Toiling up Tagaytay

Long weekend = long ride, what a waste otherwise. Having gone up Sierra Madre just a week ago, and done Bugarin a couple of times, perhaps it was time to do the Tagaytay trek. And so it happened. Mike P was going to be our guide; Butch, Jerome, and myself the hapless trailers.

Meeting place was 6am at Bonifacio High Street. How to fit 4 bikes in one car? Easy: one bike inside the trunk; three in the bike rack. After so many car scratches, experience has told us how to orient the bikes correctly: the first bike should have its cranks facing the car’s trunk. For some reason, this also provides room for the other bikes not to be hitting each other.

We got off BHS by 6:30 am, with the Men’s Health Run already in full progress. We got stuck in traffic at the Bicutan construction, and by the time we got to the Daang Hari police station to park, it was already past 8am, already “late” by biker standards.

We mounted our bikes and went through the length of Daang Hari. Mike guided us through rough stretches

At the Mahogany Market for bulaloa-ding

of Molino, then through the raucous Aguinaldo highway, before we turned right at Robinsons then left through the secluded highway leading up to Amadeo. From there it was a rolling gentle slope up the ridge, with a couple of Coke stops along the way and thoughts of bulalo keeping us going. Two-and-a-half hours and 51 kms later, we reached the ridge near the Petron station and proceeded to the Mahogany market for our bulalo fill.

We originally had planned to go further to Nasugbu, but as it was already late and as Jerome determined that we had suffered enough, this was left for a future project.

Coming back we decided to go through Silang, with a brief stopover at Gourmet’s Cafe. It was of course all downhill, and with the sun covered by clouds, made for a most pleasant ride. We finally made it back Daang Hari by 5pm.

Although the road quality might be poor compared to Sierra Madre or Bugarin, coupled with the fact of having to weave through the buses and jeepneys of Aguinaldo highway, nothing still beats the cool weather and amazing view of Tagaytay. Toiling up Tagaytay by bike has its rewards indeed

All smiles after our bulalo fill