didiaymanong

In due time,
I will ride
Into the mountains
to the east. Soon.
Wishful thinking.
But i will.

Got some time off for a weekend trip to the mountains. I Have not been riding longer distances for a while and so i have been compensating by spending some time on a trainer and Just keeping my leg muscles warmed up.
A bikecamping weekend trip to Olympus Eco Park coming up...excited much!

Ang Bayabas.

There are roads, and there are farm roads. With the way money is pouring in to the countryside, in 5 years there wont be any trails left where we can ride our mountain bikes. Funny it is because mountain bikers would rather prefer that trails remain as they are, uncemented, potholed, narrow gravel lined roads. In them trails, we have trees that are our " stops" where we gather and wait for the others to catch up. Those at the head of the pack get to pick the fresh fruits of these trees. This is a guava tree in the middle of thw rice fields, probably grew from aseed from a bird's droppings. It has been very productive and fruitful, continuously bearing fruits throughout the years, taking its nourishment from the nearby rice paddies

https://www.instagram.com/p/CEx6CGrlfEz/?igshid=umgmny8sgj06

Here in the picture are two of our senior members, the golden boys, the retirees.   At their age, they have all the time, and there is no hurrying to our destinations. They take their sweet time, slowly pedalling and sharing stories along the way.  they, having retired, have no need to join the  race we all are in, for they are done with their responsibilities, and all they should do is to enjoy themselves in the things that interest them. In a few years i will be like them, retired, and free to indulge in the things i had always wanted to do. Many years ago when i started riding, i made a vow to myself that i will hold back from spending too much, and until all of my resposnsibilities shall have been done,  then and only then will i buy XTR. To the mtn bike naive friends, it is like i am on a toyota instead of a Lexus. So i can barely wait and perhaps reward myself with a brand new "deore" hehehe. Ilocano...nagtipid pa din.

Seasons.
Seasons come, and come again.
Seasons change, and change again.
Friends of the same feather,
Remain friends even when seasons change.
Be it winter, or summer
As long as our wheels keep turning,
We will follow the same trails
Over and over again.

Potholes!

No matter how good the road is
Sooner potholes will appear
As usually is in our own lives,
Our journeys are a series of laps
In imperfect roads.
We can go around these potholes
Or we can just go straight over them,
To get to our goals we set to do,
Or we may take roads that lead away.
We can run away from responsibities
But ultimately the roads will converge
And bring us back to the juncrion where
We chose to escape from reality.

Build bridges, not walls.
Bridges are meant to be crossed
To make our passages easier
Over abysses and gaps in our lives..

We ourselves can be bridges too
And help make this world
A little bit less hateful.
A bit more peaceful.

My sunday kind of ride.
Again atop Mt. Tupira.

During the day, water ev***rates, turns to water v***r and rises into the air. As more and more water v***r accumulates, it will reach a point where the air becomes saturated, condensation then starts and clouds begin forming. During the night, when the temperature goes down, the saturation point is easier reached and clouds become easier formed. This explains why we see seas of clouds in the early morrning. When it forms below 50 feet from the ground, it is called fog, above that they are called clouds.

So wake up early and come see a sea of clouds near you. Now showing at the Caniao station. Admission is free. Bonus treat is you can bring down as much as fresh air as your lung can hold.

The yellow lane.

This photo wass taken at the road going up to the radar station in bantay ilocos sur. The old folks call it "Dualan". Dualan refers to the word Dual, and if you are familiar with the Jeeps post world war 2, this refer to the other smaller 2 stickshifts activating the 4x4 drivetrain of the willys jeeps of yesteryears. At this point, those going up would stop and engage the front differential (4x4) because from here the real climbing starts.

The new bikers call it the yellow lane, because from this point upwards, the middle lane markings are marked yellow, prohibiting overtaking because of the steep gradient and zigzagging roads going up.

This is the halfway point, the 7th of 14 stations of the cross which our group laid out 4 years ago. We used to go to 7 churches for our yearly bisikleta iglesia on holy weeks, but with the swarm of tourists visiting on holy week, we abandoned the highways and laid out our own 14 stations up to the top of the mountain.

With the concrete road done, many have been hiking, biking and going to the radar station. With it came the trash being littered along the roadside.
We have placed a wastebin for rexyclable plastic bottles here at the midpoint where we hope responsible hikers and bikers would discard their empty bottles.

A lazy sunday morning,
even the sun didnt wake up and refused to shine. Nevertheless a perfect time to ride
Cool weather and no added tan lines today
No sxheduled group rides for now
So i wwnt up riding into the radar station,
Midway i relaize i didnot bring a bottle of water
But an apple i managed to grab from the table

An apple a day
Keeps the doctor away
Kasi day off siya hehehheh.

TIMEOUT!

And I said, that some weekends are for "agonies" on the way to the garden. And so he rode forth to a paradise found.

Kili and its people.
There is only one Kawmadsi tree in kili, yet the name of the sitio was derived from it.
Legend has it that Kayangkang, with his kapototan, tied their expectant mother pig to the trunk of a kawmadsi tree. After several weeks, the pig bear several piglets and since the place had noname at that time, they began referring to it as "diay kawmadsi". When the spanish came upon that place, they changed it to Kuli, and renamed Kili during the american colonial period, which is retained to this day.
We traveled 135 kms by bike, starting from Vigan at 530 in the morning. We thought we would be riding again well into the night but fortunately, we made good progress and reached Kili at 630 pm. We went looking for the barangay captain as a matter of courtesy but he was out for a meeting at the poblacion. We had the chance however, to introduce ourselves to his daughter and son in law. After riding for a whole day, we were thirsting for water. First discovery, we learned that there was a community water system, free of charge. Drink all we can! Second discovery: On arriving, i had also noticed that some of the houses had lights on and thought they have solar rechargeable lights. On the kitchen of the barangay captain's house i noticed that it had a led light fixture installed at the ceiling, but no way this is rechargeable. I learned that the barangay has a hydoelectric 17 kva power plant, more reliable than Abreco (hehehe that is what they said)!
It was first installed in 2003 and has been up and running since then, uninterrupted until last year when the first major repair was made. They said they are saving up to buy a bigger dynamo so they can sell electricity to nearby barangay Tiempo. Mininum monthly charge is 50.00 and all of it goes to the general fund of the barangay.
In my observation, i think the barangay, made up of 64 households, is self reliant and well off. Rice is in excess, fruits and fishes are there for the picking. And of course they have Kili falls. Even though it is very remote, people stll come to visit, and when they come, a logbook awaits them, 50.00 per visitor. Yup, they have a system in place and so are the tourist facilities. They have huts for rent and toilet facilities at the falls. Which do you prefer, cold or hot dip? They have it!
When we arrived, our dinner of pako, palileng was already ready, thanks to maam salma and sirs joy and jun, who were as usual very helpful in facilitating this trip. They are God sent to us and to the province of Abra for the work (privately) they do to promote Abra as a tourist destination.
We had the porters and some of the kagawads joining us for some alcohol-centric get together after dinner and the topic of friendlies came up. They laughed out and said, "if they have guns, we have them too!. They would come visiting but they do not allow them to camp. When they did camp, the men went up to their campsite and cut all the trees for firewood, exposing their camp" hahaha.
We camped overnight, and all our snores were drowned out by roar of the waterfalls. Some of my buddies were looking for the remote to turn off the falls or perhaps wanted to mute the sound off as they couldnt sleep because of the very loud concert music generated by the falling waters.
When the morning came, we had our first glimpse of the falls. Ang ganda! Most however chose to bath at the hot springs! After breakfast, it was time to go shopping! We bought Palileng for take home, tumeric tea, avocados and bottles of pure, unadulterated honey in cuatro cantos bottles. Best way to thank them is to buy some of the products they sell.
On our way out, the ricefields carved into the mountainsides were all green. There is no summer in here! Water keeps flowing in the irrigation canals. Hindi sila magugotom dito. Lucky them.

On Sundays, we do "road work", that is riding our mountain bikes on the highways, 25 kilometers each way for a total of 50 kilometers although sometimes we go 75 kms when we are prepping for a long ride. 25 kms bring us to Paraiso ni Juan, along the national road in sulvec, narvacan. It is that part of the beach with corals at the shoreline, named in honor of, who else but Juan de Salcedo, the conquistador whose lolo Miguel de Legaspi sent him sailing to look for the rumored fair skinned chinese mestizas living in the northern part of Luzon. One of his galleons got shipwrecked near this place, thus narba kan, then narvacan it was called.
This place is also famous for the grotto built atop the largest piece of rock, about a hundred meters from the shore, and can be reaxhed by foot during low tide. As far as i can recall, it was built during the late late 60s.
We also call this as BLL, short for Bagong Lipunan Lodge. It was the best resort during the 80s to early 90s in this side of the north but a strong storm did bring a lot a damage and was never repaired.
There is a new project at the back of BLL but probably covid put a stop to its completion but i look forward to catching the sunset at that resort. A
Another weekend that was, another coming up. Cheers everyone, we got as far as today, so that is always good reason to thank Him.

As saturdays always are, we go to the fields in the barangays. Today we went looking for kapan-awan in sitio tagaytay. We foumd the place but decided not to climb to the top because the trail has been eroded by the past few days' afternoon rains. The way up has become muddy, and we kind of got lazy, so we backed off and put it in our buxket list. It was a "chill" ride on the way back, taking detours left and right to stretch the miles. Here we are at the rice paddies in barangay taleb. The farmers are done planting their rice crop and are now waiting and hoping for an abundant supply of rainshowers and sunshine in the hope of a fruitful cropping season.

Farmlands of the North.
The weekend brought us to the "midlands" of Ilocos Sur, to the towns of Burgos, LidLida and San Emilio, a bike loop of about 138 kms starting from Bantay. This particular ride took us to the inteior of these towns, to our favored less travelled backdoor routes. we first came this way about 12 years ago and interestingly, the farm to market roads have now been mostly cemented, so at least these roads are proof that some of the funds have been put to good use.
In the picture is a group of tall, lean, galvanized iron clad stuctures, randomly arranged along a barangay road. These are the "pugons" that are still used today to dry to***co leaves grown in these farms by the farmers of the North. History tells that to***co was introduced in the Philippines by the Agustinians in the 17th Century, and as we are aware now of the ill effects of ni****ne, theose friars may have been responsible for the deaths of many of our ancestors.
The bike ride in these backroads are a series of ups and downs, a rolling terrain along mountainsides still covered with abundant trees. Since the wet season has already started, the route is a scene of various shades of refreshing green, so different from the artificial colors of our cities and of our lives. We have made our lives so much materially colorful that we have come to forget that there is beauty in many a simple thing, in a simple life. We have become so used to the many visible colors of daytime that we fail to appreciate the colorless black and white shadows of the night. We find ways to turn our nights into days, yet do we realize that the stars only twinkle at night?
There is beauty everywhere, anywhere. Your concept may be different from ours, but to us, we see them when we go riding in those hills. We see them in the green, green grass of the farms, and in green corners of our minds.