Mt Pico de Loro Adventure

Date:                      June 29-30, 2013

Location:               Mount Pico de Loro

Information 

Elevation: 664 m

Difficulty: Walk up

Best months to climb: April, May

Convenient center: Maragondon, Cavite

How to go to Pico de Loro? 

Significant people:

Lester John Bella                  my significant partner

POT                                         Philippine Outdoor Tribe

Bimbo Baldo                          POT President

John Michael Abigania        original BYOB

Eizhel Bascos                         original BYOB

Each time I think of God’s love, fear leaves my heart.

During our post-climb gathering for Mt. Maculot, we settled our next climb … Mt. Pico de Loro. Kuya Bim established our thoughts that it’ll be super fun --- falls and pillar, falls and pillar. We were sooo thrilled. We invited our friends. In total, we thought that we’re about 15 – 20 baby climbers, plus POT ofcourse.

There goes our pre-climb meeting. Para maiba naman, we agreed to have sinigang for dinner, lols. What’s with sinigang? Then there goes our 4 liters of water again. We didn’t have tent yet, so we had to rent. We also planned to lease a van, as usual, we hate hassle so we didn’t want commute.

And yeah, like what I’ve said, we were about 15 – 20 baby climbers (excluding POT) a month before the climb. Weeks before, it went down to 10 – 12, days before we became around 6, and a day before, we ended up to JUST THE FOUR OF US.

We rented an Adventure worth 5000PHP. It was a lovely morning, perfect weather for hiking, if I may say. La la la … I can’t recall the time we gotten to jump off. We prepared there, made sure that our luggage only have important gears. By the way, I had with me my pink trekking bag (post pic). La la la. Pink cap (with hands or wings, am not certain what that is), cute shoes, and so on … I felt like I was a real mountaineer that time.

There were no signs of bad climate. It was very hot, in fact. Based on MY experience (please don’t judge me, lols), Pico de Loro is a lot easier that Mt. Maculot. I only had 2 mountains to compare though. Up down, up down, rolling! Unlike Mt. Maculot, up up up, whew! But according to Kuya Bim, mountains are never identical --- all mountains have their unique characteristics. At first, I didn’t understand that (but I already did when we climbed Batulao and Mt. Cristobal --- stories to follow).

Initially, the four of us were together – me, Lhez, Eizhel and Michael. As usual, they advanced again so I and Lhez were left out. It was cool, for us couple to be in the middle of the mountain when not a single person was around, the feeling of having no stress at all, no problems, I could say that I was very happy that time. La la la. Fork! We stopped. We didn’t want to guess, lols, ofcourse! We heard no voice, but it was nice that we could hear the humming birds.

We paused there for perhaps 10mins. We were just talking, talking about things that happened in the past. I couldn’t remember what our topic was, but I can still recall the feeling. It felt brand new. I wasn’t worried at all. I knew that we have sweeper anyway, lols --- it was Gaddy (I hope I spelled out his name correctly). Talk talk talk, then we noticed that there was a signage --- “TO PICO DE LORO”. Lols. We were there for maybe more than 10mins, only to find out that there’s the instructions just on top of our head literally. And by the way, all forks have this signage so it was easy for us to choose which way to go.

We continued our trail. It was really perfect. I could feel that I really love this --- mountaineering. I love mountain and this won’t be the last. I planned to hike every other month, to every month, to every other week --- it depends. That time, I felt that mountain is my passion.

It was enjoyable, no buwis-buhay part. La la la, and then we reached the camp site. Kuya Bim aided us to build our tent. It was raining, but not so hard. We were able to change clothes and take a nap. Kuya Bim wakened us to eat. That time, the rain started to get worse. POT got their trapal roof so we were able to push through with our socials. Happy happy! Wind also started to blow a bit harder.

We had our dinner at around 9PM. POT cooked for us. Sinigang. Kuya Bim brought Bicol express. We had more more ulam, from Jensen and other POT members. I love these guys. Here’s my favorite part --- RAFFLE!!! Minor prizes are discount card for Camp Johnyee, off lotions. Major prizes are foldable sfork and 2 shorts. La La La, La la la… Guess what, Eizhel won the blue shorts and Lhez got the Burn-It shorts --- we were so blissful hahaha. They had their drinking session, when the four of us felt sleepy.

It was raining hard, then I received a text message from my friend Nikki that there was Bagyong Gorio. I wasn’t anxious at all. I was just sleepy so I and Lhez napped, so as Eizhel and Michael. We were looking forward to climbing the pillar and seeing the falls as we wake up the next morning.

Strong wind and super heavy rainfall woke us up, that was around 3 o’clock in the morning. We heard Kuya Bim checking on each and every tent, “Arbs, Lhez, ok lang kayo?” We said we’re fine, because we really were. Followed by, “We’re safe, relax lang.” We were calm actually, it was just really cold, as in really cold that’s why we couldn’t sleep. Our tent was wet due to moist. We could no longer lie down because we couldn’t resist the temperature of the ground when it touches our body. I don’t know with Lhez, Eizhel and Michael, but I guess the reason why I wasn’t afraid at all is because I wasn’t aware how dangerous our situation was. After maybe 30mins, the rain became harder and wind blew stronger, that it almost tear down our tent. Kuya Bim shouted, “Pack up! Bababa tayo!” Owwwwkei… I wasn’t sure if he gave us 15mins or 30mins, we just followed his instruction being our leader. Kuya Bim kept telling us not to worry, so even though I was starting to worry, that feeling didn’t grow. In less than 30 minutes, I and Lhez were done, so as Eizhel and Michael. We dissemble our tent under the heavy rain with the help of some POT members. Some poles, cook set, other stuff, were gone by the wind. We were all wet, I could feel the wind trying to push me towards the mountain, lols. I was cold, but since Kuya Bim kept saying that we’re fine, I wasn’t nervous at all.

I knew that time that God was with us. He sent Kuya Bim to give us those reassuring words so we won’t feel troubled. When I asked God if it’s ok for us to go to Pico de Loro, He gave us permission, therefore I knew we’re safe. He loves us, and each time I think of God’s love, fear leaves my heart.

Time to go down, we were in between POT members, Kuya Bim was with us. Gaddy and some of the hardcore mountaineers had to go first to check on the trace. We stopped for maybe 10minutes. I heard Gaddy shouted, “Backtrack! Backtrack!” I didn’t know why, but I saw Kuya Bim going down their way and checked what happened. When Kuya Bim went back, he instructed us to take the other trail. Reason? The river had overflown and we couldn’t cross due to strong current. In my previous climbs, going down was very easy --- you just have to do everything backwards. This one’s tough, really threatening. From 1-10, I could say that the difficulty level of this trek with Bagyong Gorio is 9.

There were no trees to hold on to. I couldn’t see the ground because the soil had mixed with the flood which was about knee level. Lots and lots of rocks so I was very careful to not slide. Multiple shallow river crossing. Rain did not stop. In intersecting the river(s), Kuya Bim had to go first, then me holding his waist, then Lester holding mine. Other groups did the same tactic. It was really dangerous and frightening for people with weak personality. Good thing Kuya Bim was with us, and ofcourse, God is always with us. As we go on the hardcore trail, it became easier and easier for me. I was getting used to it. We reached jump off safe and sound, but wet, lols.

There we had a chance to eat breakfast. That was around 6 o’clock in the morning if I’m not mistaken. We thanked God for keeping us from harm.

We were not able to experience rappel in pillar and not able to see the falls, but this experience is something that we can be proud of from that day on. Kuya Bim was very proud of us. And again, God proved to me that He won’t let me do the impossible. 

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