A trip to Gua Musang, 31 August - 02 September 2000
It was a trip that I decided to join in the last minute. I was supposed to meet my friend from Taiwan since we had not been seeing each other for ten years! But the temptation of riding in a new frontier had overtaken the urge to meet my old friend. Secondly, Fatt the rubber knight emailed four days before the trip that he would be joining also. It was the final "blow" to my Taiwanese friend meet! So I give my friend a call that I would be on business trip and I would not be available during the Merdeka day weekend! Sorry buddy, I will make it up. I hope you don't mind, if you happen to read this journal!
We took off early in the morning to Gua Musang on Merdeka Day. It took us 7 hours travelling 460km from Penang. It was a tiring drive. Fatt was so worn out that he couldn't drive. He said he watched video 'til 2am. Yeah, I watched Merdeka Endurance 'til 2.30am and I was still fresh and ready to hop on the saddle to ride. Whatever reason lah, one thing for sure is I would be the one to drove his "wife", a Proton Iswara 1.3! He was snoozing off after we finished crossing the East West Highway. He looked so innocent when he was at sleep. Hmm, don't all evil guys look innocent when they are in the dream? Why? I am one of them! We all checked in at the Kesedar Inn, which was just right before the Gua Musang town.
By the way, I forgot to mention that actually the major purpose of this Gua Musang trip was a rock climbing trip. Me and Fatt just tapped in to go there. So, there wasn't any ride on the first and the second day. Man, seeing ST and folks climbing up the straight wall was quite a sight. Especially when those lady climbers were doing their stunt high up. Total eclipse of the heart man, total eclipse! You had to see it to believe it! A BIG round thing swaying around when they were trying to find an anchor point to secure themselves! No I did not do it. I got chicken out in the last minute. Though they had tried every possible way to talk me into putting on the harness to give a 5A wall a try, I just couldn't do it! I was trying in vain to come out all kind of excuses not to do the climbing, including a grandmother story like I had bad experience in the hoist way when I was working for Otis lah and shit like that. I don't think they buy the excuse! I promise I will do it next time okay? Fatt gave it a try and he surprised everyone. He is a dude that's full of surprises. On the first day only, he had already climbed a 6A wall at ease. He had a lot of season riders in shame! Well, as usual lah. He also joined in the fleet to talk me into doing it! Man, it seems like I had to get myself ready for spending another couple hundreds of my hard earn ringgit on rock climbing gear! Having not doing the climb did not mean that I just sat on the ground enjoying full moon up there. I did do some rides. There was couple of short but interesting trails surrounding the rock climbing site. If they were long enough, they would be an ideal spot for XC riding! I covered the whole loop in an half an hour!
The real ride was on the second day. It was a 18km XC ride. "What? You drive all the way from Penang, spending 7 hours on wheels and just ride 18km?" Hey, we are mountain bikers. Mountain bikers do crazy things okay? Maybe some other are not as crazy as we are but seeking a new frontier to ride is the real spirit of mountain biking. Too seek out the new frontier, to explore the unknown! Ok enough of bs, we did not know where was the trail actually. We just followed the direction given by the local rock climbers to the trail head and that was it. No one knew where would the trail lead to. I don't think even the locals know about this sweet baby!
It was a trail that went into virgin jungle and oil palm estate. A 18km of ups and downs. This ain't no easy 18km ride! We were conned by the first few kilometers that it was going to be something like Juru fire track. We were wrong. After we asked a lady who happened to stay in the house before the entrance to jungle, the trail started to provide very interesting ride! Maybe it was because of the overnight rain, the trail was full of pot holes and mud ponds! If one were not careful or picked a wrong line, he/she would have to get him/herself ready for a mud bath. I was taking a picture at the entrance and putting the Talkabout 250 before hitting while Fatt and ST were already on their way to the jungle. ST's repeating requesting for my location had put me in the rush mode. So I slammed the trail without looking straight ahead what would be the trail like. It just happened when I finally saw both of them a stone throw away. All the sudden, my bike's front wheel sank into the mud pond and threw me off the saddle! The only thing I knew was to lost grip of the handle and catapult forward. The mud splashed on my leg and my brand new Adidas El Moro II! It was split second decision. If I got hold of the handle, I think I would be bathing myself in the mud pond! Climbing back up to the saddle, I quickly pedal to he rest and we continued our exploration into this unknown frontier!
After we passed a hut, which I suspected was a hideout or something, we were greeted by a steady slope up to somewhere. The fun started there! The rest of ride was just an endless climb! All three of us were concentrating on our pace. My routine ride in Batu Kawan and K2 proved to be helpful to tackle this long and gradual climb. The toughest climb was at the oil palm estate. Because of the loose gravel path, if we shifted to the wrong position, the rear would start to give way and we would have to come down and push to the rest of the climb.
It seemed like we did not want to be left behind. All three of us were at the pace to outdo each other. Though we did not say that we were going to race to the peak, we just did it! I decided to take my own sweet time but the Fatt and ST were racing each other without show sign of giving up! Fatt was panting like hell when we finally reached the peak. He had proven that a good rider does not need to be on a super duper expensive machine! I was just right behind of them and was not in a good shape either.
The view at the peak was spectacular. The whole Gua Musang was just under our feet. It was fresh up there. We didn't stay there for long. After we all manage to catch our breath, we decided to go down and meet the rest at the climbing site again!
Maybe I was not in the mood to do fast downhill. I was at the speed that was slow at Turbo Snail's standard. Fatt was already no where to be seen. It must be the confidence that gave him the guts to go fast on the loose gravel trail! One slight mistake and he would be sliding on the ground kissing the earth! We met the PCC folks on our way to the site. I later found out that they rode all the way from KL in three days! Man, I wish one day I would be able to join them!
Though the ride was rather short. Yeah, driving 460km from Penang and do only 18km does sound crazy but it is not an easy 18km ride. The uphill climb will definitely scare the physically less capable riders away. Even an experienced rider like ST also admits that it is not an easy climb! Anyhow, we manage to mark the KOTRT's presence at Gua Musang. So when are we going to do the ride in Gua Musang again? Hmm, a good question. I probably won't make it a KOTRT trip. If I want to do it, I would have to do some studies first or maybe a Pos Brooke-Gua Musang ride, which is going to be super hardcore, two day off road MTB event!
Stay tuned!