Gunung Besar Hantu (Ghost Mountain) Sunday

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Laughter from outside my little nest told me that the sun would soon be up. After slowly rousing myself and checking all of my extremities; all in tact and feeling fine, I crawled out of our shelter, greeted everyone with a good morning (and meant it) and started my morning stretching. It was still mostly dark outside, the air cool and damp. To the east a faint glow gave away the coming sun; the sky above the trees slowly turning pink.

Breakfast was already cooking as I rolled my bag and mat and put them away. I walked to the edge of the summit and watched as the distant mountains slowly appeared in the lightening day. A blanket of fog covered the lower slopes, mountain peaks with white ruffle skirts. A few light clouds smudged the sky.

We stood around and ate our simple breakfast of rice porridge and then refilled our bowls with noodles. Again the warm food was invigorating.

As we were finishing, four members of the climbing team that came on there own appeared on the summit trail. They took the wrong trail back down by the stream and lost nearly 2 hours of time back tracking. They camped for the night on the lower ledge and climbed up without their packs to share coffee and breakfast with us.

After cleaning up and folding our tarps and ground mats, we proceeded to do what we all were trying to postpone until the last minute; put on our wet, dirty clothes from the day before and our wet shoes. One plus about the rain during the night; it rinsed our shirts and pants so we didn’t stink… to bad.

We zipped up our packs, put on the pack rain covers, hefted them onto our backs, and took one last look around the camp site to ensure we were leaving it like we found it, clean and undamaged. Then in single file we began our walk down along the ridge trail. It was 8:30am.

Going down was easier on my heart and respiratory but excruciatingly tough on my knees. The trail was wetter than the day before and the clay mud stuck to the soles of my trekking shoes making the descent a slippery task. Small saplings made good hand holds for the climb down. I used my arms to cradle the bigger trees for support. Everyone seemed to have a faster pace going down. I checked my altimeter and realized that even with the speed we were maintaining we had a long way to go.

We all stopped on the slope to take photos and rest at a jungle tree that measured about 3 meters in diameter (Shorea spp). After our short rest we continued the climb down.

After about an hour and a half, we reached the rock ledge and dumped our packs for a mid-morning break. We snacked on energy bars and crackers and drank from our newly filled water bottles. The stream water had a subtle mineral, earthy taste.

We lounged around the ledge for a while and watched birds of blue, red, orange and green fly and sing among the tree tops. Honey bees were also attracted to our sweaty clothes and skin and kept landing on us.

Around 10:30 we loaded up and continued down the mountain. The small jungle trail is only visible for about 2 meters (6 feet) ahead, disappearing in the thick undergrowth. It started getting darker and soon the rain started again; this time a heavy rain that even the jungle canopy could not contain.

We came to a junction in the trail and paused to make sure we followed the right path. Then from up ahead a small group of day hikers appeared. They told us that the trail ahead of us would lead us to the waterfall. They also said their intention was to climb to the summit and head back down. They each carried a small daypack and were wearing regular sports shoes. We advised them not to attempt the summit as it was too late for a round-trip journey and the current heavy rains would make the climb too treacherous. They seemed determined to try… and we all thought about them as the day wore on.

We parted company with the small group and headed in the direction of the waterfall. The rain now was torrential. With my head down I focused on the trail following along in our single-line little group.

We soon came to a stream and saw no way to cross except by wading in the cold fast current. The water came up to my thighs and felt refreshingly cold on my sore, tired knees and legs.

Climbing up the bank we continued down a trail and arrived back at the stream, at the same point we nearly took the wrong path the day before. We came out on the trail that we had started to climb before the Orang Asli called us back.

The rain let up a little bit and we took a short rest and removed more leeches from our shoes and socks. We then continued down the trail. What had been a small muddy trail yesterday was now a small streamlet with water gushing down the slope.

At around 1:00 we came to a fork in the trail. One direction would lead us back to the trailhead, the other down to a waterfall. Because it was still early we decided to go down to the falls.

Honestly I could have gone either way. I was tired and my shoulders were starting to hurt. Backpacks were still new to me and I was ready to dump it. The sky also decided to open up again and the rain came down hard. But majority rules and the super-humans wanted to see the falls… I did too, though I kind of wished for an escalator.

The trail switch backed down a steep slope and with every step I took down I thought of the step I would have to take back up; what goes down must come up. With the heavy rain it was impossible to hear the waterfall or stream and because the trail was a muddy mess I had to stare down and concentrate on each step.

Then I saw what I thought the strangest thing: a staircase appeared at the end of the trail, an old metal staircase with missing handrails and a bad case of the shakes. We spaced ourselves out and started walking down to the bottom. Old wet metal and heavy rain do not make good friends so I took each step one at a time keeping tow feet on a step for as long as possible, for a total of 339 steps.

The steps ended near the bottom of the falls and when I looked up into the mist and saw the nearly 300 foot drop, I was really happy that we decided to take this detour. With all of the heavy rains over the past few days, the water was gushing over the ledge.


Lata Kijang Jatuh Waterfall

We all took off our shoes and socks and washed them at the base of the waterfall and soaked our tired feet in the cool water. I then found out we were going back by another route and wouldn’t need to climb up those stairs. I was a happy camper!

I waded across the stream and sat on a rock for a while. This trek felt complete; felt finished. I knew that once we strapped back up we were heading to the cars. And though I knew I would still have some uphill climbing to do I knew the challenge was over and I tackled the challenge just fine.

After about 30 minutes at the falls, we started back to the trailhead. The walk was now on a narrow asphalt track used by 4 x 4’s to access the waterfall. The track, like a broken black ribbon, rolled across the hills. It was a much longer walk out this way and the downhill gradients played havoc on my knees. I would have never imagined that uphill walking was a blessing. And when I did approach a long uphill stretch, I just slowed my pace and walked on.

Over an hour later, Joe and I popped out of the trail and stood looking at our cars. We had walked together over the past few miles and I learned that he had one brother and one sister and both parents were living and healthy back in Myanmar. He was understandably concerned about all of them and like his other nationals, was not happy with the military rule of his country but felt helpless to change anything.

Back at the car, I took out my spare clothes and walked to the back of the abandoned house to change. That’s when in noticed that a river leech had attached itself to my thigh and left a bleeding bruise about the size of a nickel on me. I covered it with a cotton pad and taped it tight and thought nothing more of it. A fresh change of clothes really does wonders.

After everyone changed and were well-rested we piled into our 4 cars and headed out. We were going to meet in a small town on the way back to the city and share a nice hot dinner at one of the roadside Chinese restaurants.

An hour later we arrived at the restaurant and eased out of the cars walking like our legs were chopsticks; everyone’s knees were sore and locked from the steep downhill gradients on the asphalt road.

We ordered pork ribs cooked in a black pepper sauce, fish steamed with ginger and garlic, fried tofu with spicy ground pork, okra stir-fried with chilies, green veggies and a Hokkien Mee (fried noodle Hokkien style… one of my favorites).

While waiting for the food to come, I reached into my pocket to grab my phone and send a short message to my daughter. My phone was sticky and covered in red blotches. It took me a while to figure out that it was blood. I looked down and saw that my pants were soaked in blood and it was trailing down my leg. That last leech was vicious. But that leech and my bloody leg was all forgotten when the food started hitting the table. The noodles had a life span of about 1 minute. The other dishes didn’t fare much better.

I arrived home at 9:00pm just ahead of my wife and daughter who had just had dinner with the family in Klang.

Before I left on my trek, I told my daughter I would bring her back an interesting seed (I always look for something in the jungle to bring back for her). I reached into my pouch and brought out a seed that was a bit smaller than a ping-pong ball and appeared to be wearing a little Vietnamese field worker hat. Then she saw my bloody pants and took a step back.

I spent the next 15 minutes unpacking, hanging bags and putting muddy clothes to soak. The long hot shower rekindled my strength but did little to soothe my tired muscles. I plastered 7 bandages on my thigh and went to bed.

As I closed my eyes I could hear echoes of my memory; the frogs croaking, insects chirping, and the rain hitting the leaves around me.

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It has been 2 weeks since that weekend and as I type this last installment my fever is approaching 101 degrees and I’m awaiting a call from the doctor to find out the results of my blood test. The doctor wants to rule out Dengue Fever or Malaria… I do too.