epic #3: tabi tabi po

i decided to take a little detour on the way home from Santa Rosa. the nine other riders i was with opted to use the highway. i desperately wanted trails, and remembering that my father told me to avoid highways, i suddenly turned right at the Cavite Light Industrial Park to enter the Davilan trail. i didn't even inform the other riders that i'll take a detour, to avoid confrontation. i just told the one beside me that i'll take the trail because i don't want to use the highway


so it was just me and the mountain. it was the best experience ever

then i realized why the other riders were avoiding the trails when it rains. the trails were extra muddy. there were puddles of mud a foot high and the slippery ruts were impossible. this picture was taken when i was swept down my the mud


and then i was lost. i kept telling myself before that this would be a nice experience. but after i realized that i was back were i started, after it started raining (again), after i became hungry because it's almost noon, after the thought that someone could be hunting and mistake me for game, AND AFTER I REMEMBERED THAT THERE WAS NO ONE WITH ME, i began to feel a little doubtful if i really should've done this.

i retraced my trail then met someone carrying something. i asked him, "manong, san po ba ang Davilan?" "ah kumaliwa ka dyan Davilan na yun". it gave me a breath of relief and continued with the trail. i reached the intersection. it looked familiar to me. manong told me to go left to get to Davilan, but i recall very well that i should go straight to get home. this is when i learned that Davilan is actually the place on the other side of the mountain, and not the way back home. a little doubtful, i didn't take a left turn. i recognized the place and was rather convinced that i was back on track. rain was all over me. it kept going in my mouth


further in the trail, i recognized a figure in the distance. it looks like a bike. could it be a fellow mountain biker? it looked so. i was trying to make out who the mountain biker was. i thought the nine other riders who were with me climbed up davilan to rescue me or something. but as i came closer i realized that i don't know him
could it be that there was another mountain biker foolish enough like me to try the Davilan trail? the thought brought me joy. what brought me even more joy was the fact that he was calling up some other mountain bikers out back. it so happens that there were (4) other mountain bikers who tried out Davilan!


i bade goodbye and was on the way back. i reflected on what i have just done. it was stupid. the 9 other riders would've hated me. i could've gotten sick, caught an exotic pathogenic virus in the mountain. i could've gotten a flat tire. i could've died when the trail suddenly eroded. but heck i got these pictures




i was quite impressed by my panaracer tires really. down to this really muddy and technical section

and just like a good movie, the ending was a clincher. the ending was foreshadowed by the sound of a gushing river i heard while i was lost. there used to be dried-up river on the trail head entrance. but of course, since it rained hard, the river wasn't as dry as it used to be. it wasn't even wet. it was flooded. there were some people by the river when i got there. they are residents of the mountain and i guess they have some business down the here. some of them had bikes with them. they had to cross the river too. i watched them do so. the river was knee high. i propped up my bike against my shoulder and treaded the knee-deep gushing river, careful not to get swept by the current.

immediately after the river is a steep climb. up in front of me was this old lady, pushing her bike up just like me, but she was carrying her slippers and a live chicken. i commented "ate ang lakas nyo pa ah" "61 years old na ako"