Mt. Maculot says – Don’t you dare underestimate me!

I have climbed Mt. Maculot in the past thrice- Mt. Maculot is a 900+ MASL above sea level and located in Cuenca Batangas. Its proximity in Manila and its antonishing view of Taal Lake and Volcano, makes it a favourite for those seasoned and newbie in mountain climbing. Mt. Maculot has three main destinations, Rockies (760+) MASL, Summit (900+MASL) and Grotto (500+ MASL). The views of Taal Lake are perfect in the rockies that is why 90% of climbers prefer to climbed on this part of the mountain. For the past 3x that I was in Mt. Maculot, we are already contented in staying at the Rockies.

My numerous visits to Mt. Maculot has lead me to a conclusion that is Mt. Maculot is very simple mountain, no preparations needed etc, behaviour that is really wrong for a Climber enthusiast like me.

 I have read in a blog, that you can never count Mt. Maculot as a mountain that you have climbed if you never experience its summit. As if I was ignited by this statement, conquering the summit has become my obsessions for days. And indeed last July 27-28, we had an opportunity climbed it and aim for a Summit Traverse from Rockies to Grotto.

Our group is composed of 8 persons, 4 of which is first timer. I am the group leader and act as the guide since I know the trail from the jump-off to the Rockies. Although there are apprehensions from my first timer members, I just encourage them since I am being complacent, thinking that if we can go to the rockies there are no way we can never reached the summit and do the traverse.

After the overnight at the Rockies, at 8 am we decided to proceed with the summit. The trail from the rockies to summit is becoming moderate to difficult, which is typical of mountains so to speak. And we manage it well.

After the quick photo ops from the summit, and a little rest, we decided to take on the trail to grotto going down. And there our dilemma started to arise!

We did not expect it nor prepared for it. The trail going down is almost 90 degrees. Its almost rocky to whole trail with very limited steps to help the climbers. There are ropes segments, that makes you feel you are doing a major rapelling with huge rocks that need to be conquered going down. The plan of going down by just 2 hours has become doubled. Every members of our group is scared to do the rapelling with our heavy backpacks and tents. I personally afraid of heights, but since I am the team leader, I am required to start.  Likewise the trails is filled with thorny leaves and trees.

It was a scary moments for me. I am afraid more on my team member’s safety rather than myself. We are nearly running out of water and we did not know if we are getting near our exit points.

As we progress little by little in our request to going down, a realization has stuck me along the way. I have become complacent. I have underestimated Mt. Maculot.

Maybe we are just lucky and God Bless our group so much! We have successfully and safely reached the Grotto.  When we are waiting for the bus going back to Manila. I say to myself – I WILL NEVER UNDERESTIMATE ANY MOUNTAINS AGAIN!

*Note: I did not own the pictures used in this blog. Since our own traverse is quite scary for us, we were not able to photographed ourselves in the duration of the trek. I just used the results of my random browsing in the internet.

My Wet and Wild Mt. Balagbag Experience!

It was 2am last Aug 18 when I woke up by a continuous sound coming not from my alarm clock but for the continuous rain in our rooftop. For a mere 10 mins, I just lie awake, thinking whether I will still be joining this daytrek adventure or not. I have gotten a few things to ponder:

1. It was raining hard the whole night, Am I ready to be soaked the whole day?

2. Its my first time to join a climb with people  I haven’t meet personally, Am I willing to trust them with myself?

As I think about it, the more reasons I got to say no, but after 1 hour around 3:30 am, I found myself riding a bus going to Cubao,,, Hahahaha..

Our meeting place is at Jollibee Tungko. I have no idea where it is located. I was just told by our Team Leader Sir Melo to ride a bus with the signboard to Tungko. I was shocked to be asked by the bus conductor that from Cubao the fare in an ordinary bus is already 38 pesos, so i therefore assume that its must be far from cubao, later I have learned that Tungko is already in San Juan Del Monte, Bulacan. (Ooops!, My poor navigational skills is always taking over me.)

From Cubao, we rode a jeepney to our Jump-off in Licao- fare is 26 pesos. Our group is composed of 7 members, headed by our TL – Sir Melo, Doc Boyet( yes, we have a doctor in our group, I also don’t believe it until I confirmed myself), Sir Dennis, Sir JayR, Mam Fredda, Mam Janice and myself. All were new to me, as a proof, I recalled when I entered Jollibee, I asked a couple of hikers (I just assume based on what they wear) if they know Sir Melo, and woolah, I am asking Sir Melo himself.. (Feeling awkward).

As we were dropped in our jump-off, the rain also started. Silently Im still hoping that the weather will be good but its like the fight between Gilas and Iran,  I want the team to win, but I know we can’t. We started as plan, going to the trail for the river trekking. But the continuous downpour of rain in Rodriguez Rizal has resulted the river to swell and be not possible to cross. We did not want to endangered our lives but we also did not want to postpone our trip so we decided to try the traditional route to the summit. It was a blessing in disguise, since the traditional route is relatively easy, we had this opportunity to further acquaint ourselves with one another and soon found out interesting facts about each other. We have a student, a 1^st timer,  3 seasoned climbers, a travel enthusiast, and of course yours truly the cutest among the group.

The rail to the summit is interesting, after hours of rains, there can be a minute of breaks which allows us some view of the community. It was nice to see a vast array of sights.

It was raining the whole time. We were fully drenched, we see nothing at the summit except vast and vast of fog, but nevertheless I enjoyed so much of this trip. I almost ran out of my daily stocks of jokes.

Since it was raining hard and we were already cold, we decided to go down immediately. Going down proves to be easier as always if will be doubled,,, no tripled with excessive laughter along the way. Soon enough we were back in the jump-off already then we decided to drink some liquors to heat our already cold bodies.

It was after 5 pm, we decided to ride again the jeep that will take us back to Tungko. It was indeed a long and wet bus ride again to Batangas.

As I coiled to sleep, and recount the activities I had for the day. I confirmed that really “ Its not the destination that counts, It’s the journey, Its not how many mountains you had climbed, but its how many friends you gained along the way”.

 Will I joined them for the next climb? Definitely!