Bukit Repin and Gunung Lentang Legong – A Torture To Remember

the scratches mark at my arm (degil

taknak pakai long sleeve)

Bukit Repin located at Janda Baik Pahang standing 1341 meters and Gunung Lentang Legong also in Janda Baik standing at 1360 meters. My previous Bukit Repin journey is here.

The GPX file is here : gpx file (taken from wikiloc)

Our mission this time around to conquer 3 mountains at one go. Mission number one, climbing Bukit Repin then proceed to Bukit Lentang Legong (mission two) subsequently to Gunung Nuang (mission three). Total journey estimated 20km within 20 hours.

Photo credit : Dendang

Meanwhile, I have my own mission whereby hiking Bukit Repin and Lentang Legong only.

Initially we have 5 or 6 of crazy hikers, then added up to a total 11 hikers with a mixture of conventional runners, ultra runners and podium winners. The team lead by team leader En Khalil whom I had hiked before climbing mount Tahan daypack years back.

Tagging along are Zulfazli (ijoi), Asyraf Ghazali (Acap) and Saifuddin Ramli (Dendang) which were among known podium runners/hikers.

The rest of the team are En Nosly (Wak), Elle Nash, Khairul ezwan, Muhd Ezwan and Norsharina who had the courage to follow (or being forced to follow !)

Wak and Elle admiring the beauty of forest flower power

photo credit : dendang

Caution!

The Lentang Legong route are treacherous and haven’t being used for a long time. We will un-chartered this trail route and equip it with proper trail mark – lead by our trail marker master – En ijoi.

Few machete or ‘Parang’ needed to re-open the trail thus a good and strong pair of hand with inter-exchangeable ‘swinging’ duty among team members are an added advantage.

Need to be physically fit like crazy, able to carry medium weight with food and drinks ration among others basic survival and basic first aid kit. Few of us also brought cooking stove, ground and fly sheet just in case things don’t go in our way for some reason.

leeches hunter at Repin's Peak

The most important thing in this journey is the Navigation. Most of us have navigator wrist watches but only some of us knew how to properly translate it to a useful detail. This job is being handled by our team leader, En Khalil with the assistance of Acap, dendang and wan. They will be mostly in front of us.

Strategy

Logistics

In view that we will be starting at Bukit Repin trailhead and end up at Nuang via janda Baik trailhead, we parked 2 cars at one point and the rest, at the other point - to take care of the logistics arrangement.

Navigation

As I mentioned earlier, the Navigation is the most crucial aspect in the whole journey, thus, it will be based on suunto movescount route pre-installed in suunto device with added navigation by handheld device of En Khalil’s (‘view ranger’ – a Gps device apps installed in handphone).

Analysis had been done prior, for proper trail route, topo map, weather condition, what to expect and how to manage every condition in case of emergency.

the parang in action

Photo credit : dendang

Cut-off time

Time Management is also plays important role whereby each point of destination need to be measured – how long it takes to reach, how long we supposed to rest and cut-off time to turn back at some point.

Head lights

One of the important device as we will be walking in wee hours in the morning and estimated completion around 1.00am. A good head lights are important – Petzl nao (high end) or Fenix (medium end) may assist you in the darkness. Please do be mindful of your battery life as most conventional battery will only last around 4-5 hours burning time. Getting your battery where the slot that you can easily reach is the best strategy to change your battery in a nick of time.

Fire-cracker

This is important as to shock audio level with excessive explosion sound – it will scare away our number one enemy – WILD BEAST.

The Journey

We started at 6.00am from Bukit Repin trail head heading towards Bukit Repin peak – 5.76km. We reached there within 3 hours. A slow ascending route at the beginning to a hardcore straight up nearly to the end. The leeches are everywhere! Equipped yourselves with leech socks and insect repellent.

We rested around 30 minutes here and proceeded to Gunung Lentang Legong – around 3km away. This was where it became tougher. The route had been covered by re-grown bushes and trees with unclear trail and trail marker.

Duration, distance and time of the day

Kindly take note that from Puncak Bukit Repin there are 2 exits – the one we came from and another to Lentang Legong. Another trail route to Kemensah (pondok repin) is at one of the junction not much further down where we came from Repin Janda Baik.

Yes, finally at Lentang Legong 

total journey so far : 8.09km

Our move became very slow here as few of our team member cutting tree branches in front while navigating to the correct path. We reached Lentang Legong around 4 hours, the time was 2.10pm. Not much time wasted here. We proceeded to Simpang Nuang – Repin – expected few kilometres away.

The “parang’ action continues until dark. At one point we seems lost, this was the part where En Khalil and the team gear up figuring out how to get back to the trail path and we succeeded! The night walk continues like forever. Looking at my watch, its 8.00pm, then 11pm, then 12am…..we are still in the wild jungle!

yay, success!

photo credit : Khalil

At 12.00am, we reached the Nuang – Repin junction. Finally! En Khalil and few others decided to proceed to Nuang Peak another 0.92km or so while others decided to go back to Janda Baik. En Khalil’s team will catch up with us later on the way back.

Them in Nuang Peak with ijoi falling asleep

Photo Credit : Acap

We have another 6km to reach Janda Baik (Nuang) trailhead. It was the longest night ever! We reached Chemperoh Waterfall few hours later and suddenly En Khalil’s team emerged from the darkness! They only took 20 – 30 minutes from Simpang Nuang – Repin to Nuang Peak. Then, fast walk – run to us with a staggering amount of speed. Yes, this wasn’t my game lah.

photo credit : either dendang or khalil

We continued to Nuang Janda Baik trailhead few hours later and finished around 3.00am. We ended the journey with tears and smile in our face…haha. The total journey is 25.5km within 21 hours (Parking Janda Baik to Bukit Repin – Gunung Lentang Legong – Parking Nuang Janda Baik). En Khalil’s route may have extra 2km plus for his crazy effort to Nuang Peak.

Special shout out to En Khalil for being a tremendous leader and the rest of the team who had assisted him in achieving the same goal and to those who braved enough to take the challenge.

completed in 21 hours, 18km
(It's actually 25.5km according to most navigation devices within team members, maybe mine need to calibrate)

Complete log based on En Khalil's data :

Parking Bukit Repin to Bukit Repin Peak
Time start : 6.00am
Distance : 5.6km
Time Taken : 3 hours

Bukit Repin Peak to Lentang Legong Peak
Distance from Bukit Repin peak to Lentang Legong Peak : 4.1km
Time Taken : 5 hours
Time of the day : 2.00pm

Lentang Legong Peak to Simpang Nuang-Repin - 10km
Time Taken : 10 hours
Time of the day : 12.00am

Simpang Nuang - Repin to Nuang Janda Baik Trailhead - 6km
Time Taken : 3 hours
Time of the day : 3.00am

* Nuang - Repin Junction to Nuang Peak - 920 meters
   Time taken : 36 minutes

Gunung Lentang Legong is NOT for the faint hearted hikers as the route is confusing and risk of being lost is extremely high without proper guide and navigation device (to my opinion).

Nevertheless, it was a great hike, great company and great experience.

Stay tune for route GPX file