#216 - Hiking

My toughest hike to date! I finally decided
to suck it up and finish climbing the Catchment
Path. Anyway, before I did this climb I did
some preparations... errr, actually, just one
preparation. I called one lady friend to go with
me. Hehehe so now, if I ever felt the need to
wuss out again on the stair climbs, all I need to
do is look over my shoulder and see my
friend suffering in silence. That should make me
feel like a weakling and spur me on ... in theory :-)

This hike started nicely because instead of
meeting my friend at King Albert Park McDonald's,
we met on bus 171. We accidentally took the
same bus. So no, time wasted there.

We went into Durian Loop first. Since we
were coming from the direction of Dunearn to
Rifle Range, this trail points upwards. This is a
nice warmup for what's to follow.

After Durian Loop, we crossed over to Bukit
Timah and headed to Catchment Path... and this
time I completed the climb. The only disappointing thing
is that I was expecting Catchment Path to go allll
the way to the summit. But no, it leads to the main
road. We walked a few paces up the main road
and then continued climbing using the Summit Path.
Around this time, I am already wondering why these
trails in BT are called 'path' when in reality they
are STAIRS !!!!

Once we got to the Summit, we then headed down
to Rengas Path and then to the Dairy Farm Loop ...
at first I thought since we already left the summit,
all trails should be pointing down... but no! Whoever
designed these trails made sure we will have a
great workout by making us climb again, then go
down, then climb.. you get the picture?

Anyway, we were already wondering if we
were walking around in circles when we heard
a group of people ask another group where the
particular trail that we're on leads. The answer
was that the trail leads to some waterfalls !

My friend and I thought 'WOW!!!' ! There's
actually a waterfall in here?! So on we went
with renewed energy. After a couple of paces
we started hearing what my friend described
as "heavy rain falling on the jungle canopy". After
a few paces more ... we finally came where the
noise seemed to be coming from but ... there
were no waterfalls ... then we looked down
and it dawned upon us .... ohhhhhhh 'waterfall'.
Yup, forget any romantic notion that you have
in your head about the word 'waterfall'. Here
it is being used loosely. See the pic above where
I doused my head with water? That's the waterfall.
But the water is very cold ... and I saw some
guys refilling their water bottles from that
stream !

All in all, the hike was good fun. It provided 2
full hours of suffering, I mean exercise :-)
It's just that on weekends, the place gets a
little crowded ... maybe I'll try to go there on
a weekday ... or maybe at night !

#215 - Hiking

Pictures from Saturday's hike.



Waterproof Hi-Tec Otter Trail boots. Breaking in by
using it to go to work.



My son decided he wants my other pair of

hiking boots and so I had to get myself this pair

of cheaper Hi-Tec Otter Trail waterproof boots.

World Of Sports had a 10% + 30% sale and so I

got these boots for around 75$... and yup, I'll add

this pair to my 'to write a review' list.

On the left is a trekking pole tip, on the right
is a nordic walking pole tip.

The nice part of the hike today wasn't just the new
boots though.... We were walking around Velocity Mall
last Friday. We went to the usual places like Running
Lab (@1st floor), 2XU, Outdoors and WOS (all three on
the 2nd floor) and lastly, to these 2 stores on the 3rd floor.
The first store on the 3rd floor is related to WOS. They sell
Columbia, Salomon and Hi-Tec. The other store (Xtrekkers?)
sells Garmont hiking boots (expensive!) and other high end
trekking / mountain climbing stuff. One of the staff there
is really very eager to serve. His enthusiasm verges on
the irritating. However, when I was looking at a pair of
Silva 'trekking poles' (<-- notice the quotes, i'll explain later),
he said that a pair of those poles only cost 69$ !
Wow! All the other poles in that store cost 100$+ and
here, we have a pair of poles costing 69$ ??? We're on !
... and wonders never ceased because while we were
paying, it turned out that there's a 10% off on the poles
that I was buying!

Anyway, while we were walking home, I realised that the
rubber tip of the poles that I bought were 'funny'. See
the picture above. They looked like the ones on the right.
First, I was thinking maybe you use them until they wear
off and become flat? hehehehe. In the end of course, I
realised that the flat end of the tips on the right of the photo
should be in contact with the ground and if that is so... then
how do you use these poles?

To make the long story short, I went on to YouTube and
checked out all the hiking videos there. One video led to
another until I saw one video which is praising the advantages
of Nordic Walking. That sounds familiar? Yup, some upmarket
gyms have nordic walking machines. ... and finally, I saw the
tips on the 'trekking poles' that those people on YouTube
were using. Serendipity has struck again. That guy in
Xtrekkers actually sold me a pair of Nordic walking
poles hence the 'funny' tip.

I watched the nordic walking videos in YouTube and
I decided to apply it for this Saturday's hike...
and it was a revelation :-)

Nordic walking is not just easy on your knees, it even
involves your whole body. So now, I can walk and I get
a complete exercise. Walking / running primarily involves
our lower extremities. But doing Nordic walking, you use
also use you arms and shoulders.

So, if you have bad knees, go on over to YouTube,
type nordic walking on the search field and click the
Search button :-)

#209 - Hiking

Wake up !

Today is the 2011 edition of The NorthFace 100 !

At first I wanted to go to McRitchie Reservoir to see
the starting line of  the TNF100. But I thought with the
large crowd of spectators, competitors, groupies, etc.
there, I would rather start my hike from Bukit Timah.

I woke up quite late (yeah still suffering from waking-up-late-
syndrome) and so got off late at the bus stop near King Albert
Park McDonald's. That is where my hike started. I walked
up the overhead bridge and went in to Rifle Range Road.
I turned left at the entrance to the Bukit Timah Mountain
Bike Trail ... and noticed that apart from the medics
and traffic enforcers ... there are no competitors to be
found?!? I walked the MTB trail and turned left
at the first junction that leads to the Visitor Centre.
It was here that a competitor or two passed me.

I then went to the Visitor Center and went right
into the South View path (?). I thought I should
return to the locale of my last defeat AKA Catchment Path
and set things right. I was climbing the stairs quickly
and descending them even more quickly ... but ! (there's
always a but), it seems my clunky hiking boots are
not the tool for what I was planning to do. Hehehe
and so that was my excuse. I reached the junction
of Cave Path and Catchment Path. Going left means
more misery but the end promises some form of
redemption from being such a wuss last week.
Going right means taking it easy and being a wuss
again... hehehehe no contest. You can call me
a weakling all week LOL.

Anyway, at the exit of Catchment Path, I turned
left to Rifle Range Road again and went into Durian
Loop. It seems I managed to catch up with those
running the 50km loop in Durian Loop.

I took some pictures while I was at the side of the
Durian Loop bridge. It seems the TNF100 participants
have really trained for this. Not one of them looked like
exhausted. A lot were even having conversations with
their running partners as if they were eating Big Breakfasts
at McDonalds. Then I saw this guy running who doesn't
have his right arm. I took his picture (see last photo above)
and basically was looking at him with admiration. I was
still looking at him when he was ascending the stairs after
the bridge that I didn't see his friend running after him.
His friend doesn't have one of his legs! There was just
a hi-tech looking prosthetic there. Wow, talk about
commitment and perseverance!

... and then yesterday NoLights Louie posted the below
video in our Facebook Groups page

#208 - Hiking

Since Saturday was MTB day, Sunday automatically

becomes hiking day :-)

This Sunday hike again started from McRitchie Reservoir.

I am still being plagued by this sickness called 'waking up late'

sickness and so I started the hike at 10AM. I was, however,

making good time as I have started to become familiar

with this hiking thing and the routes. The thing now is,

since there's only a limited area in Singapore for hiking

and trail running, the place is so crowded it's beginning

to look like a shopping mall...

... and so I ducked into the Petai Trail ... which was

a bad idea since I started late. Petai Trail added 2.25km

to my walk. It was a nice boardwalk 'trail' though.

At the end of Rifle Range Link, I saw a group

of hikers who seemed to be, first, doing an adventure

type race and second, lost :-) Good thing I heard them

speaking in my native language and so I didn't

let them go in a complete circle and pointed them

to the direction of Bukit Timah. Ah, that's my good

deed for the day taken care of.

Once, I was in the vicinity of BT, I went in

to check out this trail called Catchment Path ... oooohh

another one of my bad ideas. It consisted of stair climbs!

I think it will eventually lead to the Bukit Timah

Summit. It was already 1PM and I'm hungry and so

I wussed out and turned left to Cave Path...

I think I will come back here next week and

scour the area. Seems to me this place offers some

serious Zen experience.