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Bathala Bike Park

September 7, 2015 9 comments
Bathala Bike Park

Bathala Bike Park lets ninjas do wall rides, but simply turning the wheel is enough for pretentious fools like me :p

I first heard about Bathala Bike Park a couple of years ago from Glorious Ride Bikeshop. I saw several pictures on their Facebook page showing a pump track along with ramps, jumps, bridges and a lot of technical stuff that I used to see only on videos about that far away mecca of mountain biking called The North Shore.

However, I never really took note of it because I wasn’t really interested in tricks and techniques. I considered myself more of a traveler than a freeride enthusiast. My priority was to explore brave new worlds, to seek new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no mountain biker has gone before. Star Trekkie stuff. Riding in style was not even on the horizon.

But a few weeks ago,  I watched a short film that made me take another look at a different kind of riding. And thus last weekend, I found myself lugging a 4X bike into Bathala Bike Park with a full face helmet in tow. Read more [+]

Biking in La Mesa

July 12, 2013 22 comments
Biker at one of the bridges in the La Mesa Nature Reserve

It’s tricky to descend into and then climb out of these bridges. Photo courtesy of Bong Madriaga

The first time I came to La Mesa several years ago, I couldn’t believe that there was such a place right inside Metro Manila. I had heard a lot about the place, about the beauty of its trails, and the postcard (or is it Instagram?) perfect scenery you get to enjoy while biking there. But nothing compares to seeing it for yourself.

Let’s just get something out of the way first. The biking destination I am talking about is the La Mesa Nature Reserve, not the La Mesa Ecopark. The former has kilometers upon kilometers of well-maintained fire roads and singletrack which can take you a whole day to explore. The latter (the Ecopark) is a smaller park which features boating, paintball, and a few kilometers of biking. It’s more suited for family picnics instead of mountain biking. It’s easy to confuse the two parks because both are maintained by ABS-CBN’s Bantay Kalikasan. Read more [+]