as the Everest climb, I was out of range!

The rest of journey was just like a typical XC trail in Kulim, undulating. I went as fast as I could. I was full of energy. Maybe I was trying to catch up with the second group. I managed to overtake at least three to four sub groups. One of the groups even shouted at me that they were experiencing a leg cramp. Actually for those who whined about leg cramps and what not, they should have come to the briefing aday before. If they brought enough water and went with caution, the cramp would not come after them!

I finally arrived at the trail end 30 minutes after the second pack arrived. Most of my time was spent on taking too many pit stops. The last rider from the third pack arrived at the trail end at 1730hours, two hours after my arrival! It was a fun ride. It could be more fun for me if I were not designated to be a sweeper. Someone might complained that I left the group in the last minute. I have my own reason, I would have to inform the front pack that we had slow riders, and they probably needed to be picked up. I have done my job right?

Anyway, it was a success! I want to thank all of the riders from other mountain biking group for joining us to explore the Pos Mensun trail this year. Had made many new friend, including iron ladies from Singapore that has been mentioned in Paul's journal for so many times. They are tough! I wish I would see them again in future!

Stay tuned!