Travel Footprints

With the unbearable summer heat upon us, most of the boys are getting lazy to get up to a sweltering morning (at 5am at that!) to ride under the even more unbearable sun. But we’re not about to retire for the season just yet. The solution? Ride at night what else?

I’ve done quite a few night rides already but mostly because it just so happens that we reach nightfall due to a rather long ride. And some 12hr or 24 hour races. But this is the first where instead of meeting up at 6am to ride, we actually met up at around 6pm.

La Mesa was the perfect venue for a night ride, primarily for several reasons –

• Safety: it’s a closed area, so minimal chance of encountering and ‘unwanted elements’
• Support: your entrance fee gets you a ranger to accompany you during the ride (1 for every 5 riders)
• More Support: aside from your guides, the La Mesa folks also have a pick-up traversing the fire road around the park. So if any emergency arises, you can be easily brought out of the park
• Smoooooth Trails: unlike our usual trails where we basically ride fire roads or foot paths, the La Mesa singletracks were built for mountain biking

For night rides, La Mesa requires a minimum number of riders. You need at least 30 bike addicts paying 200 each (or 20 paying 400 each, 10 at 600 . . .).

Ride starts with the usual gear check, with the additional work to prepare our night lights. For a night ride, you’d want at least 100 lumens shining the way. I was hoping to rely on my Princeton Tec Headlamp (at 70 lumens) which we had bought for our Nepal trip. Just to be sure I had borrowed another lamp (150 lumens) which I just duct taped to my helmet. LED lamps offer a broader coverage, but at a shorter range. This becomes pretty glaring when you lift your head up a bit, and the LED light just seems to dissolve in the darkness. Tilt a little bit down again and a couple of meters infront of your bike shines brightly again. LED doesn’t eat up a lot of power also, so you run less risk of losing your light in the middle of a 4-5 hour night ride.

I figure I also want other decorative lights on my next night ride (like blinking lights on my wheels, or those other stuff you see at rave parties . . . hey it’s a Saturday night anyway!)

I’ve ridden La Mesa several times already, but the rush was so much different at night. Riders usually look for that ‘Flow’ – that feeling that all conscious actions dissolve and you ride on pure instinct,one with the bike, one with the trail. Maybe it’s the tunnel vision of seeing just a couple of meters ahead, maybe it’s the encompassing darkness, maybe it’s the fear of being left all alone in the pitch darkness … but that Flow was definitely there.

Somehow I just kept my momentum all across from sudden drops to sudden ascents . . . it felt great, it felt fast . . . until the rational mind kicked and said, ‘stop, your body is tired!’

At the middle of the ride, someone took a nasty spill. No major injuries fortunately, but she was quite shaken up, with a sore shoulder. Good thing the park rangers had a pick-up waiting at one of the rest stops. We loaded her and her bike on the pick-up to recover back at home base while the rest of us pushed on (reminiscent of those scenes from The Pacific).

Onward we went to the final stretch of single track going down to the lake. I didn’t want to miss this as I knew I could get a good shot down there. Nice and smooth ride down until a couple of loose branches caught my handlebar and my I face planted down on the ground, cursing in the darkness (not so much because of the pain, though it was painful, but because of my bruised ego – no I shouldn’t have crashed, I was a veteran rider). But crash I did and I think my helmet hit the ground pretty hard. Some scratches on my cheek, knees, shoulders, but otherwise I was fortunate that the ground was quite soft.

After a couple of pagmumuni-muni moments, we rode on back to homebase. We opted to ride mostly ride roads this time, since we’re all pretty tired. The line was pretty stretched this time, as all of us were simply thinking of getting back as fast as possible so we can finally rest easy. No more pitstops this time folks, just a final dash for home . . .

Where boxes of Shakeys Pizza was waiting for us! Yes, made sure to call Shakeys before our ride so that they’d deliver our pizza just in time. Was a bit of a challenge explaining to them where the La Mesa Nature Reserve was (not the Eco Park mind you), but hey, they got there! Kudos to Shakes customer service! Talagang kahit saan makaka-deliver. In since we had the Shakeys Pizzamatic card, that’s buy 1 take 1 folks! 8 boxes! And a couple of liters of Coke and Poweraide from our kind friend Toots.

Lots of the riders were wondering why we didn’t do night rides more often! Well, we got part 2 planned, and I’ve already bought some equipment to help me next time:

• Rudy Project Yellow lens for my Zyon. Darkness and dust just doesn’t do well for my eyes.
• - additional 200 lumens LED light

Now I just need to look for those neon whatever rave party accessories and we’re good to party again, La Mesa Coke Zero style!

Shotgun Trail, named by a mountain-biking group because of a horseback-mounted guard of ex-Mayor Roxas who tried to turn them away with a shotgun (it’s now biker-friendly though!). It’s the bike trail I dreaded the most but there’s really no point in delaying the inevitable with our Nepal trip fast coming up. So early Saturday morning, we were headed once again to face off with the mountains of Maarat on our bikes.

While Mr. Rono is a veteran biker of the (in)famous Shotgun, it is MY first time to actually go through it last Saturday. So the moment I look up and see where we’re headed, I get easily intimidated by the long uphill climbs on our bike. -

Mr. Rono distinctly remembers how much harder it was to bike this trail when it was still a slim singletrack and was later developed to a wide fireroad. And now a full-fledged highway it seems -

This was really one tough uphill stretch! With the el nino heat beating down upon us, it really felt like the Lenten Season has already began and we are on our own personal, uhm, hell Some parts of the trail had me pushing my bike already, the ride was exhausting! It even got me singing -

‘Ain’t about how fast I get there
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the cliiimmbbbb…’

And I mean it literally!

Mr. Rono and I were virtually the only bikers taking on Shotgun trail that day. The only company we had on the trail were bikers going down the trail, construction workers by their rest station and the occasional dump trucks going to and from the sanitary landfill up in the mountains of Rizal.

We’re not too happy about the dump trucks passing because we always get a lung-ful of dust! This does not figure well with our heavy cardio exercise while we go up the mountain on our bikes. But we’re still glad that they share the road with bikers at least. This shotgun trail was a test of both perseverance and patience. And a great eye-opener when we finally reached the top! This was the first time I ever saw the sanitary landfill of Montalban from a near distance.

The trail eventually connects to the main Maarat trail where Mr. Rono and I have been biking in the last couple of weekends. Though rather than connecting to our usual route, we opted to start our way back then (fortuntately it was much much easier going back). Had a quick stop near the TImberland Gate for some Goto and Mountain Dew

It was a tough ride, but I can honestly say I feel a good sense of accomplishment, and actually blurted out I wouldn’t mind doing it again.

Mr. Rono only smiled.

[Btw, this scene with the landfill was reminiscent of how we started with mountain-biking. Back in 2002 on a holiday in Boracay, I wanted to see where the highest point of the island is. The locals told us of an overlooking point somewhere on top of Mt. Luho. We didn't want to go there on a tricycle and we certainly weren't up for a long hike up a mountain. Luckily, we passed by some bikes being rented out for around Php50/hour only. Mountain-biking in Boracay was definitely a fresh experience for us! It was a tough climb and we were severely disappointed when we saw the unpleasant sight of a garbage dumpsite on the way to the overlooking point. Garbage dumpsites in mountains really is an ugly truth in our country, eh?]

So we’re planning a major trip soon, one that would require at least some decent physical shape. What better way to train than to go riding up the mountain! Perfect excuse to get Mrs. Rono to finally use her bike again (it’s been our loaner bike for some time now, waiting for that guest that would want to try our local trails). But now, bike and rider will reunite once again!

So last weekend I took her up Maarat. Home turf. This is where I started riding, this is where I first rode with other mountain bikers. This is where I first crashed. Decided to do the basic trail with some ‘shortcuts.’ Usually we’d park at the base of the mountain then pedal up either via Shotgun or The Wall. Nice place to start eh?

But this time, we took it easy. Drove most of the way up. Rode up the Basic Trail, then took a very nice detour via Roxas. Weather was fine. Trail was dry and dusty. Perfect trail conditions to ride . . . or I guess walk. It’s either your heart’s into it or not when you ride down Roxas. Get that flow, and the trail opens up and you experience utter bliss and psychotic happiness. Get a little grain of fear, and you bounce left and right, and end up walking most of the way.

Mrs. Rono hard at training

Anyhow, we discovered the wonderful HD vid capability of the Lumix LX-3 . So here are some clips to give you a preview of the ‘intense’ physical training we intend to do in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully Mrs. Rono will be in shape to join us for a ride up in Bataan on the Lakbay 44 Trail. Nice scenic route from Mariveles to Bagac, mountains on one side, beaches on the other. No need to mention that it’s a whole day ride huh?

Now I just need to find a way to strap that Lumix to my helmet.

Was a really good day to ride. Weather was cold. Sky was overcast. But still you can see patches of blue skies. It’s another weekend spent intimately with the trail they call ‘Killer Loop’ in Mariveles, Bataan. This is my third time to ride Killer Loop, and remains to be one of my favotire rides, no matter how wasted I am afterwards.

Apparently the story behind the name Killer Loop is that, several years back (circa 2002 or 2003), some ‘classic’ members of Pinoy Mt. Biker (PMTB) rode this trail in Bataan which passed through several barangays starting from Liyang. Initially, it was called Death March Trail by the local bikers. After the ride, the PMTB folks just had to say, ‘This is not Death March. This is a Killer Loop’. And so the name stuck since!

Blood, sweat, and tears. Killer Loop tests the endurance of both man and machine. Though morbid, I like this photo as it somehow captures the spirit of mountainbiking. Blood and guts. We ride no matter what.

Lester’s chainstay broke (the tube between the crank and the rear wheel). Some trail side repair shown here. Using combined technical knowledge in physics, mech engineering, and medicine, he was able to repair his bike. Not a perfect fix, but at least it will help him finish the ride.

There’s a tweezer inside the tube, wrapped with some heavy duty medical tape, reinforced by a wrench (like a splint), further reinforced by a climbing rope. Don’t ask why Troy was carrying a set of wrenches on a bike ride. But good thing he did.

We were lucky that the weather was really really nice. I carried about 2.5 liters in my pack, 500ml on my water bottle mounted on the bike, plus another bottle of Real Leaf Green Tea stowed in my pack just to be sure. This time, this lasted me until we got down. Last time, I had to drink from the stream up top.

Group got lost a bit through the web of tracks going down (and at one point even once group was going down a trail and the other going up!)

Yes boys and girls. That’s my new bike.  A Chumba VF2, mix of aluminum and carbon fiber goodies. She can ride right through anything as long as you have the courage (going downhill) and the power (going uphill). Point and shoot.

Got a bit of history lesson as well, as Eboy described for us how the Battle of Bataan went. Nothing like being in the middle of the mountain to make history really come alive. Apparently the trail we rode was the old artillery road. And we were complaining about pushing a 30lbs bike up the mountain. Imagine the soldiers back then!

Went down via the lovely Joyce Trail, but Eboy took us beyond that and into what Arnel now calls Captain America hehehe. Basically very fast, very smooth singletracks all the way down. Pretty surreal, since the sun was fading, the wind was howling, and you were just flying down (to the tune of Defying Gravity from Wicked ).

Alas, not a lot of pictures on the other side, going down. It’s just too much fun to ride vs. stopping from time to time to take pictures.

So just imagine with me . . .

Imagine the sun slowly fading, soft light washing over the mountain
Imagine nothing but the breeze of the wind flowing over the mountain
Imagine riding on top of the rideline, flowing left, right, hearing nothing but your tires and the wind
Imagine going like this for about 30 mins.

Nothing else exists except you, the bike, and the trail . . .

Surreal, like a dream.

And so another history lesson of the Battle of Bataan is over. It’s time we learn something new – the Death March! Planning to ride with what the Bataan Trail Riders call Lakbay 44, an epic 50+kms ride from Mariveles to Bagac, passing through some spectacular sceneries. Ride starts from Zero (0) km of the famed World War II Death March Marker in Mariveles to the 0 km marker in Bagac.

Now just have to find other riders crazy enough to go along with me (and look for a place that Mrs. Rono can hang out (maybe Anvaya Cove in Subic?) while I do another epic ride in Bataan. But first, need to get that helmet cam so I can capture more!

Special thanks to the Bataan Trail Riders Eboy and Lester!

I have many fond memories of Baguio growing up. Almost every Christmas my family would trek up and spend cozy holidays there. This slowly faded though as Baguio turned into a city just as congested as Manila.

Baguio has become a destination for me again ever since I discovered the various trails in and around the city. Yes, at its outermost parts the pristine pine covered mountains do still exist . . .

Some years back a friend had invited me up to ride. No idea where exactly. All we knew was we wanted to go up and ride anywhere. As I had a company team meeting that week, it was the perfect excuse to go.

Drove up on Sat, slept over at Troy’s house, and started our ride around 7am on Sun. We had intiallly planned to join the Baguio crew on another ride, but due to rain It was cancelled. But the three of us wanted to ride something long that day, and thought, hey, how about Ambuklao? Was supposed to be 30-35km one way, so we figured it was doable.

“Kaya ba natin?”

“Oo kaya siguro. One day ride lang.”

“Ok let’s go”

Sometimes it’s half baked plans that turn out to be memorable adventures.

Started from troy’s house in La Trinidad. First 10-12kms was paved road along Halsema Highway, moderate climbs with the occasional drizzle. I felt good. I felt strong. It was a perfect day to ride. A couple of kms before the guerilla saddle was the trailhead, leading to Ambuklao dam.

What follows is probably the most fun easy dh course i’ve seen, 19kms of twisty fireroads/doubletracks, with berms along the way. It was just screaming speed and high g turns  I would describe it as forgiving yet enticing. If you’re an adrenaline junky, let go of the brakes, stay low on the bike and carve your corners. It was zigzag all the way down. Those less inclined can take their time, no big rocks or ruts.

The rain also meant lots of mist along the way, which really made for a surreal riding experience. Not a lot of pics taken here as we were having too much fun to stop.

At around 11am or so, we reached Ambuklao dam. And as is the norm with biking, took our time to pose and take shots 

Then begins the best part of any ride . . .the uphill climb back to Baguio, all 35kms of it, of which Onie could only comment, ‘I’m so tired, it feels like I’ve had sex with three women in one night . . . ‘  So maybe that’s Onie’s secret for being a strong rider . . . ? hehehehe

Anytheway, at km 27 to Baguio, we chanced upon Pingkan Jo’s eatery, which was well stocked with Gatorade and Red Bull. A literal Oasis amidst all this!  I think this was around 3pm or so already. Hell, I was grinding at 3-5kph up, and I was seriously questioning a local’s comment that it would only take 3-4 hours back (oh, it takes a car 1 hour to get up, so you guys will take probably around 3 hours), uhm, ok.

Well, at nightfall we were still around 15kms from Baguio, and it was getting colder, and it was starting to rain again. Good thing Onie and I brought lights. Telling some ghost stories along the way didn’t help either . . . eventually our lights died out and we were walking in pitch darkness. No moon, no light, no traffic. Just the lights in the distance of which I keep hoping would be Baguio already.

At km 8, we called it quits. It was about 9pm, and we were resting at a sari-sari store which had some enclosure, a thankful sight on a cold wet night. So when a jeepney pulled over (fortunately it was a sort of turn point for most jeep trips), we negotiated for a ride back to La Trinidad. Stopped over at Andok’s for our dinner, and just dumped all our dirty gear at Troy’s living room  We didn’t want to look at our bikes anymore.

Special thanks to Onie for the photos.

 

Bataan has always been one of my favorite riding destinations. So when a ride was organized to do the Killer Loop Trail during one of the long weekends in August, I immediately signed up. It’s been a long time since I’ve done long whole day rides so I really looked forward to this ride.

How to Get There

The Killer Loop Trail starts in Pilar, Bataan. Coming from Manila, it’s about a 3 hour drive from Balintawak (around 1 hour of that is just to get through the horrendous traffic in Balintawak due to the MRT construction). I parked my SUV at the Total gas station in Pilar. I heard you could also take the bus going to Mariveles. The rest of the group opted to rent vans instead though.

It was about 9am before the entire group was complete and we started our ascent up Killer Loop (KL).

What to Bring

You just have to smile through it all.

I had ridden KL two years before, so pretty much knew what to expect: lung-busting climbs, spectacular views of Mt. Samat and the Bataan Peninsula, sweet descents. It also means no store whatsoever within the trail, so you have to bring all the supplies that you need. For a mountainbiker like me that sweats about 1L and burns about 500 Kcal per hour, this is what was in my ‘lunchbox’:

• 2 Clifbars (about 250 Kcal per bar and 10g of Protein, with all natural ingredients) 
• 1 Clifblok Electrolyte Chew  (about 200 Kcal)
• 2 bars of Apple & Cranberry Cereal Bars (about 100Kcal)
• 1 Hammer Gel (about 90 Kcal)
• 1 Jollibee Champ for lunch (about 600kcal)
• 2L of water in my hydration pack, and about 500ml of Gatorade in a separate water bottle (the last time I had brough more drinks, but the weight was just too much to bear. I decided I would just drink from the stream this time around)

As with any sport, you have to “eat before your hungry, drink before your thirsty.” For me, I feel my body shutting down if hunger sets in. I suppose it’s like your laptop suddenly going into low power mode. Net, I’ve learned in long rides to ensure that I’m constantly chewing on something every hour.

Up the Mountain

Up the mountain we go.

From Total gas station, you pedal on the road going towards the Mt. Samat Cross. You don’t climb towards the cross though. The Killer Loop trail actually goes around Mt. Samat (and by around I don’t mean around the base, but around the surrounding mountains.). Indeed, I think at one point in the KL trip we were even higher than the Mt. Samat Cross!

You climb over cement roads, then fireroads, and then singletracks all the way up. It’s not one long climb though, but rather something like a staircase – short steep climbs followed by a moderately flat terrain, then climb again, and again, and again . . . The noise of the barrio below gradually fades away, ’til all you hear is the rustling of the trees and grass amidst the mountain air.

It’s in these moderately flat terrain with some trees that you take your rest when you can. If you take some time from trying to catch your breath wondering why the hell you’re doing something like this, and actually look around, you will see just how spectacular the view is up top. From the highest point, you can see the Mt. Samat Cross in the distance. And enveloping that, the South China sea. Maybe it’s the lack of oxygen going through your brain, but you can start imagining also the Von Trapp family singing in the distance (‘the hills are alive….’).

Anyway, one can’t help also but think how life must have been like for the Bataan defenders back in WWII standing in one of the ridges overlooking the entire peninsula. It certainly felt like there were different platoons spread out across the trail is one group catches up with another.

You just have to work extra hard for some parts of the climb.

The Best Burger

We finally hit the summit around 2pm. The group was slower than usual since there were a lot of novice riders. Someone forgot to mention that it wasn’t a newbie ride. So a lot of pushing, resting, pushing . . .(I heard that one of the Bataan Trail Riders did this with a couple of triathletes, and they completed the entire ride in about 3 hours. ) Anyway, after being baked in the sun battling it up the mountain, thankfully the rest area up top was well covered with trees. The local riders called the place aircon. Nice.

And there’s nothing like a juicy 1/3 lbs burger after all that sufferfest. Mmmmmmmmmm.

It’s about 3pm when the group was on the march again (yes, literally marching, since the trail was wet, slippery, and filled with large rocks, but then again that means we’re near a water source). After rationing my water supply going up, it was oh so refreshing to drink all the water that I could out of that stream. And it was icy cold to boot!

And finally, we were on our way down.

The Flow

Rides check their bikes before the ride down. Mr. Rono waits patiently for his turn to ride.

Riders call it The Flow. It’s that feeling when your riding, and everything just sems to hang together. You are in tune with your bike, with the terrain, with yourself. Concsious thought gives way to the subconscious, and you are, well flowing through the trail. Not thinking, simply riding. Those who have felt this, crave this.

The ride pretty much made the climb all worth it. I will gladly climb KL again just to experience that sweet ride down. The first part of the descent was somewhat technical, fun, but there were some parts where I had to stop to get over a big rock, big drop, etc. No flow yet, not at least at my skill level.

At about 5pm, we came upon the final run towards the end of the trail. Head straight, and you go though a wide fireroad. This was the route we took last time, and I was so tempted to just take this trail and head on back to Total. I was exhausted, and my shoe was already malfunctioning (the clip that attaches the bottom of the shoe to my right pedal was coming lose, so I couldn’t engage it right). Turn right, and you take the longer route going down. At first, I didn’t feel like riding here. My hands were already aching, and my left hand was certainly not exerting enough pressure anymore to control my front brakes.

The long sweeping fireroad down. Mr. Rono rode down an alternate route down.

There were still several riders left behind, so most of the group would wait for them and take the shorter route down. Some of us though were invited to ride the alternate route.

And I’m glad we did. This trail was pure smooth, super fast, super flowy singletracks all the way down. We were flowing though the mountaintops dusted by the last remaining glow of the sun. I just smile whenever my hands start to give, and focused on the trail. We were flowing. I will gladly go through the climbs of KL again just to experience this. It is that fun, that rewarding. 

The singletracks gradually gave way again to fireroads, then cemented roads, and to the sounds of dogs barking and tricycles running. We were finally back in Pilar. Some ice cold Coke please!

Photo credits: Roche Cuyco of Mt. Biking Babes (MtBBabes)

Dark clouds above did not dampen the adventurous spirits of the boys after we got down from Sitio Target route. Although it crossed our minds, going towards the 7-km ride to Puning Hot Springs (Station 3) on our bikes was not a good idea. The choices were either to backtrack Sitio Target route or carve a path along wet, muddy and sandy Sacobia River.

Guess where our pedals took us?

The ride along the Lahar Valley was definitely one-of-a-kind. Not to mention that it started pouring rain a little after we took off with this unchartered trail. As we were pedaling, we joked about biking for our lives as we talk about the possibilty of rain and raging lahar coming down to us (yikes!). The Sacobia route was difficult but fun. Imagine biking along wet sands punctuated with several river crossings under the pouring rain. At one point, I couldn’t pedal anymore BUT I remained upright for probably 40 seconds, as if in a stationary bike, because my front wheel was dug in too deep in the sand.

The fun in the lahar lasted for a little more than 6 kilometers. From the Sacobia River, we went up somewhere in the vicinity of a footbridge and was back in Clark through the lesser known but very scenic Gate 14 route. At the end of the ride, we were all a picture of happy bikers!

Photo credits: Lydon de Luna of Team VGB in Angeles, Pampanga