Back in Maarat with the XR Boys

Would you really be at home, sitting on the sofa, watching TV? 

This is really gonna be weird to say, but, Maarat seemed so easy, all with the slippery mud pools.  We blame our last week's ride to Malasya, which I think made us "seasoned" trail riders in a span of 1 day, haha.

We met at our usual rendezvous place, Shell Pugon, Marcos Highway.  I was a bit late, suffering the sh$#+s at home.  I arrived late and was almost surprised to see hordes of riders who also favor the gasoline station for their meetup point.  I think it's safe to say I easily spotted my teammates for the day because of our distinctive motorcycles. We were the only group of dirtbikers to converge.  As soon as I arrive, we drank coffee to spike up the energy, and shared Roderick's breads, much to our delight.

Welcome to XR country.

There were 8 of us Honda XR riders and 2 who decided to tag along using minibikes, 10 riders who departed Shell Pugon.   As soon as we left, we entered a labyrinth of subdivisions, and access roads, where we split into 2 groups.  5 went ahead and 5 of us who got left behind, I blame traffic for this!  We decided to head straight to "Manga", the place in Maarat when you get to have a 360 degrees view of the world from the mountain top.

We entered via San Mateo, near Timberland, a famed cyclists' destination because of its steep, punishing climb.  We got lost at first until we were directed to that first very muddy very slippery uphill climb.  Arguably the steepest and hardest climb in the ride.  After that, it's almost plain and level all the way through, except for some short burst of muddy ascents.

Playing in the mud.  Just continuing our childhood plays.

There's almost no way to going back home immaculate, not with all the mud pools around.  It's literally we played in the mud.  It's actually a mindset changing circumstance, when the prospect of a slippery mud is encountered. From a perpective of a road ride, it's a big nope.  He'd rather go around it, or just head back home.  OR... you embrace it, shouting inside your head, "mud, hell yeah!". Like a kid in you unlocked, remembering the times, when germs, bacteria and basically all dirty things were inconsequential.  And as for our consolation, they make our immune system strong.

So there we were, mud pool after mud pool and again numerous motorcycle drops.  It was all fun, no politics involved, just a group of motorcycle riding friends enjoying the last vestiges of offroads. Who knows when all of it are gonna be cemented.

Trail riders, always ready to lend a helping hand.

After a requisite photo session at the "manga", when we 5 were about to go to the Y-insection to wait for the other riders, they came roaring, but only 3 of them.  They said the other 2 couldn't take it anymore and decided to make a u-turn.  My salute to those guys, we didn't even had the chance for a class picture.

We exited the pine-tree laden road of Boso-boso and had our early lunch at Giant's, another riders'/cyclists' favorite eating spot.  Corned beef, mackerel and tuna omelet, with 16 cups of rice, all for the 8 of us.  We satisfied our hunger for food, but not the hunger for more riding. We opted to drop by Mel Aquino at the Motocross Messiah Fairgrounds in Taytay.  Unfortunately, we were an hour too late.  They said that Mel and his group decided to also do a trail ride, but we didn't know where.  We'd join up had we known.

The Trail Team Spyder

Our hunger were sated when they (not me) decided to test the motocross track.  Might as well, we got nothing left to do.  Again, what a fun-filled weekend and we are all looking forward to the next trail ride.

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