Vigan

      We had heard there was a festival going on in the city of Vigan which is a old colonial town with a lot of Spanish influence. Set our sights north and took off. Its hard for me to ride and not constantly be looking at every dirt road and trail we pass and not wonder what cool things they might lead to. I see my opportunity and guide the rest of the group down a narrow road going through farms and small villages. Getting off the beaten path and not knowing what you are going to find is the best feeling in the world for me.
     The trail gets smaller and smaller until we come to a foot bridge That goes across a river and shrimp farm that looks like it leads to the ocean. This if definitely not a bridge for vehicles but I think we can make it across so I walk part of it first. The boards creak and stresses with just my body weight but I'm to excited to see where it leads to not try! I go first and I feel confident but in the back of my mind I'm preparing to have the bike fall through a broken board. I make it across and give Bryce and CJ the go ahead to come across.

      We climb a sandy hill and are now overlooking a enormous beach even larger than the first we rode on. Off we go riding along the shoreline just knowing we are going in the right general direction. Locals out fishing the shores wave and smile as we ride by and even lift up ropes going across the beach that secure the boats for us to go under.
      We come to a large river crossing and ride up the river a bit to see if we can find a place to cross but it is much to deep. We then notice the waves are breaking very far out to sea and there must be a sand bar that goes across. Without much hesitation I start riding directly into the ocean which is a strange feeling. Sure enough there is a relatively shallow sand bar that connects to the other side of the river. I take the lead knowing the water could get really deep at any moment so am on high alert. We make it across in about motor level high water and all have huge smiles on our faces when we reach the shore again.

     Ride about another 2 miles down the beach and come to another river crossing. I take off my boots and walk across but this one is much to deep to cross. We try to find another bridge up the river but it turns into a impassable mud swamp. End up finding a trail off the beach heading east and take it into another dirt village. We eventually find our way back to the main road and get all the sand and dried salt washed off our bikes from a cool guy on the side of the road. Full wash and detail for $2!

      Further towards Vigan we cross a bridge going over the largest river I have seen yet. There is a dirt road zig zigging along the river that we take which leads to this awesome view!

      As we enter old town Vigan the streets are made of cobblestone and delapatated buildings from the 1500's line the streets. Very interesting town with a lot of history. We find a nice old hotel built in the 1700's with a lot of charm and ambiance. A big festival is going on tonight but first we get on one of the horse drawn carriage's and have a nice tour of the city and its old churches and Spanish architecture.