SHEILA MEI LOST HER OLD PAIR of
Merrell during the last few kilometers of the last day of Segment I-A of the
Cebu Highlands Trail, right after the 90-minute trek and forced river immersion
along the length of Biasong Creek on the way to Bonbon, Cebu City. That
happened in February 2018. Good thing it did not gave her a problem on the
first day.
One sole got detached from the
upper fabric and I have to tie it with a cord so it could still serve its
purpose. It did not halfway through. Sheila Mei has to remove the pair and
changed into rubber flip flops. That was the end of her storied Merrell. She
carried it home and may well be buried in a special cemetery for shoes.
On March 11, 2018, Sheila Mei came
back with a vengeance. She has a new pair of Merrell and she has to break it
in. Gian Carlo, her partner and accomplice for Adrenaline Romance Blog,
motivates her from behind, smiling devilishly. Their common friend, Halourd, is
with them. All came to train and prepare for an adventure outside of Cebu. Was
it the Bakun Trilogy? I think it is that.
I choose a route for them that has
no hiker traffic on a Sunday. It is found on Tagaytay Ridge, one of the several
east-pointing ridges of the Babag Mountain Range, and there is a beautiful path
there called Manggapares Trail. It starts right away, upon crossing a foot
bridge by way of Napo. The path goes through a small community which changed
into steep flower farms.
I really love to hike this trail
and I rarely bring people here. For the Adrenaline Romance couple, along with
Halourd, it is a must that I show them the other least known side of the Babag
Mountain Range. Only a few hikers walk here and they named this route as “7
towers trail” as a reference. In my walks here I only pass by five towers and
disappear through another path.
Of course, that secret path would
also be visited by my guests today. Tagaytay would connect with the main
ridgeline of the Babag Range. I intend to bring them to Mount Babag and go down
back to Napo on another route. That is my plan. Once we got past of the small
flower farm, we huff and puff into a hole among the greens. It is so silent
here and so cool but we sweated, nevertheless. The path is forever ascending.
We were just walking slowly but the
weather had become so humid after many weeks of mild temperatures. The tropical
summer is now felt abruptly. It is just too early for that and I missed the
times when it came slowly in the middle of March. Must be climate change or is
just that this is just a natural cycle when the globe warmed up before it gets
super cool again. Anyway, sweating is a fact of life here.
Worming our way through the green
tunnel, we finally come out on open ground and standing before us, from our
point of view, is the first steel behemoth. Still far away is the second and
the third. It rises more about a hundred feet above us with high-tension cables
connecting from faraway Naga City to a distribution terminal in Mandaue City.
The presence of the steel towers
became reference points of sort along the trail and I would know how long would
I have to walk more or where am I on these parts. You can anticipate and
conserve energy, take a rest or proceed up the ascending ridge just by counting
the towers. I would know which part is the most difficult to reach and which
one is not.
The second tower is far from the
first and it is on a hill. We get there, nevertheless, but the next one is much
higher and more difficult to approach. After willing our bodies to go up the
hill, we were winded. I am now facing an easy trail and the walk to the fourth
tower would not be of a problem but we have to take a rest first on another
landmark, an abandoned backhoe.
As I have said before in another
blog post, the junked heavy equipment is a natural magnet of conversations. It
had been left by the contractor who erected these steel towers and, until now,
I do not know why it had been so. From what I heard from the locals, they were
quite surprised also that it was left behind when it was still in good
condition, despite rolling down the ridgeline twice.
As we continue, we go past the
fourth tower, I break off from the trail and followed another one. I have never
shared this path except to my adherents in the Camp Red Bushcraft and Survival
Guild. But, today, I make an exception. The uphill walk had cost us almost three
hours already and it would be best that we have to stop to prepare lunch,
preferably, a place where there is a water source. I know of such a place and I
have been there many times.
The trail is wild since it is
seldom walked. It cross a dry gully where there is a crooked coconut tree
guarding its approach then you walk on a wide and flat grassy area where there
are more coconut trees. There is a pointed iron bar standing from the ground
and there are coconut husks strewn everywhere. This would have been a perfect
bushcraft camp if only it had a water source nearby.
We pass by below the peak that
hosts the sixth tower and goes into a saddle and up a hill where there is a
mango tree. According to local lore, there used to be two mango trees growing
close together here and looked almost the same that it became a reference point
for locals and called this path as “mangga nga pares” (English: twin
mango trees). The other tree had died and only one is left standing.
Unfortunately, someone had placed
barbed wire fences on the trail along the saddle. This is not a popular hiking
trail since it is not known. There could be a good reason why a farmer would
fence off a land. It could be to prevent farm animals from straying in or out
of the farm or it could be built to keep off-road motorcycles away. If it meant
for the latter, it serves them right. However, the fence has a narrow passage
good for a person to pass.
Over another peak is another
waist-high field of grass where it is a favorite nesting ground of grass owls.
I once spooked unaware a large owl among the grasses here and it flew away when
it noticed my presence. The owl kept its eyes on me as it circled above me
twice before flying over to the forest that I just left behind. We were staring
at each other and it was such a fantastic feeling. A feeling of kinship.
After we go over the hump, we go
down a path where there are bamboo groves on both sides. At the approach of
another saddle, dried bamboo poles were intentionally stacked over the other
over the trail as a sort of crude fence. A person could step over and squeeze
under these poles with not so much difficulty but farm animals or motorcycles
could not.
When we got past that, a path led
to a garden on a hill and then a small house. I have known the couple living
here since 2011 and they make their living by farming. They have water which
they sourced from across another hill and it is a good place to stop and cook a
meal. There are plenty of firewood and tinder but Gian Carlo and Sheila brought
with them their butane burner.
I promised them that I would be the
one to prepare and cook pork adobao so I let them enjoy the spectacle of the
garden. The farming couple grow vegetables, root crops, flowers, ornamental
plats, fruit-bearing trees, bananas and pittaya. Their dragonfruit is of the
deepest red in color and so sweet. Everytime I visit the couple, I always
brought with me pittaya fruit and stems for propagation.
Not this time. Their pittaya farm
suffered from a recent typhoon where the structure that held the crawling stems
collapsed and rendered the stems waterlogged and unproductive. This is an
introduced plant that originally grows in the barren plains of Central America
and an abundance of rain is just not what it needs. The stems above the ground
could still be salvaged and propagated.
Harold has other ideas. He bought
several of the healthy stems from my pensive farmer-friend so he could
compliment his white and pink pittayas with this deep red one. He is into
commercial farming and awaits his first harvest. Not everyone has this very red
species and it commands a better price, I think, than its paler cousins. Sheila
joined the hunt for plants and settled on ornamental and flowering plants.
While they were busy, the farmer
gave me a medium-sized local blade which he called as a “binangkito”
when I asked the name of its shape. The blade has a chisel grind which favored
a right-handed user. The handle is wood with intricately-carved designs, the
bolster tightly wrapped with copper wires. The sheath is made of the same wood
with a different carving style and three sets of rattan wicker cords are woven
on three different places.
Sheila, Gian Carlo and Halourd came
back from their green search and settled with several plants being readied for
transfer down the lowlands and into their homes. I am afraid there would not be
a hike on the rest of the route anymore. Rather we have to take an exit to
Bocawe and then to Pamutan Junction. But first, we have to eat our pork adobao
and rice.
After the meal, Sheila, Gian and
Halourd decide to remove most of the soil from the plants because it is heavy,
retaining only that had adhered and hardened among the roots, as well as the
plastic that held once the full soil content. With plastic bags, they pressed
as many of the plants inside. The pittaya stems were held by layers of banana
trunks and secured tightly outside the backpack.
We go down a trail and then on to a
set of concrete foot paths, crossing a small stream and followed an abandoned
road until we stepped on concrete. It is early afternoon and it is very warm on
the pavements. While we were walking uphill, we meet many hikers. From the
shapes of their bodies and the way they dress, they were all novices. Most
likely, they are from call centers, forced to go with their peers under the
assumption of “team building”.
We reach Pamutan Junction and it is
difficult for Sheila, Gian Carlo and Halourd to heft the plants to more
distances like going to Guadalupe on this same road. The walk from the hidden
garden to here had already taken their toll on their arms and hands. The most
likely action next would be to hire motorcycles. It took us a half hour or more
to haggle and to look for three motorcycles. We all need to leave all at the
same time.
But, once we did, the motorcycles
go by way of To-ong, Buhisan and, finally, Punta Princesa. From there we
transferred to public utility jitneys going to the downtown area. Halourd
dropped off at Labangon while Gian Carlo and Sheila Mei has to go to SM to
transfer to another passenger van. As for me, I disembark at the road to Pier 3
and walk the short distance to home.
Gian Carlo and Sheila Mei wrote about this episode in their Adrenaline Romance Blog as:
Document done in LibreOffice 5.3
Some photos courtesy of Adrenaline
Romance
