Why Organize Hikes

Back in the day, I would only climb with the same buddies. But like everything else, hiking had to evolve.

Why Organize?

I once wrote an article on 'Why I Climb Alone'. This time I'll be telling you something quite the opposite. I organize hikes. Why?
First off. It's lucrative. You can earn as much as PhP30,000 over the weekend with just a full-van-capacity climb size of 12 pax. And that's after the costs. Did you know that there are organizers who charter a whole bus for their participants. Do the math. Pretty attractive, eh? One event every month is enough for you and your family to get by, you'd say. Well, at least you're well over the PhP10,000 poverty line income once set by NEDA for a family of five.


Secondly, there's no second reason! Let's face it, pera-pera lang yan. It could come from the event fee that you get directly from your guests or from the 10kg weed you bring down from your destination. Fame? Sex? I'm not the best person to ask.


However, while there's one big reason and plenty of other little reasons to organize hikes, it is not a walk in the park at all for an organizer. There are things that will make you think twice before organizing a hike.

Tacadang Circuit: A Journey to your Soul

The rice terraces of Les-eng hemmed in by the plateau of Batangan and nourished by Talaktak Falls.

We first shared this route to some friends in August 2015. The objective was to offer a select number of outdoors people not just a journey through the hidden trails of Kibungan but also a journey to oneself. The route we take is unknown to mainstream hikers. Two years has passed after the first group did the Tacadang Circuit, and still you won't meet other hikers on the trail at least during the first two days. Mainstream hikers are often too busy sitio-bagging at Kibungan Cross Country. This route is dotted with mesmerizing views that make every trekker linger which, much to the organizer's distress, consequently delays the desired camp site ETA. 

A Weekend with Asao Shimura

his first time to guide someone in the rain

After a two-hour ride from La Trinidad I finally arrive in Sitio Poking. It is a little hamlet of around a hundred houses that seem to be racing upwards on the slopes of a ridge that overlooks the sprawling undulating terrain of rice paddies liberally sprinkled with bamboo groves and clusters of subtropical trees. In one of these houses lives the family of Asao Shimura, a paper artist from Japan who decided to trade the convenience and exuberance of Tokyo with the humdrum and isolation of Kapangan.

Life's a Decision

exactly 2 years ago

Exactly two years ago, I started my ultimate journey. I had just finished working at a construction site in La Trinidad and I had just secured a letter of introduction from the office of the governor. And here's what I had to write on my journal*.

I leave La Trinidad for Tublay today. I feel apprehensive and hesitant. Perhaps because LT has become my comfort zone. I feel secure, comfortable, and certain here. But perhaps I'm just feeling the way everybody else would. Only, I'm more open to changes. I don't resist change as much as ordinary people do. This is nothing new to me. I've felt this when I decided to quit my job in 2011 to try farming in my hometown (but my boss called me up again after a few weeks and gave me an irresistible offer so...). It was repeated when I quit the same job in 2014 to try the BPO industry; and once again when I left that industry after 3 months to embark on this journey. 

Kapangan-Kibungan-Bakun Traverse (KKB) 2

On the dewy fields are the chickens, trying to catch the unlucky early worms. Down the fields is the mist mimicking an ocean foam brewing from the chasm that splits the Tacadang plateau and concealing the four waterfalls lining the walls of the ravine. Above the mist are the rice terraces partially silhouetted against the rising sun beyond the mountains.
 
This was how Day 2 of our 65-km traverse from Kapangan to Bakun started. And it was heartbreaking for Noi to have to leave this place too soon. He was the only Tacadang virgin among the six of us. Yet we had to move on. Mt Kabunian in Bakun was still a long way to go. The plan was to catch the sunset at the summit.

As we approached the border between Bakun and Kibungan more and more breath-taking views tried to stall us. At this point, only Ronald and I had previously seen the scenery. Fortunately the other three--Jepoi, Aljun and Erwin--had already been indoctrinated into my for-your-eyes-only travel principle. They couldn't agree more that it was futile to try to capture the grandeur of the scenery on a jpeg image. Some of them would sometimes just stop and and shed a teardrop gazing at the awesomeness of the panorama. I always tell my companions to quit trying to freeze the moment on a photograph. You lose the connection to the place and the intimacy of the experience. What a waste! We often forget that we go to places for ourselves--for our own experience and growth.

But many have hopped on the bandwagon, pointlessly extending the experience to others by hoarding pictures to share on Facebook. It is not bad to take pictures as long as you make sure that you have truly experienced the authenticity of the moment. And so Day 2 started with a glorious sunrise in Kibungan and ended with the same sun setting beyond the very rare sea of clouds in Bakun.

Sea of clouds as seen from the summit of Mt Kabunian

It was a trek dotted with so many Instagrammable moments that on our second day, Day 1 felt like a week past. We wouldn't quickly remember what we had for lunch or dinner during the previous day or where we had them. And these moments, including the Sitio Paraiso + Sitio Impyerno combination on Day 1 made the trek enjoyable even though it was undeniably tough.

The team dubbed this spot as 'Sitio Impyerno' due to the scorching heat of the noon sun.

There were only six of us. The five guests were among the fifteen carefully chosen Lagataw trekkers who received the exclusive invitation. Ronald, a triathlete, had previously joined the tougher first edition of KKB (Mt Tenglawan exit). Aljun had joined the Tacadang Circuit and the Tacadang Traverse; Jepoi had two Tacadang traverses under his belt plus a Mt Tenglawan Extreme; Noi, just Tenglawan Extreme and Erwin, Tacadang Traverse. And these trekkers are not among the noisy ones on social media.  Erwin would hardly strike you as the trekker type. It was a small team. The KKB is mainly about the genuine goal to share a very beautiful experience. It is never about the figures. It is quality over quantity.

The A Team, clockwise from top left: Ronald, Lagataw, Jepoi, Noi, Erwin, Aljun

The success of this bold attempt to condense this long expedition into two days and two nights was due mostly to the well-crafted itinerary.  I realized that making an itinerary is actually a skill. You don't just Google an itinerary and copy-paste it to your event page. There should always be ample knowledge of the destination and the capacity of your companions. Without putting into consideration the aptness of your team to your itinerary, and without taking care of the logistical preparations beforehand, your expedition is bound to fail. I am very proud to have been able to put together a strong triathlete like Ronald and a pot-bellied Erwin in the same condensed itinerary, maximizing daytime experience and providing a good night's rest.

The high risk factor of the route is the reason why the team had been carefully selected

Another big factor was the discipline of the team members. The expected chemistry of the carefully selected team made any pre-climb meeting unnecessary. We all did not do as much training as we did during our previous treks together. All of us already knew how to handle a Lagataw trek so we were all psychologically conditioned. I am most proud of Aljun and Erwin for having been able to quit smoking about two months before the trek. Aljun had been smoking for ten years! And this is one of the many things that motivate me to keep organizing Lagataw treks--the knowledge that I am able to create a positive change in the participants.

Almost done!

The expedition was a big success I had to thank the participants individually on my Facebook wall. And we didn't even celebrate. I think that's what we unconsciously develop in Lagataw treks. The celebration is the moment itself--the trek itself and not after it--just like my 90-day solo thru-hike in Benguet in 2015, no hype, no publicity, not even a bottle of beer, no nothing afterwards.  Through this at-the-moment celebrations a better self and a unique fellowship are forged, which somehow explains why previous Lagataw trekkers can't be stopped from joining another Lagataw trek.

It was a simple closing gesture for that long journey -- no jubilation, no hype, just the overwhelming gratefulness and praises to the Almighty for granting us a wonderful experience. 

For those who want to be part of this epic journey in October, watch out for the qualifying treks on my Facebook page.

Don't Sit like a Frog; Sit like a King

Day 1

After nearly nine hours on the trail, we finally arrive in Les-eng. One is tired and can’t wait to just lie down and recover some sleep lost to driving from Bulacan to Baguio. The other just wants to wash up maybe for lack of anything else to do. I, on the other hand, am just anxious that the only store in the village won’t open tonight.

KIBUNGAN MOUNTAIN MARATHON 2015: The Chronicles of a Warrior

THE race of the year for me

The 2015 Kibungan Mountain Marathon has been my only trail race this year and it was totally worth the wait! I am not an avid racer: I pick the races I join. You won’t see me in road races and in trail races which are primarily flats with a twist of sunbathing or sand swimming. So I was heartbroken when I missed the KOTM this year due to geographic constraints. Thankfully The Kibungan Mountain Marathon was put off to a perfect time!

Honey a la Fear Factor

If it's white then it has larvae

Everyone loves honey but have you tried eating a honeycomb? 

How about a honeycomb with larvae?! That was the first time I did it. But the maggot-like creatures didn't bother me that much. I mean nothing could get any more authentic than that. 

I was just feeling my tongue for itchiness because I was worried that I had some undiscovered allergy to beeswax or bee larvae. The place was three hours away from the nearest clinic.

Okay you may have passed the larvae challenge but what if I told you that this honey could have been harvested from the most repulsive of places!

Tacadang: The First Lagataw Invitational Trek

Les-eng rice terraces that turn vibrant green during the rainy season

A local farmer in Tacadang once apologized to a guest for serving domesticated chicken because there was no available canned sardines at the local store. This was the story that got me wanting to visit the place. And now I regret that I had allowed myself to wait that long a time to finally set foot on this paradise.

Tacadang is at least seven hours away on foot from the last road access in Kibungan, Benguet. This is the primary reason why it has remained unspoiled by tourists who can only bear to trek Sagada and Batad in spite of the fact that the beauty of Tacadang surpasses that of those two places! When I saw the whole barangay of Tacadang at a very good viewpoint, I couldn't come up with a better description of the place than 'a plateau that God pressed with his his thumb and bled countless waterfalls that nourish the rice terraces that flank the walls of the cleft'.

the whole plateau that is Brgy Tacadang symmetrically cleaved in the middle;
Les-eng on the left and Tacadang Proper on the right

This is one of the very rare moments when I have to break my "Don't Ask; Don't Tell" travel dictum. I want to share this to a few individuals who are ready to face the physical challenge of the trek this coming August 21-23, 2015  and take on the responsibility of helping preserve this paradise.

The rice terraces of Les-eng become pastureland when rain is scant. Talaktak Falls on the background.
This sight is something you won't see in Batad and Sagada.

between the terraces of Tacadang Proper (left) and Les-eng (right)

falls # 1

the breath-taking drop of the waterfall just 200 meters away from waterfall # 1

The waterfall I thought to be Betotong Falls which turned out to be just the lowest cascade of the inaccessible Betotong

the Machu Picchu-like view of Beneng Falls with a faint view of Kamayan Falls on the right

Kamayan Falls up close; stronger when it rains

Kamayan Falls as seen from Falls # 1

the very tall Talaktak Falls and the inaccessible Betotong Falls