Since I blogged about my previous rides to the Wind Farm in Pililla, Rizal, I’ve been getting inquiries from riders and bikers on the best route to take. Over the past few months, I’ve visited the Rizal Wind Farm a total of five times, usually on solo weekend rides. On previous rides, I was always stopped at either the Pillilla or Sampaloc entrance and told that that I couldn’t go in because of ongoing construction, so I usually ended up taking photos just near the entrance.
Finally, last weekend during a ride with Outside Slacker and his beautiful new Royal Enfield, we were told that construction on the generator was done and people can now make a loop! Woohoo!
Because of its proximity to Manila and the unique scenery, I think that this Wind Farm Loop is a great route for riders and mountain bikers based in the metro. With a new access road connecting the Marcos Highway and the Manila East Road, riders can enter through either Pilillla or Sampaloc to make a whole loop.
Coming from Quezon City, we went through Marikina and passed through Antipolo to reach the Manila East Road leading to Bugarin. Even though it was a Saturday, the traffic in Antipolo town proper really sucked, but once we got to Morong, the roads were much better for riding. For bikers from Manila who want a more flat terrain, they can pass via Ortigas, Teresa Rizal, C6 or Floodway and start their ride from Morong or Tanay. If you’re taking bikes on a car, you can park in any of the restaurants along Manila East Road in Morong or Pililla.
You can tell that the place is becoming a tourist attraction, because there are now windmill souvenirs for sale similar to those sold near the windmills of Bangui in Ilocos Norte right near the entrance and a few vendor’s kiosks, with kids hawking softdrinks and snacks. We were also asked for a “voluntary donation” (bahala na daw kami), when we got to the three main windmills near the Pililla entrance, though when I asked a security guard later in the area, there’s really no entrance fee to visit the wind farm.
The access road here is still unpaved and is mostly gravel and rough roads, but bikers shouldn’t have a problem with that. There are several vantage points now where you can get a great view of the windmills all in a row. The weather was a bit weird, shifting from sudden rainshowers to bright blue skies, but overall, it was a great ride. Here are some photos of our ride below:
There are lots of places here for photo ops! I wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes a popular site for pre-nup photos or other photo shoots. Because of the unpredictable weather, I didn’t bring the SLR for this trip. All these photos were just taken with my Samsung Galaxy S6 (thanks Sun Cellular!) smartphone, which has an awesome camera.
We emerged at the small store and another cluster of wind turbines, where you can get a great view of the Laguna Lake. The dirt road here connects to a back access to Marcos Highway in Sampaloc, Tanay. Follow it and turn right and you’ll eventually reach the main highway that leads to Infanta on the right, or back to Tanay on the left. Bikers who parked in Manila East Road can just go straight to emerge at the Tanay-Sampaloc road, where you can pass by Daranak Falls and Calinawan Cave on the way back.
It’s also possible for mountain bikers to take the reverse route. Just go up through Sierra Madre and towards the wind farm via Sampaloc (turn right on the small road with an Ynares Waiting shed right after Sampaloc Inn), than go down through Pillilla and Bugarin so it’s all downhill.
Since we didn’t want to slog through Antipolo traffic again and wanted a more scenic ride, we took the longer Marcos Highway passing Sierra Madre going back.
Before heading home, we stopped at the popular rider’s pitstop Cafe Katerina in Tanay, Rizal for early lunch. This is one of the restaurants along the highway. It was nice to see that they put a roof over the tables in the outdoor area so you can dine with an overlooking view.
It would have been a perfect weekend ride except for the horrible traffic once we got back to Marikina and Katipunan. Apparently, there were college entrance exams going on in Ateneo which caused heavy traffic in the area. Oh well.
For those who want to make a loop of the Rizal Wind Farm: here’s a map with the suggested route (open link above in Googlemaps to adjust your route depending on where you’re coming from.)
For instructions on how to get there by commuting, check out my previous post.
NOTE: All photos taken with the Samsung Galaxy S6 powered by Sun Cellular. For Sun promos and postpaid plans, visit http://suncellular.com.ph. #ChooseBetter