Return to Mt. Ugo - A Traverse

  This climb is a long overdue entry to my blog. This was also a climb that had been cancelled several times and was almost cancelled permanently. But nevertheless last February, a team of 12 climbers consisting of PALMC members, friends and guides climb Mt. Ugo via the traverse trail.


  Mt. Ugo is considered one of the best mountains in the northern mountain ranges. The mountain is situated in between two municipalites, Itogon Benquet and Kayapa, Nueva Viscaya. Before, to complete the traverse, three days should be alloted. But recently, with proper planning and training it can be done in two (this is what we did). 
  Climbers normally leave in the evening in Manila and then start the trek very early the next day. The start of the trek is very steep but you wont notice much of this due the abundance of pine trees. After around 2 hours of trek you will reach Brgy. Ansipsip, the start of the flat hike. The flat trek continous  for several hours. Carve on the mountain side, this place is what I call 'deja vu" roads because it seems everything is repeating, as if you are already lost.It will become steep again on the final assault to the summit that also doubles as the campsite. We reached the summit after around 9-10 hours of hiking. I guess whats mesmerizing about this mountain is the plentyness of pine trees and the view along the trail where you can see rolling green mountains from afar, plus of course the weather is very cool - as with any northern mountains.  
  We had a good night at the summit. The weather was perfect during our climb. The sky was very clear and we were even able to stargaze for a while. 

Resting at Brgy. Ansipsip

Deja Vu Roads

Deja Vu Roads

Amazing lights

Sunrise

Sea of Clouds?

  









The descent was almost the same as the previous day, steep descent. There was a trail part where we saw Baguio from a distance. There are still a lot of pine trees, the trail was also rolling. We passed by a community, rice fields (sort of rice terraces) and a long foot bridge. After this we were picked-up by our rented jeep all the way to baguio. 
  Did'nt we know that one of our colleague own a house at baguio. We stayed here for the night (after sipping several beers) then leave the next day back to Manila.

If you look closely, Baguio can be seen on the left

A bridge too far

My climb 5 years ago and the current.  The former was just a  traditional

     This climb was specially dedicated/organized to Barry Smith, who after his two years stint in the Philippines went back to his native country. Barry hope you had a good time with us, because we surely did. Till our next climb!

Mt. Irid

   Saturday July 21, 10:00am. I should be doing a dayhike today. But due to severe moonsoon rains here in Manila, (raining for 3 days now) we had to cancel our plans. But as they say, a person always find something to do, so here I am writing a long overdue blog on my hike to Mt. Irid. 
   I am not really fan of 'birthday climbs', I believe that celebrations should be left in the city were the hust and bust of our daily lives resides. Mountains are for places were you want to relax, be with nature. Where we can forget our day to day grinds for a while..... But when a friend invited me, its an invitation I can't refuse. Another plus was  friend (whos is climbing hiatus) was also going.


   Mt. Irid is located in the boundaries of Rizal province. We traveled going to Sta. Inez,Rizal  on a rented jeep very early morning, this includes passing by several rivers and bumpy roads. I think the travel time up  to the jump-off takes around 2 hours (from Cubao). From the jump-off its a flat trek up to the base of the mountain.
 If I counted correctly, we passed by seven rivers. The rivers was not that high though that I managed not to get my feet wet. I recall we made a turn on the 6th river crossing to get to a waterfall. To my surprise the water fall was very pristine. We took a dip before continuing our hike. 
   We reach the mountain basecamp almost mid afternoon. The celebrant cooked the planned birthday feast. We had our sumptous dinner a few drinks then went to bed. 
   The next day was the summit assault. We just brought our assault bag and some rations. As expected the trail and the mountain itself is very pristine. Proof was the trail, can be hardly seen and if your not that experienced, a hiker can easily get lost. There are lots of rocks that look like walls where trees had grown. There were also part that trails ends, and you need to find the connecting part. A hiker sometimes needs to enter cracks on the walls/rocks. The summit was sort of  diffrent. It has large clearing with large chunks of stones. Other mountains can be seen in the area, since I think Mt. Irid is already located on the boundary of the Sierra Madre Mountain range. 
   I really enjoyed this climb, met some long lost (into hiking) friends. Though it rained when we went down, and had a bit of flash flooding (considering there were seven river crossings). My first birthday climb turned out okay. 

The Trail

River Crossing

Mt. Irid

Kinabuan Falls

Leech (take note its not Limatik)

Birthday Feast! (photo c/o MikeB)

Tukdan Banoi view from BaseCamp, and Yes its climbable

A bird on the way to the summit

Giant Pitcher Plants

Summit!

Mountains in the surrounding

Height in MASL c/o Ritchie 

FlashFlood

P.S. Barry, This is my last  backlog entry. I plan to create the Ugu climb next. :D

Puting Buhangin / Kwebang Lampas

  Since a few years ago, one of my yearly summer activities was to find and go to secluded beaches around Luzon. Our regular destination was in Zambales, but for this year we moved to Quezon. Puting Buhangin/Kwebang Lampas (white beach/overshoot cave) was already in my radar way back. But it was only this year that overnight camping was allowed. 


  The beaches in Quezon is known for their black sand, but this beach was an exception. It is white and fine, as my friend said 'boracayesque'. The length of the shoreline not that long, in the other end is where the cave is located. The cave pass through a cliff exposing the open sea. In the cave and the rock formation outside, we saw several species of fish when we tried to snorkle. I even saw an eel which I though was a sea snake. Regular fishermen also try to sell their catch, we were able to buy more than  a kilo of Lapu-lapu for only 50 pesos. There were other visitors on the beach but still not crowded considering its the height of summer. 
  Adding to the beauty of the trip, a 10 minute walk is needed before reaching the beach. Passing by mangroves and a beautiful shoreline. 

PowerPlant Landmark

The Cave

Cliff Jump