From Maarat To Wawa

It rained hard last Sunday and a decision should be made whether to push thru with the Maarat to Wawa bike traverse. The rain stopped at around 10:00pm. It's a Go Go Go!!!

4:30 am of June 12: After a few final check of bike and other things, we started with a warm-up ride from the Welcome Rotunda area in Quezon City to San Mateo, and up to Mount Maarat by the 30 to 45 degrees-inclined concrete road. We rested, ate and hydrated at the store near the subdivision's entrance.

At 7:15, we again hit road to look for the single track trail to Wawa. After about an hour, we checked our map and found out that we have missed the trail by over half-kilometer. Time to go back and look for it.

At 8:15, we found the trail and started with a downhill ride on a muddy single track. A few streams, a couple of nearly (again) missed trails, a few technical tracks, and an hour of off-saddle climb - before we hit another dirt road for an exhilirating downhill adventure that will took us to Wawa. Whoah! That's a total of five hours . . . . bad pacing!

Ate our lunch at Aling Norma's. After a few minutes of rest, we rode to Wawa Dam, and after taking some pictures, we're on our way back to QC. My bike encountered a simple mechanical trouble . . . problem is we don't have the exact tool to repair it. Good thing we passed by a bike-repair shop and the staff gladly lend their tool for free. We ate halo-halo at Chowking in San Mateo.

At 5:30 pm, we're back at home to clean my bike - and myself! Hahaha. Almost 20 bruises and scratches. (Nothing serious really, I just happened to hit a very thorny bush and I'm wearing shorts!) Muddy bike and shoes. (But hey, mountain bikes are meant for . . . mountain adventures?) That's a total of thirteen hours of bike-and-hike adventure. (It's 13 hours of freedom on Independence Day!)

Play hard!!!