Gunung Tok Wan Broga 16 Sep 2010

The last trip to Broga Hill, about 50 km from Petaling Jaya, was on 14 November 2009 (see http://happyotrekker.blogspot.com/2009/11/broga-hills-14112009.html).

On arrival, we saw more than 50 motor vehicles parked in the old oil palm estate which has been converted into a huge open car park area. Based on this, we estimated at least a hundred hikers in the hills.

At 7.50 a.m., it was quite a task getting through the long queue of people lumbering downhill. We took about 1 hour to reach the Broga peak (400m asl) at 9:05 a.m. A few adventurous youngsters have even resorted to sliding down the lalang slope to beat the queue heading home.

From Broga peak, we had to enter the forest to trek to Gunung Tok Wan (675m asl). We took about 2 hours to trek the undulating trail and hit the peak at 11 a.m. The dense tree canopy provided us much shade against the harsh mid-day sun that day.

After spending an hour, we started to back trek at 12 noon. We literally raced down the Broga trail to minimize exposure to the hot sun and hit the base at 2.15 p.m. Thereafter, we adjourned to Lim Sak Chan’s stall to cool down ourselves with his famous ABC.

Pleasant trekking buddies included Kathy, Ann, Yeoh, Tessie, Terry, Jean, TQ, Christina, Chew and Siew Kim.






For the photographs, please refer to http://happytrekker.shutterfly.com/pictures/7997.

Gunung Gap & Ulu Semangkok 12 Sep 2010

On 12 September 2010, we travelled 100 km east to Gap, a small town station located at 825m asl at the base of Bukit Fraser's Hill with the aim of exploring Gunung Gap (GG) as well as Gunung Ulu Semangkok (GUS). Leaving Petaling Jaya at 5.30 a.m. we stopped by Rawang at 6 a.m. to have breakfast before proceeding to the head trail of GG. The trail head which is located opposite the 91km KL milestone was easy to locate.

Starting at 8.20 a.m. we took about an hour to hit GG peak (1,140m asl) at 9.20 a.m. It was a steep climb all the way to the peak. The trail was quite clear and covered with dried leaves. After a short break at the peak, we took the 9 o’clock trail downhill towards GUS. The undulating trail comprises 3 steep ascents before the GUS peak (1,340m asl). We took about 2 hours to hit the peak at 11.20 a.m. There were a lot more varied flora like moss, wild orchids and mushrooms along the way to GUS. However, there was no view from GUS compared to GG where we could at least have two limited views of the surrounding regions.

We left the peak at 12 noon and reached the base at 2.10 p.m. The return trek was indeed a very challenging on the knees especially the section from GG peak.

Overall, it was a good energizing trek in the cool highland particularly in the pleasant company of trekkers Kathy, Anne, Tessie, Yeoh, Engu, Ong, Ben, Christina and Yip.

For the photographs, please refer to http://happytrekker.shutterfly.com/pictures/7995.