HARVEST HILLS PARK AND RIDE FULL

We did the compressed short route which only scratched the surface of the Lian area, but the much longer route also features a trip to the beach, albeit in Calatagan this time, where lunch is usually served (also part of the package he offers). Eric offers this Batangas backroads tour as part of his Harvest Hills bike/camp package. Well, we only got to ride a short 40km course, but we pretty much got a feel of what to expect if the range was extended. Add to that the cap he put in place to limit the number of guests he can accommodate at any given time, and what you have is a scenic campsite that offers some form of exclusivity to people dying to get away from the maddening crowds. Situated somewhere between Nasugbu and Magallanes, one of the things we loved about Harvest Hills was that you had to travel about 12+ clicks from the main road thru dodgy roads and terrain to get to the farm itself (which was an adventure on its own already)… that meant there was still a bit of remoteness to it, and that the area was not overdeveloped. Like everyone else, the pandemic also made him re-evaluate a lot of things - and to keep up with emerging trends, has now opened his place up to bikepackers (offering multi-day bike tours to sweeten the pot as well). A quick introduction a few moments later via Facebook and we were off to the races with H.H.’s owner, Eric De Belen.Įric developed Harvest Hills a few years back and opened up its grounds to campers and glampers alike.

Batangas still has a lot of undeveloped land and tons of backroads, so that in itself already got us hooked. Mike Roxas, one of the partners at Specialized Quezon City and pretty good friend of ours, approached us about the possibility of checking out Harvest Hills to see whether we could help promote his friend’s place. We had recently started a bikepacking event with some friends from All Terra Cyclery to kinda get with the times, and we were in the process of adding new routes and destinations when the call to visit Harvest Hills came in.

HARVEST HILLS PARK AND RIDE FULL

The pandemic forced people to re-evalute a lot of things, and being cooped up indoors for such a long period of time opened everyone’s eyes to the full potential of what was there all along - exploring the great outdoors. We always felt that this was riding at its most fun and free, and to some extent - the best avenue to test gear, one’s fitness, and everything else in between. The best rides we figured out, the ones we often remember the most, were these randomly planned rides to some unheard-of destination.

It was easier for us to do structured training rides in and around the metro - but most of these were geared towards the prep work needed for the Audax season, and as such, would sometimes become tedious as the season progressed.

Back before the pandemic, we would always have some sort of issue doing these kinds of things due to conflicts in our schedule. Now aside from all the R&D stuff that we’ve been doing the past year and a half, one other aspect that got going was our ability to ride off-the-grid on a whim. This freed up a lot more time to focus on Off-Kilter projects that we felt were long neglected. Starting the studio gave us some semblance of work-life balance, but it was the pandemic that really opened up the floodgates for us.ĭon’t get us wrong, the pandemic affected us just like all other businesses around the globe, but it also taught us to adapt and be more efficient with our processes. Back when we were still grinding it out in our 9-to-5s, there was never enough time to properly pursue other interests and passions. One of the obvious perks of running our own graphic design studio is having a lot more control of our time.

Harvest hills park and ride