Another weekend, another day of exploration. While most of our PMTB (Pinoy Mountain Bikers) friends were hitting the popular trails in Licao licao, I (together with a regular MTB companion - see his blog here) decided to veer off the beaten tracks and go somewhere else. The mission: find Bakas (in Norzagaray, Bulacan, some 30 km from home) and then find a way out of Bakas without passing through the main roads.

We started out early, woke up at 3:30AM, had an early breakfast, and was on the road by 5AM. The ride to Norzagaray was uneventful, we rode without rest stops. I notice my front hub to be a bit wobbly, strange since I just had it repacked a couple of days ago.

A few kilometers on the rough road from the town proper to Bakas, my front hub completely gave up on me (darn these amateur bike mechanics!). We were determined to reach our destination that day. So we (slowly) rode back to town, bought a cheap hub from a local bike shop and cannibalized the internals. After about 30 minutes we were back on the trail again.

The sight before us when we reached Bakas was worth all the troubles. The place was absolutely scenic! The place was called Bakas (translated to "tracks", "marks" or "footprints") because of the large limestone rocks and the interesting footprint like impressions and formations. Folklore has it that those were left by the giant named Bernardio Carpio and his pets. The other set of prints can be found in Wawa in Montalban, Rizal.

The river was running deep that time, so we were not able to cross to the big rocks. From there you should be able to see the marks.


From Bakas we explored upriver and found a nice picnic/swimming spot. The midday sun was getting hotter so we took shelter in one of the makeshift cottages along the river bank. Soon a group of excursionists arrived and started setting up camp. The overwhelming smell of their BBQ was to much for us, so before our mouths water we readied our gears and was soon heading further upriver.


We reached a point where the rideable riverbank vanished. The river started swelling and the water was getting deeper. There is a dam several kilometers upstream and they usually release water at around noon. From that point we can already see the quarry site of Holcim cement factory, one of the largest in the country.


Its either we head back to the nearest road or find a passable trail. The decision: find the trail. The folks at a nearby sand quarry was giving us perplexed looks when we headed to the nearby hill. We found a small foot trail, if people go by this way surely we can bike it, we reckon.

Soon there was no trail at all! We had to ride on top of large volcanic rocks and climb over bamboo fences (designed to keep livestock in/out). After a few push and pedal, we wound up in a rice field. At least now its bikeable :)


We were getting hungry and had to quickly find a way out of the rice paddies. We estimated where the road could be and pedalled to that direction. We ended up in someone's backyard and was met with curious and amused looks.

"You came from the rice fields? There's a road there, why didn't you use that?", a man said while pointing to the direction of the main road. We just smiled and politely asked permission to pass through. We found a small sari sari store and quietly ate our packed lunch there. We too were amused with the trail we took :).

From there its a ride passing through the Holcim factory grounds and then out to Tungko-Norzagaray highway. We took a quick break after reaching the main road, its going to be long pedal home on a hot stretch of highway.

We were home by 4PM, 81 kilometers later. Not a bad ride, we got to see a very beautiful place.