K2 Branch off Recce, 20 August 2000
This afternoon ride under drizzling rain and slippery climb on cement trail, was one of my best rides! Believe me, for those who don't join me in this recce, you guys miss all the fun! The trail was so technical and sweet that we screamed like we had orgasm on bike. Boy was it fun! The mud was so sticky that I had problem to remove them from my bike! It was like the mud became a part of the bike now!
Three riders, yours truly, my high school buddy and my neighbor decided to take up the challenge. I purposefully skipped the ride this morning this ride since it has been my mind after my previous ride to K2 with Dr. Francis. The original plan was to start the ride at 1600 hours but it was delayed until 1700 hours. I had to show face in Azmi's dim sum lunch in the Emperor lah. Somemore I did not have chance to enjoy the dim sum. By the time I was there, the table was already empty! Though they insisted I should order some to fill my stomach, I don't like people looking at me eating. I would feel like I was one of those animals trapped in zoo. No siok lar! Okay okay, back to the ride. So I called up Fatt after visited my fiancee in Pulau Tikus asked him what he thought about doing a ride at K2. The answer was instantly yes! I told him I would be coming to fetch him up at 1630 hours. The ride was on. And then I met Tatt, my neighbor. I asked if him if he wanna come along. Another yes! I had two riders with me. The ride was defintely, concretely on!
We met at the usual place whenever we went to K2 for a ride. We went up to the hut at the top as usual also. The only different was the ride was done in a drizzling rain. The cement path became slippery in a lot of portions. We all had problem to get the traction to get our bikes moving. No matter how we moved our body to shift more weight to the back wheel, the back would keep on spinning. Fatt was worst among us. His semi slick back wheel would spin whenever there was water on surface!
It took us 10 minutes more than usual half an hour to reach the peak. After Tatt's filling up his bottle and Fatt and me gasp enough air to slow down our thumping heart, we decided to go down to the half hill and began our recce to the trail that I saw in my previous trip. The descent was as scary as before since the slope was very steep, especially before the gate to the peak. We managed to arrive at the junction in one piece. We did not waste any time and proceeded to the branch off!
It was a red earth trail. When red earth mix with water, it will become sticky. The ride on it will be require extra effort to get the bike going. That was the one we encountered! We were greeted by an almost 45 degree slope just after we exited from the junction! It wasn't easy to go down a 45 degree slope even if the trail were flat and smooth. To make it worst, the rain a day before had erroded the trail. There were holes, I mean, big hole everywhere! We had to be careful when going down. It was actually a newly open farm field for chilly. We were lost and had no idea where to go after that hair rising descent. Luckily, we met the farmer. He was kind enough to inform us that there was a 4x4 trail leading us to the foothill!
We finally cleared out of the sticky muddy trail after we sweeped the 4x4 trail. It wasn't an easy ride down to the foothill. It was very bumpy. Again, errosion caused by rain and spining tires of motorized vehicle had made the trail miserable to ride. The sticky mud made the ride worst! I had my bike's brake pad rubbing the rims' walls because of the sticky mud. Think I should have given disc brakes a thought now! But it was fun someone who like mud and challenging terrain. Riders who hate leeches and wet terrain would definitely not enjoy the ride we were going through!
It was a fun recce. The branch off from K2 really gave us a BIG surprise. We did not realize that it was so much fun to ride down to foothill at that 4x4 mud trail. You know, Fatt and I already talk about coming back to the same trail again in future but this time we are going to do it in reverse!
So knights, anyone game for a muddy ride?
Stay tuned!