Rain, mountain air, and ‘slipe’ roots

June 14th, 2002 at 12:00am

She climbed another mountain today folks, in the rain! What a glorious feeling to be happy again…Loved every minute of it. Reminded me so much of all those rainy days on the AT, except I didn’t have to ration food or water and I didn’t have to set up my tent in a puddle and try to sleep in a damp sleeping bag. Much more civilized here – a nice day hike followed by a hot shower, good food, and even an afternoon nap!

Name of the mountain today was Gunung Jasar, at 1704 m (5623 feet) it was not as high as yesterday’s and overall was a much easier hike. The trail was beautiful…it followed around the bottom of the mountain and then went straight up a nicely graded ridge with massive trees, ferns and greenery everywhere.

It was misting on the way up and then changed to a steady rain near the top. On the way up I met a Malay guy coming down, dressed in jogging shorts and a t-shirt. He said he lives here in the Highlands and he climbs this mountain every single day. And I thought you know, if I lived here I think I’d climb this mountain every day too. He told me to be careful of the roots because they’re’slipe.’ I said’Yes, very slippery.’ He said’Yes, slipe-ery.’ Very nice man.

Didn’t spend any time at the top today because of the rain, just bagged the peak and headed down. About halfway down I met a Singaporean family who had been right behind me when I started to head up. In the same time that I went up and half-way down they were only half-way up. So I guess those 3-hour hiking times are not all that off for some. Still, I give props to a whole family of tourists who are willing to brave the rain and go hiking, with smiles on their faces too. Singaporean tourists definitely moved up several notches on my personal good tourists/bad tourists list because of that encounter today.

So this afternoon I am just resting and reading a book, perfect thing to do in this rainy weather. Tomorrow I may go hiking again. There’s one more mountain I’d like to climb in these parts before I close the Cameron Highlands Chapter. After that I hope to head to Taman Negara National Park for more hiking and’adventure trekking’ as the guidebook calls it. However, there is apparently no direct transport from here to there so I have to take a bus south to Kuala Lumpur and then north again to Taman Negara. I’ve learned to accept and not question these types of illogical transport scenarios. But I may take advantage of passing through KL first and spend a few days there checking out the place anyway.

Ahhh, smell that fresh mountain air…

Doesnt this look like fun?

Entry Filed under: Cameron Highlands,Hiking/Trekking,Malaysia