Revisit Gunung Nuang After 20 Years

Lit Jin asked me one day last month that where could he train if he plans to trek Gunung Tahan. Although I am not an expert in mountain trekking, I told him that Gunung Nuang would be ideal. The answer is very straight forward for me because I have been to Gunung Tahan once 20 years ago, and the only training I had done that time was climbing Gunung Nuang once before the trip. I have not done any more mountain trekking since then other than a few trips to the small hill in Taman Melawati.

Taking the advantage of the long holiday during Hari Raya, Lit Jin, Kit Mun and I decided to trek Gunung Nuang on Sunday, 20th Sept 2009. I did some research over the internet and convinced that three of us should be able to scale the summit without seeking help from other mountain sifu. I did not try very hard to ask around because without joining others gives us the freedom to stop anywhere and turn back if the going becomes very tough.

I spent some time on Saturday to do some shopping. Since this is a one day trip, I bought some bread, biscuits and a packet of prune. This should be enough for us to last a day, however I bought a simple camp stove (with camp fuel) which cost me RM 6.90 and some instant noodles so that I can show Lit Jin how easily “cooking” could be done.

Our plan was to leave our house at 6.30 am, have some roti canai for breakfast and reach Pangsun before 8.00 am. However on that day, Lit Jin and Kit Mum took their own sweet time and we eventually arrived at the car park just after 9.00 am.

The registration office was opened but nobody around, it was already 10 minutes past nine and we decide to move on and start trekking without doing the registration.

Along the never ending road, we met some morning trekkers walking back to the car park, they must be wandering why we started so late. Lit Jin and Kit Mun found their old running shoes were not holding well on the wet ground. I did not fare better because my 10 years old Camel Boots were hurting both my legs.

We reached the old dam slightly after 10.30 am, there were around twenty to thirty hikers around that area. I was lost around this area and luckily there was a fellow marathoner (he came alone and we met him just before this old dam) planning to hike up to Camp Pacat also. We carefully maneuvered amongst the crowd and crossed the stream towards camp Lolo, I overheard some of them were surprised that we were moving on to Camp Pacat as it was too late. It was only a very short distant between the old dam and camp Lolo and we did not stop and move towards to Camp Pacat.

The track between Camp Lolo and Camp Pacat was narrow, undulating and slippery. It was all the way up and after about half an hour, we lost sight of over running friend. We had to walk slowly because Lit Jin and Kit Mun’s old running shoes were slippery and my boots were hurting both my legs very much (I still couldn’t wear any shoes today for both my legs were still bleeding after 2 days rest).
This is a lesson learnt that we need proper tracking shoe for hiking even it is a one day trip.

It seemed to take a very long time to trek up to Camp Pacat. By the time we were there, it was well past 11.30 am. We met two small groups here, one was on their way down and the other was heading to the summit. Kit Mun told me that she felt a bit tire and would not like to continue up the summit. She would rather reserve her energy for the way down. We rested at Camp Pacat for about half an hour and I managed to convince Kit Mun to move on as far as we could. We took out the extra drinks and foods from our back bag and hid them in a bush, we continue our journey at around 12 noon.

The track from Camp Pacat onwards was very much steeper and in many occasions we have to use both our hands and legs to climb. This was indeed a blessing for us as these steeper slopes had many roots and rock and Lit Jin and Kit Mun shoes were not as slippery as in the red-soil path. However, Kit Mun was moving very slowly because of her tiredness. We reached the false peak at around 1.30pm and decided to continue since we had come so far. From the false peak to the summit, there was a long descend at the start, we met many hikers trekking back to Camp Pacat along this route.

We finally arrived at the summit at around 2 pm. Only 2 young girls and a young gentleman were at the summit boiling water to make tea. This was the group we met at Camp Pacat earlier. I was so delighted because I had left the 2 lighters in the car (I realized my mistake just after half an hour after we left the car park), and the young gentleman was kind enough to help me to light up the camp fuel for the stove. I only brought 3 cup of instant noodles along, one for each of us, but eventually Kit Mun managed to convince me to forego my share so that she could have 2 cups. I had to settle with bread and biscuits.

We left summit around 2.30 pm and during the descend towards Camp Pacat, there were 2 ladies just ascend to the summit. Along the descending route towards Camp Pacat, it was Lit Jin that felt tire and was moving very slowly. We collected back our extra water and biscuit at Camp Pacat and hurried towards Camp Lolo because we knew that it will be very late. We did not bring any torchlight along for this trip!

More than halfway between Camp Pacat, our friends (the group of three and the last group of 2 ladies) that we met at the summit overtook us as Kit Mun and Lit Jin slipped and fell 1 or 2 times along this slippery path. We finally arrived at Camp Lolo at around 5.30pm safely as the last group.

We spent some time at the old dam resting and eating biscuits. We left slightly after 6 pm when the sky getting dimmer. We quickly trekked through the remaining single track and reached the 4-wheel track or better known as The Never Ending Road before the sky getting really dark. We trekked for almost an hour in the dark while we saw shinning eyes hiding in the bushes, fireflies flying freely around the trees, listening to all kinds of sound made by the insects and animals. We arrived at the car park exactly 8.00pm.

PS
Lit Jin – My 15 years old son.
Kit Mun – My 17 years old daughter.