More Century Rides

Lately, my rides seemed to be longer and harder. I guess my overall biking was improving. Last Saturday I joined the Philippine Mountain Biking Forum (Philmofo) on a ride to Sta. Inez, in Tanay, Rizal. The route was along Marcos Highway in Lower Antipolo passing the town of Baras and down the trail of Barangay Cayumbay of all the way to Sta. Inez which was already part of the town of Tanay. Trail head was some 30 km from the meet-up are at Jollibee in Marcos Highway in Marikina. It was located at Sitio Batangas which was about 6 km before reaching Sierra Madre Hotel.Going to the meet up area was already a good warm up for my legs since it was some 12 km from my pad in Pasig-Makati-Pateros area. Every biker knew that this route to the hotel was only half of what was called Sierra Madre Loop which was the training grounds for most riders of Metro Manila specially for roadies since it's a long and hard climb.    (Photo to the right courtesy of Mountguitars, Philmofo. All other pictures were taken from my Canon PowerShot A470)

The ride was generally fun but I can't understand why most member of this club seemed to enjoy racing against each other. Based on my counting there we crossed Sta. Inez River eight times. After the seventh crossing and more than an hour of pedaling in a valley with beautiful view of the Sierra Madre Range, I and another rider decided to backtrack. Five of us were on the middle group now sipping soda from one of the houses along this riverine trail. The lead pack passed this point about 15 minutes ago according to the store owner. Locals told us that it still some 1 hour and a half to get to the falls. It was getting cloudy up there, I reckon. I didn't want to get stuck in that place if the rains started to pour in the mountain which would flood the river as a result. Some part of the river we crossed earlier had strong currents and about thigh deep. Can't imagine how bad it would be when it rains. Reached home about 8:00 in the evening. My cyclocomp registered 121 km. Was dead tired.

A week ago, I was able to pedal another century via Bugarin Pass in Pililia, Rizal. Obviously by now, Rizal Province is the nearest playground for most bikers in Metro Manila. It offers almost all kind of terrain for biking. I had 114 km this time, matching the miles I made during the Licao Ride five months ago, my very first century ride. A century ride is when a biker covered at least a hundred kilometers. Bugarin Pass is the zigzag portion of the town of Pililia that connects the provinces of Rizal and Laguna. It has the panoramic view of Laguna de Bay. This is a major route for buses and cars going to Laguna and Quezon Provinces.