Climb#17: Mt. Romelo Dayhike

Acknowledgement: Love of Brotherhood and Outdoors (L.O.B.O. Mountaineers)

After 4 months of city view, I’m ready to my backpack where it belongs. Up up here we go!

The Meeting Place:

Based from the blogs I’ve read, one of the  most common meeting place would be for those coming from Manila would be at Edsa Shaw where you can hire jeepneys to bring you to jump off.

Going there:

map :)

From Jolibee, Crossings, we arranged for a jeep to take us to the jump off in Siniloan. The actual jump off is about 2-3km (I think) from the “town” where the Raymund Bus terminal is located. This is still part of Siniloan. We would have got lost (thanks to the driver who “knew” where the jump off was) if it wasn’t to the friendly locals of this barangay. We asked where Mt. Romelo/Mt. Fami’s jump off was and they were more than happy to help us.

Before we went on our way, we ate a hearty breakfast, coffee and I filled my bottle with water at Trois restaurant. (This by the way is one of the pit stops of buses going to Lucena).

And on we go:

The sign with some official's face.

From the jump off sign along the highway, we walked about 1km to the barangay where the registration is located. The registration fee is a whopping 50 pesos per person. According to the registration personnel, since the municipality started to get involved with the registration, they had to increase the fee from 15 pesos to 30. If I heard it right, 30 pesos goes to the municipal hall and the barangay gets 20 pesos (again this is just based from what I heard).

We also arranged for a guide to take us to 3 of the falls. They probably know where the much talked about Sampaloc falls is but since we are only there for a day hike, we contented ourselves with just 3 falls as time would not have permitted us to visit the other falls. I believe there’s about 7 falls to see from Mt. Romelo.

First part of the trail was a small river crossing. Expect your shoes to get wet. After the river part, first time trekkers were in for a surprise.

Muddy and Bloody Hell!

Seriously?!?

Ok. So yeah, I’m just exaggerating here. :) But man that trail was .... For someone like me, who first of all DO NOT WANT LIMATIK or any creepy crawlers on me, and just had my shoes cleaned. But then again, I’m still so much thankful that the weather was fine that day. It could have been worse. We all thought this would be just an easy trek. Alas! We were reminded, NEVER UNDERESTIMATE the mountains.

There are several stores along the way (about 3 if I remember it right). They sell buko (coconut) juice fresh from the fruit itself and Mountain Dew soda (see the relevance?).

From the 2nd store, it’s about 30-45minutes more to the clearing. Here we had our photos taken with what seems to be mountain cotton (turns out to be ferns, but still J).

We decided to walk the road less taken (and I found out later, one of the limatik haven). That one solid vertical climb sure got my heart pumping and readied me for the sceneries I am about to witness, at the peak of Mt. Bulongeta.

view from the top

After our picture was taken, we hurriedly went on our way as limatiks tried their best to cope up with us. Again, we had to endure the muddy trail with a few limatiks in combat mode.

Finally we reached our destination. The Buruwisan falls. That’s when I understood why many others braved the muddy and (ok slightly) bloody trail again and again. The simple yet captivating beauty of this falls makes every step on the mud filled trek worthwhile.

My shooting skills did the falls no justice

A little after 12nn, the group ate their packed lunch. While others stayed in Buruwisan, I, along with few others, explored Lanzones falls. The basin like bottom of this falls is just as inviting as Buruwisan, only it offers much cooler and clearer water.

Lanzones Falls

After a while, we decided to head back and try to explore Batya-batya falls. Sadly, our guide cannot provide us estimate as to how long it would take for our group to reach this other falls. Since we are on a tight schedule, we decided to head back instead. I took a deep breath knowing we’ll be facing the mud and limatik once more.

Finally, all our group mates are already back at the jump off and soon we were riding the flying jeep whose driver brought us back to Shaw in record time (2 hours more or less and that includes dropping off several passengers). I was just glad we all came back in one piece and with just enough time to enjoy the unli-rice of Mang Inasal :)

The damage was less than 500 for a group of 18, that includes the roundtrip fare, exit fee (as I call it, the money required by the tricycle drivers from the jeepney drivers if they will be picking up your group from the road near Trios), guide fee (400 2-way with 3 falls tour), registration (as of sept 2012 its 50 per person), buko and softdrinks, wash up fee, etc.

Here's the group's IT:
0400: Departure to Siniloan
0630:Arrival Siniloan, breakfast at Trois, registration
0800:Start trek
1100:Arrival Buruwisan
1200: Lunch
1400: Descend
1600: Jumpoff arrival, bought fruits
1830: Departure to Manila
2030: Arrived in one piece at shaw, dinner at mang inasal

Blogger’s Note:

While it is evident that the barangay or the municipality or both of them are trying to commercialize this place by putting up kubo for rent, it is either by the tourist efforts or the people who guards these kubo that kept the trail and the falls from being too polluted. I have only seen a few plastic bottles floating and they seem new to me, which suggest that efforts are being made to keep the falls and the rivers that way.

I would however suggest for the local municipality to educate the guides and the residents of this lovely barangay to watch over tourist and teach them how they themselves could contribute into the preservation of this eco-tourist paradise. I have seen visitors washing their utensils and bathing themselves with shampoo and probably with soap in Buruwisan falls. This would pollute the water coming down the river streams, which are being used by the barangays downstream.

To my fellow visitors, let us learn how to respect nature. We can be part of the problem or the solution. We have the freewill to choose which side we’re on :)

Climb #13: Mt. Arayat (Magalang Trail)

Part of our preparation for the ultimate climb of the year, the L.O.B.O. Mountaineers planned for TC2 to climb Mt. Arayat.

Originally, the plan is to do a traverse. Following the popular IT Magalang-Arayat trail, the group also equipped themselves with research and interviews from other fellow mountaineers who’ve been first humbled by this mountain.

Going there

The group met at Victory Pasay from 5am-7am. Taking the Olongapo bound bus, the group of 16 climbers arrived at around 9am at SM Pampanga. Arranging a jeepney ride from SM to Brgy Ayala, it took us more than an hour to get to the jump off. Turns out, the driver we contracted was not familiar with the said barangay and had to ask around and take a few wrong turns before we reached our destination.

Welcome to Barangay Ayala, Jump Off to Summit

We finally arrived to our first destination. The first thing we did is to register at the PNP outpost. The posted police officers here are very helpful. They tried to provide us as much needed information they can give. Since there are no organized group of guides in the town of Magalang, usually, climbers will have to find locals or police officers who’ll agree to guide them towards the summit. The trail though is pretty established thus there is little need for guides.

The trail

Our marked jump off is the store/house on the corner of the road heading towards the military outpost. From there, you’ll have to walk about 10-15min of cemented road heading towards a cross road. Continue walking straight until you pass by a tree house. Another 10min walk and you’ll reach the old DENR. As we were informed that is not the DENR office anymore.

From the old DENR, follow the gradually ascending grassy trail, which after a few minutes becomes a bit rocky and a lot muddier especially since it was drizzling that day. Majority of the trail is covered with trees which makes the climb less exhausting. 2 hours after, we reached what I call the first pit stop. A camp ground with a huge boulder in the middle and a green “street sign” that tells us to go left (if you are facing the boulder).

Last Rope Segment to campsite

From that point, the trail becomes rocky and mossy. Be sure to have your gloves ready as you had towards the next pit stop, the diversion road going to camp and white rocks. We continued heading left and after more than 5hours of trekking, we reached the North Peak Tower.

The Dog

When I got to the tower, I found that our group’s unable to proceed as there was a golden dog on the loose guarding the entrance of the fenced tower. We were also unsure if the spot where we are standing is the actual camp site. A few minutes later, the dog went in the fenced gate. We took that opportunity to walk near the fence and shouted “Tao po..”. The door opened and a man pointed us the way to the camp site, the trail on the left of the tower. A few of us were able to pass the trail safely, but those on the rear side was seen by the dog, who barked and ran towards them, prompting some to scream and run to safety. Good thing, the dog doesn’t or didn’t bite anyone.

Camp Site

The camp site can only accommodate a few tents, in our case, round 8 tents 4 of which (I think) are dome types. It was a good thing that there were a few hikers who decided to camp that day.

View of Pampanga River from camp site

After settling down, we enjoyed the last show of the Arayat view for that day as the sun slowly began to set, and the fog crawled to cover to view like a movie credits rolling. While the rest continued to enjoy the night, I quietly snuck in my tent to rest.

Good Morning Sunshine!

By 5:30, Nica was already up. The girl who seems to be allergic to sleep began her day by calling me out of my tent. I guess we were the first ones to gaze upon the misty morning on top of Peak 1. It was so nice, everything seems blue, chilly and calm. After stretching, we began to cook our breakfast as the rest began to slowly crawl out of their tents. A few minutes later, a clear view of Pampanga river and the ridge like terrain heading towards Peak 2 were already visible. At 8am, we began breaking our tents, waited for the supply we requested from a local (6litters of water and 2 1.5 softdrinks) and decided that it will be best if we head back down to Magalang trail based on our group movements yesterday.

IT Revised

So we decided to do just that but we are now faced with a new challenged. First, we need to find a wash up area and second, will the contracted jeep agree to fetch us in Brgy. Ayala since we earlier instructed our driver to meet us in Brgy Bano.

We were indeed blessed that both problems has been addressed before we began to descend. First, we were informed that there’s a resort where we can go wash up, next we were able to communicate with the driver and he agreed to fetch us in Bry Ayala. Thank God!

Wash up Area

After dealing with the same slippery and muddy trail, we finally got back to the store on the corner of main road and path leading to the PNP station. From there we rode a tricycle going to a public resort named Villa Santiago. Entrance is 70 per head, then we rented stone tables for 150.00. The resort operates until 5pm, giving us plenty of time for us to rest.

From Brgy Ayala, we paid 600 pesos for the jeepney ride back to SM Pampanga. From there we parted ways riding bus heading to Pasay, Cubao and Caloocan.