Sunday 19 August 2007

A Festival of Ghost and Mountain Bikers in Klang Gates

Location:
Klang Gates Dam, Kg. Kemensah , Ulu Gombak

Map:









Summary:
According to ancient Chinese belief, in this Chinese lunar month, the hell gates are opened and ghosts are permitted a month of freedom on the realm of the mortals.



In one way or another, everyone is a little superstitious. But sometimes a series of circumstances and incidents will feed those superstitions... LOL.

On the morning of the hash, I woke up late. Then, when I got out to the highway, I realized that I was wearing my slippers instead of my shoes. It was definitely not a good idea to go mountain bike hashing on the trails with just my pair of "power" slippers. Against better judgment, I decided do exactly just that.

Next, on the highway, there was a big accident with a "Gen 2" turtled (btw, this is the second time in a month that I came across a turtled Gen 2, coincidence? Hmm... faulty design or driver error?) Anyway, the Gen 2 reminded me of that tragic bus accident last week. I remembered my colleagues telling me, "The accident happened on the first day of the Ghost Festival. The ghosts are out and have already claimed 21 lives!"

I had already forgotten about the Gen 2 accident by the time I arrived at the meeting point behind Zoo Negara. All the Wild Geeks were ready and we set off to find a parking place to get ready to start our hash.

Since 5K has been to Klang Gates Dam before, he lead everyone into the trails, providing everyone with useful tips and directions.

Also, on this hash, we had two new members joining the Wild Geeks, Weng Hoe and Edwin Yap. Edwin quickly made a reputation for himself 1.2km into the trails. He demonstrated to all the graceful art of falling down from a brand new Trek 4300 Disc on a rocky downhill. Lucky for him, his Trek helmet and Trek gloves prevented serious injuries... LOL He suffered minor injuries on his right leg and some minor cuts on his arms.

Edwin was up and ready to roll when Iron Man called for Micol the designated medic, to come and have a look at Edwin. Things turned for the worse when Edwin felt faint and had to lie down. He certainly looked as pale as a ghost... LOL. We had to raise his legs to make the blood circulate back to his upper body and head. After about 15 minutes, the Fall Guy got up and we went on out way.

During that incident, I could not help it but to think about the ghost festival. I did not want to bring it up with the geeks, as I do not want to alarm anyone with superstitious thoughts... LOL.

Before I forget, I should mentioned that while Micol was treating Edwin, we all thought that with utmost care, Ken Wei was kind enough to use a piece of cloth to fan Edwin, thereby ensuring that Edwin gets enough air to recover from his dizzy spell. Upon closer examination, we noticed that Ken Wei was actually fanning himself... LOL... which earned him the nick, Fan Boy!!!

As we continued, little did we know that the Fall Guy's fall was certainly not the last... LOL.

The trails on this hash were totally not wet and non treacherous. The ride consisted of mainly minor uphills and perhaps one challenging uphill. As usual, the sceneries were fantastic. In general, I would classify this hash as a level 3 on a scale of 1 to 10, with level 10 being impossible to cycle.

Having said that, we had geeks falling off their bikes left and right... LOL, with the Iron Man leading the pack in the number of falls, reinforcing the validity of his nick, the "Iron Man" LOL. Lets put it this way, my camera was always ready whenever I knew Iron Man was coming downhill. Thankfully, my eager anticipation was disappointed.

Needless to say, I rolled on the grass a few times over as well... :-) Henry and John had their fair share of slip sliding and "pok kai-ing" respectively.

I had been to every hashing of the Wild Geeks and never had I seen so many geeks falling off their bikes, so much so that I wanted to sing the song, "London Bridge is falling down..." Reminded of the Gen 2 incident that morning, I cannot but concluded that the ghosts were really out there creating havoc and mischief on the geeks... LOL.

Thankfully no one were seriously injured on this "ghostly" ride, and all ended well. All the same I think we should let the next hash be after the Ghost Festival month.

Total Distance Traveled:
8.04 km

Top Speed:
30.5 km/h (Anyone else recorded better than Seri Naga on this for this trip?)

Videos and GPS Embedded Photos:
Pumped with Steriods :
  • Edwin (Tau Foo Fa aka Fall Guy)
  • George (Iron Man)
  • Henry
  • Jack (Scribe)
  • John (Rooster)
  • Ken Wei (Fan Boy)
  • Micol (Scrub)
  • Sri Naga (5K)
  • Weng Hoe

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

wah lao e.. first hash u all adi given edwin a nick liao

Anonymous said...

Hahaha... efficient mah... you see how fast our documentary comes up you know liao la. Nice trail and sunny but lucky we got our own medic :D

Seri Naga said...

A good ride though a short one but really felt the burn. Btw managed to clock 30.5 km/hour in my GPS

Jack Hii said...

Ok... updated liao... :-)

Unknown said...

Might not have broken any speed record, but I think I was airborne for about 2-3 feet vertically before my unceremonious landing that earned me my new nickname, hehehe.

Jack Hii said...

Ed, I am assuming that you were referring to your bike being 2-3 feet airborne... it is quite impossible to be airborne more than 2-3 inches off the ground... and that's like going downhill at about 30-40km/h... :-) Besides, the slope was not that steep or high leh.. LOL...

Jack Hii said...

Edwin's nick has graduated from "Fall Guy" to "Tau Foo Fa"... :-)

Unknown said...

"Graduated"? More like demoted, hahaha. And it's not fair, the sprained ankle wasn't cycling related! :-P