highway walk - upper tomay

if you say that going to the strawberry field and the capitol is the only thing that you can do in La Trinidad, think again. i highly recommend you to do something that i discovered after roaming around its town for a day.if you have enough time, ride a jeep along the La Trinidad main road that has the sign "Upper Tomay". you can also take the same jeepney in Baguio. go to Baguio Centermall along Magsaysay road, and take a jeep with the sign "Upper Tomay".just tell the driver to drop you at the Upper Tomay jeepney station which is about 4kilometers from La Trinidad and around 9kiloneters from Baguio. you'll be going way up the Halsema highway. the same highway that'll bring you to Bontoc and other towns of Benguet.
from there, just walk your way back until you reach the Benguet provincial capitol. you'll be walking 4kilometers down. you might think that you can't make it. maybe but not until you get to see the view from there.while going down, make sure that you keep yourself safe by keeping yourself away from the road. the view on your left most of the time will be houses and green hills while on your right, you'll have a view of the mountain range covered with fog.as you continue your way down the highway, you'll see flower gardens covered to protect it from heavy rain and typhoons. La Trinidad and Baguio is known to produce the best flowers in the country.you'll see jeepneys and buses going to Bontoc, Kibungan, Kabayan and Naguey. Halsema highway leads you to other municipalities of Benguet and the Mountain province.you'll love the "A" houses built on the side of the hills. some areas are already crowded while some houses are still surrounded by pine trees. half way down, you'll pass by St. Therese chapel. a small chapel with a ground large enough for park your car. i like the simplicity of this chapel that's made up of woods.
you'll notice that there are now more and more houses as you go down. this will surely continue to expand as years come. this i hope the local officials will be able to gain control as it does not only cause crowd but it also leads to the destruction of the the trees in this area.
after some time, you'll reach the bridge of the poblacion which tells you that you're approaching the Benguet Provincial Capitol. you'll notice that it was worth the walk as the fog continues to touch the hills around you.
the walk only took about an hour and fifteen minutes since it's going down. it was just enough me to be prepared for the hike set the next day.