Dr. Francis' Mt. Erskine "recovery" ride, 8 October 2000

Actually, I was thinking of doing another roadie today. Since it was my pop's big day also, I had decided to stay with my family to celebrate his birthday taking him to the Little Fish Pond in Sungai Kob to enjoy the fresh freshwater seafood. I already changed my bike tires to the road ones and already had the road map that I was going to ride. All the sudden, Dr. Francis called me a night before, in fact a late one, that he was thinking of doing Mt. Erskine to "recover" from the torture we had on Saturday. I haven't been to Mt. Erskine trail for eons. So I thought maybe it was time to pay this Sukom DH trail a visit again! Well, it took me another fifteen minutes or so to change the tires back to my trusty WTB Velociraptor, and I was all set to go!

We had five riders showed up for the ride. Fatt informed me last minute that he joined the fun. Apparently he successfully convinced his love one to do shopping on her own. Yeah, shopping is a tiring job. I never understand where the hell do the ladies got all the energy to walk around in the department store and buy nothing. After a brief discussion on the ride we were going to do, we all proceeded to the trail head.

The trail had changed tremendously. There was a construction or something going on at the first hundred meter of land, which also cut into the trail. I had a bad feeling that the trail will not be rideable very very soon. It's sad to see that. But as what Dr. Francis out it,"Hell, this somebody's land. They can do whatever they want!" I really hope that the landowner will reconstruct the trail again after they have done the job. Luckily, after a brief search, we managed to find the "new" entrance to this favorite DH trail.

The bumps had been dissappeared. Someone had removed them. What greeted us was a gradual climb to the end of the trail. We all engaged heavier gear and went at much faster speed that we used to. Maybe we have improved in our riding skill or our endurance, we all finished the trail under 15 minutes. Of course, we were panting like hell after we reached the trailend but it was worth it. The trail was easier to climb right now. Someone must have done some trail keeping job.

It was a short and nice ride. It was just nice for us to shed some sweat after the busting ride in K2. I think I am going to do something like this for new riders and someone who is physically less capable in alternate Sunday. Of course, I must have some riders who are game for such ride. So any takers? Oh yeah, did I recover from this ride? Lets put it this way, we are looking for an easier one after the busting ride in K2 a day before. It was not really a "recovery" ride. I just put the title for fun only lah!

Stay tuned!