This post recounts the mountain biking, hiking and camping
trip to Mt. Pulag, Kabayan, Benguet and Sagada, Mt. Province in the Cordillera
mountain ranges of the Philippines last March (Holy Week) 2013 by a group of cycling
enthusiasts from Sorsogon.
The original plan was for an unsupported MTB traverse of the
Cordillera east to west from Aritao, N. Viscaya to Candon City, Ilocos via Mt.
Pulag, Sagada and Tirad Pass in one week, which proved to be quite strenuous
and we had to cut short the trip in Sagada. This would be our fourth bike trip to the Cordilleras and
we are familiar with the terrain. But this trip will combine trekking and
biking so aside from the usual cross-country biking gears we carry, we have to
load up camping gears as well. We usually carry gears on backpacks lashed to a bike rack
(load limit 10 kg) mounted on the seat post and additional loads are mounted to
the front of the handlebars – no panniers, yet
