First Ride

Good day friends. I began mountain biking in 2007. We started out riding the trails in Sta. Rosa Laguna. We all met in Paseo mall and from there we would either do the so called "cardiac hill" route or the "reverse upak" route. My first ride was the cardiac hill route and i soon found out why it was appropriately named so. Boy, that hill was tough. Being a newbie, i did not know how to shift to the "granny" gear, which is the smallest or lightest gear in your crank. No wonder my heart rate shot up as i reached the top, i was mashing through mid gear going up an incline of almost 40 degrees. As we all made it to the top, we rested for a few minutes and we rolled down the hill as my head spun and my quads pounded. It was a good thing after some 2kms we had our first complete stop. What a welcome reprieve, fresh buko juice and gatorade. We then continued on a relatively flat, wide trail commonly known as fireroads. Then we would enter narrower trails known as single tracks. Truely, I was beginning to enjoy myself. This was certainly far from the BMX days where we biked around the village and did endos, fishtails, bunnyhops and a few tabletops. This was way different. This was like a fieldtrip on your bike. We crossed pineapple plantations, vast meadowlands, a forest trail with huge sycamore trees, streams where we had to carry our bikes across, and not to forget the amazing mountain views. And for someone who enjoyed technical riding, the single tracks were definitely a challenge. We hit a paved road and gradually ascended up to the bikers pitstop, Aling Pina's cafe. We had her house favorite goto with egg mixed with homemade chilli sauce. Not bad. Then we made our way back as we hit a few paved uphills and more single tracks. We ended going down "upak" and someone advised me to have a loose grip on the handle bar and brake on my back wheel. It was a nerve racking 4km downhill and we probably went 40kms and hour. There was no room for hesitation. This was one time where you had to trust that your fork would not fail you. I was glad that the full suspension bike was able to absorb the jarring impact of the rough terrain. After this ride, i understood why downhillers seek this kind of thrill and rush for speed. We headed back to camp and the whole ride took us around 4 hours. It was a great first ride. From then on we frequented Sta. Rosa's trails. And after some weeks, we did Palace in the sky!