Monday, October 27, 2014

MOUNTAIN MEN

Because they ride mountain bikes.

Bicycles, which as the name imply, are designed for the mountains.



I ride a mountain bike, so I am a Mountain Man.

An 8th place finish from the Guyabano Trail will attest to that.


And after dueling with the raw power of the mountains of Carranglan, another 8th place finish of proof.  




It was the best ever 32 kilometers of pure riding joy, an excellent fulfilment of Edward Abbey's wish for every mountain biker that "may [their] trails be crooked, winding, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view... [and] may [their] mountains rise into and above the clouds".

To top that all, Ariel Guieb Tangilig finally came face to face with Carranglan's centuries-old Church of St. Nicolas of Tolentine, rebuilt almost exactly the same as it was from the rubbles of the Great 1990 Earthquake, and an itch that can now be scratched from my biking calendar.



The next day, me and Ariel Guieb Tangilig took Bulan and Lupo Domingo Quilban to an almost-mountain-biking dirt-road-ride to discover the source of the big ditch that runs through Tondod in San Jose City.

That brought us to the foothills of the Caraballo Mountains where the Pantabangan Dam empties its reservoir to feed the rice fields of Nueva Ecija, and to the over-dressed Church of St. Joseph the Husband in Rizal, then to the laidback Church of the Immaculate Conception in Llanera, before again traversing the big ditch in A. Bonifacio Norte for the ride back home.




An interesting footnote because Dr. Rizal, Ka Andres Bonifacio, and Gen. Llanera are my brothers too in an ancient fraternity...      

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