San Carlos Heights

San Carlos Heights is a subdivision in Quiot, Pardo, Cebu City. If you have no idea where that is, let Google Earth make it easy for you. About a couple of kilometers where the houses is a hill that hosts a trail of pure, solid, I’ll-rip-your-flesh-off rocks. It recently was the venue of a downhill competition organized by OZ racing, Gene’s Mountain Bike Adventure, and our group of friendly riders, which I was not able to attend because I was at work.

I am glad that I had work as an excuse because it rained that day and the trail may not be that steep but it has rocks that are willing to devour every square-inch of flesh you offer it. To get to the trail, you can ride a motorbike for 25pesos. Or you can bring your own ride. Pedaling is not an option if you have a full-on downhill bike because the climb is quite steep, unless of course you dope regularly.

Ronda Pilipinas - Cebu Leg

Ronda Pilipinas -- Cebu Leg. There was so much to see, I can't find anything to say.

Taptap - Kan-irag with Egay and Chy

Mind your left

So this guy on a white triathlon bike passed the three of us by and I thought he has been saying good morning to my friends. I later realized that he's been saying "Mind your left." Mind your mouth, it's the only thing I can tell you old guy. Maybe you'd have some traumatic experience with a cyclist swerving your way or probably you're afraid of the least possibility that someone will scratch your TT bike. Oldie, we're making our slow, merry way uphill on all-mountain bikes that are full-suspension, have 2.35" tires (that's the mountain bike tires' equivalent of human obesity), and forks that are at least 120mm (definitely not for climbing). We were naturally slower but we would in no way get in anybody's way, because we share the road.

And dear old dude, why did we find you resting and you haven't even reached Willy's yet? And you said Chateau de Busay is the steepest portion of the trip? You clearly did not have any idea where we were headed. Cheers, genius.

Riding with Egay and Chy

My superclose friend (like atomic-distance kind of close friend) Egay came home (partly) to get married (mostly, so he can ride his bike). I'll have to place a disclaimer that I'm just joking because his wife, which has also become a good friend of mine, may ban him for life on the mountain bike. But anyway, he'll be living a happy life in Bangkok soon with Kate and so he got a whole-day visa to ride his bike. (PS: I was the wedding's bestman and I delivered a bro-some speech. Best wishes, hoe.)

I invited Chyrel Gomez, who is a common friend, mainly because I have not accompanied a trail newbie for so long already. Rain plus trail plus newbie is always fun. She fell off a few times on her bike, to say the least. I have to admit that there were quite a few times when our ride almost ended up as a hospital drama. But I did enough prep talk to make her wanna do it again. She said she'll be back with a vengeance, to whom, I do not know.

Pangamihan-Lake Casuy: Hoorah

I almost picked up a fight with a “parking valet” this lunch. You know one of those guys who pretend to look after your motorbike or car when they are not really doing anything at all. How can a guy who has never had a motorbike in his life, never rode one, never had a driver’s license, and does not even have a shirt on know more about you on how to park your bike properly?

They do not even own the street where you park on so why do we have to pay them? They get five or ten pesos by doing some hand gestures, half of them I don’t even understand. I earn every money that I get by actually doing something. There are people near the place I live who earn five pesos by carrying 25 gallons of drinking water to your doorstep. And they actually help.

Sometimes these parking valets would be hovering around even if there are already traffic attendants collecting 15 pesos for parking fee. You’d have to pay 10 pesos more and that’s 25 pesos. I get 24-hour unlimited prepaid internet for 50 pesos and even if the service sucks that allows me to download at least one movie. Their help does get me anything at all.

The carton they use to cover your seat when the sun is high is not even worth ten pesos. If you ever pay, you should take the carton home with you.

**

I think I took a wrong turn when I was trying to find my way to sanity. I'm only glad that this wrong turn does not involve a bunch of wood-inhabiting, dentally impoverished, and misleadingly portrayed red necks. Anyway, I don’t have a camera anymore so I barely blog. To paraphrase Alice in Wonderland: “What good is an outdoor blog if it does not contain pictures?”

**

I rode the Pangamihan route yesterday. The drop off point is at Gaas, just along transcentral highway. I used Russ’ bike for this ride. I have a love-hate relationship with that bike. I love it so much when I’m riding downhill but I brutally hate it when I’m doing climbs. But everything feels worth it when it just tears thru rain ruts, and I’m not too good at taking care of myself but that bike does it for me when things get a little out of control. Summary: Fox Float RL and Jamis Parker make a really good pair.

Pangamihan is mountain barangay in the midpart of Cebu City. Along it runs a dirt road which plunges all the way to Toledo, in a sleepy lakeside barangay called Casuy. Not too many vehicles pass by in the area and so nobody bothers to take care of the road. After rainy days, you’ll get ruts that eat up the road from all directions. It’s a major test of cornering skills and judgment which I have none and which I pretend to have. My favorite part of the area is that place we call Windows XP. It’s a meadow that looks like that default Windows XP wallpaper. It wasn’t so green yesterday though, but it’s still as breathtaking (because the climb there is quite steep).

Once you reach the bottom of the descent you’ll have to tread thru a river which also doubles as the main road. From Casuy, it’s a slow decent to another barangay, I forgot the name. And from that barangay is another half hour of pedaling thru a flat, endless fire-road. The boredom makes you suicidal.
When I reached Toledo City, I went to this place called Sangi where the buses are. I paid 50pesos for the bike and 60pesos for myself. Some smart guys asked me why I’m boarding the bus when I could have pedaled all the way to the city. Those people cannot tell one bike from another so it’s a question I prefer not to answer.