In our last visit to Cameron highland last year, we had visited Boh’s Tea Plantation and Taman Eko Rimba Parit Falls but did not have the time to climb up Mount Brinchang which has mossy forest and giant pitcher plants. As we would be going to Kuala Terengganu to take part in Terengganu Marathon 2025, we planned to visit Cameron Highland first before travelling from Cameron Highland to Gua Musang and then continued on to Kuala Terengganu passing through Tasik Kenyir State Park. As usual we booked to stay at our time sharing hotel, Berjaya Highland Hotel in Kea Farm. We departed from Taiping in late afternoon and took the Simpang Pulai way to go to Cameron Highland. It was almost dark when we arrived at our hotel and coincidently there was a power outage in the hotel. Luckily the power supply was resumed quite fast if not we would have to have our shower with chill water at temperature of 18 degrees Celsius.
After taking our dinner at the only Chinese restaurant near our hotel in Kea Farm, we retreated back to our hotel to do some review of literature on how to climb up to the peak of Mount Brinchang. There are two ways to climb up Mount Brinchang , with different distance and trail conditions. One of the routes is to walk the narrow and winding tar road near Kea Farm sharing the way with cars going up to Boh’ Tea Plantation and Mossy Forest Park. We decided to climb up Mount Brinchang via a shorter trail but a jungle trail to the peak of Mount Brinchang West based on All Trails apps which I subscribed.
We drove 4 km from our hotel at Kea Farm to Brinchang following the direction on google map as directed by my All Trails apps. We were directed to go up a hilly road to the trailhead after making a turn from the Clock Tower Roundabout before Brinchang town centre. We did not drive up the hilly road which is also the road leading to a malay kampung. Instead we parked our car at the car park near the Brew house. It is also near to a McDonald Cafe where it is convenient for those who wanted to grab some food for the climb. We walked about 1 km from where we parked our car to the trailhead via the construction site which later crossed onto the hilly road leading to the Malay kampung. The trailhead lies slightly below the water treatment plant by the road side. There is a torn off bandage sign at the entrance to the trail which stated that illegal entry to the jungle will be prosecuted. I wonder how many hikers will heed the notice since there is no security guard at the trailhead. Since this trail is a popular trail to reach the peak of Mount Brinchang West, perhaps the Forestry Department should set up a guardhouse at the trailhead to register and also impose a jungle permit fee if necessary for those hikers who enter the restricted area.
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First checkpoint , 1 km from trailhead.
The direction marker is just below the yellow checkpoint plate. |
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| Trumpet-like flowers could be seen all the way up |
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| Part of the trail was blocked by fallen tree trunks |
The trail surface is hard and well stepped on producing a clear trail with no undergrowth in the beginning of the hike. There are quite a number of mosquitoes on the trail and the nuisance was completely overcome after we sprayed our bodies with insect repellent. The trail is clearly marked with directional marker in the form of reflective plate hammered on tree trunks along the trail. After hiking for 1 km we reached the first checkpoint, CP PAK MAT, 1714 m asl. On the way up we could various types of wild flowers especially the trumpet-like flowers. After hiking for another 0.9 km ,we reached another checkpoint, CP MALTA, 1820m asl which has a big cleared empty space suitable for camping. After CP MALTA, we were jubilated and almost shouted out when we entered into the mossy forest which covered quite a big area. It was breathtaking to see the beauty of the surroundings. The ground was covered with thick dead moss making it very soft. We were like walking on carpet but we really wasted a lot of energy trying to pull out our hiking stick which sank deep into the carpet-like trail. Most of the trees in mossy forest are covered with thick moss with various patterns and who ever set foot into mossy forest will surely marvels at the beauty of the oldest mossy forest in the country.
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| Stunning view of the mossy forest |
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| It is green and moss everywhere |
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| First encounter with giant pitcher plant |
The climax of our excitement of this hike was the location of the giant pitcher plants among moss covered tree branches. The pitcher is red in colour with black lip and big enough to catch a mouse. I always thought that big pitcher plants can only be located in Sabah and now I am doubtful. Though this pitcher plant is not the biggest in Malaysia but is big enough to satisfy our appetite for locating wild pitcher plants in our mountain hiking trip.
The trail may look straight forward but there are few junctions which may lead us into the wrong trail. We would just refer to the map of All Trails Apps when we were not sure which way to follow. There were some muddy parts on the trail due to the frequent rain and we had to be careful not to get our shoes totally sucked into the mud. We then reached checkpoint CP UITM at 1952 m asl which is only 0.5 km to checkpoint Mount Brinchang West. The Peak of Mount Brinchang West is just 200 m from CP Mount Brinchang. When we almost reached the peak we could smell a very strong and pleasant aroma and we were quite confident it was the fragrance of pitcher plant's flowers. But we were wrong as we later found out that the aroma was in fact from flowers of a wild orchid. On the Peak, there are many pitcher plants of different varieties. The cups of the red pitcher plants are even bigger than what we saw in the mossy forest on our way up. It is not easy to see flower of pitcher plant but we were lucky to locate the flowers of two species of pitcher plants on the peak. Flowers of different species of pitcher plants are different in structure and fragrance. Except the amazing pitcher plants and wild orchid, we could also see the peaks of distant hills and panoramic view of Brinchang town below. After snapping some photo with the signature signboard written with “Peak of Mount Brinchang West, 2005 m asl”, we began to make our descent to the trailhead.
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| The largest cup of the red pitcher on the peak |
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| Flowers of red pitcher plant |
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| Yellow pitcher and its flowers |
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| Orchid which produces strong and pleasant aroma |
The hike was considered an exploratory hike as we had no guide in our hike and we were lucky the weather was fine throughout our hike up and down the hill. Throughout out our hike we did not encounter other hikers maybe because it was not a weekend. After we came down to the trailhead only I realiased I had suffered a cut which had stopped bleeding by tree branches even though I was wearing long sleeves’ shirt. Actually the trail passing through the mossy forest is not easy at all as there were fallen tree trunks blocking the trail. We either had to climb over the tree trunks or sneak through the narrow space below the fallen tree trunk. We were happy that we had added another peak in the list of mountains we had conquered.
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| Panoramic view of the town of Brinchang from the peak |
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| 4.3 km from trailhead to peak |
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