Turning the curve at the top of this slight incline I take in a deep breath, pedal lighter, and took a sip from my water bottle. Then I looked straight ahead. I noticed something different on the top part of the scene before me. It was dark. Good thing I know I wasn’t blacking out. It was the sky. The sky and clouds in the general direction that I’m going was real dark. Something out of a sci-fi movie.
Waiting for take off
It was my first time to do the Palace in the Sky climb last Friday, Aug. 21, 2009. What should have been a very looong and leisurely ride turned out to be a day of a few personal landmarks all done in 1 day, namely my first time to use my GoPro [...]
After more than a month of not riding the Malipay trails — 3 weeks of almost non-stop rains and a few days of letting the mud dry — we decided to check the conditions yesterday. With me was the father-son team of Eugene and Daniel.
If it wasn’t for what the area looks like right now [...]
When I reached the gate marking the end of the climb I saw it was closed. How are we going to get through if it’s locked, I though, taking note of the huge padlocks. We’ll deal with that later, I though to myself then quickly and gently I hit the gate with my front tire, while braking, and I check my watch immediately. 11:32 A.M.
I do a quick calculation. 48 minutes? Against my old record of 49 minutes? I laugh out loud!
Wallet, check.
Cellphone, check.
Bike lock, check.
IPod, earphones, check.
Energy bars, check.
Sun block, check.
Camera, check.
Gorillapod imitation tripod, check.
I’m ready to go. This is the first time again I’m going to use my hydropack, mainly because I’ve been using my Deuter Nordic Lite water bottle hip pack, plus the bite valve of my hydropack’s bladder has been leaking (after [...]
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 [...]
After almost 2 weeks of no riding I was finally able to ride this afternoon! Only one of the handful of people I invited rode with me, but I didn’t care. The important thing is I’m back on the saddle and back in the trails!
We started around 3 P.M. and we just did a fairly [...]
It was supposed to be a quick weekday ride. What should have been done in a relaxed 1-hour loop took up most of the morning, with us finishing around 11:30 A.M.
I was at the meeting place, at the police outpost along Daang Hari, at 7 A.M. Jun arrived at around 8 A.M., followed shortly by [...]
