Having a chance to revisit the famous tower of Cavite, the Mt. Palay-palay’s Pico de Loro, I opted not to say no(confusing words? I know! haha) to my highschool friend who’ve invited me to climb Mt. Arayat. This time, I will have a chance to explore the Famous Nasugbu Trilogy key passage, the Nasugbu trail of Pico de Loro. Yes, it serves as the key passage for triple hike that many mountaineers do. I will discuss this in the destination review for the Pico de Loro Ternate-Nasugbu Traverse.
As usual, it was still dark when we decided to meet. Meeting up with my highschool friend at a convenient store near our residences, he introduced me to a new face (for me) who’s joining our climb that day.After a short intro, we headed fast to a complex subdivision, 1 hour away from the meeting point. The travel didn’t took much of the time, and even lasted just half of the usual travel time due empty street made by early travel. "Good enough", these were the words in my mind, without knowing what lies ahead. As we arrived, we then slowly realized the problem, the complex is not an early riser, Oh no! Thinking of any alternative, we have no choice but to take our chances by waiting to flyby vehicles that might pass by. But no luck at all, we are forced to go back to the center of the complex. Fortunately, upon return, we found a first trip of a jeep bound to Alabang. Finally, whew! :p. They are still filling up and the jeep wasn't even half full. Better than nothing though, we still rode the said.
After the long wait comes the cold breeze of the wind at the SLEX,( though it is not as cold as my tricycle ride when climbed Mt. Arayat), the "Brrrrr" feeling still lasted on my mind. But, I survived! Yeah! The Alabang waved it's hello. We were dropped off at the central terminal where the options emerged. We picked the van bound to Trece Martires since it's the one leaving first.
The atmosphere in Trece Martires was quite welcoming for me. Maybe because that was the same atmosphere of my mother's province, which is an hour ride from the former. From there, we took our breakfast in a fastfood chain, have our packed lunch, and a very short break.
Next stop, Naic! So far, no problems arose even until we’ve ride a bus bound to Ternate. However, our other buddies are already waiting for us there. "No worries, just relax!" It’s what we have in our mind, but finding their waiting place gave us a challenge. It was since we have different bus line and terminal that made us confused. Funny, we had to backtrack from our bus stop then take a tricycle which dropped us few walks away from the where the bus had dropped us off. Wrong way team! Haha. No time to relax now! We finally met the other buddies. After a very short intro to those who first met, the team headed straight to the DENR via tricycle.
It's DENR! We registered, took preparation fast, and headed to the jumpoff.
It's trekking time! The trail was quite muddy, since there were a lot of rain showers in the past few days. As usual, that didn't stopped us from climbing the Pico de Loro. As expected, my pacing was quite slow due to lack of training, workouts and even climbs. This is despite the first leg of the trek is quite easy. Good thing, I am not a big log to carry.
The trek to the summit is quite long, but fun! Infact, I learned a small technique. Two of our buddies brought folding fan, which they use each time they take their rest. This helped them not to be much exhausted. Also, we have encountered a large group of mountaineers that throws some joke each time we meet in the trail.
We have reached the campsite with no casualties, "Thank God!". Unfortunately, the rewards of view were limited since there were various fogs around that blocked the view of the beautiful mountain. There were some view peeks, yet, we still can't miss the pictorial opportunities haha. Picture, pose, picture, pose, and picture & pose... at the rocks, by the cliff, solo, and group... Ooops, I think we almost filled our memory cards LOL. Then, we took our lunch, took some rest and bought some sodas(7-11 mountain version). Then, we headed fast to the summit.
We've reached the summit, but the view was still elusive on that day. Disappointed, I opted not to climb the tower since I thought that there will be no photo opts available there which will just disappoint me more. I conquered it once, plus the mindset of "So I have a reason to come back", were the factors that added my laziness. I assisted my buddies to let them enjoy the first time visit in the tower(One, have conquered the mountain but not the tower yet). Assisting them made me nervous, as I can their risky footings. I even almost shout "Huwag ka tumapak/kumapit dyan!". You guys, needs some practice! whew :) . Fortunately, they managed to climb the daring tower of Pico de Loro. But suddenly, the rain started to drizzle. I was hiding under the rocks and having some more picture picture when I heard a shout requesting to assist, they are now descending the tower since it might be risky if they waited much longer. After their descent, the rain showed it's real power, the drizzles turned to a moderately strong rain. It became colder, but no time to waste, the dusk might caught us on the trail and we were all unfamiliar with the trail we are about to face. At first, we are hesitant to the trail we've picked, since it's too steep, but it seems that it is the correct way. Decided, the team pushed, but this time real slow. Carefully, team descended a long, steep and slippery trail. It was the rain the made the trail more challenging, as the trail turned out to be muddy, thus having a firm and solid stance is elusive. It was a long way down, and every stone, roots and branches are lifeline for us. Fortunately, we managed to reach a less steep part without major injury. A buddy got a leg cramp though, but overall, were fine.
Tracking the correct path was a little bit easy, and the trail signs for almost all of the trail forks caused it. Not until, we reached a hut.
We were instructed to keep on heading right, and by following same, it gave us a confusion. On the left, a trail ascending beside the hut. On the right, a creepy trail that we decided to take. We are not that far yet, but my instinct keep saying, were wrong. Though, we keep on pushing, every distant makes me worry. Then, were confused! It was already late afternoon, and dusk might come in an hour, when we stopped to assess.
Some of us climb a big rock, and the sound of passing vehicles points west. To the east is a dense forest. I asked them if we can back track to the hut and I will check the left path, which they agreed.
We ran back to the hut, separating the half of the group. I headed straight to the path, but climbing the trail gave me challenge, my steps are getting heavy, "Am I tired?Maybe!". Then, the top of the inclined trail, which has a trail fork. I headed right and my steps turned out very light, "Huh? Adrenaline?". My instinct keep on saying that is the correct path, so I decided to head back to the hut and shouted to my buddies that I think that is the correct one. Then, we decided to take that path.
I am right! It lead us to the jumpoff! It's almost dusk, that's why we were very relieved to see a road! There were already two tricycles waiting for us, but we really just miss concrete roads! Woooooohoooo!hehe. Picture! Picture!
No time to waste since we might miss the last trip of the bus. So we only took a little rest and a little chitchat. Then, the weird experience of the separated group while we are on the ran, was revealed. They saw a weird guy that abruptly disappeared. Goosebumps, I realized that I might not be tired taking the inclined trail and something just don't want me to see to correct path. And, the weird conversations kept rolling even we rode the tricycle heading to the town of Nasugbu.
Nothing beats a nice meal after the climb, so we feast on Batangas' famous Bulalo without worrying that the last trip of bus had left us. We have no choice but to take another tricycle heading to Tagaytay, where we took a jeep heading to Dasmarinas. From there, the group again split up going home.
BUDGET CHECK(As of July 2013)
*Fare bus from Buendia to Ternate - Php 80-100
*Fare tricycle from Ternate to DENR - Php 75.00
*Fare tricycle from Shooting Range(Nasugbu jumpoff)- Php 120.00
*Fare bus Nasugbu to Pasay - Php 150-200
*Food Contribution - Php 200.00
Total: Php 695.00
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