Jim Thomson Trail, Cameron Highland, 21/22/23 January 2000

Ahem, how should I start this? Well, for those who have been following the KOTRT's journal, you surely recall that we did do the Jim Thomson trail last year with A2W riders, and we had to turn after merely covering 5 kilometers due to the bad trail condition and mudslide. It was a great disappointment for riders who took part in this ride. We had vowed to come back again after we met during our steamboat dinner gathering with A2Ws at the Merlin after the ride. Too bad that the A2Ws and the Silent Thunderers decided not to join after reading all the horror stories about landslide in Kampung Raya, where was 20 kilometers away from Tanah Rata. You guys have missed all the fun man!!

Seventeen riders from the KOTRT, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore joined the ride. It really surprised me when I came to know that we were going to have riders from Singapore! I never expected that our homepage had spread as far as our neighboring country. This is very encouraging. It means that our effort to promote mountain biking in Penang starts to bear fruits! I really appreciate riders from Singapore, especially Roslan who was so enthusiastically to take all the trouble by taking night bus a day before to join us in Penang. Pity him, maybe he was too excited of the coming adventure, maybe he drank too much tea during the dinner on Friday night, he couldn't sleep at all and woke up with a pair of raccoon eyes!

The original plan was to ride up to Gunung Brinchang upon arrival. I decided to take a nap due to the tiring drive from Butterworth to Tanah Rata. It really taxed me out especially I spent a late night with my fiancée in her pub. Roslan was so tired that by the time I had everything in place in the room, he already snoozed off without changing his dress! I thought I would do the same but(there always a but you know!) was told by Tom that I would have to meet Azmi, Francis, ST and other folks at the Shell gas station to check out the condition of the Jim Thompson trail! I was told that Michael Khor and Smoked Jin decided to tackle the Gunung Brinchang. God blessed their souls. Hope they would never forget all the torture they would have to go thru in Gunung Brinchang climb! I should have declined the idea. I was so tired and I started seeing stars already. Yet I decided to climb into Azmi's Pajero and headed to the trailhead of Jim Thompson!

The trip ended up as the worst car ride I had ever had! My head was spinning like nobody business and I had to assure Azmi that I would not dirty his beloved Pajero by throwing out all my last night cuisine at my fiancée's place! Man was it awful! I shut my eyes close so that I would get rid of the spinning sensation all the way to and fro Lembah Bertam. By the time I went back to Twin Pine, the first thing I did was to run to the nearest bathroom and threw out all the stuff in my stomach! I swear everybody in the chalet heard the groan I made when I was vomiting like a pregnant lady! Anyway, the first portion of the trail turned out was as muddy as before. ST decided to activate the plan B after seeing the bad condition of the trail but he would let the group to decide if they would like to proceed with the original plan or start the ride from the Boh Tea plantation in Habu.

We had a nice steamboat dinner at the Grasshopper restaurant not far away from Twin Pine. Mark's family decided to stay at Twin Pine to enjoy their BBQ dinner. ST revealed our discovery to the group and asked if anyone would like to proceed with the original plan. To his surprise, all except Azmi, Michael Khor and Jin decided to start the ride at Lembah Bertam! This was out of his expectation. Although some of us went thru the bad experience at mud during our ride in the Pos Mensun, we thought this time we would be well prepared to tackle it. Of course lar, almost everyone that chose to stay with the original plan brought themselves extra spare brake pads and inner tubes!

We all met at Tanah Rata for breakfast on the second morning. Since the Twin Pine folks got up early(yeah, 7am!), after our morning shower(cold one!) we decided to have our breakfast in Twin Pine first before we went to the rendezvous point at one of the coffee shops in Tanah Rata. Excellent American breakfast! Sure filled my stomach and good carbo source! As planned, once everyone met, those who would like to go for plan B followed ST and those that stick to the original plan followed Francis.

After unloading our machines, we started the ride at 0930 hours. The few sections of the trailhead, as we all knew it was going to be steep uphill climb cum mud ponds. We did not expect the mud trail was to be so long! Everyone was struggling to get thru the mud pond. Due to our previous experience in this kind of situation, we decided to carry our bikes over! We didn't expect the trail was muddy all the way until the triple fork! It was a big mud pond! I could see the faces of our guests from Singapore when they saw the situation. Were they regret to follow us with their brand new Y2K Cannondales? I hope they weren't! Hey, this is part of the parcel of MTB XC okay? If you think you expect seeing a clean bike after the ride, go ride a minibike in your house backyard!

Fortunately, the trail was getting better after the triple fork. We spent quite some time to wait for Lim over there. It ended up that Lim was stuck in the "traffic jam". Two Land Rovers were trying to cross a narrow trail and they ended up meeting head on in the mid section. One of them would have to go astern to let another one to go thru. Apparently, it took quite some time for two of them to get thru! We started to get worry when we waited for more than ten minutes. Lim finally showed up when I decided to go back to find out what happen. We continued the journey after Lim got his bike's brake clear of mud. Kenny left me a walkie talkie since they were thinking of moving ahead first.

Though the trail condition was better than the mud pond before that, some portion of the trail were still not ride-able. This was due to the deep tire marks left by the passing 4x4 trucks. The marks were quite deep and in some section, we would have to carry our bikes to go thru. The green peace guys will love this. They will take this as hard evidence to show that wheeled vehicle should stay out of jungle!

There was a long downhill single track before Pos Mensun. Speed demon would love it! It was straight and bumpy. I was just let my machine went all the way down and didn't even bother to apply brakes to slow it down. The sensation was just like, how should I put it, close to intense orgasm! We finally reached Pos Mensun 2 hours later. ST, Azmi, Michael Khor and Jin were not there yet! I thought I were going to see a wooden bridge, naked kids running around, women on sarong and guys with blow pipes. Instead, I saw houses with TV antenna on top, and brand new Honda EX5 in front! Another surprise was the water in the river. It was yellow in color! What does this imply? Excessive logging? Unregulated land clearing in the upstream? Go figure! For those who arrived before me, they had already dipped themselves into the water and washed their bikes and selves. Wonder how come the yellowish water in the river didn't bother them, hmm...

The cOOOl kNIGHt gang arrived after we were all about to finish cleaning our bike. With all the smile on their face, it showed me that they had fantastic ride. Well, Azmi told me that I should follow them. "We downhill all the way Alan. You should have followed us! 15 kilometer of hair rising moments!" I took it as a sign of trouble. What goes up must come down. The Newton Fourth Law of motion! Boy, I wished I was in my nice and cozy little room at home now! It seemed like other did not take notice of the hidden message that Azmi was trying to convey!

We set off to conquer the hardest part of the after we all cleaned up, filled up and took group pictures. The climb started after we turned left after the primary school at Pos Mensun. The initial climb was okay though. Maybe we rested enough. I didn't feel like the climb was terrible. The honey moon period continued until we reached Kampung Kuala Boh, the first aboriginal settlement after Pos Mensun. Seeing that Azmir and Roslan left behind, me and Francis decided to wait for them. We were greeted by the asli kids and they were quite curious about our machines. I think we let them to try them, they would definitely jump up the saddle and ran away! While waiting for Azmir and  Roslan to catch up, we were thrilled by the scenic view of Kampung Kuala Boh! It was very scenic. We felt like we were in a movie or something you know? I just felt like I was in Sangri-La! To our surprise, Lim showed up instead. He brought us a bad new: Leong had gone into wrong direction and Azmir was chasing after him! Roslan was waiting in Pos Mensun for both of them. A nice breezing sunny day became not so nice already after the bad news. Worst of all, nobody was sure either Leong had gone in wrong way or he had move ahead of us. We decided to radio the front pack to find out. It ended out that the front pack, which consisted of Kenny's group and Ostyn family did not see Leong either. Thing had become not so good already. We informed the front pack to let us know any time if they met Leong. At the same time, we decided to proceed the journey until we met the rest and planned to drive in 4x4 truck to locate him. This is what I don't like. There always someone who thought he/she is better than others and never bother to wait for the team. They never know that by doing that, it will team a lot of hassle to locate them and make sure they are safe and sound!

It wasn't a nice ride after Pos Kuala Boh. Roslan finally arrived after we finished the climb. Seeing the seriousness of the problem, I decided to leave the walkie talkie to Roslan and asked him to wait for Azmir. Lim was waiting for me and Francis was already on his way to the Boh Tea plantation. We caught up with Francis half an hour later. I left Francis to Lim and continued paddling hopefully I would be able to catch up the first group.

Time was running late and the sun was hanging straight up. This was not a fun ride at all judging from the gradient of the slopes after Kampung Kuala Boh! Most of them were long stretch slopes that seem had no end! Furthermore, more of them were damage due to the frequent visit of motorized vehicle! Often time, I had to carry my Diamondback when the track became not ride-able. It was quite energy taxing! To be honest, if the trail were okay, any moderate rider will be able to finish the uphill climb without any pit stops!

The cyclocross like riding taxed me so much that by the time I hit the last aboriginal settlement, I was about to give up the ride! I was like, "f*#k the ride. Let me hitch a hike and forget about mountain biking!". Luckily, the green spread of Boh tea farm was within my eye sight! That was the sign that pushed me to continue! The view of unending greenery was just breathtaking! If I were not in hurry to meet up the folks at the Tea House, I would stop by and enjoyed the view with couple of Kodak moments!

I finally met up the gang at the Tea House. The cOOOl kNIGHt gang was already there. Tom was the first rider to reach the Tea House(before the cOOOl kNIGHt gang, according to him!) followed by Kenny group, which I met in front of the grocery store halfway in the Tea plantation. There was no sign of Leong! I told the gang about what happen. We all started to concern about Leong's well being and Azmi was about to go back to search for him already. I was virtually exhausted after the non-stop ride. The first thing I did was searching for 100 Plus! Then, the walkie talkie sparked back to life. It was Roslan who radioed us that he was on his way to the Tea House with Azmir and Leong! Later we were told by Leong that he was chased by a group of seven wild boars! It must be quite an adventure for him! The boars even ate his North Star shoes! Though we were quite skeptic about the story that Leong was telling us(It was very tempting for me to tell the gang that I was late because I was chased by seventy tigers, or maybe I was captured and molested by a group of ten female Yetis! Come on, seven wild boars and you are still alive and kicking?), we were all relieved that he came back in one piece! Lesson learnt: Do not try to be a wise guy. If you are not familiar with the trail you are riding, wait for the rest when you hit a junction!

It was a fun ride. For those who decided to pull out from the trip, you guys miss the fun! We are planning to come back again! This time, I will want to do it in reverse, which means I will start the ride from the Boh Tea plantation and end at Lembah Bertam! So guys, is anyone game to be an organizer for the trip? Let us know! July is a dry season, it's worth a thought you know?

Special thanks to Roslan, Kenny and his folks for taking all the trouble by coming all the way from Singapore to join us. I hope they were not disappointed. Kenny's group's Cannondale F2000 and Klein Mantra and Roslan's Kona Mano Mano are surely an eye opener for me! Also Roslan, I wish I could get a chance to test ride your Kona Mano Mano. Lets hope we will see you again in our coming rides! Yeah, lets not forget the amazing story of Leong for his seven wild boars "incidence"! It was a daring adventure that we will never forget!

Stay tuned!