{ guerilaz }

KLMBH #212 Long Ride Report, 27th May 2012 @ Hulu Tamu

By Umar - BTP Rawang

This my first shot of being the scribe, I apologize in advance if it’s not the best material you have read on the KLMBH site.

To me the whole experience started on 16 May 2012 when I read email telling us that the next Bash would be in Ulu Rening. Yeah! But the excitement were short lived when I got to the part “…strictly no children or newbie on this ride…”

Damn, that means I won’t be able to ride with my good buddy; Adam, who happens to be my 10 year old son. The regulars to the bash would certainly know Adam. To be honest, I think more people recognize Adam than the guy who drives him to the bash. Long story short, after few FB correspondence with Reza. We got a go-ahead for Adam to ride the long trail. 

Thanks to the very accurate GPS coordinates, we got to Batang Kali early on Sunday morning and had breakfast at the local mamak. At 8:30 we were already off-loading our bikes. Met few familiar faces, with Ying How being the first one to greet us. By 9:15 we got ourselves registered and met more familiar faces. Mr. Yeti Kong was one of them.

At 9:30 Ying How gave his simple yet informative briefing. Everything was fine until I got was forced at gun point to volunteer to be the scribe for the long ride. No problem, I said to Adam. I got Endomondo to track our route. “Don’t have to take any notes, we just look at the map and we can write about it”. Big mistake!

At 9:40 sharp the bash began. The weather was fine with good overcast. The first kilometer was a wide gravel road with beautiful scenery. Then we turned left into canopy area and started climbing on small tarmac trail. This is when Adam overtook me and a lot of other riders up the steep climb. Saw Stanley Ng with his big smile, saying “Umar, you better catch your son”. I know then that I won’t be able to use my usual excuse when people see me resting on the trail. “I’m waiting for my son” has passed it’s expiry date.

When I finally caught up with Adam, it was almost on top of the tarmac hill. This trail later began going downhill, which no one complained. Our joy was short-lived as we began a long climb soon after. This was the second toughest hill of the trail. We reached the top of the hill at about 10:50 after just over 6 km. After a “brief” (an obvious understatement) stop, we began a long, long downhill. The journey down was quite technical, single trail with fair bit of loose gravel. As expected, Adam was so far ahead I couldn’t see him. The descend ended with a beautiful river crossing.  Some riders used the opportunity to cool themselves down. It was tempting but I had push on and chase Adam. Saw the little bugger when I reached the other side of the river. To rub it in, he had to say “What took you so long Bapak? Did you fell down or something?”. Lawan tokeh betul!!! My Cateye meter showed we just clocked 7 km. The next few kilometer was a beautiful flowing single trail under canopy.

At about 11:10, we reached the big fish pond and decided to stop for 100 Plus and roti. The RM 4.50 we paid was worth every sen. Happy as were with the makan, we realised the sad fact the we have only clocked about less than 9 km and have more than 10 km to go. Arrrrgh!! 

Well, we soon resumed our ride and greeted by Reza at the Scenic/Long junction. The Long route that we took led us through a relatively flat open area for the next few kilometers. And then the trail turned left into the biggest climb of the ride. Not sure about the rest of you, but we pushed the whole way up. At this point, Adam couldn’t “tunjuk terror” anymore. We were both equal now. (he he he) Almost 90% to the peak, Reza the sweeper caught up with us. When we finally reached the top, it was 11:50 and we have just clocked about 9.6 km.

After another “brief” (another gross understatement) stop, we began the much awaited downhill. Adam went first, but this time I managed to keep behind him. The descend ended with us needing to carry our bikes across a “longkang”. After that ,there was a huge drop that I can’t resist. I can’t help but ride my bike down. To my horror, Adam also inherited my “crazy and reckless” DNA. Fortunately for both of us, he came down the drop with more grace than his senior. At the bottom of the drop, we met Eric who was also riding with his son. There were also two noble hearted gentlemen helping a fellow rider who had suffered a broken RD. Immediately after this was a small river crossing which was not a big deal. The bigger deal was carrying the bikes over the steep bank on the other side. 

We cycled few more kilometer and saw Ying How waving at us. This is when we realised that we have been looped. Damn! We did not reached the check point on time. The time was 12:10 and we have just clocked 11.5 km. The next two and half km was through an oil palm plantation which was familiar to us.  Adam dictated that we stop to finish the “roti kelapa” that we packed. Thank God he did, my energy was already running on reserve. The remaining of the journey was through the same gravel track we passed in the morning but in reverse order. As the ground was almost level all the way, we managed to make up time. Reaching the finishing point was a victory in itself to us even if we were among the last to finish at 12:43. Total ride distance was 16.53km but it defiantly felt like 50. ; )

Thank you to the Hares (Ying How, Mike Kwan, Riza, Reme, Ajis, Wan). You guys have gone out of your way to make this a truly a wonderful experience to all the riders.

Looking forward to the next bash.

Umar - BTP Rawang