Last Sunday's ride started as typical one. We planned to take our usual route via Pangarap -> Licao-licao -> Tungko. Nothing technical, we surmised the Mahogany 1 and 2 trails would be too muddy for our biking pleasure (don't get me wrong, we love muds on our bikes hehe).

There was something atypical about our typical ride, the Pangarap route is a favorite Sunday morning trail for mountain bikers but there were no other groups except us. Or so we thought.

While taking a pit stop in Kapitan's place in Mahogany another group arrived. (Kapitan's place is a favorite rest stop for bikers. You can have meals cooked there.) Three of the 5 bikers in that group were old acquaintances, and of the three, 2 were well known (popular, notorious maybe hehe) trail masters among the PMTB folks. So our bordering to boring "I already know all the turns and bumps" ride headed to some new promising trails.

After taking our lunch in Licao licao terminal, we proceed to the real "Jackhammer trail" - 1 km or so of pure fork pounding fun. The one I referred to before as the "Jackhammer trail" is just an "extension" of the real one.


The we hit the downhill rush of Daang Diablo (Devil's Trail). Its my second time to take that trail and my first time to do an "endo". I overestimate by fork's capacity and my ability to do some tricky balance. Good thing I was not going too fast. Nothing's hurt, except my pride hehe. Not even a scratch ... on my bike :D.

The best part of the day was doing the scenic downhill single track in Tungko. You are greeted with a wide open space - a sea of cogon grass.


But don't let the nice scenery suck you in, the single track has some nasty sections that can produce "tumble downs" if you are not careful. Good thing the track was not slippery with mud.


I couldn't resist on doing some ethereal effect post processing on one of the photos :


The last segment of the Tungko downhill single track was a muddy, a real "mud up to your knee" muddy trail.


At the end of the ride we got mud in every imaginable parts of our bike and maybe in some unimaginable parts of our body :D. But mud is good. The more mud, the happier we are :).

Till the next ride...

Vicky's first taste of trail mud came courtesy of La Mesa watershed trails. La Mesa, which is 2000+ hectares of protected watershed, supplies most parts of Metro Manila with drinking water. It is open for recreational outdoor activities like camping and mountain biking. For mountain biking, it'll set you back 200 pesos: minimum of 5 persons in a group, each group is assigned a trail master (or trail guide). Not bad, considering you have access to medical help and a pick up truck (to pick you up hehe) if decide to call it quits in the middle of the trail.

So last Sunday we did not hesitated when one of our PMTB contacts invited us for a ride.


The loop we took that day was relatively short (just about 20km) compared to our usual Sunday runs. But I guess it was the quality of the trail that made the big difference. The outdoor photographer in me kept wishing I brought some serious photo equipment.


Overall it was an OK day. I did not regret parting with my 200 bucks. My advise to those who want to try the La Mesa trails is to bring lots of drinking water (at least 1.5 liters). Although its a watershed, there is no source of drinking water along the trails (quite ironic hehe). Lots of streams though if you don't really mind hehe.

Oh, Vicky did well btw.

Kaye's gone, but she lives on in Vicky.

I ride a Vision Pursuit now with reused parts from my old (3 months old) K2 Bayside bike. Fitted it with a Shimano Deore LX Hollowtech FC-M572 crank, very smooth pedalling.

Vision Pursuit frames have a local cult following. The frames, with several eye catching colors to choose from, are designed by Da Bomb with inputs from Filipino mountain bikers.

Last weekend was a long breather, literally. The fresh air of Baguio (well at least in several parts of the city) was a welcome respite from the smog of Metro Manila. It was also our long overdue family vacation. Not an outdoor trip this time, and no pressure in capturing that "perfectly lighted landscape". I did not even think much of photographing anything. That would sound ironic if you've seen us that day - we were lugging around several kilos worth of photo equipment hehe (my brother is also into photography). I was tempted quite a few times to veer off the well established destinations and explore but I'm glad I didn't.

So what does one do in Baguio?

Well, the nice cold weather (a nice 15-20 degrees Celsius) is perfect for lazily waiting for the fog to creep in while sipping a hot cup of choco or coffee.


Then there are the parks. If you are into flowers then Baguio is the place for you. Its the only one with a flower festival (Panangbenga Festival)




Of course when one is in Baguio, the PMA (Philippine Military Academy) grounds is a must. There you'll meet the finest, bravest, and brightest of our soldiers (and future politicians?) and defenders of our motherland. :)


We also visited some of your not so typical Baguio destinations. On the way to the strawberry fields in La Trinidad, Benguet, we passed by the Bell Church (aka Chinese Temple). It was a very serene place and we were practically the only group there. There was a koi and lotus pond right in the center of the courtyard. Everywhere you look there are intricate Chinese designs on practically everything.



Weather turned sour when we reached the strawberry fields. It rained and the fog cover began to thicken. So we forgo the plan of strawberry picking because of the mud.


If you want to visit an art gallery in a native setting, there is the Tam awan Village in the northwestern outskirt of Baguio City.

No new outdoor trips at the moment, but here's one of the fruits of my recent trek to Mt. Romelo :)

Link to web gallery here.

It's one of those few hours (yes my bike does not stay clean that long) when Kaye's squeaky clean. It the rainy season and its time to play in the mud! :)