Excerpt: “We’ll be riding in La Mesa this Sunday. Find me a bike.”

My wife suddenly blurted that out last week. I had to make sure I was awake. I had to make sure she was awake.

***

Read The Newbie-Killer, the “novel” here

Finally, I was able to upload the short video of this ride. Watch it inside:

2010 02 28 Newbie-Killer, La Mesa Nature Reserve from Francis Arellano on Vimeo.

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“We’ll be riding in La Mesa this Sunday. Find me a bike.”

My wife suddenly blurted that out last week. I had to make sure I was awake. I had to make sure she was awake.

I looked at her funny. Then she explained. One of her college friends agreed to try mountain biking. It will be her first time to ride a bike again. Her last was when she was still a kid (I think). The other friend already bought a mountain bike a few months ago. I’ve been inviting him to ride in Malipay but he blurts out excuses.

Then I found out he’s been riding/practicing/training with his best friend. Good, I thought. I found out on this ride this was his first time to hit the trails. I was a little bit hard on him beforehand as I thought he has been riding the Fort Bonifacio tracks as part of his training before accepting my non-stop invites. At the end of the day that was his fault (not letting me know about his trail-virgin status and rejecting my invites), hah!

Anyway, I sent out a few tweets in my search for a loaner bike for my wife. Most responses to that specific tweet on Facebook were words of encouragement for me to get her her own bike, but at the time she still didn’t want to commit (until at the time of this writing). But Ria replied and told me we could borrow her bike! Woot! And I was getting quite anxious as the first person to offer had to retract because of a sudden ride they’ll have on Saturday.

I also got a text from a friend from 4×4 Philippines, and a fellow Vitara Club of the Philippines (VCP) member, Mike, asking me if the ride will push through. And it was good he was able to join us. Now we both wonder when the VCP will have another mountain bike ride…

In conclusion I think my wife enjoyed the ride. Her friend hated it, and the trail-virgin loved it, he said he needs more cardio/endurance but he will surely be back on the trails. In one of my sarcastic texts to him way back when I used to send him ride invites, this is what I’m telling him again right now: I’ll believe it when I see it. Haha!

I’ll let the video (to be posted soon, I’m having trouble uploading it) and photos tell the other parts of the story.

In attendance were:

• Me (obviously )
• My wife
• Arliz (wife’s friend)
• Anil (a beginner from Philmofo)
• Mike B. (a fellow Vitara Club of the Phils member & 4x4PH member)

Shots taken with my wife’s Nikon D3000:

Time for a well-deserved rest! Honestly, I think the “beginners’ route” in the La Mesa Nature Reserve mountain bike trail isn’t really newbie-friendly. I’m using the terms newbie and beginner here in the very basic form: first-timer.

We have to continue on after a long rest at the refreshment hut (Gatorade, bottled water, hard-boiled eggs, suman, Cloud 9, etc., are available here).

Finally! We’re now at the La Mesa Watershed lake!

Done with the lake. Pedaling on. As the newbie-killer waits for the perfect time to strike: at the uphill singletrack section going away from the lake…

With last minute picture-taking my wife, Mike, and I were left a little bit behind. As we climb the singletracks we were greeted by the commotion caused by the first victim of the La Mesa Nature Reserve’s newbie-killer:

Our next immediate destination was the refreshment hut where we would meet the pick-up truck of the La Mesa rangers to bring Arliz back to the parking lot. My wife volunteered to accompany her while I succeeded in convincing the guys to continue on with the ride!

And she's happy now as we wait for the truck.

Still photos taken with my GoPro Helmet Hero cam:

*Video to be uploaded as soon as possible. I’m having trouble uploading…

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4AM my alarm goes off. Having only 4 hours of sleep I wanted so badly to go back to sleep. But we were told we should be at the meeting place by 5:30AM for our trip to the La Mesa Eco-park where we will try out the mountain bike trails there.

Left to Tower 1!

This was my second time there, the first time was last Oct. 19, 2008, when ABS-CBN and Bantay Kalikasan held the first Ride with Pride race (the La Mesa Watershed Eco-Bike Challenge), but the race made use of the intermediate trail for its race track.

Anyway, the reason for the early meet-up is to give allowance to latecomers; and we will still have to load the bikes in our assigned vehicles. By 5:45AM we were on our way to Petron along Commerce Ave. in Alabang to meet up with the others, then to Petron along C5 where another friend was waiting, and where the group had breakfast in Jollibee and Chow King.

As with quite a huge group (19 members of the Backout Boys were in attendance) the take-off after breakfast got delayed due to too much yapping — you’d think this will be the last time we will all see each other!

We got to the La Mesa Eco-park at around 8AM, unloaded and assembled the bikes, geared up, and was called by Glenn Flores, the head ranger, for the orientation before entering the trail. But before the orientation a short conversation was overheard between Glenn and M.P. (Master Patutut) that went like this:

M.P.: Saan ang pinakamalayo na pwedeng marating dito?
(Where is the farthest point we can go to?)

Glenn: Sa Tower 1. Pero yun ang pinakamahirap na trail.
(Tower 1. But that would be the most difficult trail we have.)

M.P.: OK! Sige, dun kami!
(OK! That’s where we’ll go!)

I can just smile, as I knew these guys would prefer the most difficult trail. For good reasons:

1. We are paying to enter and experience what they have to offer (PhP 200/head, minimum of 5 per group).
2. The La Mesa Eco-park is quite far from where we all live, around 2 – 2.5 hours of travel by car, without traffic the Philippines is infamous for.
3. Because of points 1 & 2 we want to take advantage of our trip AND our money spent.

Orientation by Head Ranger Glenn (in red)

During the orientation Glenn informed us the trail we’ll be riding in is 36km long, and warned us that in the La Mesa trails would feel like twice the actual distance. I was quite skeptical about this but in the end I would say the man speaks the truth! From our cyclo computers we only clocked 32km but if felt like 65km.

After a quick prayer we were on our way. The single tracks were damn fun! What these trails lack in technicality it made up for in distance, scenic views (in some parts), cleanliness (relatively), and roller coaster-like terrain (perfect downhills with sudden uphill climbs — SHIFT, SHIFT, SHIFT! ARGHHH!!!).

Expert Trail at La Mesa Eco-park CONQUERED!

If only I had a camera mount I would’ve taken pictures and videos while riding, but that isn’t the case, so the only pictures I have are of the group resting and proof that we reached Tower 1. Success!

By the time we got back to the parking lot we were all too tired to take photos… so…

As far as I know there were only 2 spills. Before we arrived there were 4 people waiting to enter the trails, but there is a 5-person rule, so they all had to wait for at least 1 more rider, then we arrived, 19 people. So they all tagged along. One member (I forgot the name, sorry) endo’d I think, as told to us by one of the rangers, so he opted to go back. I don’t know how serious the spill was. They all kept to the rear and I was in the middle so I didn’t see it happen.

On our way back down from Tower 1 we heard someone shout, the kind of shout when someone falls. We found out later on it was our friend Rodel. After a section where the terrain rolls up and down he was riding his downhill momentum to get up the next ascent, and noticed too late everyone in front of him stopped during the ascent. I think he wasn’t able to shift his weight in time while braking and his front tire hit a rock, then he crashed. The mud smears on his jersey looks bad, but he assured us he was fine; he fell on his side just hitting the ground (no protruding tree stump, etc., which is good).

All-in-all everyone had a great time, except for those who opted to go back due to the crash and being too tired to try to reach Tower 1. It was money and time well-spent.

I want to go back. This time I will be more adamant in telling the group to bring more than enough drinks and food. Almost all of us ran out of water and all of them didn’t believe me when I told them to bring extra food as we will need it when we’re inside the trails.

We reached the parking lot at around 3PM. Nice ride!

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