X'Mas ride on the Bt Gambier trail, 25 December 2001
When Azmi called me up during the X'Mas eve, I was 50-50 about the ride. First, it was X'Mas. Normally my fiancee would expect to show up at her pub. Second, my thighs were still sore from the road ride two days ago. But I have not ridden with them for sometimes, and they were quite concerned about my sudden interest on road ride. Come on lah, once a roadie, always a roadie! I think it's about time for me to try roadie again man! Life is not supposed to be monotonous right. MTB, MTB, MTB. Riding the same old trails for godzillion times. It's time to have something new amigo.
About ten riders showed up at Rin's place, which is at Taman Brown(I always thought it was called Minden Height!). Azmi informed me that meeting time was 7.30am. I was rushing like hell since I was not able to get up on time. Oh by the way, I did not go to my fiancee's pub. The traffic jam was so terrible that I decided to call her instead(Sorry lah. I will make it up. I promise!). Anyway, as usual lah, Chinaman time. I was surprised to see actually I was the second person arrived.
We did not have breakfast before the ride since we expected the ride to be a short one. Bukit Gambier trail is a short trail compares to others we use for our weekend ride. I was wondering why all the sudden they wanted to ride on the Bukit Gambier trail. When I saw actually 5 out of 10 riders were newbies, I realized why!
All the while I thought the trail head of Bukit Gambier trail was at the roadside of Yeap Chor Ee road. In fact, I was wrong. The actual trail head starts from Taman Brown. Yeap Chor Ee road has cut the trail into two! It is bad, isn't it? I have been to the trail for some times. Except the Taman Brown part, I can say evenif my eyes were blind folded, I would not have problem to find my way to the peak. But this is not the case for newbies. I saw them struggling up. Some of them would have to stop for gasping. One of the riders decided to follow me. When I stopped to take pictures, he stopped as well. Big mistake buddy, Turbo Snail may be slow. But he's not that weak anymore. After the roller coaster climb, I lost sight of him! I think he was probably trying to claim that his bike was not suitable for such ride. Excuse lah. I have done it before. I know what kind of tricks they are trying to play!
Franky speaking, it might be tough for someone who is newbie and first time to the trail. I have seen old boys stopped half way just because they are not familiar with the terrain. Being a newbie, they are no exceptions! ST and Azmi were kind enough to wait for them after the roller coastal climb. If they were led by my usual riding partners on Thursday, they would not be that lucky! As usual, it took me about 20 minutes to reach the tea hut. I was not the first one that arrived. ST and the rest were already there. I decided to take my own sweet time, not rushing since my thighs were still sore from the road ride(excuse lah!).
After a short breather and last rider showed up at the tea hut. ST suggested to try a short loop that would give those who came with their beloved fully a bang of their bucks. I was hesitated to go but I could not show my hesitation. Of course, excuse again. "Not in the mood lah" But do you think they would let me go like that? Forget it, especially both Azmi and ST were in the ride. So I have not choice to join the crowd! It turned out the ride was not that bad at all. Other than few slippery steps that still reminded me of my falls from the previous rides, I managed to clear the trail with no problem. One of the newbies fell twice, and he was almost thrown down to the ravine! I think he must be too anxious to show his master that he could do it! Poor kid!
We ended the ride by having a nice breakfast at Taman Brown's hawker center. Food nice? Well, the Nasi Melayu that I ordered was edible. The beef was a little bit hard and springy. Other than that, not bad! Chics were nice there, that's for sure!
It was a nice ride. I could see that the ride had given the newbies a really thorough work out. It is the trail that is totally different from their usual Mt. Erskine ride. Me? Well, put it this way, Tuesday is my routine squash time. But since my squash partner decides that I should have X'Mas dinner(I don't know where does he get the info that I am going to have X'Mas dinner with someone. Strange though. I don't recall lah. I must be old!), I decided to go to do another round! 25km of road ride. Strong gusty wind. Did it in 45 minutes on my Erzulie. Shyiok? Yeah you bet(I threw out everything I had in my stomach after the ride)!
Stay tuned!