Kulim Jamboree Trail ride – Sunday April 26, 2009

Initially this weekend was reserved for Penang round island trip but was cancelled. However, a day earlier on Saturday Steven, CK and Wei Keat joined the MKH group for round island trip. We will attempt this some other days.

8 of us joined this Sunday ride. Albert, KT Tan (aka Teoh), Tua Jia, Ah Hock (Venzo bike), Wei Keat, Cheah Wei, Chin Hooi and KY started the ride at about 7:15am.
2 days before we decided to go for the Kulim jamboree trail by putting our GPS to use. This is the first time we are guided by the GPS. The GPS was mounted on Wei Keat’s bike and it gave a precise navigation by following the preloaded Jamboree trail. However, some parts of the trail were still well marked by the Jamboree signs thus provided further confirmation we were on the right track. There were a few occasions that we were navigated back to the right track especially if we took the wrong junction or we really go off-track (for exploration) since there are too many trails in the Jamboree area. We can get loss easily.



The trails were generally more slippery compare to previous attempt during Jamboree day due to the past weeks of heavy rain. We had to go slow beside we spend quite some time waiting for Cheah Wei who have not been riding for quite sometime. At a certain point, he was lost and luckily phone reception was available and Wei Keat instructed him back to the right track.
We completed phase 1 (before road-crossing) close to 2 hours making it unsuitable for weekdays ride but we went off-track too in this phase. We still think that it’s unsafe to attempt this Phase 1 trail after work-hours although we have a GPS.

Phase 2 (after road-crossing) was where there were more steep hills and 2 river crossings. We have to slow down quite considerably. The Raja Bukit uphill were muddy and looks slippery when we arrived at the bottom of the ascend. At first we want to by-pass it by going another trail but it seems the trails lead further and further and finally we decided to ‘patah-balik’ and conquer the Raja Bukit hill. It was not that slippery as seen and luckily we took this trail or else we will end up no where again.
KY fell on one of the descends because he was going-down too fast and road also was quite slippery but luckily he fell on the bushes and no injury sustained. But his GPS watch strap was broken and fell off from the wrist. Wei Keat helped to look back the watch.Tua Jiak encountered tyre-puncture and we waited a while too.
Everyone removed the shoes at the river crossing. It was cooling and Tua Jiak took some candid photos. Albert and Tua Jiak also refilled their water bottles at the river. Tua Jiak said the water tastes good!! Most of the riders have hydration backpack so its not too back but all finished the water too before the ride ends.
We continue our ride without much event accepts Cheah Wei got loss at a certain point. After he was back with us, Wei Keat who has the GPS became the sweeper. We think that those with GPS should lead especially in an off-road like this Jamboree trail. We totally dependent on the GPS.
After a few more hills and rocky and bumpy descent. We decided not to tackle the Infineon hill, its already hot and quite late and at the housing area we short-cut out to Sg Ular road. When we saw the first ‘warung’ and being hungry we stopped for breakfast/lunch and the time was already 12pm. No 100plus available but we content with Kickapoo. tea-tarik, buns and some even had had Malay rice and Maggi sup.
We reached back at Wei Keat’s house at 1:15pm so it’s a 6 hours for about 51km off-road ride with many stops.