If circumstances allow, a new hiking site in Sta. Cruz is about be unveiled. It is located in barangay Astorga, Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur and locals call it Balasinon Peak. The name was derived from a type of native species of tree located near the campsite and just 400 meters to the summit.
In an exploration hike last February 6, my team was accompanied by the tribal chieftain of Astorga Matanem Amparo Ibayan together with his council of elders and other community members. The barangay council of Astorga was also represented through Kagawad Ryan Adalim, and some volunteers from his Team ECHO who helped us technically assess the Balasinon trail. Matanem Ibayan has long been in constant conversation with our group, his enthusiasm anchored on putting up an ecotourism site as a legacy project for the indigenous community of Astorga just like what the other adjacent projects inside an ancestral domain of Sta. Cruz are handled such as Mt. Dinor, Mt. Loay, Bamboo Peak and Tomari Falls, to name a few.
The trail starts in a narrow track from sitio Tubison traversing sitio Bayongon. Just like other hiking sites in Sta. Cruz, Balasinon trail is made up of high value crops like coconut, banana, coffee and fruit trees owned by the Bagobo-Tagabawa residents. This circumferential trail is about 4.3 meters in total distance with an elevation gain of more or less 700 meters. The summit measures 918 meters above sea level, with vegetation from the campsite to the summit more of a secondary growth trees because the place was actually a settlement in mid 70s to early 90s, only to be disrupted when insurgency in Sta. Cruz was at its peak that prompted residents to relocate. The campsite was a location of a protestant church erected in 1970s but nowhere to found today.
The Balasinon mountain range is an intermediary of other notable peaks within the Astorga-Coronon border. Off south is a good view of Kaba-itan summit and in a distant site is Coronon’s Sarimoso hill. Balasinon summit is a 360-degree viewpoint, with Davao City and Samal Island being dominant in the southern stance. Connecting straight from the summit are four mighty mountains namely: Gawa-e Peak, Balabag Peak, Bamboo Peak and Langit-langit Peak.
The intention of Matanem Ibayan and the rest of the tribal council of Astorga is to replicate the successes of hiking stories of its neighboring areas, which to me a thing that can be achieved within the first semester this year.
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