MT. MANALMON

October 26 - 27, 2013

MT. MANALMON
( SES Fun Climb Event )

Another climb for the month of October. I thought that this event would be postponed due to the recent storm that passed San Miguel, Bulacan. Glad that the weather was fine when we arrived although we still saw the damage that this storm had brought. 

It was a successful event and we all have to thank Macel and Xoy for this wonderful weekend we had. You can see our group picture and the one who took the picture was Sir Carlos. I just hope we'll have another activity like this. 

We rented a van that will take us to the jump off of Mt. Manalmon. We had two hours ride from Cybergate 2 going to San Miguel, Bulacan. While passing the road at San Miguel, I've noticed that there were lots of trees that fall down because of the typhoon that just came a week ago. It was really strong especially seeing that the trees were cut into half. I hope the people here was able to recover from this kind of typhoon. 

Getting ready on our trek.

Rest mode. Still waiting for our transporter and guide. 

Anyway, the first thing we did when we reached the Sitio Madlum, Brgy. Sibul, San Miguel, Bulacan was to cross the water using a bamboo raft. It was really cool. Just make sure you don't lose your balance since the water was deep. Below are the pictures of our rafting experience. 

Keeping our balance. 

Some of us hold each others hand to keep our balance. It would be easier if you will just sit on the raft unfortunately we were carrying our bag packs so we prefer to stand. The water was still so we don't worry much. After our rafting, it's picture perfect again. 

Like I said, picture perfect!

After we crossed the river, the first team to start going to the summit was our team. By the way, you can pay someone to transport some of your things. Since we were carrying a lot, we rented one transport for 150 pesos. Amazingly, he carried our belongings to the summit for about 15-20 minutes. Cool huh? That's what the guide told us. 

We started walking in flat surface as well as crossing the river again. The water in the river was my knee-level on the middle part. The weather was a bit cool so that made it much easier to trek since we don't have to sweat a lot. 

I think I don't have to exert effort to check which angle of this place will look nice since the place itself was already awesome and whatever angle you take a shot, it will come out just perfect. 

Crossing the river.

L-R: Xoy, Mark & Pol

Not only we crossed a river but we also passed a mini-cave. All of a sudden the atmosphere changed when we got close to the cave and I felt a bit of cold fresh air. I pulled out my headlamp because I thought it will take a plenty of time to pass the cave but it was really short. It's just a tease for our tomorrow's spelunking activity. LOL. We still took pictures of the mini-cave.

Trail going in and out of the mini-cave. 

Thank you Kuya Carlos for all the wonderful shots. 

After passing the river and cave, we walked an hour going to the summit. Our guide used to say, "5 minutes to summit", as to keep us in pace and not to think how long we still have to walk. I think it somehow worked. 

L-R: Sherwin, Mark and Karen

Trail to summit.

During our trek to summit, we saw a lot of trees that fall down and some were even cut to half. The result of the typhoon was still visible. There were trees scattered on our trail. Luckily, it's not that big so we can still pass through it. We prayed for a good weather and we're all thankful that it did. After a long hike, we finally reached the summit of Mt. Manalmon. 

Our summit picture.

My beautiful friend, Myra.

We were all excited to see the summit so instead of unpacking our things, we went directly to summit to take pictures. We all took solo picture - of course we'll have to post in on our Facebook account. Another profile picture! Hooray! When we're all done taking pictures, we setup our tent and cooked our dinner. 

We really had a lot to eat. Thanks to Joel for bringing chicken and pork adobo for our dinner. Also, Herry and Macel cooked most of our foods. Myra and Troy were the ones who cooked our rice. Delisyosa! For our breakfast, Troy, Macel and Herry cooked scrambled eggs w/ tomatoes, hot dog, corned beef, luncheon meat and longganisa.  Boodle fight!!!

You'll really appreciate eating these kinds of food especially when you're camping. I hope we'll be able to this once again. I can't wait for another fun climb! Until my next post. Ciao!

- Liz Lagasca