Biyahe Ni Bro: My Pulag Dream

Finally, one of my dreams have come true! It’s the climb up to the top of the second highest mountain in the Philippines, Mt. Pulag(in Benguet). It’s a sudden decision that day and it brought discomfort, a bit hesitant yet excitement was still there. Although I planned this a year ago, I didn’t had enough preparations to make this “once in a lifetime experience” come true. The reason to the sudden decision was my working schedules and it’s difficult to have the perfect timing. And so, that day, late in the morning, I made a call to my friend/s to say “aakyat na tayo at mamaya na tayo aalis.” Since biglaan nga, three of them were unavailable and two will climb, me and my buddy. The next I phoned, of course, si “kumander”, she got mad about my decision, she worried a lot. Later on, I got her support, reminders, sweet thoughts and even prayers, instead of showing her anger. Praise God!

Duty first, of course! From my time-in @ 12 noon, while working, I had the chance to review sites regarding a duo hike to Mt. Pulag, thanks to PinoyMountaineer and other bloggers for providing infos and useful tips. At 9 o’clock in the evening, logged out then hurried to LRT station because I need to get home to prepare my backpack. at home, i had my dinner, a kissed for my daughter and my wife and ask for a prayer. It’s already 11:30PM when we got to Victory Liner- Cubao, daming tao! Haba ng pila! That moment, I was expecting a 12AM trip to Baguio but we didn’t had the reservations so we got a ticket for a 2AM trip. I had a prayer in mind and truly God answered my prayer because we’ve had the chance to leave by 1:30AM, that’s through waiting in line of “chance passengers”. These passengers are mostly haven’t their reservations or tickets, they’re just waiting for the vacant seats until the bus reaches the departure time. So if the number of reserved tickets are less than the number of seats, they’ll have the chance to occupy those vacant seats left.

It was already 8 o’clock in the morning when we arrived in Baguio, picked a taxi going to slaughter house. Praise God for we had a trip by 8:30 via Van going to DENR Visitor’s ctr., Ambangeg. Exactly at 12 o’clock in the afternoon, we arrived at DENR for registration and orientation.

capturing....

From DENR to Ranger Station takes about an hour via habal-habal. We were backrider in separate habal with our bag tied at the back of the motorcycle. We’re not able to take pictures during the ride because of the rough roads uphill, it’ll be you or the camera you’re holding might fall to the cliff.

Almost 1:30 in the afternoon when we had our lunch at the Ranger Station.

Start Trek

approaching mossy forest

mossy trees

stop-over @camp 1

rest

fatigued..
felt like giving up..
...and Philippians 4:13 reminds me of: "i can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

we arrived at camp 2 by 4:30PM. Here, is where we set tent

dwarf bamboo

left-over of breakfast and lunch

5 o'clock in the morning when we arrived at the summit, it took an hour from camp 2. This time, my hands, toes, face got numbed. Plus headache. Actually i consumed a lot of paracetamol tablets, headache attacked me from time to time.