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Biking to Palo Alto and Hiking to the Radar Station

Palo Alto Falls Baras

Palo Alto Falls Baras: clean, clear, uncrowded and reachable by bike

The weather gods probably forgot to take their bipolar medication last Saturday. The sky was having very wild mood swings: one moment it was sunny and clear, and the next moment it was dark and threatening.

I woke up early, looked at the sky and almost cancelled the ride I had scheduled that Saturday for the readers of the blog. The dark clouds on the horizon reminded me of the worst of the Habagat rains from 2012. I wasn’t sure if any sort of fun was to be had in biking in those conditions. Yes, I did say that the ride would push through “Shine or Rain” but I didn’t say “Shine, Rain or Buwis Buhay!

In the end though, I decided to push through with the ride to the Masungi Rocks in Tanay. It turned out to be the right decision because although the clouds still threatened to unleash hell from time to time, the weather behaved for the most part. You might even say that the dark skies, the short bursts of rain, and the occasional searing sunshine made the whole ride more interesting. Read more [+]

Waterfalls You Can Bike to from Metro Manila

Waterfalls By Bike

There are several waterfalls you can bike to from Metro Manila

Metro Manila has waterfalls. Well, maybe they’re not exactly in Metro Manila itself. You will need to work a bit to reach these cascades. But if you’re a mountain biker, getting there is more than half the fun.

For a lot of people who grew up in Metro Manila, it can be almost hard to believe that there are waterfalls that are just an hour and a half away by car, or two and a half hours away by bike from the city. Waterfalls, after all, are part of mountain streams, which are in turn nurtured by forest watersheds. If you cut the trees in the forest, you eliminate the watershed, and you kill the waterfalls. Rampant deforestation in the municipalities and provinces around Metro Manila has probably eliminated a lot of these awesome nature spots. (This is what happened to Uugong Falls in Morong, Rizal.)

Still, the situation isn’t so bad yet. There are still a few waterfalls near Metro Manila, which means that there are still trees in the mountains to sustain them. And here are some of the waterfalls you can reach with your mountain bike.  Read more [+]