Official Training 2: Air Terjun Lepoh, Hulu Langat

It was kind of a last minute plan. Hubs been mentioning that his friend has been asking us to join him quite a while ago. But it didn't really happen. Too pack with other stuff and not enough participants at that time possibly. 1 thing definitely caught my interest, that I'll be able to bring my kids along. That is a very good enough reason to make the trip a go.

So last week, the idea spurred again. And since it was not initiated by me, I dare not mention it to the Mount K team. So it only got mentioned after I had pushed hubs to do so. We were skeptical that there will takeups initially. I mean, who would know about Lepoh waterfall. I haven't heard of it myself. Broga, Nuang, Tabur, Gasing certainly need no introduction at all. And the description about the place is also just a 'waterfall'. Our focus now is more on hike and to train for Mount K, so definitely leisure is not the ultimate aim. Improving one's fitness is. But lucky information is abundance. We got some rough idea from Mr Google. But certainly no idea whatsoever on its difficulty level, distance covered and other things to expect. But everyone was set to go and thank God for this bunch of flexible and like minded people. I even ask the Srikandi team to join (knowing full well that tougher hikes is off the table except for certain few. Even then, that certain few seems to be overwhelmed with other matters). But I did ask anyhow, and of course, there was no takers. One seemed to be interested but after knowing that it's not plain picnic, she pulled out.

So off we went, with just the main Mount K team. 3 other members still skip it this time. We do hope that they have their own training. Other non team member is of course hubs friend, the initiator. But it was good to have him around. 1 definitely to be our guide. 2nd, we definitely enjoyed his girls' company. We hope they enjoyed having us too. More about the girls later.

Since I had difficulty of finding information on this place before my visit there, I hope my entry will help to give info that somehow missed mentioning on other blogs, or if it was mentioned, I didn't get to find them. I was looking for this kind of info, but to no avail, hence here I am, documenting it now.

Location: 15 km north of Ulu Langat, near Kg Pangsun, Selangor 
Meeting Point: Petronas Nanding, Hulu Langat
Total Distance: ~ 7.5 km
Max height: 584m
Elevation Gain: 385m
Height Comparison: 1.5 higher than Broga, 5 times higher than Gasing
Difficulty: Flattish start. Decent incline throughout. Undefined paths.
Scenery: Less publicised, hence more natural reserve

My Garmin data

I didn't know the distance covered. Hubs's friend definitely has his endomondo data. But endomondo recording is different than Garmin, so that didn't give me a good gauge. So the above serves it. I pressed the watch just slightly later, so give and take, maybe the total distance might be 7.5km total, to and fro. Seasoned hikers won't need the info as much, but since I am not, so I need to.

Since it will involve some picnic at the waterfall, we need to bring proper lunch somewhat. That, along with other essentials. Then I figured, I may need to prepare some picnic then. Else we will need a lot of food to be bought for the bunch of us. Picnicking is totally not my thing. The last I had a picnic was when I had no kids at all, almost 9 years back. The best I would prepare for this kind of situation is only sandwich. But for this case, sandwiches is definitely off the table. So, not full heartedly, I had to prepare the nasi lemak picnic. Scrambled through the correct ratio for nasi lemak, as I had never actually mastered the rationing. To make things worst, our timing slipped the morning. I had to send Qaid to karate instead of hubs. And since it's the first class for the year, with new members, the queue for the fees' payment is long. Then I had to buy stuff for the picnic. Upon reaching home, I was only left with half an hour before our planned depart time (we planned to depart at 10, Qaid's karate also finishes at 10). With nasi lemak to cook, eggs to boil, chicken to fry and sambal to make, half an hour is definitely not enough. Lucky somehow, the cumin powder finishes, so ayam goreng plan is off the table. Less things for me to do. To make matters worse, the maid suddenly was throwing tantrum for no reason. I was preparing all the stuff myself without actually bothering her. She thrown quite a tantrum that time. We had not been talking until 2 days after. Lucky the hubs was helpful enough to pack other change of clothes etc. Once everything was done, we were half an hour off target, and once we reached the school, Qaid was crying waiting for us. We felt so bad and it made the morning even more stressful.

The only relief was, Pet's car was also slightly delayed. We were not far from her. We reached about the same time as well. Give and take around 15 minutes for us to pack our things. No particular warmup is required, but if you can do some stretch would have been better. We started our hike around 12.30. The hike started off flat, so it serves as good warm up. That's why it makes it more bearable in terms of intensity. Since there were mostly trees, except for certain open areas, the heat didn't kill us. There were few bridges to cross on. So no river or stream crossing is required. There seems to be just one way street, so insyaAllah, there will be less chance for you to get loss. Just follow the trail. Roots were quite everywhere, that's what makes running is quite impossible, and tire you more. But the good thing with that is, it will be less slippery. Picture will speak a thousand word. We know this is nothing compared to other hills, but this is the most challenging that I've been to. It didn't feel that it uses your stamina as much, but it certainly tire you down, and makes your body ache afterward. Or is it just the fact that I had to carry the nasi lemak picnic. All in all, we certainly enjoyed the trip. Adrin and Anuar certainly enjoyed the waterfall. The kids most definitely are of course. Even Qaisar was enjoying throwing the rocks around. The water was so damn cold, even at scorching hot afternoon.

The first kind of steep incline. It made you pant a little

also some incline. Quite a lot of this kind of path at the beginning

See, another incline

Another incline

Common scene along the journey

Another incline

Also incline

The toughest climb

Resting required, especially for hubs who carried the 10 kg baby. Imagine carrying 10 kg rice climbing almost 600m altitude

9 yo, 8 yo, 6 yo, 7 yo. This hut is the indicator that it almost reaches the waterfall.

Totally love Qaisar's funny face

The journey down is much less nothing much. The 2 kids (Qays and Amni) were racing each other and leading all the way. Auni, unlike the way up, stayed behind most of the time. I had to keep up with the kids to ensure their safety. Cause of the uneven path and heavy bag, I couldn't keep up with their running. But it certainly was good to know that they were all so energetic even after the tough hike. At least we know they are up for more challenge. A lot of other campers were going up when we were heading down. They must planned to overnight there. We took around 1.5 hours up and 1 hr 10 mins down. Now, what's up for next week?