continuing the trek, burdens each muscles in your body, the cold of the north strikes , having two tough climbers along with me, i was the super sweeper and photographer =)
describing the terrain, heading for Mt.Kabunian, many mossy forest and climbing beside a cliff, one miss you die (safety first) many loose rock with a steep descend and ascend, baby steps will do the work, endurance and patience is a must.
Descending from Mt.Kabunian, seeing Mt.Tenglawan on the horizon, Ranger,Mimis & I decided to push on, but obstacles are present on our way, we headed for the Hydro power plant, using the steel stairway which led us to a dead end, it wasted our time, climbing up the steel stairway gave me muscle cramps on my thigh (it was closed due to a land slide) Arriving at the Hydro power plant, we rested for a while and refueled water for the journey ahead of us.
We started to ascend again, more loose rocks at hand waaaahhhhh we continued ascending, seems that it will never stop we arrived to the point where we were almost leveled with Mt.Tenglawan, it was almost 3pm so i told Mimis and Ranger not to take on Mt.Tenglawan due to the zero visibility once we arrived at the peak, so we decided to head on for Sinakbat, its the entry point for Mt.Tenglawan, finally again seeing a wooden gate which i thought was the finalization of the ascend, waaahhhh not yet more ascend to come until an hour after a road was visible to walk on straight and relax out feet muscles =)
I LOVE THE NORTH! People shows true Hospitality and Climb! Climb on knowing true people =)
R.I.P
RETURN IF POSSIBLE as Mimis would say.
Note:
On the way to Mt.Kabunian we stumbled upon the mushroom garden.
and it's TRUE what the news says about Baguio, it's really frosting cold as hell.
Year end climb, Ranger,Mimis and i decided to climb before 2010 ends, and so we did this climb, left manila on the 26th Dec, headed for Baguio, we had no IT at hand. We had no problem with it because Mimis is from the north =) Arriving Baguio, we headed for the SM Baguio and Baguio market to buy some supplies, Des fetch us near SM and stayed the night, a very hospitable family he has =)
Waking up in the morning, Mimis decided to divert the original plan (Mt.Tenglawan/Mt.Kabunian exiting Ilocos Sur) so we traveled for Ilocos Sur to make the entry point of our climb, this trip caused us minimal expenses for we traveled with the locals we used the daily transport which was taken by them, although the transport is really critical because if you miss the trip, might as well wait for tomorrow hehehehe so acting fast and knowing the right destination is a must, the trip of the jeepneys and bus are minimal for only few of them travel for Bakun, (now i know) in our case only 3 of us were traveling so the commute of the trip with the locals is advisable, but if you are in a group having 10 on your count, it's great to have a jeepney service rented.
Arriving at Bakun Kayapa, we mingled with the locals, Mimis,ranger and I was invited to one of the Igorot tribe pre-wedding celebration at Barangay Damoko, free food and booze the Igorot tribe showed us great hospitality and even offered for us to stay on one of their home for the night, we did not need to pitch our tents =)
Early morning trekking we arrived at the house of a certain kagawad, that is where we ate our breakfast, before continuing the trek.
it's a 25% gradual and 75% assault grrrr....... but it's another great adventure, we took on the side of Ilocos Sur, crossing 4 mountains before getting to Mt.Kabunian, a long and agonizing trek having full gear.
(almost all who climbs Bakun coming from Barangay Poblacion make their base camp and leaves their gears and Mt.bags, for us no base camp.
continuing the trek, burdens each muscles in your body, the cold of the north strikes , having two tough climbers along with me, i was the super sweeper and photographer =)
