Hike in Hong Kong!

Hit Sharp Peak after about 2 weeks! Usual Pak Tam Au to Pak Tam Chung circuit. Many problems initially, legs too stiff after the first 30 minutes (maybe went too fast). After reaching Sharp Peak in 1 hour, managed to ease back into the usual pace.

1 hour to Sharp Peak
About 15 minutes break there
And 1 hour 45 mins to Pak Tam Chung

Total 3 hours including breaks. Distance 20kms

Garmin.

GPX.

Starts in Pak Tam Chung, goes up a small hill before reaching Pak Tam Au and then all the way to near the top of Sharp Peak. Then all the way to the end of the peninsular and back before descending on to the 4 beaches. Finishes in Pak Tam Chung.

Garmin.

GPX.

It was as if the whole of HK wanted to go to Sai Kung today! Took ages to get the bus from Choi Hung to Sai Kung and the bus from Sai Kung to Pak Tam Au (94).

It was great to see my home on Sharp Peak after a long time but I had to compete for real estate space right in my own territory.

Details:
1) Start time: 1114 HKT
2) Pak Tam Au to that turning on Mac 2 where you go up to Sharp Peak: 25 minutes 54 seconds
3) Turning to Sharp Peak to Sharp Peak Summit: 28 minutes 56 seconds

(Pak Tam Au to Sharp Peak: 55 minutes)

4) Sharp Peak Summit to shop in Sai Wan for refueling: 50 minutes 47 seconds
5) Shop in Sai Wan to Sai Wan Pavilion: 18 minutes 57 minutes
6) Sai Wan Pavilion to Pak Tam Chung: 31 minutes 3 seconds

(Sharp Peak to Pak Tam Chung: 1 hour 40 minutes)

Total: 2 hours 35 minutes (excluding breaks) and about 2 hours 50 minutes including breaks (10 minutes on Sharp Peak, 5 minutes in Sai Wan)

Distance covered: 20.67Km, Elevation gain 856m

Garmin.

GPX.

So, our original plan was to run the whole of Hong Kong Trail with a target time of 5 hours.

Started at 0742 from the Peak and looked like everything was going great. We seemed to be on track.

Weather was HOT but the clear visibility made Hong Kong look even more beautiful that it already is. Unfortunately, I didn’t carry my camera with me to save on weight. Next time, I am going to take it nonetheless.

After stage 4 (Wanchai Gap I think), teammate Steven’s knee injury resurfaced. So, had to stop at Park Avenue. I think we got there at about 1015 or so and did around 22Km until that point.

I didn’t know the way from there to complete HK trail so decided to change venue and continue trail running at my all time favorite Sharp Peak.

Tried a Garmin reset to make the HK trail and Sharp Peak show up as two separate events but as you will see from the map, that didn’t work! It looks as if I flew from HK trail to Sai Kung!

Reached Pak Tam Au at 1210 and started the engines
Reached that little turn to Sharp Peak at 1239 (target was 1240)
Reached Sharp Peak summit at 1310 (target was 1310 – bull’s eye)

Took a break for 9 minutes and left at 1319 (was allowed to stay there until 1320)
Reached Sai Wan at 1419 (against target of 1420)
Took a break (To Fu Fa, 3 * Tau Cheung) for 10 minutes and left at 1430 (allowed to stay until 1430)
Reached Sai Wan Pavilion at 1450 (against target of 1450 – bull’s eye)
Reached Pak Tam Chung at 1520 (against target of 1520 – bull’s eye)

Precision was impressive despite the heat plus the 22Km already done in the morning.

Problems:
- none really, heat was managed the usual ways (middle eastern hat, water, gels, salt)
- towards the end, the run from Sai Wan Pavilion to Pak Tam Chung was grueling because it was completely exposed – had to do a lot of heat management! Wasn’t easy.

Data:
- consumed almost 6L of water (2L during HK Trail, 2L to Sharp Peak, 2L from Sai Wan to Pak Tam Chung (stream water)

- 43.11Km in 5 hours 15 minutes

Garmin Link.

A little bit of a recap to begin with.

Saturday last week:
I was running down Sharp Peak at quite a fast pace and sadly, my attention shifted from the beauty of the trail to the beauty of a group of Asian women tourists climbing up Sharp Peak. And as the saying goes, “behind the fall of every hiker, there is a woman” [literally] (okay, fine, I changed the old adage around a little bit but you can see where this story is going). So, bang, my butt hit the ground and I pulled some muscle on the side of my knee. I have since been largely out of action.

Now, back to Saturday this week.
Had to definitely escape from the city, at least for a couple of hours, into the arms of nature. So, decided to head back to Sharp Peak! Albeit slowly. At a limiting pace of 8Km/h max.

As usual, started at Pak Tam Au at 1058 HKT and headed towards Sharp Peak. What should have normally taken 51 minutes ended up taking 1 hr 1 minute. Unloaded my heavy cargo there – a bulky Saturday edition of SCMP (does anyone really read Classified 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9???) and my book. Coincidentally, a few friends showed up at the summit sometime later. Did some yapping and a lot of reading and left after a nice, long 1 hr break. Of course, didn’t miss the opportunity to try and gather more Sharp Peak fans. (Readers are cordially invited to be a fan of Sharp Peak on Facebook here).

New fans

Ain’t she a beauty

Left after relaxing for a bit, heading towards Sai Wan. Could feel something on the left of the knee when attempting to increase speed beyond 8Km/h so kept speed more or less consistent.

Reached my Sai Wan chaanteng (restaurant) about an hour later. Now, I have to recommend the Lat Chiu Cheung (chilli sauce) in my Sai Wan hangout. Fantastic. Stopped for fried rice + tofu fa + tau cheung.

Left for Pak Tam Chung after lunch and what should have taken me 45 minutes took about 1.5 hrs as I was walking at 6.5Km/h instead of running at 13Km/h.

Verdict: Great day out. Can’t remember the last time I was this slow on a trail but a refreshing and relaxing change of pace. That said, can’t wait to fix the muscle and get back into trail running soon!

Picture on the way to Sai Wan

Pictures here. Tech stuff. The

GPX file.

26.x kilometers! 4 hrs 15 minutes! (got lost for 20 mins so this is a pretty good performance!) Target for the actual event is below 4 hours.

I am probably going to wear 2 pairs of socks and am going to go full thrust after Sharp peak. Pretty eager to break the 4hr barrier.

Pictures here.

So, after several weeks of hardcore hikes, my team decided to take it easy today. That means 30Km! We did the Care Action circuit in Sai Kung. Here’s the story:

Thanks for the message below.

So, let’s do it !!!

To further elaborate, on Saturday, October 3d 2009, I would also like to cordially invite all of you to my guest house on The Peak! I have dreaming and practicing this line for quite a while so I’ll say it again – I would like to cordially invite all of you to my guest house ON THE PEAK! — Sharp Peak, that is! (I am yet to find a Nina Wang so can’t quite afford Victoria Peak yet! ;-) )

PS: No, the HKD 100 toll tax is not a joke

Steven W. Sparksman wrote:
>
> Team Meetup 5.0 !!!
>
>
> You may have noticed there is no Training Hike planned for this Saturday.
> The reason for that is the Wilson Raleigh is the following weekend, so this will be a weekend of rest.
>
>
> However, we won’t be doing nothing….Vince has invited us to join him on his personal training hike.
> This will be a 20km Trail Walk/Run along the trails surrounding Sharp’s Peak.
> This is Vince personal playground and we’re very lucky to be invited along.
>

So, a couple of facts I got wrong (a) Sharp Peak is about 414M (b) Care Action is 30Km not 40Km.

The day couldn’t have started better. Cloudy weather. Beautiful foliage. Fresh air. Greenery everywhere. We reached Sharp Peak (Care Action didn’t call for that but we did it any way) after about 1 hr 15 minutes of starting as always, I was captivated by its beauty.

Headed on to the peninsular after that. The sun was out but there was enough breeze to keep my body temperature under check.

We had some friends on the way too.

Finished at Pak Tam Chung at about 4 something.

Fantastic day out.

Pictures here.

Having taken a 2-week break from HK hiking, I was raring to go on a Sharp Peak circuit run today. Mission was simple. Get rid of the cold that’s been bothering me for a while now through sweating and running. Idea was to start at 12PM at Pak Tam Au, reach Pak Tam Chung at 3PM (after a Sharp peak climb in between).

Problems: HK weather observatory issued a “very hot” signal. Also, typhoon Molave was expected to hit HK more or less directly in the evening. I was also far from a 100% fit. Constant cold reduced energy levels.

I started at Pak Tam Au at 12PM, as planned. Maintaining excellent control of the run, I reached the Sharp peak turn at 12.30PM (on schedule). Problems began then. I was getting a bad dehydration reading. Sun was out on full force. Air was 100% humid and hot. I felt like I was cooking in a microwave on ‘High’. Had to slow down big time. Starting losing time but continued to plod on with frequent breaks. There wasn’t a soul on Sharp peak.

Eventually reached Sharp peak at 1.40PM!! (1 hr 40 minutes. It’s supposed to take 1 hr!) Dismal performance. Not sure if to blame my fitness level or the heat.

Disappointed, I decided to redeem myself by doing a run from Sharp peak to Pak Tam Chung in 2 hrs. Left at 2PM.

History repeated itself. The sun rays started stinging and I started slowing down. Reached Ham Tim at 1.15PM (15 mins late). At this point, typhoon Molave introduced himself. Skies turned black and it started pouring down! Good news was that I was no longer a “running duck” for the sun. I had to move on after refueling (ran out of water) at my usual pit-stop.

I didn’t have a raincoat. Continued to run in pouring rain. My clothes got incredibly wet. Reached Sai Wan pavilion and a waiting taxi driver signaled to me, confident that I would use his services. Little did he realize my tenacity and cheapness. I continued to run in pouring rain from the Pavilion to Pak Tam Chung. Speed increased, thanks to no sun. Completed the run in 30 minutes. Reached Pak Tam Chung at 4.30PM (30 mins late).

It was then time to make the travel back home using HK’s freezing public transportation. On top of that, my clothes were wet. I couldn’t be bothered changing into a dry, spare tee shirt I was carrying.

The MTR gave me a near hypothermia. I was still too proud to wear my spare tee shirt (besides people were looking!) Planned to get out 1 station early and walk the distance home instead of freezing in the MTR.

Hot shower, clean clothes after I got back home and my energy returned. As for my cold, not sure what impact hot weather, rainy weather, getting drenched, getting frozen and a hot shower is going to have. We’ll see. Sniffles.

Hiking pics here.

Started at 10.30AM (Pak Tam Au) and reached the starting point of the climb to Sharp peak by 11AM. (so far so good).

But, the sun hit me so strong and I didn’t have a cap (left it on the bus by mistake). Speed went down and I had to drink plenty of water. Reached Sharp peak only at 11.45AM (1 hr 15 mins – horrible). Saw Thomas Berns on the way and he was visibly struggling. Saw Caroline a little later.

Had to go back the same way walking (didn’t have energy to run) and reached Pak Tam Au at 1.50PM.

This insect was bugging me

Hiking pics here.

Finally, it didn’t pour down heavily on a holiday and I was able to get my usual exercise.

Started at Pak Tam Au at 11.50AM
Reached Sharp peak at 12.53PM (1 hr 3 mins)
Left Sharp peak at 1.18PM
Reached Sai Wan at 2.18PM
Reached Pak Tam Chung at 3.18PM (total 3 hrs 3 mins)

The water level in the reservoir is certainly much higher

My footsteps