It had been almost two months since I last trekked. My KHS mountain bike was beginning to get jealous of my road bike, with me spending precious weekend time on flats and my limited budget on upgrades to the Cannondale.
The confirmation text came from Dave, and off we went.
We met at the Shell gas station in front of the grotesque Gotesco mall on Commonwealth Ave. Other bikers were meeting there; it's the jumping off point for rides up north. From Shell we had another 30-40 min journey through the Payatas dump area to get to the trailhead at Buffalo Farm.
Our group was seven – Doc Mon Belmonte, Dr. Ronnie Mendoza, guide Abul Solomon (who would prove to be a big help later on), Jun, Dave Valdes, and my brother Freddie. Later on, we would be joined by Ericson, another biker very familiar with the terrain.
We mounted about 7:30 a.m. The early part of the ride was the highlight. From the dirt road we cut into single tracks, making our way to a mahogany plantation. It was named "Mahogany Trail," and this section was straight out of a "Lord of the Rings"
movie set. The trees made sure there was no direct sunlight penetrating the canopy. The entire floor was covered with leaves, so riding down a slight slope, it was as if we were pedaling on a soft mat. Morning mist from a drizzle kept us cool.
During the first 15 minutes of the ride, someone from our group had three falls, including an 8 foot drop to the river. A bed of kangkong broke his fall. We had to extricate him by first yanking up his bike and then pulling him up. This guy (hint: his first name starts with D and last name with a V) joked that he was a "very down to earth" kind of guy.
After almost an hour of trails, we ended up on a main road, and made our first stop: a sari-sari store at the top of a small town. We met up with Ericson, and from there we re-entered the trail. My memory of this section of the ride is hazy: there were few landmarks to check on our progress. We went up and down several hills. The only landmark I remember is a wooden bridge, of which we all walked (an accident there would have been a 30 foot drop to the riverbed).
Throughout the ride, we made several river crossings.
On one of them, the bank was steep and required some nerve to negotiate. I came down, but could not control the bike and slipped off the path. My back disc brake wasn’t biting, and I was accelerating quickly. In my panic, I put too much brake on my front tire, and failed to switch more of my weight backward. Result:
my bike upended. I jumped off the bike, and my right shoe came off. No injury, but it felt like my KHS had bucked me – payback time for not having ridden it for a long time.
In four hours, we only covered 20km, and did the equivalent of 500m of climbs. What made it hard was that it was almost all single track. This was challenging in an enjoyable way; there was even a Rambo moment, when we went through a thicket of bamboo, some with open pointy ends. One wrong move there would have meant a date with a punji stick.
The last climb was the hardest. We descended to another river bed. About half the group decided to refresh by splashing themselves with the mountain water, though of course upstream from a guy in skivvies taking his midday bath. I went ahead climbing the hill. They said the sari-sari store to refuel was just beyond the summit of the hill. I walked my bike more than I rode it on this last climb.
Even after having our fill of bread, softdrinks, and water at the sari-sari store, Freddie and I
opted for the tricycle ride home. We had been trekking for 5 hours already. We both had gone through our water supplies; an 800ml Pop Cola bottle was not enough to quench my thirst.
So thanks to Arnel, our tricycle driver, and some plastic rope to tie our bikes to the trike, we got home. The GPS helped; the driver did not know where to pass, and with the aid of the GPS, we took all the right roads.
Overall, Montalban is a great ride for medium to advanced riders. Not for the faint of heart thoug.
Highly technical drops and climbs. Would I do it
again? No hesitation: YES.
ut to be a great ride... the fire road was almost exactly as I remembered it. A 1 hour climb on a mountain fire road with hard packed rocks as foundation. Great surroundings... many old trees which helped cool the climate. My rear derailer kept skipping gears. Poch said it's normal due to cable stretching on the newly installed shifters and derailers. I was able to adjust it though with a few twists on the rear derailer knob.
