Ulu Paip - A Second Visit, 12 March 2000
Hmm, how should I start this? There three rides today. I was informed of the third one by Azmi on Saturday, which was organized by Gary to lead a group of young riders to Mt. Erskine. Compare to the earlier two, this was definitely an easy ride. ST was having a ride to Bukit Gambir, Farlim, then to Jalan Tun Sardun and went back to Air Itam via Paya Terubong. Easy? Well, it depends. ST's rating of 5 can be other's 10. Mike Ooi was having a ride in Da Mike trail, Sungai Lembu, one of my favorites. It was a 17km of flat XC, uphill and lightning fast down hill. Another easy ride? Hehe, again, it all depends! I still find the uphill section of this trail a breathtaking climb! Anyway, after a brief discussion with my high school buddy, we decided to go to Ulu Paip. This is a trail that no severe uphill climbs, easy down hill and smooth flat XC trail at the riverside. Well, it ended up we had a the muddiest ride we had ever encountered! Life is full of surprise, ain't it?
It was raining hard this morning. Azmi called me at 7.00am to find out if I were going to ST's or Mike's ride. Maybe I drank too much or what. I gave Azmi an impression that I wasn't feeling good. So he asked me to take my rest and he would join ST in his new adventure in Bukit Gambir(well, later I found out that Azmi cancelled the plan to ride in the last minute though). Thanks Azmi...:) It wasn't long after Azmi called that Fatt called me up to confirm if I still wanted to ride in Ulu Paip, judging from the fact that Prai and Penang were raining dogs and cats at that time. Since my Diamondback was already in Fatt's car(I put her in his car a day before!), I decided to go ahead to check it out. If Ulu Paip were also raining, we would go back and yum char before hitting the sack again! Finally Fatt came to pick me up at 8.30am. We discovered that though it was cloudy in Ulu Paip, the rain cloud had yet hit the place. Fatt parked his car at the Chinese temple that next to the trail head of Ulu Paip, unloaded our machine and we set to go!
Nothing much had changed to the trail. It was still as sandy as before. The view of the fast flowing water at the river was still breathtaking. I wonder how long the crystal clear water would stay until it disappear away when people started to exploit this beautiful place! It was a hassle free ride. We managed to finish the ride in one hour! No breathtaking climb and no sore knees. Well, except the last portion of this fairly flat XC, which was a steep uphill climb to the power cable tower, We did try to climb but due to the slippery trail, we ended up pushing the bike. We climbed down to the foot hill after seeing that it was next to impossible to continue the journey. Anyway, it surely a good recovery ride for me after the three consecutive hardcore rides in three weeks!
Seeing that Fatt was not having enough sweat and his eyes showed that he wanted more, I decided to detour into the rubber estate trail when we were on our way back to the temple. It turned out to be the muddiest trail we had ever encountered! The trail was so muddy that our tires turned into the slick tires. We hardly able to paddle without having a slip! It was terrible! Worse of all, chain suck made the trip more difficult to paddle since the chain stick to the crank and jammed the whole thing! I thought my bike's rear derailuer was time to change until I realized that the chain was actually that caused the jam! A pair of slipping tires and a chain suck that jammed the crank once in the while made it very miserable to continue. Worse of all, we had already reached to the point of no return. If we turned back, we would have to travel the same distance as we continue the remaining journey! Having no choice and rain started to fall, we decided to continue the journey by engaging much heavier gear!
Since the smallest gear at front gave a problem of chain suck, we cycled the rest of the journey using 34-28 gear set, which 28 tooth was our biggest cog at rear. Of course, it was nothing for someone who was super fit but not for us. A moderate uphill climb became a cursingly torturous one! My knees started felt the pain after we tackled the second uphill! Boy was I regret to make a turn into this hellish mud pond! We all cursed and swear every time we were greeted by another slippery uphill climb! Luckily the torture ended when we decided to take another detour to go back to the foothill. Another time! This time I will make sure that the weather was dry enough and the trail was not as muddy as today.
We did not do any makan this time since Fatt was in hurry to go home to enjoy his mom's cooking. And yes, the most important element of the K.O.T.R.T journey. Sorry folks, no picture this time! I forgot to bring my camera with me!!!! I am planning to come back to this place again. There are a lot of new trails that wait to be discovered. The climb to the high power cable tower was a feat that I want to accomplish. Another time, another reccee! Oh did I tell you that I had leech bites? No? I got three! Man no wonder it was a pain at my foot when we paddled on the way back to the temple! Guess what? My head is a little bit pounding now with sore throat. An after effect to the leech bites? Hmm...
Stay Tuned!