2022-004 | RESTING ALONG A TRAIL

OUTDOORS COMMON SENSE TIPS: When you are somewhat tired, do not sit. Just lean over forward, grasping pants with both hands and let the weight of upper body and bag transfer to your arms and lower legs, thereby relieving the middle torso and upper legs of the load. 

First seen in Facebook

October 2, 2018 

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This is a technique I learned 29 years ago from the late Dr. Abraham Manlawe when I was with the Cebu Mountaineering Society. In the early ‘90s, I tried to fit in to that sport, hefting 70-liter bags from trailheads to the campsites and to the trail’s end. We practically carried the whole house and it was heavy.

Jump-off areas to the camps were very far back then, unlike now, where you only have to walk a few hours. Back then, you have to walk from a day to three days to your campsite, depending. If the peak is three days away, first day would be easy since you are still fresh but, by afternoon, you would feel the toils of carrying the weight from behind you.

On the second day and third day, although food and fuel are taken from your bag’s weight, it is still heavy. It would be much heavy if it rained, drenching your old canvass-cloth bag. At this time where frequent rests are needed, I have to execute this rest position. It is so simple and there is economy of movement.   

You only need little strength to stand erect again as against sitting from the ground up even without a load or from a seat with a load on your back. Besides, you have control of the mind which signals your whole body to fits of drowsiness (laziness?) when it finds something comfortable like sitting down under a shade. 

I also discovered that with this position, your lungs could inhale more air than standing erect or an upper body in vertical position since there is no tension of muscles to hold your lungs. It is like you are lying down. Your ribs would not get in the way as you inhale extra amounts of oxygen which your circulation system direly need in stressful moments to supply your brains.

This rest technique is much relevant than ever when I guide paying hikers over each segment of the Cebu Highlands Trail, which has eight, or leading pilgrims over Cebu’s Camino de Santiago. These are long trails. The latter is 175+ kilometers long and walked in ten days. Some of these pilgrims are non-athletic and this technique applies perfectly on them. 

When I did the first thruhike of the former, I walked it 26 days with extra three days’ rest. It was 408+ kilometers and you could just imagine the length and breadth I walked. It was on this moment, as were the guided walks after that, which I used effectively for my own benefit, especially at its most unforgiving stretches. It is easy to teach people about this and it helped to my cause while leading people.

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WARRIOR PILGRIMAGE BLOG, personified by this writer, is synonymous with the Outdoors, since Bushcraft and Survival is its niche. Safety and Security are its bedrock when it ventured into organizing outdoor events that involved people as in adventure/pilgrimage guideships and seminars; and explorations and expeditions. 

Through tutorship, experience, folk knowledge and good old common sense, this writer was able to collect useful information which he is currently documenting in a book titled, ETHICAL BUSHCRAFT. He shares some of this information and knowledge in his training sessions; in his social-media account; and in this blog.

Photo Nr 1 courtesy of Apol Antenor.

Photo Nr 4 courtesy of Boblyle Balverde.

Photo Nr 5 courtesy of Raymund Panganiban.

2022-003 | THE GENUINE OUTDOORSMAN

WISDOM TRAILS: Hard Work, Creativity and Stamina are the hallmarks of a genuine outdoorsman. Maybe of Patience and Humility too. 

First seen in Facebook

November 11, 2018

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IN THIS AGE OF INSTANT GRATIFICATION, I find myself many times at the tip of the spear. Would I yield to the temptations of the promise of something greater? Of capitalizing on the opportunity of the moment? Of letting myself be swallowed by other people’s schemes? Would I have to overstretch and overstress myself to achieve something which borders on madness, greed and arrogance? 

Or of success?

Many have tried even when they have not yet arrived. The lure of something bigger is so great. Then again, immaturity would be the mother of failure. Even when you are in the right place at the right time but your strides are lacking, you are bound to stumble on your obsession because you simply are not ready in what you embarked for or pretended yourself to be. 

I understand many would love to be a compleat outdoorsman. I know everyone has the industry, even willing to walk that extra mile. But how far can you go then beyond that extra? Can your mindset create something from out of nothing like I did with the Cebu Highlands Trail? Without big-name sponsors, without local guides to help you as you stitched 408+ kilometers of routes, and then walking it later in one single continuous line for 29 days?

Do you have the confidence to organize and host the Philippine Independence Bushcraft Camp, like I also did, and then subject that event, to the criticism of detractors who thought the outdoors was their exclusive domain; and from armchair experts who have seen it all in YouTube and Netflix? I can proudly say that, after 10 years, it had become a premier event here if you want to learn advanced outdoor skills.  

Would you gave up your club membership so you could enjoy the outdoors better and organize your own like I did with my Camp Red Bushcraft and Survival Guild? Would you find satisfaction when the one you organized is the only one of its kind in the Philippines and it is peopled by individuals with the same mindsets? Those that love and understand the outdoors better? Well, I did and it is SEC registered.   

Would one be willing to exchange their comfort zones and subject themselves to the wrath of nature, of landscapes and people, and of their own designs? Would one walk the extra ten kilometers because the box they were in has no answers yet to what lie beyond? Would one lead without even trying? Would one be bold enough to make a statement that would shake the foundations of an established culture? 

The outdoors is one uncontrolled environment and it needed creative people. People that could think beyond templates of human behavior and psychology. A kind of creativity that does not move on a conventional pattern yet unmistakably so simple at the end. That same creativity which worked best with their own stamina. A stamina that is forged by the wild landscape that they so loved to tramp upon. 

Would you still want to be a genuine outdoorsman? If you have the patience and the humility, you might.

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WARRIOR PILGRIMAGE BLOG, personified by this writer, is synonymous with the Outdoors, since Bushcraft and Survival is its niche. Safety and Security are its bedrock when it ventured into organizing outdoor events that involved people as in adventure/pilgrimage guideships and seminars; and explorations and expeditions. 

Through tutorship, experience, folk knowledge and good old common sense, this writer was able to collect useful information which he is currently documenting in a book titled, ETHICAL BUSHCRAFT. He shares some of this information and knowledge in his training sessions; in his social-media account; and in this blog.

Image Nr 2, Nr 5 and Nr 6 courtesy of Ronald Abella.

Image Nr 3 courtesy of AkyatCon 2.0.

Image Nr 4 designed by Jhonrey Armilla.