I hiked from Kuala Tahan to Gunung Tahan - commonly known as the seven day hike or the long hike. (This blog has nothing to do with the four day hike that you can attempt from the Northwest or whatever.)
DISTANCE AND TERRAIN: The “trail” is roughly 55 km from park HQ in Kuala Tahan to Tahan peak (according to the park). While the peak itself is just over 2000m/7000ft., according to my GPS Topomap overlay you’ll actually climb 11,200 feet (and climb down 4400 feet) on the way there, meaning you’re total roundtrip climb for this trip is 15,600 feet.
And that’s just what the average topographical map will put out. I’m sure the climb is technically 1,000 or so more feet than that as the elevation is constantly going up and down such that I doubt a topomap is actually capturing all those little climbs that certainly do add up.
Generally speaking the “trail” first proceeds through low laying muddy areas for about 12km; it then ascends and follows a ridgeline for about 13 km; following that there are about 7 km where the trail follows alongside a river, often crossing back and forth across the water; and lastly, of course, there’s the ascent up the mountain itself which features steep grades and the occasional cliff. And then all of those things in reverse order on the way down.
SECTION ONE: HQ-> MELANTAI: Low laying swampy areas. The first terrain you pass through will likely be thick with muddy crossings, humidity, bugs and leeches. The trail here is semi-marked. At first, you’ll just have to ensure that you’re on the right path as the main park trail will fork a number of times where it’ll head off to either hide sites or the the river area. But after about 5km you’ll just have the one trail. At the same time, by this point the trail becomes pretty muddy and it’s really easy to lose. You’ll have a few markings and I believe that guides come through every so often and hang caution tape around branches to help themselves and each other, but I didn’t have any real tape markings on the way in.
SECTION TWO: Ridgeline: MELANTAI -> Over Gunung Raja -> KAM PUTEH. The ridgeline is where you’ll get your first sincere taste of the dramatic and exhausting up and downs that come with this trek. You’ll gain meters and lose meters. It’ll kind of wipe you out. Make sure you’re topped off on water at Melantai before heading up the “ridge”. On the plus side, getting high gets you out of the humidity, leeches and bugs. I stopped for my first night and made camp just before Rajah for precisely that reason. Also, there are one or two spots on this ridgeline where you’ll get a very very weak cell phone signal if you need that for some reason.
SECTION THREE: River crossings: KAM PUTEH -> TEKU. The river crossings are the most challenging with respect to navigation. There are, so I’ve been told, multiple routes through this section. I’ve given the general route that I followed but it should again be noted that this portion is difficult precisely because the water changes the routes, trees fall from above blocking the paths, any “path” alongside the river is on very wet stones (I bit it a few times), at times you won’t know where the path is and you’ll just x-cross the river looking for anything that’ll take you in the general direction you need to go. I ended up just walking up river in the water a number of times because I lost patience trying to find whatever remained of the “path”. The water can get chest deep (I’m 6’2” fyi) and the boulders underfoot are slippery. You’ll want a solid stick to prop you against the current for sure. And it should go without saying but absolutely everything needs to be in waterproof bags. Any electronics or maps need to be double bagged at least or you can forget about finding your way home. As I mentioned, watch for wildlife. This relatively short section of trail took me two half days to complete (I camped on a sandbank halfway through). I can almost guarantee that on the way out the trail won’t look anything like it did on the way in.
SECTION FOUR: Ascent: CAMP TEKU -> PEAK. Climbing this thing is just a pain in the butt man. I used an afternoon to get up to about 4900 feet where I made a base camp. Roughly 2/3 up the mountain. It then took me the entire next day to get to the peak and then back down just to the base camp and I ran out of daylight in the last hour and had to move under headlamp. You’ll get rain, fog, thunder and lightning while up there so watch for slippery trails and, where the park has installed them, ladders. I recommend the base camp technique - leave your stuff hidden or secure somewhere and just go up with water, food for the day, navigation tools, knife, fire starter, headlamp (crucial) and a poncho. After you get past most of the intense elevation changes and cliff climbs, you’ll find some flatter, more open areas closer to the peak. After one more drop into what I can only describe as the most beautiful thicket of mossy stuff I’ve ever seen, you’ll shoot up to the peak…where you’ll likely be surrounded by fog…but at least you’ll have done it.
TRAIL MARKINGS and VISIBILITY: Close to the headquarters you will find yellow metal squares occasionally nailed into trees so as to mark the main path. These grow more and more “occasional” as you leave the main headquarters. For actual trail visibility, you can expect overgrowth, mud, rain and tree falls to block and obscure the path particularly at lower elevations. Any path that ran along the river was basically nonexistenttant during the water portion for me as the paths had often simply been covered by trees sliding down the valley into the river, by mud, by total washouts or by the rising water itself. I can’t say enough how incredibly taxing the water crossings were on my navigations skills and on my physical and mental endurance.
TIME: With good conditions and provided you are both in shape and know exactly where you are going, I imagine that you could do this trek in about 5 days. That being said, factoring seven days makes more sense as conditions in the park (weather, trail conditions, etc.) change frequently and with that many days out in the jungle it’s likely that you’ll be delayed at some point.
EFFORT: If you’re not delayed, at least be prepared to be exhausted. I’ve run marathons and ultras and adventure races and obstacle course races. I’ve done two survival schools each over a week long, I’ve climbed mountains and hiked across various terrain. And I was exhausted by the end of this. The distance and elevation gain are indeed misleading. While the peak is barely over 2000m you’ll be doing so many up and downs just to get to the base of the mountain, crossing so many rivers, walking through so much mud, literally climbing a number of hills with all fours - all with 20-30kg on your back - while fighting humidity and stress that take however tired you think you’re going to be and multiply it by at least a factor of three. Finishing this trek takes a lot of mental stamina.
GUIDE or NO GUIDE: People who hike the trail typically do so with a guide and in a group. People will often remark that “you need to hire a guide”. I am proof that this is not true, though as I avoided asking any park official about it in order to “sneak in” I cannot tell you if guides are actually mandatory or simply heavily suggested. Either way, I would have an explanation as to why you are alone in the event that you’re questioned at the entrance. (I simply told the park staff that I was “practicing carrying a heavy load” because I planned to go on a longer hike in the future.) Park guides have also been known to check bags going into the park so as to inventory items ensuring that once cross-checked against the initial inventory that each exiting bag contains everything it brought it.
WATER: I kept two 1.5 liter bottles with me at all times and would top off whenever I came across a stream. Your first definitive water point is Melantai Camp (12km from HQ) and the next is Kam Puteh (13 km after Melantai). But there are some intermittent streams here and there that you should always take advantage of. I used chloricne to purify my water for the first 4 or 5 days before using my last two days to simply “test” the waters (meaning I drank without purification) and never had any problems (that I know of?)
WILDLIFE: In short: Leeches, wild boars, monitor lizards, snakes, monkeys, hornbills
Leeches: you’re going to get leeches on you. Mostly on your legs and ankles. Most of the time, they’ll be somewhat small and they won’t bother you. As you get closer to the river crossings, you’ll start to encounter the fat ones. My recommendation is that you invest in a few pairs of thick soccer/football socks - those really did help keep them at bay. The thicker the better. As my socks started to thin and stretch by the end of the week, they did less and less to keep the leeches off of my legs. If you don’t like to have them on you, using a fingernail to get underneathth them to pry them off works as does burning. OR, another trick would be to get a small vial of Sandlewood Essential Oil - they hate the smell of it and once you apply the oil they’ll fall right off of you. In general though, you’ll be too focused hiking to really care about the leeches. As soon as you increase your elevation on either the ridgeline or the mountain and get yourself out of the swampy areas or the river valley, leeches aren’t a problem.
Mosquitos: Same goes for mosquitos. Deet helped me when they were particularly bad in the low laying areas, but you’ll sweat so much that you’ll have to just constantly apply it. Better just to keep moving. Same goes for flies.
Monitor Lizards: Are everywhere. I nearly stepped on three during my first day alone. And that’s not hyperbole - I almost stepped on them, had to jump back and watch as they woke up from sunning themselves and scampered off. Lizards close to HQ won’t be more than a foot or two; lizards deeper in get up to 3 or 4 feet. They’re harmless, and hilarious when they run…but having never stepped on one I’m not sure what they’d do if “attacked”. Just keep your eyes open.
Snakes: The only snake I had to deal with on the actual trail was a Red-head Rait which, thankfully, aren’t terribly active or aggressive during the day. I flicked it out of the way with my walking stick. That being said, vipers are particularly known to make their nests along the water in the rocky cliffs. Obviously keep your eyes on your footing on the slippery rock portions of the path but glance up now and again at the overhanging brush to avoid an encounter.
Other insects: Once, while climbing up out of a river onto a river bank over a rotten mess of fallen trees, one of the logs gave way and I fell waist deep into the brush pile. I was summarily swarmed by ants who proceeded to bite me furiously for the next minute or so until I could get back into the river to wash them off. The pain was exquisite…so, y’know, don’t do that.
Boar: Boar are everywhere. Closer to HQ you’ll just get them to kind of scamper off into the woods. Closer to the river, you’ll see how large their trails into the jungle become. This is problematic not only because who wants to aggravate a boar by wandering through its territory (note: they will grunt and huff at you when you piss them off, I write from experience. Just slowly back away) but also because their large boar trails can actually be just as wide and defined as the park main trail, sometimes causing confusion. Human trails are normally just more packed down, so if you realize you’ve been following a “trail” that has primarily features little hoof prints through cakey mud for a few minutes, double check your situation and see if maybe you missed a fork in the road.
????: I’ll add one last thing because I doubt I could live with myself if I didn’t mention this. On my first day of river crossings I encountered a large reptile over six feet in length. It was just tucked off the path in one of the muddy areas alongside the river. It had a broad, bumpy back and looked exactly like what I believe scientists refer to as “a goddamn crocodile”. This, if it’s true, would be a rare sighting. But the thing is: I know what a monitor lizard looks like. This wasn't a monitor lizard. I’ve subsequently asked guides about this encounter describing what I saw. They said it’s “possibly but very unlikely” that it was a croc. So, but, look: when you get closer to the water do yourself a favor and sharpen the business end of your walking stick, which you should fashion out of strong bamboo. And have your knife within grasping distance.
