19.12.2010 Seri Alam Offroad - retracing PER 2010 route

As usual, I cycled to Ruza Café at Taman Scientex for the Sunday offroad dose. Not many riders around. Had my breakfast, and the 6 of us went off at 8.44 am towards Seri Alam. EG as the lead, followed by Tulang, myself, Yahaya, Atuk, and Mlake. Well, generally for most of the time, in that order.

:)

 

The ride objective for that day was to follow the recent Plentong Epic Ride's route, covering checkpoints 1, 2 and 3. I personally like the idea, for I haven't got the opportunity to ride through the checkpoints.

 

7.4 km on road with a little bit of offroad cutting from Nusa Damai towards Seri Alam, we reached Cactus Inn. It's quite devastating to see the vast clearing of what used to be palm oil plantation. The area is for the development project of UiTM Seri Alam. We went down to the rubber trees and towards Plentong. Right at the T-junction, we met Sham on his Kawasaki who ventured the Plentong offroad alone.

 

After a much needed breather (for Mlake, especially), we parted ways and headed to checkpoint 1 which is not too far away. Much of the pink paper markings stapled to the leaves from the last 3 weeks are still there, aiding our navigation. The plastic wrapped distance marking towards CP1 were also intact.

 

Somewhere along the way from CP1 to CP2, EG met with an accident. His handlebar on the left end met with a big branch of a tree while negotiating a twist, speeding through the sweet singletrack. Fear struck as initially it was suspected a bone fracture on his left hand pinky. We splint his finger with a pair of sticks and wrapped with a gauze roll. After things settled, we moved on; of course, at a much slower pace this time.

 

I have to say that the singletracks are amazing. There were many sections that I have never ridden before. From CP1 to CP2, we had to carve Bukit Panjang. I looked forward to it, for it has been a very long time since I last went up. The other intention is to see how good Panaracer Rampage is in scaling it, the uphill is with a thin layer of moss over hardpack in the middle.

 

Well, the initial climb was not good. I dismounted prematurely at a jutting root crossing, and my handlebar rotated about 70 degrees too. After that, I climbed to the top without much problem. Had a breather beneath the pylon, then towards CP2.

 

By the time we reached CP2 (also serves as the same spot for CP4) it was already 12 noon. Unanimously agreed to call it a day and went out to Cactus Inn.

 

Personally, I would very much keen to complete the other CPs. Next time, perhaps in January, before the GA MTB Ride 2011 event. For this one, I enjoyed it tremendously.

 

Thanks for coming over.

Relish our rides.