My wife and I stayed at Ang Ating Tahanan, in South Drive, Baguio City. This is owned and operated by the Girl Scouts of the Philippines.
I woke up very early, not because I had to ride before the crack of dawn, but because I think there are unearthly things keeping my wife and I awake. I don't believe in them but I always wake up at 3am every time I sleep here. To inform all of you, this is just directly across the Hyatt Terraces Hotel, which was destroyed during the 1990 Luzon Earthquake, killing at least 50 people. I tried looking over the gates of the old Hyatt property and it is very creepy. I've always wondered why trees never grow in the hotel area up to this day but it is vegetated in the surrounding areas.
One thought I had the day before is what clothes do I wear for tomorrow. It will be very hot by noon time and in the early morning, it will be painfully cold. Bringing a jacket will make a comfortable ride in the morning, but will be excess baggage on the way back. When I checked all the jackets I brought, non of them are for sports so I decided to go and man up and just shiver to my warmth.
The night before, I made sure that the bike is okay and everything I need to bring (tools, food, water) is inside the bag.
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| My first stop in my journey just to take a photo. |
A quick snap of the bike after eating a banana. Note to self, eat heavy breakfast before doing things like this again. (I had none)
The road is very winding. Here, the sun is shining in the opposite direction. This is still in the morning.
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| Aside from the view, the cliffs are also scary. |
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| The clouds at the background probably came from the sea of clouds seen in Mt. Pulag |
This half tunnel is one of many half tunnels in Halsema. I passed this one twice. One going up and going down. In both times, bits of rocks were falling to the road. Better slow down for safety.
This is the old sign they had. I've been seeing this on photos from years ago. If you are there, you'd see that geographically, this is the "summit." I seriously have no idea why they had to put another sign a 20-30 meters down the road.
This is the second sign I'm referring to. I had to take a quick shot for proof. In 2015, I was here twice for a grad school project in Sagada. We went there via Passenger Vans. I thought I have to return here with my bike.
My biggest fear at that time was breaking a spoke. In cases of solo rides in an unknown terrain, I would definitely suggest having a wheelset with more spokes so you can still go home with your bike. In Halsema, in this time of writing, I've encountered stretches of gravel roads due to landslides and repairs. Riding my 16/20 spoke count, non-off-road specific wheels on gravel is just horrifying. But I made it out alive so don't mind what I said.
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| At the highest point view deck |
hello Sir, how long did this epic century ride take? i am just a newbie at biking but have done 50km routes several times here now in baguio on my mountain bike. just wondering if this is something i must train for before i ride out to Atok? nice pictures sir
ReplyDeleteI'm not really a strong rider. Round trip lasted about 7 hours, I think, with frequent photo stops. You should have good endurance for this. I feel that with mtb gears, you can climb easier than with what I had with my bike that time.
DeleteOne thing to note is, I have had several encounters with aggressive dogs. Some of them chased me uphill. Crazy.