Adventure time
The journey to Baler is split into two tenses: the present, on the WiFi-enabled bus from Manila; and the past, when you ramble gently through the verdant plains of Nueva Ecija and down the Sierra Madre mountain pass. Once at the provincial capital of Aurora, glimpses of urban life alternate with a classic countryside mise en scène: age-old coconut groves busy with adults working the fields and children walking to and from school. By the time I am in a van for the drive to Dicasalarin Cove, owned by the Angara family, I am already entranced by its seclusion, and contemplating whether a person with no discernible camping expertise such as myself would survive a night sleeping under the stars.
I have arrived as a guest of Poler Outdoor Stuff. The social media antics of the Portland, Oregon-based company have attracted the attention of adventurous 21st century youth and the forever young-at-hearts. The brand’s #campvibes slogan — meant to embody a positive outdoor experience — has taken on a life of its own online, embraced by a network of like-minded wanderers and used over 130,000 times.
JUST LIKE ‘MOONRISE KINGDOM’
All week before my trip, friends made reassuring noises. (“You? Camping? Really?” was the consensus.) The advantage of starting with Poler’s range of outdoor equipment, however, is that you break yourself in gently. They are technical, functional and durable enough to make a newbie feel like Bear Grylls while packing enough Tumblr-friendly good looks straight out of Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom.
An afternoon spent getting our bearings led through stops at Baler’s most iconic bullet points. While a scene from Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now — shot in the remote coastal town in the late 1970s — ushered in the country’s surfing culture, Baler is easily as rich in history as it is in killer waves. Built in 1611, the church of San Luis Obispo de Tolosa was the site of one of history’s longest blockades, a siege that marked the end of Spanish rule in the Philippines in the 1890s.
AROUND THE BONFIRE
After a leisurely dinner, a logistical feat that involved a private chef, it was off to a secluded white sand beach for convivial drinks and S’mores around the bonfire. Camping, as I discovered, is not so much about letting the outside in as shutting as much of it out as possible. Despite my best efforts, sand made its way inside my tent. I longed for a vacuum cleaner, some earplugs and a Valium.
A cool mist hung over the water but at our base just beyond the bank, it was so hot that I used Poler’s Napsack — a sleeping bag that you can hike to your waist and wear like a puffy jacket — as a mattress. It was a reversion to life as it used to be, which was a bit like going to the dark side of the moon. Before I knew it, the sun was up. I barely slept.
In bright sunshine I was better able to appreciate where I was. A lighthouse was visible in the distance, its design reminiscent of Mercedes-Benz’s three-pointed star emblem or a Jackson Randy Rhoads electric guitar. To reach it entailed crossing the river delta beside our campsite and trudging up 200 steps either way. Nearby was a lagoon tucked in a cave gouged into the side of the steep rock. I was proud of all the calories I had burned before the day got too hot.
IT’S THE CLIMB
Rejuvenated by the conveniences at Costa Pacifica, a well-appointed resort along Sabang Beach, not yet as pinned to the day-trippers’ map as places such as Siargao, my companions and I continued to an even greater quest: a trek up Pinagminahan.
I assumed the afternoon hike around a mountain would be as rewarding as any climb but without all the danger, fear and discomfort. But scaling Pinagminahan, a supposedly benign foothill according to our guide, was unlike my only other hiking expedition to the Lake Agnes Teahouse in Lake Louise, a true Banff National Park classic.
We went over boulder-heavy mounds and sloshed through muddy paths. At times, it felt as if we were wandering through the bushes vertically, sweat now indiscernible from tears. The intervening terrain was sometimes so crumpled that moving two feet forward seemed to take an eternity. As I watched villagers with fresh-cut timber heading towards the pass, I wondered how one could live in such rugged isolation.
EVERYDAY ADVENTURES
Then, as light flowed down, I was rewarded with a tantalizing view of Baler from such a height. I had questioned the wisdom of trying to reach previously untrodden summits, but now I grew to love the intensity of it. I had embarked on an adventure that was new and special, one that got the blood activated. As rain began to trickle, we made our descent, melting back into the landscape as swiftly but as gingerly as possible.
What rendered my trip to Baler so vivid — what gave even ordinary sights novel clarity — was that I managed to do so as an everyday adventurer. It made me immensely glad to find out that I didn’t have to be an extreme outdoor enthusiast to hit the trail, wherever that may be, and have an awesome time.
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Poler Outdoor Stuff is available at all Bratpack stores. Special thanks to Ian Sanchez and Clarissa Antonio.
