The Rough Guide - POS Betau, POS Lenjang, POS Titom. Difficulty Rating : Challenging to Hard

Disclaimer :

This is a guide for those willing to risk try going to these places without the support of an expedition. Before attempting some of the harder tracks, you should have a recovery kit handy and ensure that your vehicle is in good nick. We always support the maxim of "Travel in Numbers" and never take unnecessary risks.

Executive Summary:
Conditions as at 12/2016. At least an SUV with AT tires. You may attempt this using HT tires but only do so during the dry season because the mud can be quite deep at parts.  Challenging offroad course of over 30km going deep into the mountains. Some superlative scenery beckons with pristine clear rivers and creeks. If you take the shortcut, you will need to do a river crossing with your vehicle.

Description
Trailhead begins at Pos Betau. From Gombak tollplaza, it is a 2 hour drive 154km north of Kuala Lumpur.

Two routes to choose from that will take you to Pos Lenjang and Pos Titom.

Option 1 : Pos Betau - Pos Lenjang (32.4km) (Pink route)
The traditional route of choice of 32.4km which will take some 3.5 hours to cover - it is slow going due to the bad condition of the track. Some parts are paved (or what's left of it) It is deeply scarred by ruts, water channels, collapsed sections and a whole lot of mud. You will pass many orang asal villages at the tail end of the route and will be greeted with some breathtaking scenery.

Other main challenges are the mud pools and some exceedingly steep sections which has 2 different levels of grip.

Uneven with track dropping steeply on either side. A good height clearance is essential.

Let's churn that mud!

Option 2 : Route 102 - Pos Lenjang (41.8km) (Orange route + leftover pink)
It's 16.8km tarmac detour on Route 102 (road to Ringlet) plus 25km offroad. So although appearing to be longer, the 16.8km tarmac road can be despatched in 12mins or less. The 25km offroad segment will cost you only 1.5 hours for a grand saving of over 1 hour over Option 1.

The caveat is that it involves a short river crossing that is slightly above waist deep. The use of this route is also totally dependent on the weather. The bridge at Pos Betau along Route 102 will tell you if you are able to attempt this route : look at the water levels of Jelai River. If it is swollen or turbid, take Option 1.

The good news is that it bypasses 18km of bad roads of Option 1 - leaving you with just a further 14.4km to go. At this point - the track is in significantly better condition as you would be greeted with many orang asal villages. This is the route of choice of the locals when weather permits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSRXB2S1NV4

Pos Titom
The road to Pos Titom is concreted all the way. Once you hit the junction to Pos Titom, it's a straightforward fuss free, no unwanted challenges drive.

Road to Pos Titom

Vital Stats :
Option 1 Pos Betau - Pos Lenjang 
Distance : 32.4km
Total ascent : 1294m
*MSM Trail Difficulty Rating : 19 out of 35.

Option 2 : Route 102 - Pos Lenjang
Distance : 41.8km
Offroad segment : 25km
Offroad total ascent : 988m
*MSM Trail Difficulty Rating : 22 out of 35.

Comparison scoring : Pos Senderut (tested in 11/2016) :11 out of 35.

Option 2 quicker and shorter on the offroad segments but harder due to river crossing.

Rating score is based on 7 categories : distance offroad, vehicle requirements, tire requirements, elevation gain over distance, track width, surface conditions and obstacles.

This route has already been coded into the raw map and would appear in the next compiled release of malsingmaps.

This is Pos Lenjang

Bukit Kene Api in the distance

SOTO Pocket Torch

Date acquired Feb 2015. Price Yen980 which at that time translated to about RM30.00.

This won an award some years back. Having dabbled with a couple of pocket torches which are fueled by gas and found that all do their job but the drawback is having to buy gas refill  (those red canisters which are used to refill lighters) - which is all fine and good when you're at home - different story when you're on the road.

Now you have all the benefits of a portable flame torch with easily found tuck shop lighters. Easily found anywhere around the world.

Note that the SOTO has been designed to be used with a lighter whose dimension is different (longer) from what we find in Malaysia. Some improvisation is required when the provided lighter runs out of fuel. Check out the pic below on how.

Verdict 5/5. Essential camping gear to get that fire / barbie / mozzie coil going.

Portable flame torch

Nice clean blue flame

Alternative RM1.10 Aladdin lighter. Use a half layer cotton tissue to pad the bottom of SOTO. The shorter Aladdin will now be a perfect fit.

Upping the Stakes - mini review

If you had dabbled with your Dad's tent when you were young, you'd be acquainted with the traditional steel tent pegs. They are sturdy and heavy that the joke was it can be used to nail a vampire behind its head to kill it. Tents found at Tesco, Aeon invariably come packed with these. And they are fine - long, robust and heavy. They do the job, you can hammer them in any kind of soil, even tough, rocked filled hard packed soil. Just bang it in! Sometimes they bend but it's steel - can always bend it back like Beckham.

Weight : >20grams per generic piece. In each tent bundle, they will often give you 10 stakes (10x20gm = 200gms), but for this comparo I will use 8 = 160gms

In Malaysia, there are some alternatives for those wanting to shave weight off their backpacks. Introducing the MSR Mini Groundhogs (RM11.00/pc), MSR Carbon (RM20/pc) and generic aluminium (RM7/pc) (2013 prices).

From top to bottom : MSR Mini Groundhog, MSR Carbon, Generic aluminium

As expected the carbon stake weighs in at only 5gm per piece

MSR Mini Groundhogs is not too shabby clocking in at 9gms

Generic aluminium @ 13gms including cordage.

 

Weigh-In (8 stakes)

Using steel pegs as the benchmark @ 160gms (RM0.00 - they come free)

1. MSR Carbon = 40gms (less 120gms, 75% weight savings) @RM160.00

2. MSR Mini Hedgehog = 72gms (less 88gms, 55% savings)  @RM88.00

3. Generic aluminium = 104 gms (less 56gms, 35% savings)  @RM64.00

I have used the carbon stakes and honestly, I do not like them. By their very design, you need to stake it in at an acute angle to prevent your guy lines from slipping. You could make a simple knot but that's just too much work.

The Hedgehog and generic aluminium : honestly not much in between them. They are strong, sturdy and can be pegged into any soil. Hedgehog has a 3 fin design vs 2 of the generic. The only problem these two have is when staking into soil that has pebbles or rock underneath. Whereas the traditional steel pegs can easily circumnavigate around the rocks with a little bit of force, it is not so easy with these two. You may have to adjust your staking points a few times.

Both have notches, so your guy lines can be snared by them easily. Unlike the carbon stakes.

My choice? The hedgehog, for its 3 fin design, ultralight and being super strong. The generic is fine but you don't really need a peg that big or long in most cases. At least I havent personally found a need to have a stake as long. When you are going for ultralight, the minimalist design of hedgehog fits the bill and does the job with aplomb.

Note! The hedgehogs are shiny beautiful out of showroom - but after first use, they become smudgy and scratchy. The hedgehogs comes standard with any MSR tents - they will give you 6. You really need 8 to be safe, so buy another two separately.

OP Series Mininet - expand your backpack storage by 18 L!

There will be times when you need more space out of your backpack to stow more gear and supplies. One common way is to make use of straps or bungee cords - often this is limited to the location and number of anchor points on the backpack that you can use.

When it's full, it means Full Stop

OP Series Mininet hopes to solve this very problem. It's simple yet ingenious solution. You can attach the hooking points ANYWHERE on your backpack without causing any damage or tearing the fabric of the bag - and create an additional 18L of space.

The magic lies in the custom center ring - sufficient for fabric to pass through

Insert the custom center ring anywhere INSIDE the backpack

Attach the carabiner on the OUTSIDE

The results? This. You can even use this for any imaginable bag possible and not limited to just backpacks. The net adds 12in x 12in coverage on the bag and yields an additional 18L space with cords that have a tensile strength of 300lbs.

Price paid RM90 (2014).

Sleeprite Cot Quick Review

Official site of Sleeprite Cot.

My current camping accomodation is Therm-A-Rest Scout . I have the Regular 183 cms pad which weighs 680 gms and can fit quite easily in my backpack. It is a great self-inflating sleeping pad and it has seen action at places like Mossy Forest, Bako National Park, Kem Baha, Broga, Gunung Datuk. It has given me many comfortable night's sleep. Even on uneven rock surfaces, it is so darn comfortable to sleep on and your body warmth actually heats the pad up. My only complain if any is its weight! Budget does not permit me to buy the more expensive and lighter pads!


I picked up the Sleeprite Cot  for days when I (may!) do car-camping or beach camping WHEN WEIGHT DOES NOT matter. It comes in a small portable pouch which together with all its trappings clocks at 2.87 kgs. 

To put things in perspective - folding aluminium camping beds as we know it like this weighs 6+kgs, is bulky and not exactly portable without some huffing and puffing but costs in the range of RM150-200.00. The other big difference is that these sit much higher above ground : we're talking in feet. For Sleeprite Cot (or LuxuryLite for that matter), they sit considerably lower to the ground : we're talking in inches here. The idea is that your body is off the ground - whether it is 2 feet or 6 inches should not matter in reality since you are already isolated from the ground environment.

Dimensions : the cot sits 175mm above ground (no load), is 1960mm in length, and 740mm in width. Basically it can sleep a 6 footer more than comfortably. Once you are on it, the cot fabric will sag down much closer to the ground - so depending on where your bum is located in relation to the support frames - in my case, the lowest point was 70mm off the ground. 

Sleeprite Cot at 2.87kg is much lighter in a compact package compared to traditional camp beds. But if you wanna go crazy, there is always the Therm-A-Rest LuxuryLite Mesh Cot - which in Kuala Lumpur is being sold at RM999 but weighs a waifly 1.47kg only. But let me be the sour grape and tell you that I have molested the LuxuryLite before - it is darn crazy light BUT, the durability of the oval foot packs of the bow-frame is honestly questionable. It is made of some kind of light plastic, which looks and feels fragile. I have read a review where a user claims to break the foot on its first use - in his living room!

The Sleeprite has foot packs made of solid aluminium and is rated to carry up to 300lbs.

Everything is shock-corded : so no pieces are liable to be misplaced or dropped. The aluminium poles are not your ordinary heavy generic tent poles - they are lightweight and is similar to the poles used by the MSR tents. Handsome and light. I like. And the red color : very pretty. Very MSR Hubba Hubba NX .. ahem ..

The 6 support frames are not evenly spread out - 4 of them are bunched more closely together where most of your body weight is : head, upper torso and bum. So note the White Arrow which tells you which way your head should be. Sleep the other way and your body weight may not be properly distributed - which I assume can break the frame. Who knows?

So how easy is it to setup and dismantle? Actually very easy. I fumbled in the first try but by the second and subsequent attempts, I can get it up quickly in a leisurely 2 minutes. Bringing it down is even faster. My tip is:
1. use the ground as leverage for setup and dismantling.
2. fix the support frames on either end of the cot FIRST, before doing the intermediate ones.
3. slot the frame on the left side of the cot, stand the cot sideways on the left and press down to slot the frame on the right side of the cot (which is elevated). The leverage by pushing the frame down enables you to easily bend the frame to ease slotting.

SLEEP TEST

Sedap siol! The bed is firm, there is sagging but your torso doesn't ball up like it would when in a hammock. The fabric is held taut and gives just a little when your full weight it on it. It makes noise when you move : if you are a tosser-turner, you might piss off the guy sleeping next to you. It is not very noisy but it is audible.

POTENTIAL SETUPS

1. When your wife gives birth and you can only get a Single Room. An instant bed!

2. Day trip / picnics for an afternoon siesta by the beach.
3. Motorbike camping - what is 2.8kg in the panniers dude?!
4. A non-fussy sleeper guest drops by the house
5. Watch World Cup when the rest of the sofa is already taken up by other family members.
6. Overnight camping gets tricky:
(a) setup a flysheet above you; or
(b) have a very big tent

For Malaysian climate, 6(a) is very very doable and would be much preferred.

Last question : would I hike up a mountain with it? Answer : NO. My Hubba Hubba (2.04kg) with the Gear Loft (85gms)and  and Footprint (140gms) is considerably lighter, can sleep 2 comfortably, has an ace view of the stars minus the insects and mozzies and keeps me out of the elements.

Price paid RM340.00 (2014)

Living with : The MSR Hubba Hubba Review

This is my second Hubba Hubba - after the first one was stolen. I like the tent so much that I'd buy this again if I have to.

Keywords of things I like about it: lightweight everything, build quality, view, packs very compactly

At first glance, the Hubba Hubba looks like a variation of the dome tent but it is far from it. Hubba Hubba comes with a single pole design - every single piece of the entire pole structure is shock-corded together as a single unified piece. The pole itself is amazingly ultralight - most people when they handle the pole for the first time and get awestruck by its light weight - will just blink the eye and buy the tent. :) It is called DAC Featherlite and weight probably only 1/10 of the normal weight of the traditional 2 piece aluminium dome tent poles. It is that amazing.

Before I bought this tent, I shortlisted a few others - an orange Marmot being one of them which was in the same price range as the Hubba Hubba. I tested the Marmot in a showroom in Singapore - actually was very impressed with the entire package until I saw the tent spikes. For an ultralight tent which went to great pains to save weight - it uses the traditional heavy as lead steel tent spikes. Locals would call those Paku Pontianak. FAIL.

The beautiful MiniGroundhog stakes

MSR made no such mistakes as it went all the way right down to the ultralight and beautiful MiniGroundhog stakes - which looks the business and weighs next to nothing. And they even supply you with insufficient stakes! For this iteration of Hubba Hubba, it came with only 4 stakes - when ideally you need 6 minimum to fully guy the tent in strong wind conditions. One stake costs RM11 so you should grab at least 2 extra.

My recommendation is to buy the tent with the Hubba Hubba Footprint

The Footprint enables me to setup the tent pretty much anywhere I want - protects the tent from rough surfaces underneath and allows me to setup JUST the rainfly without the tent. There are some occasions when you just need the shelter without the tent - so you raise the poles using the footprint and then raise the rainfly. The practical advantage is that when it suddenly rains, you can quickly layout the footprint, raise the rainfly first to get out of the rain, and only then raise the tent underneath. You are dry and the tent is dry : this is one ability which most tent systems do not have.

Full mesh 360 degree view if you remove the rainfly

The tent is almost entirely full-mesh. For hot nights, you can fold the rainfly away and have a awesome view of the sky. The interior is spacious - you can sit up with no problems of hitting the roof of the tent and put Therm-A-Rest side by side. There is now a new version of this tent called  Hubba Hubba NX - it has shaved some 500 gms further making it one heckuva UL tent. But I haven't upgraded .. because of its weight saving improvements, the tent is no longer 360 degree full-mesh. It has side walls and the view is impaired. View or weight savings? 500 gms vs 360 degree views?

NO TENT - Only the rainfly is raised - you can configure shade coverage however you want : half, quarter etc.

Vestibule for gear storage and light cooking away from the wind and elements.

I found the MSR Gear Loft useful : I store my handphone, wallet, watch, keys - and you can use it to put a small light to illuminate the tent.

IN THE ELEMENTS

The coldest I camped was 11 deg - there was condensation outside the tent but it did not get into the tent. I have camped it in extreme high winds - at the time when I didn't have enough stakes. It felt like 20-25kmh winds but with proper guying, the tent stayed up all night. Rain? No problem absolutely.

Price Paid : RM1200.00 for the tent only (2011)