Short treks

The idea was floated in a Facebook exchange among “veterans” of the Manunggal climb, some of them legitimate mountain climbers but who no longer find enough time to go on major or long treks. Why not fit the length of the trek to the available time instead of fitting the time to a predetermined long trek?

So there we were--Barok, William, Nanding, Lito, David, Pompe and me--in a meeting in a coffee shop inside a mall at the North Reclamation Area to schedule the treks. The closest areas for such an endeavor were, of course, the mountain barangays of Cebu City.

I actually failed to join the group in their first trek Saturday from Buhisan to Toong in Cebu City to Campo 3 and Jaclupan in Talisay City because of some scheduling problems. I am familiar with Toong, the barangay next to Buhisan going up, but I could no longer recall having been to that natural pool called Cawa where they dipped into what they described as very cool water.

I say that going on short treks is not an idea unique for trekkers who no longer have a lot of time to spend because of work and the demands of family. Before this, young SunStar Cebu employees started doing short weekend treks, one that fit their work schedule.

In one trek wherein we followed the road from Buhisan to Toong to Pamutan and finally to the footpath leading to Lanipao and Napo in Barangay Sapangdaku, we met young trekkers who were going deeper into the city’s mountains. Their destination was Sirao, which was beyond the ridge overlooking the city’s plains.

It wasn’t only the trekkers that we encountered there because some bikers also challenged themselves by using the roads that now crisscross the city’s mountains. A man riding a motorcycle even followed the rough and narrow footpath connecting the road in Napo to that in Pamutan.

What local government units, especially mountain barangays in Cebu City and its environs, should realize is that there is a segment of the population out there that is willing to spend both time and money for short treks. And there are some areas in the mountains near the plains that can lure these trekkers to them.

Interestingly, who would have thought that some enterprising people would dare put up swimming pools (I think there are three of them) in Lower Lanipao in Barangay Sapangdaku? Lanipao is even farther up the mountain than Sitio Napo, the endpoint of the route that public utility jeepneys take going to and from Guadalupe proper.

It obviously helped that where the footpath that once connected Lanipao to Napo was now traversed by a largely concreted road. The road is steep in some parts but at the time when we were at the swimming pool area a taxicab did reach there.

That is not my point, however. Rather, what got me into thinking was the possibility that the owners of the swimming pools in Lanipao saw what the barangay officials apparently didn’t: the tourism potential of some areas in the mountain barangays close to the plains.

Instead of engaging too much in partisan politics, why won’t officials like Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña help the mountain barangays exploit this potential?