Thursday, November 20, 2008

maxwell hill trek

| 20 november 2008 | trek was organized by the taiping hash house harriers | ah pian, kuey teow huat, poh meng, black horse, see first chia and lau chi were the taiping hashers who attended the trek | was invited along together with ah chui and ah hwa | trek was on a new route to reach the jeep station on maxwell hill | trek is an eye opener | no surprises | terrain was familiar | trekking team was experienced and fit | ah pian and chia ably led the trek and found the way to the jeep station relying only on their instincts | no compass or gps were used | kuey teow huat and ah chui helped with the hacking to clear some undergrowth | kuey teow huat had 2 gps receivers with him to track the trek but no idea what he intended to do with them and no idea if they worked | no wildlife was sighted | trekked past some wild boar nests but did not see any wild boars | leeches were present but not numerous except around wild boar nests | the most irritating parts of the trek were through areas with thorny plants | quite a few areas were filled with thorny plants and it was slow going through these areas | was surprised that there was no stream crossing after the route started upwards after the last stream crossing at about 10.57 am | ran out of water | shortage of water made the trek more uncomfortable than it ought to be | brought only 1 litre of water and this is insufficient for a 5 hours trek | assumed that there would be water but was proven wrong | when going up maxwell hill using new route it will be advisable to bring more water at least 2 litres | will probably bring 3 litres to be prudent | used a reebok frameless backpack | got uncomfortable after a while | there was a tear in the fabric of the backpack during the trek | advisable to use proper internal frame backpack for similar treks | normal backpacks are probably not sturdy enough | will need to look for a deuter internal frame backpack with capacity of about 50 litres for day trips | all in all a good eye opening trip | ah chui and ah hwa showed that women make excellent trekkers as both even took their turns in hacking at the plants blocking the way forward |

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