Hare: Mark Boogaers and co-hares James, Patrick, Karen and Siavash
Kampung Sungai Buah is a lovely and quiet village amidst a rapid developing neighbourhood on the border between Selangor and Negeri Sembilan. The land here is primarily small agriculture holdings, some palm, an abandoned golf/ housing project and generally low-lying hills. Based on my record, it was last bashed in 2016 by Riza and his merry cohort.
The ride briefing was conducted at 9:15am and after a short and perfunctory briefing, about 200 klmbh members and guests set-off on a gloriously sunny morning of mountain biking. The ride started with a gradual climb albeit, quite a number of riders started to walk with their bikes and many riders seen trying their balancing skills navigating around the procession.
Once we crested, a nice descent not unexpectedly found us whizzing and flying however, the paper trail went right in the middle of the downhill section and quite a few riders had to turn around after discovering that paper had ended earlier before the bottom of the downhill. The single track took us to a small ravine where we had to jump across a muddy stream. Time and time again, paper would veer of the main trail as the hares sought to link sections. They expertly linked different parts of Sungai Buah into a connected and often flowing mountain bike ride. There were quite a few occasions when we had to follow the paper trail carefully or be caught unawares cycling off trail. On one section, the trail zig zagged before requiring a short hike-a-bike onto road to link to the main village of Sungai Buah. On another section after we passed the village when we re-entered into trail, the hares managed to find a way into the abandoned golf course(where the water lily ponds were situated) and of course, the route selected to go across the abandon housing and golf lots were also nicely woven and knitted together.
As promised by the hares, the scenic ended around the 11km mark. The strong turned right to continue to the Long and we turned left and rode back to the car. Although we did not ride the Long, the feedback by all and sundry was that the Long was really excellent with more flowing single track with an exposed climbing section. Plaudits and praise abound by everyone we met later.
Mark and his merry men have some real talent and genuine passion as it takes some doing to piece everything together and prepare the trails for all of us to ride continuously. Long may this team continue with the excellent work.
My thanks and deepest appreciation to all of you who contribute to the hash.
Ying How and Ai Ling