Spectacular View at Mt. Maculot (Rockies)

Talk about a brewing addiction. Immediately a week after Mt. Romelo came another climb. I just passed my oral exam two days ago, and I thought that a night trek to Mt. Maculot is a fitting way to somehow celebrate epilogue of my long and dreary grad school days. I decided to join a hike to Mt. Maculot – a cheaper way to celebrate and a chance to meet new people.

I headed off to Cubao to meet Ian, a member of Pinoy Travel Addicts, a facebook group of, uhm, well, travel addicts. The group will come in two batches. Ian, Jef and I will do the hike on Saturday afternoon while the rest on Sunday morning. I decided to join the Saturday hike so I can catch a glimpse of sunrise and sunset on the summit.



We boarded an Alps bus for Lipa City at the Araneta Center Bus Terminal. The trip took about an hour and a half. From a place called Tambo in Lipa we met Jef and took a jeep to Barangay Cuenca. From there we took a tricycle to the drop off point and registered. While we were on the way we met a number of sweat and mud-drenched hikers. It seems that hikers have this habit of greeting every hiker they meet, often addressing those outside of their group as Sir or Ma’am. As a newbie myself, I’ve picked up the habit rather quickly, although there are times that I am so tired that I don’t feel like greeting anyone. I guess I’d just better keep up with tradition, lest I’d be considered a snob.

The ascent begins on an innocent-looking cemented road that runs uphill. It is, in fact, one of the most tiring parts of the hike, especially for hiking noobs. When we got to a rough road leading to the foot of the mountain and up, the remaining part of the trek – which took about two hours! – consisted of long stopovers, chitchats with fellow hikers and conquering what people refer to as assaults – irregular paths that are steep and lined up with roots, rocks or mud. We were still on the trail by 6:45 PM, which is when our flashlight and headlight became handy.

Me resting while Ian prepares coffee.

Fog started to build up when we got to the camp site. There were about ten to fifteen tents that it took some effort to find a comfortable place to erect ours. Hikers continued to arrive even at 2 AM (one of them got lost and trekked for seven hours!). The three of us made do with my two-person beach tent that offered no protection to the cold and fog build up. The following morning, the camp site was still foggy that we didn't have a good view of the sunset.

The next day, we met fourteen other hikers from PTA led by Ron. After a two and a half hour “socials”, we started our trek to our main destination – the so-called “Rockies”.

Assault to Rockies - easier than it looks.

Rockies has a grassy summit.

To reach Rockies, we had to make a fifteen minute descent from the camp site. The Rockies is actually a small hill, about the size of two SM Cubaos piled on top of each other, but nonetheless imposing. From the foot of the campsite, climbing the Rockies seemed an impossible feat – there is no visible trail, just piles upon piles of rocks. It turned out climbing it is a lot easier than it looks. At the very peak we caught a good view of the Taal Lake and an unnamed sleepy town below, as well as a few other mountains in the area. The view is just breathtaking. It was somehow a familiar sight – something I see from a airplane seat and take for granted. When you’re on top of a mountain, however, the feeling is different because of the thought that I got here out of sweat and hard work.

One of the more challenging part of Rockies is the so-called Dilang Bato (forgot the exact term), a slab of granite protruding on the edge of the hill which offers a better view of the lake below. To get to it we need to overcome a challenging way down using what appears to be a precarious piece of rock which blocked the view of the other rocks below, making any attempt look like a suicide mission. While the whole gang – which included girls who didn’t have the slightest signs of being daredevils managed to get past through it without much difficulty, Al and I stayed where we were out of fear. After summoning all the spirits, ghosts, saints and shamans, we eventually made it to the Dilang Bato and resumed our pictorial sessions.

Team Maculot!

Pictorials at the Dilang Bato.

In sum, the trip was all worth it. Spectacular view, amazing company and a chance to push myself beyond limits (I know, it’s a minor climb, but hey, I’m a noob after all). Fear when irrational, is all in the mind, and that’s what make it even more difficult to conquer – it’s hard to go againt the way ones brains are wired. Fear makes the knees weak, perfect balance elusive and reflexes inoperable. To conquer fear, one must make a quick taste of the object being feared – an assurance that the feat is easier than it looks can make fear disappear like magic. That’s exactly what I did when I got to the edge of that small rock leading to Dilang Bato. Turns out the descent wasn’t in any way more difficult than any of the rocks we encountered on the trail.

The experience also broke my stereotype of hikers as pole-toting athletic daredevils with sun burnt skin. The hikers who were with us came in all shapes, sizes and age. I saw a skinny boy barely in his teens, a couple just within retirement age, a plus-sized lady who couldn’t wait to flash her bragging rights and many others whom you wouldn’t think would ever have a hiking trip in mind.

Having passed this test of fear I’d probably be able to cross the Technohub footbridge next time. I’m crossing my fingers.

ITINERARY AND EXPENSES
14:00 Boarded an Alps Bus (P105 student fare) bound for Lipa, Batangas at the Araneta Bus Terminal

16:15 Arrived at Tambo, Batangas, took a jeep (P20) for Cuenca, Batangas

16:35 Arrived at Cuenca, Batangas, took trike (P20) to Rockies jump off

16:45 Stop over at the registration area (P10), resumed trike to jump off

17:05 Start of trek

19:00 Reached campsite

Rockied can be reached from the campsite within 15 minutes.

Same route out.

RATING

Difficulty: 3/9

Also see: 

http://www.limbonis.info/2012/10/mt-maculot-cuenca-batangas.html