Mount Maculot - my 1st climb

Date: June 16 - 17, 2012

Location: Mount Maculot

Info:    

    Mount Maculot is located at Cuenca, Batangas and is considered a minor climb with difficulty of 3/9. The mountain is about 947 m (3,107 ft) tall and is also located adjacent to Taal Lake. Mount Maculot and its 700-metre (2,300 ft) high volcanic rock wall called The Rockies, is said to be part of Taal Caldera's crater rim.

Significant people:

POT         --- Philippine Outdoor Tribe

Bimbo Baldo     --- POT President

Karen Banan     --- Bimbo’s fiancée, my former HR Manager

Camille Canlas     --- my climb buddy, my previous QA

How to get there?

    From Manila, take a bus bound to Lemery Batangas and get off at Cuenca town proper.

God won’t let me do the impossible….

Karen Banan, my HR Mngr, who is also my friend, invited me to join their hike – together with the Philippine Outdoor Tribe. Early morning, I and Camille Canlas, my housemate and also a friend of mine, arrived at Victory Liner. We are around 50 – 60 in our group, mostly are veteran climbers. It was raining and I was bothered.

Inside the bus, Bimbo Baldo, whom we call Kuya Bim, and is also the POT President, started to tagay Emperador. Trying to bond with them, I took around 5 – 7 shots. I knew I was okay, I have high tolerance in alcohol (or let’s say I HAD, cuz now is a different story, lols).

We finally arrived at the jump off. Kuya Bim’s tagay was consistent, it’s RedHorse this time. Again, I took around, hmnnn, let’s say 3 glasses of RH. The group of vet climbers had to stay at the jump off to prepare for our dinner. I, together with my friends Karen and Camille, and ofcourse our guide Kuya Bim and some of the newbies went ahead and started our trek. “This is it!” I told myself. I was so thrilled. It was no longer raining, by the way.

The first part of the trek is very easy cuz it was just a smooth road – “sementado” in Tagalog. But for some reasons, I was sooooooooo exhausted, that I would like to say, “Guys, take five!” (Meaning, 5-min break). But I couldn’t. How could I? I was the only one drained. It was just a warm up. Weird Mimhie (it's me), looser! Besides, we haven’t walked for more than 10 mins yet, I really had to continue and tried not to give up, lols. Finally, we saw this halo-halo station, located at the end of the smooth road. We stayed there for like 10mins while eating halo-halo. That was the best halo-halo I’ve ever eaten in my entire life --- much more delightful than the so-called special halo-halo in Manila.

While eating, I observed. All of them were on their trekking pants, trekking shoes, they have trekking poles, their bags are technical. While me, I was wearing my Skechers, a corporate long sleeves polo, I have with me my pink Jansport bag and inside it are lots and lots of clothes and stuff toys. I feel regretful that I had to carry nonsense mess. I came back to reality when I heard Karen said, “Let’s go!?” It may sound like question, but it appeared like, “you don’t have a choice but to walk NOW,” to me…

And so we continued trailing…

Now this is really it! Trees around you, insects of many kinds, colorful birds, creatures that I haven’t seen yet. Ok, we’re on our ¼, I guess, when I voiced out, “I cannot do this anymore!” So Karen asked Camille to lend me her trekking pole. Another 10mins and I told Karen again, “Ayako na. You guys go ahead, and I … I … I didn’t know what to do.” Ofcourse I knew nothing about e-camp that time. That was my first climb, remember? There goes Karen’s bedtime story. She told me about her first climb, that she also almost gave up. And yeah, that was quick yet inspiring. I prayed for strength and determination. Then we proceeded with our madugong trekking. Lots of rocks, putik that made my shoes really dirty and sticky and all that! I was still maarte that time, again, it was my first climb so please don’t judge me, lols.

Rain fell again, sun started to hide, and I started to panic, lols. There goes our sweeper! Kuya Bim, my hero, sat with us for a while, gave some inspirational thoughts again, told us not to worry and that we were fine – I was fine. And yeah, we were really fine. Maybe 30 more minutes and Kuya Bim said that we’re almost there. High talahib, no more trail, I may say. Or maybe there is, but it’s no longer visible. These talahibs are much much taller than me, maybe because I’m just 4’11” tall, lols. It’s like never ending, but it’s ok, I’m not afraid of snakes anyway. After maybe 7-10 minutes, tadaaaah! Camp site, finally, THANK GOD!

We started at around past 11AM, more more stop over, more more take-5’s, we reached the camp site at around 5PM. That was a short trek, but it took us a while. Yeah yeah, so much for a first timer!

It was hard, for me, but it’s possible. What I mean is, when I felt that I couldn’t do it, I prayed and God told me, “No one forced you to go, but you did and I allowed you to. So trust Me, hold My hand and together we’ll climb. I won’t let you do the impossible.”

On the camp site, Kuya Bim was the one who fixed our tent – I and Camille shared in one tent. It was raining again, raining sooo hard. I and Camille took pictures inside our cute tent. We were, again, so excited it was our first time to sleep in a tent. But we can’t sleep yet, yeah yeah, socials socials…. We can’t be absent on our first “socials”.

Climbers (including me, lols) drank, ate for dinner, smoke (not all), etc etc. That was fun. We have kubo so it’s ok even if it was raining. We ate corned beef, spam, and a lot more. Until, it’s time for me and Camille to sleep. All other POT members stayed awake until morning. The super heavy rain woke me up, so as Camille. Our clothes and stuff were all wet. We had to transfer to other tent. Oh I’m so sorry Bam and Kuya Bim’s son. Bam was also my officemate. Bam is very close to Karen, she had to transfer tent as well for me, Camille and Kuya Bim’s son to fit in the tent she were staying that night. She shared with Karen and Kuya Bim’s then. It’s time to go back to sleep. Oh no, I couldn’t sleep. My imagination was super playful and I hate it. There was a typhoon that time, signal #1 if I could remember it right. I was so pessimistic, I had a lot of “what if’s” in my mind. No no no! And then again, I prayed. I wanted to pee but Camille kept saying, “later na mama, lakas pa ng ulan.” But I couldn’t hold it any longer. Until Camille also felt that she had to pee too, so we peed together, lols – in the damuhan ofcourse. What choice do we have? Again, do not judge me, that was my first climb. Then we slept.

Owww, what a beautiful morning. No more rain, the sun was shining so bright. We had our light breakfast, then Karen asked me and Camille to prepare for Rockies. Fine! So another climb?! Prepare prepare, then we started walking again. Up, down, up, down, that wasn’t that tiring – their term was “rolling”. And then, there goes the ROCKIES. Ohhh, that’s why it’s called rockies. Many rocks, literally. And you have to be careful, extra careful. Walk walk walk, I didn’t dare to look on my right, or on my left, neither look down. Always look forward, always forward. Then there goes this big rock, bigger than me. “So what now,” I told myself. “How can I climb over this biggie rock?” There goes another angel who taught me how, they call her “Ga’” – and her husband, they call “Go’” --- sweet! Anyway, she taught me how, step 1 – where to place my right foot, step 2 – what should my left hand do, step 3 and so on… I did it! Wohooo!

On top of Mount Maculot, you could see beautiful sceneries. So beautiful that you wouldn’t wish to go back to Manila (that was just an exaggerated me). I appreciated the good weather, God gave us the chance to really see the beauty of His creations. After about 10mins, ohhhh it started to rain again. Maybe God said, “Oh tama na, baba na!” Lols, just kidding.

Going down was easy. You just have to do everything backwards – rewind. On the jump off, you can take a bath for only 5PHP and even release the overnight stress for only 10PHP (yah know what I mean). Therefore, I had to pay 15PHP, lols. Time to go home! Along the way, there is a souvenir shop. I bought my pink Maculot-designed tshirt. Cool!

I and Camille separated from the POT Team, Karen had to be with them because of Kuya Bim. I and Camille went to the market and looked for karinderya. We ate bulalo and tapsilog. Yummy! I love the food in Batangas, we pay less than a hundred (in total), or 50php each. The karinderya where we had our lunch was not a famous restaurant, it’s just a simple karinderya in the market. We stopped over to my cousin’s place, ate delicious pancit then we finally went home – by bus again.

FYI, Kuya Bim, our guide, also the president of POT, always leads the prayer before going up and down the mountain. I’m not sure yet if he’s open to public, lols. Let me ask him and if he is, I’ll post his contact number for those interested in mountaineering.

And yes, this is my first climb. Stay tuned for other stories of me as a mountaineer.