Again, another milestone has been added to my 2009.
My first mountain climb ever... and a major one at that.. traversing Mariveles Mountain Range in Bataan.
My initial purpose in going was to add photos to my already overflowing collection. I was really, really, really excited just because of that.
It was a blessed trip. My sister, Zarah, invited me to go with a budget of Php1500. I told her I couldn't. Budget-wise, it was too expensive for me. Considering the fact also that I have to buy my own supplies for the trip. I haggled the price over and she said she'll take care of the rest. So I really have no idea how much we all spent per person. Zarah was officially the team purser. (And she does a great job at that.)
We started agreed to leave at 4am from Alabang. But as you Pinoys, 4am became 5am. We met our team tour guide Sky Biscocho in Pasay at around 7am. Sky was stuck in traffic coming from Batangas. We left Manila at 8am, reached Bataan at around 11am. We had lunch at the jump off site with "Manong", Sky's adoptive father in that area.
Manong collects Php30 from every mountaineer who wishes to conquer the land form. Sky says Manong does a better job than the Barangay, who collects Php 20 but absolutely keeps the money for themselves. Manong collects for the maintenance of the area. He keeps a ledger that he presents to the Municipal office for whatever reason. Bataan is a growing province and it's tourism is one of it's main attractions. Maybe the city government is keeping tabs on their hotspots. Money in, yet again.
Then we started the real trek. Sky was actually gauging our pace. If we were able to reach The Gate before 2pm, we would take the Traverse route to Tarak. If not, It would be the Papaya River Trail for us. Surprisingly enough, we reached The Gate before 2pm and headed for the Panikian Trail. Most seasoned mountaineers would love to take this particular path to Tarak. One reason they don't is because they think Sky (our tour guide and discoverer of the Panikian Trail) is not sharing the trail. It is true. That path is super challenging. Once you hit the river, it's river trekking for mountaineers and there is not turning back. Skip over boulders, small and big, and you'll eventually find yourself hugging to the nearest rock you could find. (I found myself crying over pain and exhaustion when I could barely haul myself up a huge one). And that was the last of my stunts for the day.
We then held camp near the river. It was nearly 6pm and too dark for my eyes if we continued to go upstream. Sky found us a cozy area good for 3 tents. He had dinner of Zarah's marinated pork and some pork and bean from Charlie. Soju was then served after dinner. I was so tired by that time, I passed the Soju offer and headed straight to sleep. I really wish Sky would name that campsite Soju.
We woke up at 430 am to freshen up and have some breakfast. Trekking time started again before 7am. We reached the Sladge (I don't know if I'm spelling it right)around 10am. We were a bunch of newbies to major climbs. Laugh if you want but for me, it was already an accomplishment to reach that part of the mountain. We had a 15 minute break, pictorial and headed again to the Peak! And when I say that we are going up at almost 30 degrees from vertical. That is steep!
we conquered the boulder part of the climb hanging on to thick roots and small trees and then WE LOST THE TRAIL!. Sky couldn't find the easier trail so we had to go HARD CORE! More steeper grounds and loose soil. We are thankful it wasn't as muddy or else, we would have taken the Papaya Trail from the start.
Almost there. time to go pass the Japanese garden. Even if we wanted to take picture from every point of the trail, it would be really difficult. You need both hand to climb up the summit. We climbed almost vertical now and was over grey boulders. First grasslands appear in a distance. a few more minutes and we were at the Joshua tree at the peak.
I t felt great to actually accomplish what you came for. The view compensated for the physical pain we all felt that time. We then had lunch. No more rice. We had oatmeal and corned beef and then we began to trek down to Tarak Ridge. It was 3pm when we got there. What a view! Sky says that most mountaineers are satisfied to camp out at the trek and not really reach the peak. The trail is harder than usual is they want to go up the peak.
Going down to the Papaya River was much more difficult than we realized. It took us 2 hours to reach it. We lost the trail once and Sky was a few minutes ahead of us. Fear was subtly creeping in but since the sun was still out, we pursued Papaya and eventually reaching it after 30 minutes after Sky. That experience is freaky!
I had no psyche left when we reached the river. A few minutes of rest and some chocolates did not improve anything. Remember, we were trekking since 7am and the beauty of Papaya I didn't really enjoy. I hated the view I saw. Snippets of trash from previous campers. Vandalizing trees with names they think is cool. (KUNG IKAW YUNG NAG VANDAL DUN, MATANONG KO LANG: Kung ikaw ang puno, gusto mo bang maging papel na ginawang scratch? Cheap niyo naman!) Sorry, guys. Nakakaasar lang talaga.
We headed uphill again, we are on our way out. It was almost 6pm and the sun is sinking fast. We had no choice but to do a night trek. Charlie lent me one of his flashlights. I was hyperventilating and almost at the point of crying and didn't want to move one more muscle from my body. If it wasn't scary enough to walk on foot in the middle of a jungle like place in the night, you had to cross a landslided area around 14 feet deep. Not much during the day but at NIGHT! Grrr...
So there, we were eventually at the resort by 10pm. Hungry and tired, we all did our bath there and decided to eat at Burger Machine. Dinner at Midnight. Ironic eh? We then headed home for Manila catching the 2am bus of Bataan Liner.
Trip was tiring but super awesome. Sky says that they will be considering opening the Panikian to people, BUT by invitation only and would be charging a sizeable fee. This is the best mountaineering trip, ever!
