It was still dark out. The sun is still waking from its sleep, slowly rising above the mountains in the distance, helping show off the blue hue of the clear skies. A red blinking light continues its monotonous pattern while attached to the Topeak saddle bag.

In the early morning silence a metal gate clinks and squeeks as it opens. A bike’s slow freewheel clicks are heard. Then another set of sounds from the gate, this time it closes.

The digital display on the CatEye Velo 8 gets reset to 0.00. More silence. Then a different kind of click, this time from the Shimano cleats locking in to the SPD pedals. A soft breath, then the crunch of the dirt road as the Schwalbe tires start to turn. Another click from the other foot as it locks to the other pedal naturally.

A sign of the cross, then the rider, Craw, puts more effort in pedaling. From the dirt road a small ramp to the cemented road was borne naturally from the rain, foot and vehicular traffic that use this path and road. After preloading the shocks — fork and rear — Craw releases and jumps with the bike, using the small dirt ramp for some air.

He abruptly turns left as soon as he lands, and pedals on towards the village exit to the main road.

From the main road he turns left into the subdivision of a friend, nodding and greeting the guard a good morning, and smoothly shifts to the smallest cog, feeling the morning coolness against his face, his chest, his arms.

When Craw arrived Frank was already at the meeting place with his phone out. Sending out a message to Elmer, firming up plans of where to meet for this morning’s ride. It’s 6 A.M.

Craw dismounts and carries his bike over the pedestrian gate at the edge of this subdivision connecting it to its neighboring village.

“Where are we meeting him?” Craw asks, knowing they will all be using almost the same route.

“At the police station,” Frank says, referring to the police outpost in the middle of the Daang Hari road — the usual meeting place of bikers.

Craw nods, gets back on the bike, and starts pedaling.

As they approach the police outpost Frank was in the lead and coasts to someone in a bright, reflective green shirt. Craw recognizes it as Elmer. He later explains it was still dark out when he left his place, that’s why the shirt. Good choice.

In less than 10 minutes the last of the foursome, Cesar, arrived. After taking a short breather they decided to start the ride. For a little warm up Craw suddenly entered the lot where the Hari ng Daang Hari race (1, 2) was held and the group passed through the easier part of the track.

Inside the Malipay trails the group went through all the technical sections of the area. Sessioning was done by Cesar, the visitor to this part of the metro. In the midst of all the sessioning, tip-giving, and debates a group of three arrived taking this section in reverse.

When all was clear Craw shouted across the gorge to the group, “Are you guys with PhilMoFo?” referring to the Philippine Mountainbiking Forum, the local online forum run by mountain bikers for mountain bikers. Having misunderstood him the other group’s trail master answered back, “No, we’re Atom,” now referring to the name of their group. Oh well, Craw thought.

A few unsuccessful attempts were accumulated; but Cesar will be back, he vowed. They had to continue on as some of the group still had to go to work after the ride.

On a fire road that leads to the start of the single tracks Frank was calling to Craw. He left one of his gloves in the part where they met with the Atom group. He took it off while taking videos of Cesar.

Craw told Elmer and Cesar to stay there and rest while he goes with Frank to get his glove. When he reached the right turn he saw Frank still pedaling straight ahead. He missed the turn.

“Frank! Frank!” Craw called, but the pedaling figure kept on, ignoring the calls. Craw decided to take the turn as this will be the shorter route. He started pedaling hard and fast. A local might see the glove and keep it for himself.

Good morning greetings were again given to locals he passed, then a quick left turn down the technical single track sprinkled with roots. Frank hasn’t arrived. He started checking the ground, where Frank’s bike was laid down, where he thought Frank was standing when he was filming. No sign of the glove.

When he looked up the track Frank has already started the descent.

“I got lost,” he says in between laughter.

“I know, I was calling out to you.”

He then starts to look around. No sign of the glove. He goes back to where he was standing while filming. “GOT IT!” he triumphantly shouted. Craw didn’t look far enough, didn’t know the exact spot where Frank was filming.

They mount again, they climb again. “Additional mileage!” they both agreed. Laughter.

When they reached the resting pair Craw only slowed down, signaling to the two they should continue on.

Craw continues to pedal slow along the fireroad, letting the others gain and maintain their momentum. A group of little girls in school uniforms were on the tracks. Craw joked around with them, saying he’s about to catch up. The little girls squealed and started running while moving to the side making way for this group of bikers.

The group reaches the pylons marking the start of the single tracks. Making sure everyone will be able to follow Craw looks back and sees the whole group. With everyone trailing him he shoots through the gate posts and pedals on passing houses of locals, kids playing along the track, and more greetings were passed on to the kids and the grown-ups doing household chores.

A fast and uneventful run through the single tracks the group reaches the tree in no time where rest stops are made. Another group is now resting here, the same group they saw near the police outpost while waiting for Cesar.

More greetings. A request by the other group to have a picture taken with everyone was filled. 2 groups, 1 photo. Being strangers is not allowed. Invitations were given to the other group. An invitation to ride down to the river then climb back up, as the chance to go through this technical section is too good to pass up.

The other group was hesitant to join. No problem, Craw thought. “We’ll see you guys at PhilMoFo.co.cc, then,” Craw says.

Off they go to the last trail, a single track leading down to the river. They plan to turn back around and do the climb. Good exercise, good additional mileage.

Upon reaching the bottom of the track Craw dismounts and warns Cesar about the need to stop. They have reached the small river, unrideable due to the huge boulders. While discussing where the trail on the other side goes another group started arriving. Craw recognizes them as the Atom group. More hello’s were thrown back and forth, a short discussion and invitation about checking out and logging in to PhilMoFo, and off they went boulder hopping, bikes being carried across.

Checking the time the group decided to head out. One last fun climb. Reaching the end of the climb they continue on and took the fastest route going out of the Malipay trails and back to Daang Reyna, the road that connects to Daang Hari, and the police outpost.

8:30 A.M. Craw, Frank, and Elmer were on their way home towards Cavite. In the opposite direction from the police outpost Cesar pedals towards Alabang where their office is located, and where he parked his car.

Another morning ride, another weekday ride, another satisfying ride. The day is starting out perfectly.

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