The second part of report from last weekend's PCC ride and hike in Cameron Highlands. This report is courtesy of the Yellow Manta. Even with blurred vision and some signs of senility kicking in, he is still very much awake and conscious during the ride to give us a view of what occurred during the ride. He tried to remember as much as he could. Respect your elders. Patience is a virtue....
JIM THOMPSON REVISITED 27th June 2015:-
Date: 27 June 2015
No of riders: 13.
Ride distance: 45km, starting and ending at Habu.
Time taken: About 6-7 hours.
Carrot Cake Consumed: 25 pieces.
Coffee: 25 cups.
Donuts made: 26 pieces.
The idea was a last minute thing. Unker Danny got
wind of the Tailook organising this hike up Gunung Irau where supposedly some
scenes of the movie “Lords of the Ring” were secretly filmed. Especially those
mossy forest scenes. So we were made to understand.
Unker asks why just hike? Hiking is not an activity
that figures very high in his bucket list so let’s go ride Jim Thompson. You
know, sort of like a fellowship of mountain bikers and crazy hikers. The idea
quickly caught on with many. It even had Jason jumping up and down with
excitement who initially thought we were gonna go check out Jim’s famous chain
of silk stores. And that was how his sweetheart, Christine ended tagging along
for the trip. And no, she didn’t visit Jim Thompson. Ended up with the crazy
hikers.
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| Single tracks galore... |
The Golden
Mountain Villa continues to be our favourite lodging grounds whenever we
ride Jim Thompson. Conveniently located just across the entrance to the Boh plantation in
Habu, it also gives us a final reward in the form of an awesome 5km twisty
downhill run from the tea house back out. This is if you do the Jim Thompson loop in counter-clockwise direction starting
from Ringlet. Another thing about this Golden Mountain Villa is, it’s got a nice little garden
area where we can hang out and get ‘hydrated’ sufficiently for the next day’s
big adventure. And they are flexible with checkout times and have no issues
with our washing the dirty bikes with their taps, post-ride.
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| Jim Thompson at it's best. |
So the crack of dawn had 9 of us rolling down to
Ringlet for breakfast and to meet up with the McNabs and a couple of their
friends who were joining us for the ride. They were driving up from Kampar that
morning itself.
We had on our GPS the track log that was last
captured back in the 2011 trip. So with the recent floods at Bertam Valley, we
were a bit concerned if sections of the route were no longer passable or if the
route had to be altered. Guess our fears were unnecessary.
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| Donut making class in progress. |
Route remains very much intact even if some
sections are now overgrown. In fact, what were once narrow cemented tracks are
now fast being reclaimed by Mother Nature and turning it into lovely if a bit
overgrown single tracks! That particular section after the last steep descent in
the farming area all the way to the village in Pos Mensun is a joy to ride! But
that metal bridge is no more! So we had to hack and find a way down to the
river to get across to the village. That was when I almost disappeared down a
bottomless hole hidden amongst the thick undergrowth! Connection to the village
track re-established, we formed a human chain to get the bikes down and across.
And just as we were finishing with this arduous task, 3 little orang asli boys
appeared and pointed out an easier way to cross the river!
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| Endangered creature spotted. |
After an apple break at the village, the fun
begins! Ahead of us was a 15km grind all the way up from 2,000ft to almost
5,000ft altitude where the Boh tea house is! What we like here was the fact
that the stretch between Kampung Boh to the edge of the Boh plantation has now
become a wonderful off road ride. That narrow cemented path is hardly any more
with Mother Nature having reclaimed most of it. So you get nice leaf-covered
single tracks here cutting across pure jungles and bamboo forest, and almost
100% under tree canopy. There is even a point where erosion has made it look
like Plan C in Kiara. One wrong step will send you tumbling deep down into the
ravine! Obviously this had all of us off the bike.
For first-timer Natalie, the worst was over when we
finally got to the edge of the Boh plantation. Or so she thought! Until Joyce
who had ridden Jim Thompson some years before with us and who knew better told her to
brace for more hell ahead! C’mon, ladies. It’s just another 5 or 6km to the
tea house. All riding amidst the beautiful grounds of the Boh plantation. And
Jason hasn’t even gotten out of the jungle yet!
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| Taking the 57th break of the day. |
What followed seemed like endless grinding from
tree to tree which provided the much needed shade as we paused to rest our very
sore butts. For Peter Wong, the better strategy was rather to ride from one
lamp post to the next. Thankfully there was a very cooling breeze blowing.
First to arrive at the tea house were our forever
fit Dotty ( never mind if she hadn’t been riding much of late ) and Hanz. They
appeared not to have any problems with burning arses like so many of us do.
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| Dotty doing what she does best... |
Most of us were sipping tea and enjoying some very
fine banana carrot cake when our ‘sweeper’ Jesse finally radioed below, asking
where was the tea house. And it wasn’t even 4pm yet. We were all dug in to wait
till dusk actually. Well done, Jesse...!
The 5km blast out to the main road was godsend.
Which explains also why the Jim Thompson is best done in a counter-clockwise fashion. We
used to ride it the other way round but the many changes that have taken place
inside the route really doesn’t make it any more good to tackle it any other
way. No doubt it requires a 3,000ft grind over 15km but it’s done in very nice
surroundings and except for a few sections, is mostly rideable. Turn it the
other way and one would end up having to tackle pretty steep hills on cement
tracks inside the farming area plus an 8km grind on highway back to Ringlet.
Bad.
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| PeteW chasing lamp post number 109. |
Hopefully there will be another trip next year. At
the rate things go, it won’t be long when the Jim Thompson loop will lose most of its
charms.
Ride Report courtesy of Yellow Manta.
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| And all we silly hikers got to see at the peak was this... Boo Hoo. |
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