Kg Kemensah to Kg Sg Pusu
The information on this page has been superseded by the Ulu Gombak Traverse trailguide. Please use the trail directions and data contained on that page. This page is retained merely as a record of our first attempt to traverse the Ulu Gombak reserve.This is a 22km off-road trail, beginning from Kampung Kemensah in Ulu Klang to Kampung Sungai Pusu in Gombak, dissecting the Ulu Klang forest reserve in a north-westerly direction. A boat transfer is necessary to cross the Klang Gates lake. The trail was in good condition when ridden on 13 July 2002, but expect more overgrowth when riding in the rainy season or outside of the durian-fruiting season. The trails are very steep in places and rutted in others. You may have to push in places, because of the combination of gradient and ruts, but the trails are mostly rideable.
Most of the trail is singletrack. The first few kilometres passes through belukar and orchards. The rest of the trail goes through primary or rejuvenated montane and bamboo forests, and the occasional durian orchard. Total cumulative (not net) altitude gain is more than 2,600 ft, so there's lots of climbing involved.
The GPS information on this page is incomplete because I want to verify the data before posting it. Whatever information that I have included should be accurate. Be careful when relying on the information posted here, or anywhere else on the web for that matter. They can be inaccurate or incomplete, so use with caution.
Trailhead
The trailhead is the same as the Kg Kemensah - Sg Chongkak trail. From KL, head north on Jalan Kuching. Take the exit at Batu Caves, signposted Kuantan. Take 3 o'clock at the roundabout. Continue past Batu Caves on your left, going straight ahead at the traffic lights. Continue onto the flyover, following signs for Kuantan. The highway forks just after the Shell station on your left; take the right fork, signposted Ampang. Continue on, and turn left into Taman Melawati (look out for shophouses with black-tinted windows on your left). Park at the carpark (waypoint K0) located behind the BP station in Taman Melawati.Route Directions
Go into the road that passes by the entrance to the National Zoo (you could also go through Kemensah Heights if you know the way). Continue on this road, passing Kg Kemensah. At waypoint K1, turn left just past a fishing pond. (This left turn is located just before a bridge and a steep uphill section. Go straight ahead for the Sg Chongkak trail.) The road follows alongside the Kemensah river until you come to an archway (waypoint K1a) across the road. Take the left fork, onto the rocky offroad section that goes steeply uphill.Continue on this 4wd track. You'll come to right turn (waypoint K2) that goes slightly downhill and across a small stream. Do not turn right; instead go straight ahead. (The two trails rejoins further along, but going straight ahead affords scenic views of the Bukit Batu Tabur and of parts of the lake.) The trail will come to a cross junction. Turn right, down the slightly overgrown and highly technical descent. You'll pass a pond on your left (waypoint K3). Turn left immediately after the pond into a singletrack.
The trail will start climbing from here, over well-groomed singletrack that is very rutted in some sections. After many ascents and descents later, you'll come to 2 stream crossings in quick succession. The trail then climbs steeply through a couple of tight turns. At the top, you'll come to a junction (waypoint K3a). Right, through the more established trail will take you to Lubok Tedung. Turn left, following the fainter trail.
The trail will descend through bamboo forest before coming to a large river (waypoint K4), after which you'll come to a campsite (waypoint K5). Go past the campsite, following the footpath that will pass the remnants of cement foundations of some long-gone structures. The trail will go out into the open and end at the bank of a river.
Trek downstream in the river (look out for ikan putih (Cyprinidae spp) teeming in the river) until you come to some broken concrete ramparts half-submerged in the river. Climb up the far bank here. You'll see a trail that passes through some aur and nasty mimosa. It's likely that this part of the trail will be underwater during the wet season. You'll pass the remains of an old bungalow on your right. This trail will end at the right-hand bank, further downriver.
At this point, you will have 3 options:
- If you had arranged for a boat to meet you on the lake, you can cross the lake to waypoint P7, at the lakeshore huts located near the northern-most part of the lake. You can arrange for boats, and even guides, at the fishing pond past the archway near the start of the off-road section in Kg Kemensah.
- If you did not arrange for a boat, you could try your luck at flagging down one of the bamboo house-boats to take you across the lake. Ask nicely and offer to pay. If you're unlucky, there might not be any boats or people at the end-point. This is likely, if outside the durian-fruiting season.
- You can turn back to Kg Kemensah. Not recommended except to the masochistic, because it's shorter to cross the lake and exit through Kg Sg Pusu.
If feeling particularly adventurous, you could try jungle bashing your way around the lake, but this will take a Herculean effort. We tried it for an hour and decided to take a boat.
(Note: after completing this trip, we went back and consulted our maps. What we ought to have done was to trek up the Seleh river for a kilometre or so from its confluence with the Klang river. This would have taken us to the old dam on the Seleh river, from where there is a trail that leads all the way to Pusu. Amir and I made the connection in September 02, and Pat and I rode the whole trail in Feb 03.)
Ask the boatman to drop you at the lakeshore huts (waypoint P7). From here, head roughly north on the trail, crossing a small stream. You'll come to a T-junction (waypoint P5) immediately after the stream. Turn left, heading uphill and eastwards. At waypoint P4 (just at the end of a stiff climb), turn left onto a singletrack that will take you out of the Ulu Gombak reserve and into young rubber trees. Follow this singletrack until waypoint P2, at which point turn left near the end of a short stiff climb, just past 2 huts on your left. This will take you into an orchard, and will finally deposit you in Kg Sungai Pusu. Turn right onto the mainroad and have a meal at the warong (waypoint P1) beside the school about 150 metres further on. Look out for Pakcik Ali, 87, have a chat and offer him a smoke.
From Kg Sg Pusu, just continue on the road, past the Gombak campus of the UIAM (International Islamic University Malaysia). Turn left into the Karak highway, bypassing the toll. Take the next left fork for Ampang and retrace your steps to Taman Melawati. The final road section is about 10 kilometres long.
Waypoints and Routes
Not yet completelah. We were busy concentrating on finding way through that I forgot to make notes and mark some of the waypoints on my GPS. The following information, together with the route descriptions above, ought to be enough for you to get by. Don't get lost (the jungle goes all the way to Pahang and Taman Negara) and make sure you have enough daylight left to complete the route.Future trailguides will probably follow this format, with the addition of bearing readings in the remarks section.
Route: Kg Kemensah to Kg Sg Pusu, with boat transfer |
|||
| Waypoint | Coordinates | Distance | Directions and Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| K0 | NA | Car park in Taman Melawati. | |
| NA | |||
| K1 | NA | Fish pond junction, turn left. | |
| NA | |||
| K1a | NA | Arch. Take left fork, onto offroad track. Heading uphill, and swerving left at the top. | |
| NA | |||
| K2 | NA | 4-way junction (with a faint track on the left). Go straight ahead. | |
| NA | |||
| K3 | N3.13.823 E101.46.688 | Old mining pond. Turn left into singletrack immediately past the pond. (Check out the strange mimosa growing in the water.) | |
| NA | |||
| K3a | NA | Junction to Lubok Tedung, at the top of steep hill immediately after 2 stream crossings in quick succession. | |
| NA | |||
| K4 | N3.15.690 E101.47.421 | Large river crossing. Look left when in the river, there should be a concrete footbridge. | |
| NA | |||
| K5 | N3.15.541 E101.47.218 | Campsite, with the river running parallel to the trail. | |
| NA | |||
| P7 | N3.15.926 E101.45.902 | Lakeshore huts, on the northern edge of the lake. | |
| NA | |||
| P5 | N3.16.057 E101.45.802 | T-junction, turn left. (Right leads to another campsite.) | |
| NA | |||
| P4 | N3.16.176 E101.45.322 | Turn left into singletrack, near the top of a climb. You'll shortly exit into rubber. | |
| NA | |||
| P2 | N3.15.892 E101.45.128 | Turn left, just past rutted singletrack uphill, with 2 huts on your left, at the edge of the orchard. | |
| NA | |||
| P1 | N3.15.491 E101.45.080 | Warong (coffee shop). | |
Trivia
- According to the people we spoke to on the trail, there's a trail being built to Janda Baik. From the description, huge hills are involved.
- A bunch of 4wds also made it across to Sg Pusu. It's unlikely that they went the same way we did. The two likely routes could have been a turn-off somewhere along the way to Lubok Tedung, or the a turn-off on the Chongkak trail. I'll bet it's the former. (Note: from further recce's, I think its unlikely that 4wds were able to make it through, at least not recently. We checked the trail to Lubok Tedung, and found a singletrack trail that led east by south-east. I think this leads to Bukit Cenuang.)
- There's a likely trail that heads north from Sg Pusu and then east. (Note: This was indeed the trail that connects to Kuala Sleh.)
- The durian trees you see along the way are vestiges of old kampungs that existed before the damming of the Klang Gates. The existing Klang Gates were completed in 1959. Before that, there were water intakes built in 1928 at what was known as the Kuala Sleh Headworks. Perhaps some of the old structures now found near the lake were once part of the old intake.
