Camp Chill: A Lake Tabeo adventure with the Mazda BT-50
We take the Mazda BT-50 to Lake Tabeo in Kabayan, Benguet
I don’t want to, but I have to.
That’s what I was muttering to myself as I opened my eyes at around 2:00 in the morning, and the temperature outside had probably dropped to around 5 degrees. All that’s protecting me from it is a sleeping bag that has me wrapped up like a burrito and a tent that’s leaking in a few spots.
As I put my shoes back on, I quietly curse my choices earlier in the evening for taking on the three W’s: wine, whisky, and water. And now at the worst possible time, I have to pee.
I stumble out of the tent into the fine, misty rain. I look to my left… the restroom here was about 75 meters away. As my half-awake mind contemplated walking there in this cold, I heard a zipper open to my right. It was another tent.
“Cacs, that you bro?” I said into the darkness as I pointed my light in the general direction. It was my buddy Caco opening his tent.
“Dude, I have to banyo,” said the YouTube sensation. Seems he too is regretting the same recent life choices and the cheers earlier in the evening.
“F that,” I said. “We can’t make it that far in this rain, this temperature, this darkness, and the low oxygen. Let’s pee over there by that berm.”
And there we were, standing side by side, peeing in the pitch black. Maybe it wasn’t wise to let go of some body heat in this cold, but we’ve done dumber stuff before and survived to tell it. We certainly weren’t going to be beaten by a camping trip with Mazda.
About 20 hours prior, we all met up bright dark and early for this drive. It’s a camping trip organized by Mazda Philippines. No, we won’t be sleeping in a hotel for this one. If Mazda likes to have a driver and rider feel as one (hello, jinba-ittai), then we'll be one with the grassy surface as we sleep.
The steed this time isn’t a low saloon or crossover. Instead, we were in various examples of the BT-50. Some were 4x2, others were 4x4, and a select few were the new Pangolin 4x4 units. There really wasn’t much time for chit-chat; just a coffee, a sandwich, and on we went.
We’ve got about 300 kilometers to cover, and a lot of it is in the twisty bits. The reason is that we’re headed to Lake Tabeo (or Tabeyo), a place I hadn’t even heard of until then. All I knew is that it was in Kabayan, Benguet… and that it wasn’t far from the highest point in Luzon: Mount Pulag.
I’ll go out on a limb and say only a select few in our group have significant mountaineering credentials, and I wasn’t one of them. As I drove the BT-50 Pangolin on TPLEX, I couldn’t help but think that I’m not ready for this. I like to think of myself as something of an amateur prepper, but none of the gear I have in the airtight tub sliding around in the cargo bed of the BT-50 is meant for extreme cold weather. All I have is a jacket, thermals, some lights, and a sleeping bag. That’s it.
We head into Baguio, but we’re not stopping. Yes, people like to go to Baguio for the cool weather, but that’s just the problem: there are just too many people here now that it’s really putting a strain on the environment. Vehicle emission is a big problem, and no place in the country is as chokingly clear as it is in the summer capital.
The road past Baguio is even twistier and trickier than any of the others before it. The road is narrow and the exits of corners are blind. It’s fine in the dry with the BT-50, but just as we arrived at the DENR’s Mt. Pulag Visitor Center, the heavens decided to weigh in with a torrential shower.
The medical staff gave every one of us a check to see if we can make it to the area, as this is also the mandatory stop for all that want to go up to Pulag to see the sea of clouds. We weren’t going that high up, but we still have to undergo the same checks and get briefed on the conditions.
More importantly, the DENR’s park rangers at Ambangeg gave a thorough briefing about what to do and what not to do when we got to the campsite. Preservation is important, especially after some recent events. Just 5 years ago, a camper’s negligence with a butane stove resulted in a wildfire that scarred Mt. Pulag.
On a good clear day, this drive up to Tabeo can easily be done by any saloon car. But after the rain shower, it became evident that the BT-50 was the way to go. The road was littered with all kinds of debris that was washed down from the cliffs onto the road by the water. Leaves, branches, and even sharp rocks were all over the place, and you have to dodge it all. The ground clearance of the BT-50 made it easy, but a rock did damage one of the trucks in our group, resulting in a flat tire. They were doing a lot of work on the cliffs by laying down some mesh to reduce rockslides, but regular landslides are a way of life.
As we got higher, the temperature got even colder. If it was around 20 to 22 degrees in Baguio, in Kabayan it was more like 15 or less. The air clearly got thinner too; that’s why a lot of athletes train at the higher altitudes of Baguio and Benguet for competition abroad. Actually, we had one such athlete with us for this drive: Hidilyn Diaz.
As our lungs and turbodiesel engines adjusted to the thinner air, our eyes were given one treat after another. Just as we neared Lake Tabeo, it seemed every corner we turned opened up to one breathtaking view after another. There were hills, mountains, greenery, and stepped rice paddies as far as the eyes can see. This is one place where you don’t want to be distracted though, as the beauty of the view can easily mask the danger of the deep ravines. There was even one little patch of road that literally bridged two mountains with zero barriers on either side. Make a mistake, and down you go.
But that’s also the beauty of something like the Mazda BT-50. It’s just so fun and engaging to drive for a pickup truck. No, it’s not a sports car by any stretch of the imagination, but the driving ergonomics means low fatigue even for a long drive such as this (I drove the entire way up from Manila) and the handling made it easy to maneuver around the tight bends. More importantly, the truck is so well sorted for driving that you can place the tires with precision so that you don’t worry about making a mistake and dropping a tire on the wrong spot. It just feels natural to drive.
As we pulled into Lake Tabeo, you get an unusual sense of accomplishment as a driver. Even with all the modern safety systems in new vehicles, it’s still a challenging drive up with the changing weather conditions, the road conditions, and the fact that there was no signal or data up here. The temperature, however, was starting to drop further as the sun went down and as a fine misty drizzle hovered over the campsite.
I pull down the tailgate of Mazda’s truck and have a seat to enjoy the view just as the boss of Mazda Philippines, Steven Tan, walks up. He pops open a bottle of wine, hands over a paper cup, and pours one for us.
The weather did not cooperate along the way. The cold was penetrating the thermals, the gloves, and the jacket I brought. The ground our tent was on will not result in a good night’s sleep. If anything, a lot of things that happened can make the adventure a miserable one, but so long as you have a good group of friends with you on a drive, none of that matters. The warmth of the fellowship was more than enough to beat the cold.
Now if only we had a pot of lugaw, goto, or congee over a fire, then it would have been perfect.
