Tagaytay and Mt. Talamitam 03/16-17/2014

Overnight Solo Cross Country Cycling, Trekking and Reforestation

From Canlubang, Laguna, I pedaled my way across Tagaytay while carrying in my backpack empty plastic bottles. My mission was to water the plants of the nursery and tree planting site and to dig more holes for new seedlings on Mt. Talamitam in Nasugbu, Batangas..

Upon reaching the jump-off of Mt. Talamitam, I left the bike at the registration and started hiking to reach a stream where I filled the plastic bottles with water. I ascended the mountain with 22 liters of water, a digging bar that I borrowed from a local and personal logistics.

 

The moon was already on the horizon when I finished the job. Because it was always very hot during daytime, I was surprised by the cold night weather of the mountain.

Everything went well until I broke the digging bar while making the last hole on the hard dry ground. I found out later that the broken digging bar was just the first of the misfortunes to come.

I started moving down the mountain at 6:30 P.M. and reached jump-off an hour later. After assuring the owner of the digging bar that I would return to fix it, I rested and had some refreshments and then later pedaled for home. However, one of the tires of Bisikletang Tagalog was losing air so I used a lot of time on the road looking for an overnight vulcanizing shop. Biking uphill with a deflating tire was far worse than what could be imagined. 

I found the vulcanizing shop near the provincial boundary of Batangas and Cavite. The technician said that there was no problem with the interior and it only needed air to be pumped in. The night temperature in Tagaytay was freezing. I was shivering almost throughout the ridge. I dozed off a number of times for few moments on bike. I, therefore, had to take short naps on road thrice in waiting sheds to avoid road mishap.

As usual, the dogs of Casile viciously tried to bite my legs but again failed in their brutal attempt while I was freewheeling downhill. After hours of pedaling, I noticed that the tire was losing air again. The deflating tire again turned my travel into ordeal. I kept on pedaling despite the burden. Thank God, I made it home safe and sound at 3:30 A.M.

All praise to the Supreme Spirit!

Mt. Pico de Loro and Cavite 10/10-11/2012

Overnight Solo Cross Country Cycling and Trekking

I woke up late and only started pedaling at around eleven in the morning. I did not expect to spend seven grueling hours biking from Canlubang to the jump-off of Mt. Pico de Loro via Tagaytay. I knew Bisikletang Tagalog would take me long going across Casile, Tagaytay, Mendez, Indang, Naic, Maragondon and Ternate but it was more than what I anticipated. I reached the jump-off at sundown.

 

Trekking on foot to hit the summit took me three hours which was also longer than expected. The delay was due to the difficulty of looking for the right track in the dark. Besides, the exhaustion due to long distance biking slowed me down on trail. Six mountaineers were surprised by my sudden appearance. I was surprised by the sudden concentration of blinding lights coming from their headlamps. I left the young adventurers in the bushes. They might have been puzzled on whether I was human or something else.

I reached the summit at around 9:00 P.M. It was windy and drizzling when I reached the top. Aside from the flicker of lights in the surrounding hills and seashore below,  I saw nothing but silhouettes of plants, peaks and the sea. I reached the rock formation called Parrot's Beak. I tried climbing a rock face but failed due to darkness and moist slippery outcrop. (Earlier, I wrote in this blog that I didn't find Parrot's Beak. Later, however, after examining maps and mountaineer photos, I became convinced that I was able to find the rock formation.) Despite the darkness, it felt so good reaching the summit while savoring the wind, light rain and cold temperature.

From the summit, I returned to jump-off at twelve midnight. I had to trick the dogs that were guarding the DENR outpost by giving them biscuits before I could have the bike. I started pedaling at one in the morning to head home. The dogs of Ternate and Naic viciously attempted to take me down all the way through the road. One pack even made a military-like tactical formation while running after me. One hand on the handle bar and one hand with stick and stones to drive away the dogs.

Cavite and Mt. Pico de Loro were worth the time, energy and pain. The sad part of the story, however, was that I did not beat the schedule of getting home before midnight. Spending the night in the mountain and biking very early in the morning were never part of the plan. I missed doing the early morning chores and rituals with Imee, Jimel and Jong.

Tagaytay, Nasugbu and Lian 02/13-14/2013

Overnight Solo Cross Country Cycling

After recovering from a knee injury, I scheduled myself to run on a day off. I planned to start running in the morning intending to return home before sundown. On the day of reckoning, however, house chores suddenly and unexpectedly fell down from the heavens. No choice but to do chores the whole morning. Running in the afternoon meant returning home in the evening. Thus, I thought of hitting the road on Bisikletang Tagalog. Moving up and down Tagaytay on bicycle would make travel much faster and would allow me to return home before nightfall. 

Though I was a bit stronger than before, I still found pedaling thru the steep slopes of Casile and Dapdap difficult. Dapdap just had a shower and was foggy when I arrived. Adrenaline rushing, I decided to defeat the very purpose of choosing the pedal over the trail running shoes. I proceeded toward Nasugbu reaching its poblacion at sundown.

Freewheeling was the main course when biking from Tagaytay to Nasugbu. On the border of Cavite and Batangas, three kids, namely, Arlene, Lovely and Ratse agreed to pose for some pictures with my bike. The outstanding natural sceneries of Casile and Tagaytay had always been captivating but the panoramas of Nasugbu, especially the sunset and the fields, were more mesmerizing. Gusts of wind were pounding shaking the bike a number of times. I found the town proper pleasant, friendly and blissful. Young ones were playing in the plaza while their mothers were watching. Teens were having their stroll in small groups.

That night, I ate heavy meal in a carinderia making sure that I would have the energy to go thru the long uphill road back to Tagaytay. After dinner, I immediately left for home. Thirty minutes had passed when I learned that I had just been thru the town proper of Lian and was heading toward Calatagan! I missed the signs because of the dark. It took me another thirty minutes going back Nasugbu. I then started all over again to retrace the right way home. Huge trucks rumbled and thundered almost unceasingly on the entire length of the Nasugbu-Tagaytay road. I narrowly escaped being sideswiped by a ten wheeler truck by just a hair’s-breadth.

Just like in other less congested places, more stars glittered the skies in Nasugbu than in more congested ones like Calamba. I was touched by how passersby-- a tricycle driver and a group of mobile barangay tanods-- showed kindness in the midst of isolation and darkness by offering assistance asking me if everything was okay. Intriguingly, two policemen in their patrol car did not even bother to ask any question when they went past me at midnight in Tagaytay. Instead, one of the cops just shouted the puzzling remark “Aba!”.

The cool night air in Tagaytay literally had the wonderful fragrance of dama de noche. Beautiful lampposts lit the road. Talisay, Laurel, Calamba, Cabuyao and Sta. Rosa, sparkled with millions of lights downhill. The city of the ridge was glamorous but with its high-rise buildings and other structures, I could not help but think of its fate if ever Taal Volcano would erupt. I also thought of the environmental woes that Tagaytay had been inflicting the nearby lowlands and Taal Lake. These hazards such as garbage, effluents, erosion and flooding surely were causing a lot of harm on downhill communities.

The fog in Dapdap was a lot thicker than when I was going uphill from Calamba the other day. It was very dark all throughout the road going down the plains. Thanks to my wife for buying me a pair of bike lights (and a helmet) which proved to be very useful in overnight long distance biking. I saw something brown and furry on one side of the loneliest, darkest and steepest part of the road. The strange creature might have been a giant rodent or a civet.

During those unholy hours, the dogs of Casile turned terrifying, more terrifying than the dogs I encountered earlier in Nasugbu. In a situation reminiscent of Ternate and Naic, I biked across Casile with brake in one hand and stones for vicious dogs in the other. The most vicious dogs were those along the unpaved and rugged parts of the road.

I freewheeled down Dapdap and Casile reaching Marcos Mansion within less than half an hour. Stopping over Terelay, I had an early morning meal at a burger stand. I arrived home at around 3:30 in the morning. Home sweet home! All praise to the Supreme Spirit who guides and keeps us all safe all the time!