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