Caught up in the frenzy of annual alcohol inspired New Year's Eve goal setting, Eric and I decided to make our first goal of 2014 a bike ride from near Ipoh, Malaysia to Cameron Highlands, the beautiful green hill region just to the south and west of town. Our goal is a lofty (pun intended) 1500 meter climb over a distance of 50 kilometers. (100 km round trip).
For you non math types, that's a pretty steep climb for a really long time. As a matter of fact our Garmin navigation system estimated the trip up and back would take just over 9 hours - ( a long and painful 6-7 hours for the ride up and an exhilarating 2 for the race down.)
For you math types, that's a 3-4% grade if you do the straight math (1500/48,000 x 100) but because there were a few downhills on the way up, the grade is more like 5-6% for a long, long, long time at a very slow 9 km/hour pace.
For you non-fitness types, spending a day like this would be your worst nightmare. As a matter of fact, I'm sure it would be difficult to even comprehend why anyone would subject his or her body to the heat, humidity, and pain of a long hill climb when you could be sitting home, screaming at your favorite team for the Wildcard Football weekend, sipping a few brewskis, and snacking on cheese puffs. I often wonder myself why we make these kinds of goals.
Here's what I decided - a goal such as this is a) an excuse to get out of bed on our one day off in a town with little opportunity for entertainment b) we're in a different time zone from Wildcard Weekend and haven't figured out how to pay for or record ESPN, c) we're a little impulsive d) all of the above.
Anyway, our enthusiasm for meeting goal #1 of 2014 was tampered only by our lack of expertise anticipating the impact of heat on our adventure. Naively enough, we figured a 9:00 am start time would be plenty early enough to summit by 2:00. It might be a little warm at the bottom but the temperature is cooler up in the Highlands...(one of the reason the British expats made this a famous retreat of theirs.) And, a good night's sleep followed by a big pancake breakfast are important to success, too...right?!
We packed 5 liters of water between the two of us and a small lunch figuring we could supplement by one of the many Malaysian vendors lining the side of the road and the many water spigots coming out of the hillside pouring fresh mountain water to keep us hydrated.
We started spinning our wheels at about 9:30, a little later than anticipated, but not really a big deal. The first 12 kilometers were kind of fun and just steep enough to limber up our legs and warm up our muscles, but not so steep to scare us off our goal. We came to the first watering hole where I filled one of my already empty bottles and topped off the other which was down to 1/4 full. Eric's Camel back seemed full enough so he actually poured the warm water out of one of his bottles and filled in with cool mountain stream water. We rinsed our head rags in cool water to try and get some air-conditioning going through our helmets.
The next 8 kilometers became much slower and steeper making us both work up a good hunger. Stopping at a guardrail under the shade of some jungle vegetation we inhaled our sandwiches in about 30 seconds. Based upon the speed with which we inhaled the food, I was sorry I hadn't followed Eric's advice and loaded up on Snicker bars from the gas station where we'd parked our cars. Sweat was from pouring from all part of our bodies including what seemed like Eric's eyelids. It was only 10:30 a.m. and our water supply was dwindling. Still non-plussed, we continued our journey up the hill certain we could find both water and more food.
Another hour up the road, we found some Orang Asli people selling wild honey and rambutans in their stalls at the side of the road. We bought several bunches of fruit and, after shaking off the ants and picking though the non-moldy fruit, we reveled in the juicy sweetness. Revived, we pedaled on-wards and upwards even discussing the fact that, if need-be, we could buy a bottle of honey and drink it for our natural "energy goo" and survival on the way down.
By now, each kilometer was taking longer and longer to complete, and the water supply dwindling to sips in each bottle. The watering holes we'd noticed on previous car drives up the mountain were dry (our guess is that they only run after large rains).
I was thinking about decision making processes in the face of adversity and weighing the odds (we were 10 kilometers from the top and 20 kilometers from the watering hole below us.) On flat roads, 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) is nothing - a trip to the grocery store and back, a chance to stretch our legs after work but not really work up a sweat, a walk in the park... But on this hill, 10 kilometers meant at least another hour or more of constant, slow, hard pedaling. And, we really weren't sure what was 10 miles ahead.. We could both remember a chocolate factory, but straight chocolate does nothing towards staving off thirst. Reaching our goal was so close and yet soooo far.
Reluctantly, we turned around and started the downhill ride. Within seconds, I knew why the ride uphill was so slow. Our bike odometers read 35, then 42, then 52 kilometers per hour. We were headed downhill and downhill FAST. Jungle vegetation was a blurr at our sides, our sweat evaporated and left a salty residue, bugs slammed into our foreheads and helmuts, our hard work was rewarded with an adrenaline inducing ride. This was FUN!!!!
No, we didn't reach the top but yes, we had a great time. Can we check this off our New Year's Resolution list? Again, the answer is "no." Although this ride is the hardest ride we've ever done, surpassing even Mingus Mountain in Arizona which we'd always considered our barometer, we can't consider Cameron Highlands conquered. We plan on a repeat ride next Sunday hoping that our "lessons learned" - start earlier, bring more water containers, pack more food - will get us to the top.
N.B. Even though the ride uphill was long, slow, and painful, we were rewarded with beautiful scenery and the ability to see thing and hear things that we don't normally notice while we're in the car. I saw many native huts on stilts (still inhabited) hidden in the jungle with secret paths that leading to hidden villages. I heard many kinds of birds, owls, and wild animals communicating with each other in the jungle. If I let my imagination run wild, it was actually kind of creepy.
We bought fruit from and photographed a nice Orang Asli family.
And, we had front row seats to about 30 crazy Malaysian motorcycle riders wearing full pads and racing up the hill and taking turns with bikes at 20% angles to the road like professional racers. There were some pretty sick 200,000 RM ($70,000) BMW cycles within spitting distance of our front handle bars.
 |
| Reapplying sunscreen after a quick rinse from the mountain spigot |
For you math types, that's a 3-4% grade if you do the straight math (1500/48,000 x 100) but because there were a few downhills on the way up, the grade is more like 5-6% for a long, long, long time at a very slow 9 km/hour pace.
For you non-fitness types, spending a day like this would be your worst nightmare. As a matter of fact, I'm sure it would be difficult to even comprehend why anyone would subject his or her body to the heat, humidity, and pain of a long hill climb when you could be sitting home, screaming at your favorite team for the Wildcard Football weekend, sipping a few brewskis, and snacking on cheese puffs. I often wonder myself why we make these kinds of goals.
Here's what I decided - a goal such as this is a) an excuse to get out of bed on our one day off in a town with little opportunity for entertainment b) we're in a different time zone from Wildcard Weekend and haven't figured out how to pay for or record ESPN, c) we're a little impulsive d) all of the above.
Anyway, our enthusiasm for meeting goal #1 of 2014 was tampered only by our lack of expertise anticipating the impact of heat on our adventure. Naively enough, we figured a 9:00 am start time would be plenty early enough to summit by 2:00. It might be a little warm at the bottom but the temperature is cooler up in the Highlands...(one of the reason the British expats made this a famous retreat of theirs.) And, a good night's sleep followed by a big pancake breakfast are important to success, too...right?!
We packed 5 liters of water between the two of us and a small lunch figuring we could supplement by one of the many Malaysian vendors lining the side of the road and the many water spigots coming out of the hillside pouring fresh mountain water to keep us hydrated.
We started spinning our wheels at about 9:30, a little later than anticipated, but not really a big deal. The first 12 kilometers were kind of fun and just steep enough to limber up our legs and warm up our muscles, but not so steep to scare us off our goal. We came to the first watering hole where I filled one of my already empty bottles and topped off the other which was down to 1/4 full. Eric's Camel back seemed full enough so he actually poured the warm water out of one of his bottles and filled in with cool mountain stream water. We rinsed our head rags in cool water to try and get some air-conditioning going through our helmets.
 |
| Hoping the water is good. The truckers and the locals tend to fill up their bottles. |
Another hour up the road, we found some Orang Asli people selling wild honey and rambutans in their stalls at the side of the road. We bought several bunches of fruit and, after shaking off the ants and picking though the non-moldy fruit, we reveled in the juicy sweetness. Revived, we pedaled on-wards and upwards even discussing the fact that, if need-be, we could buy a bottle of honey and drink it for our natural "energy goo" and survival on the way down.
 |
| Family selling honey and rambutans (yellow and red spiky fruit) |
I was thinking about decision making processes in the face of adversity and weighing the odds (we were 10 kilometers from the top and 20 kilometers from the watering hole below us.) On flat roads, 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) is nothing - a trip to the grocery store and back, a chance to stretch our legs after work but not really work up a sweat, a walk in the park... But on this hill, 10 kilometers meant at least another hour or more of constant, slow, hard pedaling. And, we really weren't sure what was 10 miles ahead.. We could both remember a chocolate factory, but straight chocolate does nothing towards staving off thirst. Reaching our goal was so close and yet soooo far.
Reluctantly, we turned around and started the downhill ride. Within seconds, I knew why the ride uphill was so slow. Our bike odometers read 35, then 42, then 52 kilometers per hour. We were headed downhill and downhill FAST. Jungle vegetation was a blurr at our sides, our sweat evaporated and left a salty residue, bugs slammed into our foreheads and helmuts, our hard work was rewarded with an adrenaline inducing ride. This was FUN!!!!
No, we didn't reach the top but yes, we had a great time. Can we check this off our New Year's Resolution list? Again, the answer is "no." Although this ride is the hardest ride we've ever done, surpassing even Mingus Mountain in Arizona which we'd always considered our barometer, we can't consider Cameron Highlands conquered. We plan on a repeat ride next Sunday hoping that our "lessons learned" - start earlier, bring more water containers, pack more food - will get us to the top.
N.B. Even though the ride uphill was long, slow, and painful, we were rewarded with beautiful scenery and the ability to see thing and hear things that we don't normally notice while we're in the car. I saw many native huts on stilts (still inhabited) hidden in the jungle with secret paths that leading to hidden villages. I heard many kinds of birds, owls, and wild animals communicating with each other in the jungle. If I let my imagination run wild, it was actually kind of creepy.
We bought fruit from and photographed a nice Orang Asli family.
And, we had front row seats to about 30 crazy Malaysian motorcycle riders wearing full pads and racing up the hill and taking turns with bikes at 20% angles to the road like professional racers. There were some pretty sick 200,000 RM ($70,000) BMW cycles within spitting distance of our front handle bars.
Holy cow! You are amazing! Should I confess now that I did watch at least part of each of the four wild card games? I didn't eat cheese puffs (but did indulge in several handfuls of lime flavored Tostito chips)! Can't wait to hear about next weekend's adventures!
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