Sungai Sedim, again! 15 October 2000
I must admit, the knights from the island are addicted to the trails in Sungai Sedim. They never grow tire of it and keep going there to enjoy the thrilling ride at the logging track and the newly discovered uphill singletrack! I am the person who always wants to seek out new playground to thrash my now an old faithful Diamondback also have to agree that the trails in Sungai Sedim give me surprise every time I go there. It was no exception for this ride. The singletrack was so technical that I crashed three times! Yes, three times in front of ST, the coool knight! Well, you guys know what happen when they see me crash lah.
More than 15 riders showed up for the ride, including those from Parit Buntar. Speaking of which, sorry Maverick, I didn't know you were coming. We were in the rush so we only waited for 15 minutes at the meeting point! I hope you and your folks enjoyed the ride in Sungai Sedim! After an usual briefing of what will be the ride plan of the day, we began the ride by going to the logging track as a warming up. This time, we started the ride other than the usual camp site. Instead, we started from the Sedim Forest Garden due to the road repair going on at the entrance to the campsite that made the road inaccessible to normal vehicle!
The fun part began when we finished our round in the logging track and started our 5km adventure into the leech infested singletrack! The ride today was a little different from the previous few. We had quite a number of newbies here. They had never ridden any two wheel machines on offroad track before. Also, they had never bitten by leech before! I decided to be a sweeper seeing the newbies we were having here. The ride started with one of the kids, Ah Cheng as the leader of the ride. I was the last rider in the line. In front of me was a newbie from Penang, who rode a rigid VooDoo. Nice frame! Wish I could afford an expensive bike! Anyhow, problem started early as the rider in front of me, who happened to be a newbie couldn't cope with the rough terrain and "demanding" climb! I always think it is not nice to bring newbies to technical trail since they will be feeling discourage of all the difficulties they have to tackle with along the ride. But he had one thing that I don't think I have - a determination to finish the ride! Although he had to push most of the time, he never said that he was going to quit and turned back. I must give him a credit for that and hope we will see him again in the future.
Oh yeah, what happen to the trail? The trail became more technical than ever! Especially the slopes that was used to be rideable became non-rideable anymore. I used to be able to climb up with no problem but not this time. There were potholes along the trail that made picking a right line to ride a guessing affair, which I found out that I was wrong all the time! I had no choice but to climb down and push my bike up. I hate climbing on foot, especially at the leech infested trail! I walked so fast that I wished those blood sucking creatures would not have time to catch up with me!
We finally reached our destination after I decided to leave that newbie to Gary to take care of him. After an half an hour rest at the nice cold water we all decided to return to the trailhead. The return was full of dramatic moments. At least at my part. I crashed three times, all in front of the coool knight! The first crash happened when I was trying to go over a thick bamboo bush that blocked the singletrack we were riding. I did not realize that there was a protruding log in front of me. By the time I saw it, it was already late. Being new to SPD pedals, I didn't manage to disengage in time and fell with the bike! And it was fallen on the knee that I had an injury during my Saturday ride. You cannot imagine how painful it was! I was like going to kill whoever lied that god forsaken log in that bush! But no pain no fun lah. So withstanding the pain, I climbed back up and continued the journey. The third crash was the most painful one. This time I had my shoes disengaged. I still couldn't escape from the inevitable. I was tackling a steep downhill slope with full of potholes. It must be a bad day for me. Even with my 100% attention to pick the best line to go down, I still hit the shoulder, skidded, lost control and slam to the ground! Again fell on the same knee! It was bleeding profusely and I hardly moved at all until ST showed up minutes later. Realize the seriousness of the fall, this time he helped me to put myself back on the ground. I was lucky to have a brain bucket to protect my own cpu. Otherwise, I think I would need them to carry me down to the starting point! With my conscious still at 50-50 stage(very strange feeling, you feeling like sleeping, yet another half tells you must awake! Animal instinct to be alerted?), I continued the ride by starting cautiously since my knee was already bleeding. Only a short while, I forgot all about it and started slamming the trail at full speed!
It was a fun ride. The trail never fail me to be one of the best XC trails that KOTRTs have ever ventured into. But it is really not the place to bring newbies for a ride. The difficulties will definitely discourage them from coming back to the saddle again!
So, what are we going to do next Sunday? We were talking about doing ride in Ulu Mahang, another excellent offroad trail, during our makan session in the Bab Restaurant. Interested? Contact me!
Stay tuned!