Mt. Banahaw via Lilag Trail

February 15-16, 2014
Mt. Banahaw via Lilag Trail

Another Adventure of Jazz with TAPIK Mountaineers. This time, we will be conquering Mt. Banahaw which they also called the Holy Mountain. Located at the Boundaries of Laguna and Quezon. Mt. Banahaw has an altitude of 2158 MASL, the highest peak in the Quezon and Laguna Region.

Our Team: Carl, Dex, Argie, Arjay, Noriel, Lj, Dan, Mark, Don, Jett, Ed, Denver, Jay, Adrian, Millet, Jazz

Our Guide: Beans Voughn

We have 2 different set of team going to San Pablo, Laguna. Our call time is 12mn to 2 different meet up points. One group meet up at Kamuning JAC liner and the other group at Buendia Station. We arrive at the Jollibee, San Pablo around 0400H. We eat our breakfast before leaving to Liliw and arrive around 0730H, register and prepare ourselves for another adventure. Around 0750H we start our trekking towards the Holy Mountain, Banahaw. The first part of the trail will passed some mossy forest and some farm lands. Please be reminded that Banahaw has some leeches, so bring some repellant, salt or alcohol to prevent loosing or donating blood to the leeches. In the farmland, you will see the mountain like Cristobal and Kalisungan which is located in Dolores and Calauan, respectively.

Cristobal at the back

After passing the farmland, this is the start of the mossy forest and one of a kind uphill toward the campsite. Around 0950H, when we reach the mossy forest and continue our walk to the deadly uphill of Banahaw. Before lunch time, we experience hunger and decided to take an early lunch around 1050H in a emergency lunch break area.  

Lunch break, emergency lunch

 After a quick lunch and rest, we continue our hike around 1140H and reach the 1st camp site around 1240H. 

Cross at the campsite

Around 1250H we continue our trek toward the camp 2 where we will be resting and staying overnight. The trail is the same from the start to the end, mossy forest, continuous uphill and lots of resting. Somehow the trail is not that establish compared to other entries to Banahaw, maybe since it was not that popular compared to the other trail going to Banahaw.

After almost 9hours of trekking, we arrive at the 2nd campsite around 1620H. Because of the tiring uphill of Banahaw, almost all of us are tired and want to take a nap and rest but we need to eat our dinner, therefore we have no choice but to cook. We cook our dinner around 1530H and finish preparing until 1630H. Food is serve around 1630H, lets eat guys!

 After dinner, its time for socials, since we have new friends along the trek, we have some time to know them and to them to know us (Anu daw??). Since I am not a drinker, I left the socialites around 2100H and take some rest. We have to wake up early in order for us to explore Dungaw 3-2-1. Our call time is 6am, must wake up early and prepare my things.

 

Sadly, because of the cold weather of Banahaw and the foggy environment we woke up late in the morning. We wake up around 0700H and we have to take some breakfast before heading to Dungaw, we head for dungaw 3 around 0830H and since its already late we have no time to explore Dungaw 2-1 and only dungaw 3 is what we can explore. Dungaw 3 is around 1 hour from the campsite. We have to pass by some up and down mossy forest before we reach the Dungaw 3.

In dungaw 3, all we can see is the foggy cloud enviroment, we have no choice but to enjoy the area and took some remembrance photo. We leave the dungaw 3 around 1000H and return to the campsite to breakcamp and prepare to descend the mountain. We took a group picture before we head down to the jump off.

 We leave the campsite around 1130H, since it is a downhill we will be a bit faster than uphill and reach the 1st campsite around 1330H and took some quick lunch with the food that we have, noodles and jellies. After eating we continue our trek and reach the farmland around 1540H, we also see some rainbows at the farmland since it is quite raining.

 

 

From the farmland, we have to trek another 1 hour to the jump off, we thought we will be having only downhills but there is a part where we have to trek around 100m of uphill before a smooth downhill towards the jump off. As what i've told eariler, leeches are within the area, some of my friends donated blood while trekking towards the jump-off. We reach the jump off around 1700H. When we reach the jump-off we have to find a place where we can take a bath to wash up and tidy up.

Around 2000H we arrive at San Pablo City, Laguna to take out dinner at one of the Bulalohan in the area. Happy dinner everyone! Another adventure of Jazz is done! Til the next climb guys! Thank you and rest well!

Itinerary:

Day 1:
0000H ETD bus from Kamuning to San Pablo
0400H ETA San Pablo (Jollibee, near hospital)
0530H ETD from Jollibee to Liliw, Laguna
0730H ETA Liliw, Laguna, register/ jump-off
0750H Start Trek
1050H Lunch
1240H ETA Camp 1
1620H ETA Camp 2
1830H Dinner/ Socials
2100H Lights out

Day 2
0700H Wake up/ Breakfast
0830H Leave and Explore Dungaw 3
0930H ETA Dungaw 3
1000H Leave Dungaw 3 and return to campsite
1100H Return to campsite/ backcamp
1130H ETD Campsite
1330H ETA camp 1
1540H ETA farmland
1700H ETA jump-off
1800H Wash-up/ tidy-up
2000H Reach San Pablo/ dinner
2130H Leave San Pablo take bus to Manila

Luneta to Tagaytay

February 9 2014
UltraMarathon 63km Luneta to Tagaytay

February 8, Many runners formed at the Raja Sulayman Park in Malate Manila. I arrived at the venue 10:30pm from my classmate's wedding in Quezon City. Lots of runners prepare, conduct stretching, chatting with other runners,  others are preparing for the run. When I arrive at the venue, Lj and Noriel are already at the line for the checking of bib and Lj fall in line for me (Thanks Lj for that). After that I decided to buy my reflector vest that I will be using on BDM, hehe, and left my bag at the baggage counter. 

Busy park at Raja Sulayman

Around 11:30pm me and my buddy Noriel decided to go to Luneta park since it was the initial starting of the run and not Raja Sulayman. 

Luneta Park

After we go to Luneta, we decided to return to Raja Sulayman for the official Start of the race. Total of around 700 runners will be running along and going to Tagaytay, the street will be a street party, lots of runners, support vehicles of the runners and organizers will be conquering the road to Tagaytay. At exactly 12mn of February 9, the gun start started and runners start running.

Idol Loyce on the run

Sole Diva Runners

 At 10km, we refill our water with the water station prepared by the organizer. But on the 20km we found no water station and decided to buy at the convenience store that we saw. Thanks 7 11 for the water, food and softdrink that we buy. Some runners also use the convenience store as stop over in their run. ^^

Around 2:20am when we arrived at Imus, Cavite. The Christmas Capital of the Philippines.

Around 3:50am when we arrive at Dasmarinas, Cavite.

Around 5am, my buddy feels sleepy due to no rest a day before the run. So we do some short rest and advise him to drink some soft-drinks with caffeine to woke him up. Around 6:30am we found some coconut vendors on the sides of the road and decided to buy some coconut.

Around 7am, my buddy already feels his blisters in his foot and decided to rest to pop the blisters (ouch). After resting, we continue our run, we saw some support vehicle offering aids and water spray and alike (Thanks for that). Around 8:40am, we are near Olivares but we will not pass Olivares and do a left turn at SVD road all the way to People's Park, Palace in the Sky. It's already hot and we feel the fatigue because of the long run and when I saw the Taal lake & volcano it gives me another energy to continue telling me that we are near the finish line.

Taal Lake and volcano

Around 9:30am we feel exhausted and we walk since the road has a uphell route until the finish line. We finish around 10:14am. Luneta to Tagaytay! Conquered!

 

  

Congratulations to all the finishers of Luneta to Tagaytay. Til the next run!

Route Map and Elevation

Makiling Traverse (via Sipit Trail)

February 2, 2014

Another Adventure lives on with Jazz. This time we will be having a Traverse hike of Makiling from Sto Tomas, Batangas to Los Banos, Laguna. In this adventure I will be with Bree, Jassem and some TAPIK Mountaineers (Mark, Dan, Noriel, LJ).

Bag of mountaineers

Sunday morning, our call time is around 4am in Kamias, Quezon city going to Sto Tomas, we will be riding a bus bound to Lucena. We arrived at the Sto Tomas around 6:30am (near Sea Oil and 7 /11). We took our breakfast and buy our packed lunch at one of the eatery in the area. Our bags are packed and ready to go and we are just waiting for Bree and Jassem which will be coming from Alabang. We wait for almost an hour and they decided to catch us along the trail and we decided to go on first. We ride a tricycle going to the Ecopark, along the road you will see large pipelines in the area, this pipelines contain steam with can be used as another source of energy in the area (Geothermal Power Plant).

Pipeline seen in the area

We arrive at the registration area around 7:40am and start to register and prepare ourselves for another adventure. We start our hike around 8am. We will be using the Sipit trail since the Palanggana trail is not accessible now. Kuya Eddie will be our guide in this hike. At first, we are only 5 walking but there are other 4 mountaineer that conduct an early hike almost 1 hour before we arrived at the registration site. After some time kuya Eddie got a text message that our 2 members arrived and he must fetch them since there are no other guide but kuya Eddie. He told us to wait at the station 2. He also told us that we will be passing an ilat "a river without water" and turn left on that area.

Station 2: bahay Kubo

We wait for Bree and Jassem in the station 2 that kuya Eddie told us. When they arrive at the station, we continue our journey to Makiling, Make It Makiling 2014. Sipit trail has 17 Stations, station 2 to 11 will be a steep ascend, and a minimal ascend from station 11-15. We arrive at the station 15 around 11am and took our lunch. In this station we saw our little blood sucking friends.

A view of MakTrav

The little tiny blood sucking limatik friends

 After our lunch at station 15, another steep ascend with matching rope segment awaits us until the peak 3 of Makiling. The Melkas ridge was really a fun trail because of the rope segments that we encounter. We reach the Haring Bato around 11:40 and reach Makiling peak 3 around 12:30pm.

Reach Haring Bato

Rope segment going to peak 3

Mt. Makiling Peak 3

Wacky pose at Peak 3

After peak 3, we start walking at the ridge of Makiling gong to peak 2 "The Wild Boar Trail". This trail was the muddiest of all trail in MakTrav, we experience great mud moments, our shoes , shorts, pants get muddy because of the trail.

Wild Boar Trail

 Around 2:15 when we arrive at peak 2. Still peak 2 was no view but only trees and plants can be seen from the area.

Makiling Peak 2

After a short break at picture taking at peak 2, we decided to descend Makiling using the Los Banos trail. In our descend from Makiling we encounter a group of mountaineer going to peak 2 (I think they are 1st timer hikers due to their attire) also we saw a group of soldiers going to makiling also (maybe they will conduct a camping at the peak). We arrive at the Agila Base around 4:30pm. In this area, kuya Eddie will be separated from us and he will return to Sto Tomas using the other trail. There is a trail going to Sto Tomas at the Aguila Base.

Makiling trail using the Los Banos

Agila base

 Around 5pm, we arrive at nanay sari sari store and do a short break, drink some softdrinks and eat some crackers.

Nanay sari sari store

 Around 6pm, we arrive at the registration area of Los Banos. A total of 10 hours of trekking in Makiling Traverse.
 

Los Banos Registration site- College of Forestry

Our shoes have the same colors

MakTrav team

ITINERARY
Via Sipit Trail

0430 Take Lucena or any Maharlika-bound bus
0630 Drop off at Brgy. San Felix; Head to Ecopark by trike
0750 Registration at Sitio Jordan; secure guides (optional)
0800 Start trek
0930 Trail Junction (Station 7)

1100 Station 15, lunch
1140 ETA Melkas Ridge (Haring Bato)
1230 Peak 3 (1020 MASL)

1250 Continue trek in Wild Boar Trail
1415 ETA Peak 2 (1090 MASL)
1440 Start descent
1630 ETA Agila Base
1800 ETA College of Forestry; Registration site; wash up
1900 Take jeep to Los Banos proper
1940 Dinner at Mang Inasal

2030 Take bus back to Manila
2300 ETA Manila