As of this writing Mt. Loay is still restricted for trekking activity. Barangay and tribal authorities have been finalizing documents and it will take a while for Mt. Loay lovers to be back here. On July 24 however, LOGSAC had to revisit this mountain to explore its extended trail off Mt. Baryara and Mt. Biyaon, a visible neighbors of Mt. Loay that connects another popular hiking attraction in Sinoron, Mt. Dinor.
We took the Orpilina Promised Land jump off point and left our vehicle in one of the residents there. Mt. Loay trail is silent this time, and people here (most of them are mountain guides) were nowhere in the site, perhaps trying to explore another economic alternative in the meantime that the most popular hiking site in Sta. Cruz is close. It is good to be back in Mt. Loay despite the unusual scenery. The community stores are bare, in fact some of them now dilapidated. There was only a handful of business activities unlike before. It saddened me somehow because the premature, unplanned closure of Mt. Loay by the tribal and barangay governments last April resulted to economic mayhem of a fraction of community in Zone 2, Sta. Cruz. Anyway, there are brighter side of things and let us look forward to that.
The summit of Mt. Loay serves as the easiest take off point to Mt. Baryara. An additional 1.5 kilometers of ridge and rainforest trek should be undertaken. But first, we had to go through old bushes in Kanipisan Point to reach a façade of primary dipterocarp woodlands. This portion starts a dense trek, zigzagging rainforest and open ridge that saw beautiful views of Coronon in the right side and Poblacion in the left. The fruiting trees closer to the summit of Mt. Baryara were host to feeding birds such as Black-naped Monarch, Warbling White Eye, Bicolored Flowerpecker, Yellow-bellied Whistler and Little Pied Flycatcher.
The last 700 meters before reaching Mt. Baryara summit is a steep jungle trail. We reached the summit of Mt. Baryara (1,309 MASL) at around 10:00 in the morning. If only there is water source here this could be a really good camping site with shade of tall native trees. We met several local hunters here and we learned that the route connecting Mt. Loay and Mt. Dinor is a highway of Philippine endemic wildlife such as Philippine Warty Pig, Philippine Brown Deer and Long-tailed Macaque. This deserves comprehensive conservation measures by resuming mountain trekking in Loay, otherwise, these people will always resort to wildlife hunting.
Mt. Biyaon is 900 meters away from Mt. Baryara summit, so six of us had
to go ahead and took the opportunity to visit another promising peak. When I
checked my GPS equipment I learned that Mt. Biyaon is taller than Mt. Baryara
at 1,317 MASL, and this small heap will be the tallest among the 5 peaks in
between the Zone 2-Sinoron hallway. By the way, Mt. Biyaon belongs to barangay
Sinoron already.
With this recent trilogy climb I finally completed the 5 summits in central Sta. Cruz. Of the five, only 2 are presently considered for trekking (Loay and Dinor), that left Mt. Baryara, Mt. Biyaon and Mt. Tinako still off limits to trekkers. But I can always count on some barangay functionaries to help me open up a traverse trail using all these excellent sites. Why not?
Lastly, this series of summits located in this mountain range is a good
patch of forest cover that stabilizes the lowland of Poblacion Sta. Cruz. Once
this mountain is abused I think there is a resounding trouble coming. The
geography of Central Sta. Cruz is made up of crucial layers of coastal,
built-up, farm lands and rainforest; the last one having bigger role in keeping
its downward counterparts intact.
P.S. Many thanks to my friends in LOGSAC who joined the climb namely: Jorax, Jonas, Kurvy, Vince, Dancel, Anil, Jacko, Froilan, Erwin and John jay.
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