A favorite, essential Road\trail with points - Cebu, Hupa RD

Just another short trail\road section that is a favorite of mine to ride that is in my backyard. Maybe only a ~mile long but has several different sections that must be maneuvered in completely different ways on the fly. This is dirtbike riding On Any Sunday or in my case, any day of the week.

This road is also ~essential to my riding here as it is one of the few non-paved roads connecting the eastern seaboard where I stay to the mountainous areas in central Cebu where many of the last 'fast-trails' (DBL track trails\roads that are gnarled out++) are found.

In the decade I've been here, I think this road has been graded 3 times, maybe 4 at the most. The last grading was ~3 yrs ago at least, so it is gnarly++ to the degree that going up and down some of its hills are not easy. Jarvis would disagree but I'm not Graham to say the least.

Gonna Pulp Fiction style the pics here with these first pics close to the mid point of the road, just above the gnarlier top of a climb on the lower section of this road.

Really a nice looking area here. Nothing says exotic much better than banana plants,


There is an inside & outside along most all this road, sometimes a middle line if you want it. Meaning each time you ride here, you can choose a different line.


The road is to the right here but you can also ride to the left on that hillside between the banana plants; it's much rougher there than it appears; might have been a field in the past with rows?

Little better view of a rut; these are not shallow ones and front wheel will need to lightened or picked up when crossing to ensure it does not wash out.

Just to the right of that green area, is another gnarly, straight downhill heading out to the cement.

013 WR250 Husky shown here is used to navigate up&down this beast of a road.

This hill section is behind the bike pics from above, heading down to a major road of this area heading ~west. Going up or down, it is technical in a few ways including, steep, slippery rocks when wet, deep ruts, plus grooves cut into the rocks making line selection of high importance. I used the term rock here but this is not solid rock material that lasts for centuries. Not sure what it is but some of it can be busted into pieces with s small hammer and water seems to carve lines into it over shorter time frames.

There is also this clayey mudd here over the rocks in places along with the vegetation. These 2 items really add to the traction issues. A knobby is about the best tire all-purpose tread to use because it will work in almost ~every terrain on earth. It is not the best in most cases but will allow a bike to move forward almost always. It is not the ~best tread here for this climb for sure but does work.

View from the top down. The Husky is actually sitting at a small ~plateau between this climb and a small but still technical climb just behind the bike.


That beaten-out line to the far left was created by some 4wheeler guys in the last month or so. Until then, we had to come up on the extreme right that is grown up now or bust up the center, like Jarvis would do.


Dropping on down, looking back at the bike, the line to the extreme right is coming into sight. The true nature of this ~stone is coming out also.


Now, before the 4wheeler made that line to the extreme left, we had to start up the hill, then jump across the deep washout just to the right of that well-placed white rock, carrying the front tire over that wash, carry enough speed to prevent the rear tire from dropping into the deep++ wash, and maintain this speed up the off-camber line on the right. Not overly difficult but the speed had to be there. After all this, the bike has got to turn up the hill immediately due to what is in all the growth.

Busting straight up the middle was the ~only other line and very possible to accomplish when dry. When wet, it ain't for all of us.


Little better view of the obstacles encountered when jumping from the MID line over to the right side line.


Here's the initial lead-up to rock climb. The 4wheeler guy exposed that extreme left line by beating back the vegetation.


Another good view where the choice between which line to take. The difficulty of jumping over that wash into the right side line is becoming more apparent here. Before the left-side line was exposed, that wash got deeper and deeper and was a go-for-it option only to make it across.

You can actually see the different rock types here. Another aspect of that stuff towards the top is that it seems to stay moist most of the time as compared to that real-rock at the bottom that will dry in 15 minutes of sun shine. This helps greatly for gathering speed needed before the slippery stuff is hit. That top stone just seems to draw out moisture from below it and ~stays damp.


Here's a good view of the climb just before reaching this ~plateau location of my bike. Yes, that stone is very slippery. The green-tinted spots are actually mossy. The left outside line that is covered with the vegetation roots, is slippery and ~off-camber. Think I usually start left but by this point in the climb end up following one of those washed-out grooves in the MID section and end up in the extreme right-side where our original line was before.


Another view of the top of this small plateau before it goes into another climb just around the bend. Speed is your friend here on those slippery when wet, no-traction solid rock obstacle. When this is dry, traction is abundant. I'm probably 2nd gear, feathering the clutch the ~entire way to try to control rear-wheel spin, with my weight well back on the seat. Maybe even up on the pegs, with weight back on a good day.


Warning: Do not confuse any of this, words or pics, with riders of Graham Jarvis' ability. Web people seem to have a tendency to live in a world other than actual face2face reality.