EXPLO BIKE RIDE: SAGADA TO ILOCOS SUR (PART 1)

Date of bike ride: April 9, 2008 (Sagada to Besao), April 10, 2009 (Besao, Mt. Province to Quirino, Ilocos Sur).

above: Google earth view of our destinations, click to zoom.

NOTE: I've got a long story to tell. So if you don't wanna read just scroll down at the pictures, but if you decide to read on it'll be worth it, promise.

(My friend Vei on a bus from Baguio to Sagada)

Part 1: Sagada to Quirino, Ilocos Sur

Here we go again. Biking to a route we've never tried before with no SAG vehicles, nor GPS, only maps to guide us. Thanks to Vei, my college classmate and bike buddy during this whole trip. I biked with him last Dec. during my bike trip around Banaue-Batad-Mayoyao-Bangaan and also Banaue-Sagada.

We left Manila almost 1am. Though our ticket going to Baguio indicated 11:45pm. The trip to Sagada was already sold out a week before. Arrived at Baguio around 7:30am. We boarded the G/L bus headed to Sagada which left exactly at 8:00am. The trip was quite long and the bus arrived in Sagada around 2:00pm. We already messaged Steve (aka Dayuhan) through text that we will be passing by his pad before we head off to Besao.

We unpacked our things and headed off to Steve's place. The rain caught up on us and we decided to stay for a while at Steve's till the rain stopped. Boy was the rain still freezing cold during these months up there. It was fun seeing Steve and his kids again, Joey who's an incoming freshman at UPd and Jenny, an avid American Idol fan, who was so "batugan" that day. Steve knew of our plan, this is just a continuation of our December 08 trip. We asked him again the route going to Tirad Pass and then Candon, Ilocos Sur.

After the rain, which was almost 5:00pm, we biked going to Besao. From Sagada to Besao is 8 kms. the 1st 4 kms. purely rough road, lots of rocks and lots of uphill, the last 4 kms. is a mix of cemented and rough road and lots of downhill already. We even bumped into 3 bikers from Baguio, one of the guy was named Andrei.

above: Jenny, Steve, Vei, Joey, Me

Sagada, surrounded by clouds

Besao

Upon arriving at Besao, Baranggay King'iway to be specific, we paid a visit to the Police Station, informing them of our intentions/purpose of being there etc. We asked permission to sleep at their 'plaza', where we will be setting up a tent to spend the night.

After the super sarap meal (thanks to Dong - one of the locals at Besao) we setup our bikes and tent and slept early. I was awaken a number of times by the creeping cold. I dint bring any pajamas nor sweater, thinking it was summer and it won't be that cold up North. Big mistake! I put on my sleeves, socks, even my full finger gloves and used the bike bag as blanket, which helped warmed my chilling body.

Our tent at Besao's town plaza

The next morning, Dong was playing smash, but obviously he was just keeping an eye for us since we are guests in Besao and also potential customers. Dong again cooked for us and we even got to know that he's originally from Davao, his wife is from Besao and that he studied in Manila in the 90's and we exchanged a few more stories after heading off to Patiacan and Quirino. Dong gave us some tips/pointers on the baranggay and route we should be taking.

No Globe signal in Besao, a weak signal in Sagada. Smart comms is the recommended SIM card here.

Vei, Dong, Me and one of Dong's kids

Awesome view of the rice terraces

Just a few kms. from King'iway, Besao, was a majestic site. An eye candy for the outdoor hungry adventurers like us. "Sulit ang pagod!" (trans: every sweat is worth it!) was what me and Vei were saying to each other with smiles on our faces.

We're kinda lost here, no signs going to Ilocos, good thing there was a local

It was still early but it was starting to get hot, not to mention the very rocky route we were taking. The air was still cold though, once you stop pedalling or passby a shade aircon ulet! Every sweat was paid in return by the awesome sceneries on our side. Every turn and uphill was rewarded by beautiful trees, mountains and terraces.

Then I had a flat, man! It was very frustrating by this time coz the uber rocky trails (and I mean sharp big rocks), was giving my battered tires a hard time. My rear tire had a small cut on the side. I had to patch it from the inside, rugby it on the outside and then wrap it up with electrical tape a number of times. That helped a lot. Good thing we brought the necessary tools in case something like this happened. 

Then I had a rear again in front, I tell yah, the trail is quite a virgin. I patched up the interior and decided to switch the front and rear tires since the bagback (approx 40L worth of baggage) I had was causing too much toll on the rear. This took a lot of time from us.

Vei's signature pose

Vei was quite worried since he downhilled a few mins. ahead of me, I passed by some kids informing me that Vei was at the gate. Every local that we come across we greeted Good morning/afternoon with a smile, they cheerfully greeted back with a smile and a bit of curiousity. We stopped at a store and had a few crackers and softdrinks for lunch, it was already pass 1pm but we weren't that hungry since we carbo loaded at King'Iway.

Chit-chatting with one of the locals, having biscuits as lunch

Then after going downhill Vei's rear derailler was sucked in by the spokes and bang! it was cut loose. We had to cut the chain so that he could go granny for the FD and set the chain at the rear at somewhere in between the cassette. This is a major pain since Vei is literally in single-speed and we are still mountains away from our destination. We're not halimaws pa naman.

Then we stopped by this small ruined building beside the hanging bridge. We had a small chitchat with the locals, and as usual they asked us things like where we're from, what we're doing, where we're headed off to etc. They were generally friendly, we just smiled and greeted them, and mostly answered back with smiles and a nod.Ü

above: Vei's rd broke. below: wrapped electrical tape around the tear of the tire

Vei taking a dip, cooling our Coke too.

Our water was almost out, we rested for a bit at a house and asked for 'danum', we had a few mins. of chitchat explaining the what, where, how and why just to lessen their doubts and curiosity. There were even locals who kept on speaking in pure Ilocano though we were saying "Dyakamawatan" yun pala they just don't know how to speak Tagalog. 

We have already passed Patiakan. By this time I'm not sure how many mountains and valleys we've crossed but the dark is already catching up on us. We're tired/exhausted and hungry. At the peak of this certain mountain there was a 'Y' portion of the road where there were no signs leading to Quirino.

It was already pitch black up the mountain but were still kms. away from civilization. We had no choice but to downhill the uber technical trail going to Quirino. Boy was it scarry! Scarry coz we don't know how long or far are we still going to downhill, my tires were already battered, Vei is on single speed, we're both hungry and tired. Despite those things we were still determined to make it to the nearest town. The lights were getting closer and closer and alas! We made it to civilization! It took us an hour to downhill the sharp rocks of Quirino, and it was not downhill bliss since it felt like we were jackhammering all the way down. My mech brakes really got my hands tired.

We stopped by this small compound with a store. We munched on the biscuits we could down, since they told us there were no restaurants or eatery available in the area and that the way to Candon was still very, very far ahead. When we were asked if we already had dinner, we told them that the biscuits and sodas was already our lunch/dinner and that we hadn't eaten any rice yet. We asked them if they could cook for us coz we were glad to pay them for it but they declined. After a few more mins. the store owner's son was inviting us to have dinner. We declined a number of times but they kept on insisting. This time the parents and children were all inviting us to have dinner. 

As in wow! thank God for good samaritans like these people, they prepared 3 different viands. It dint stop at that, they offerred us a room for us to spend a night, though we just asked a space in their compound where we could put up our tent. The Marvil family, manong Rene and manang Mildred, were very kind to provide us with more than we asked for and dint ask anything for return. We showed them our pics of our trip and their neighbors flocked and continued conversing in Ilocano. Some talked to us, curious of the why, how, what etc.

It took us 12 hours for this trip. This includes rest stops, repairs, bath, meals, and not to mention approx 40L worth of backpacks. Dayuhan even lifted my bag and gave us an evil grin saying: "This should be fun."

above:Left or right? No locals no signs going to Quirino, Ilocos Sur

above: Vei with the Marvils (Rene, Mildred and Rene Jr.)

Crosscountry Biking: (Day 5) Sadaga-Besao

This was on: December 30, 2008

When we woke up the next day, again the place was surrounded by clouds. It wasn't raining at all in Sagada but it was colder there. When I asked Steve about this, he said that Sagada has a higher altitude. The water way colder compared to that in Mayoyao, Batad, and Bangaan. That didn't stop me from taking a bath last night haha.

We both cleaned our bikes first and Vei had to do some tweaking coz he's still having a bit of a problem with his brakes and derailler. Vei's friend, John (if I'm not mistaken) whose family owns the Dapdapanan Lodge, was kind enough to serve us free breakfast. We had hotdogs, omelet, Cauliflower dipped in vinegar (binuro sa suka), chopseuy, fried rice, coffee and milk all for free. Yummy!

We still had 5 kms. of biking to do since Dapadapanan is 5kms. away from Sagada town proper. The 40L of Bag was really a burden so we just reserved our strengths by not mashing the pedals. We took our time. We had a flexi IT anyweiz. 


When we reached the town proper, we had to get some more oil (for sewing). WD40 kept of the dirt but its not a good lubricant. Vei was still tweaking his bike when noon caught up on us. Another biker we met, Duds, was using Steve's bike. He mentioned that he was from Baguio, failed to bring his bike, but Steve insisted that he bike around and allowed him to borrow his bike. He biked to Besao that day with Joey.

Vei was having a hard time with the derailler, and I'm not that good a mechanic either so I persuaded him to go again to Joey and have it checked. Nahihiya na talga kami (trans: we're so embarass for having you guys attend to our troubles), but we had no other choice. Again Steve and Joey thanks! Had a chance to take each of their pics, Jenny was kind enough to pose for me too, thanks guys! We owe you a lot!

Steve was busy with his rafting business he was starting up. If you wanna try rafting up Sagada give me a heads up and I'll refer you to Steve ;) Twas already high noon when Joey finished fixin' Vei's bike. 

Yoghurt house was where we had lunch. Again I had Yoghurt! Then I heard the thing that I dreaded to hear the most. Vei was already asking me if its OK to cut the trip short. I asked why, then he said that his niece was rushed to the hospital because of dengue. I had to agree. As much as I still want to ride for 3 more days, family still comes first for us. I respect his decision. So we stayed at the Green House Inn (just like last time we were in Sagada last June).

Since I was so bitin (trans: wants more), I asked Vei if its ok for him if we ride to Besao instead. He agreed. We left our things and brought basic bike stuff. Before starting we bumped into Steve again and invited him if he wanted to ride. He said he was busy with the rafting thing and were just waiting for some people visiting the caves. He told us that Besao is 8kms from Sagada, 4kms going uphill and 4 kms. dowhill and vice versa.

I enjoyed it very much, it was a rock garden mostly going to Besao. There were few portions of cemented road though. Now I know why Joey and Steve loves going there. Once you've paid your dues (4kms. uphill), you can rest since the next will be downhill. When going back its the same thing, uphill then downhill. I love it! 

We cleaned ourselves up and bought some pasalubongs. I again went back to the Yoghurt house to have some Veggie sandwich and Strawberry Yoghurt! I was suppose to bike to Besao the next day but got too lazy to get up. 

The next day (Dec. 31, '08) we had our pictures taken with the owners of the Green House Inn. From Sagada we rode a bus going to Baguio then a bus going to Manila. We had lunch at Morning Star which was halfway to Baguio. We got to Baguio around 430PM, just had lugaw & tokwa for a while then we left at 530PM. I was in Manila by 10PM, 2 hours before New Year fireworks and smoke invade the city. This was Day 5. I already miss the Mountain Province.