I have only been to few mountains and of those, my favorite
thus far is Mt. Ulap. That was a chill 7km hike plus excruciating 2km descent
to Brgy. Sta. Fe and that made it a memorable 9km of this trip. The mountaineers saying goes "if you got so many pictures along the trail, that means the mountain is not as difficult and technical".
At 12midnight my group hit the road and ventured to a 5hr
long ride from Quezon City down south towards Itogon, Benguet up north. At 5
o'clock in the morning we reached the jump off point. The group prepared
shortly, registered, took some photos and off we went, excitedly.
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| My Passport to the checkpoint! |
It was a trip I shortly planned, solo travel if given a
chance that nobody from my 800+ facebook friends would join me. At least I
wouldn't want to get a hilarious comment afterwards that I did not bother ask
for joiners. haha! Would anyone agree? Say 799 FB friends ignored me and one of
them joined and bring a pack of 7 more or so! That's 7 more acquaintances only
if I happen to talk to all of them. Well, I did to 4 of them not bad. I walked
on my own pace and stopped from time to time to take a simmer, enjoy the
nature, take photos and be amazed.
The route at 6am was cold. Glances of sea of clouds could be
seen from afar. Benguet herself is way above clouds so it wouldn't take much of
a climb to get a view such as this.
With the troops!
Info alert. As we ascend from Brgy. Ampucao, the first peak
would be Ambanao Paoay, followed by Gungal Rock, then Mt. Ulap and traverse to Brgy.
Sta. Fe. That would be 9km overall.
No Bike trail on the road.
Not there yet.
With the gang. I would be accompanied by them throughout
this trip. Some of my photos were taken by them. Thanks guys! On the other hand, when they wanted a group photo they would call me out haha because I got monopod. (Too bad I lost my DSLR years ago, I even had tripod and remote for all of us. *sobs*)
Sunrise!
Just a hundred or more meters from the jump off.
I enjoyed the view thus far. One of the many.
Taking breaks.
Some of the inhabitants of the mountains.
The view.
The view.
We've just gone by 3km in 2hrs. 6more to go!
First peak in the view!
Ambanaw Paway Peak (Ambanao Paoay Peak)
(Can you) Imagine the depths?
The lone tree that can be seen from afar.
Off to Gungal Rock. (2nd peak)
Not yet Gungal Rock but having a photo here is as awesome.
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| I had to try thrice to be here, because it was literally cliff edge! I mean, nothing but high trees below the slopes! |
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| I can see that from here, my skin got darker already! |
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| Take 30 |
Met the 5km mark.
At Gungal Rock at 10am.
Info alert. If you haven't noticed from the start, the trek
to Mt Ulap was packed with hikers. We hiked during a weekend so it should not
be a surprise. With that, the community guarding the place had to control the
crowd by giving photo opportunities to every hiker. The queue number was given
to the guide. We waited for our turn and
posed for 10sec every person. There was a man guarding the photo area so if you
were that afraid walking and imagining you'd fall on the abyss, there's kuya
who will guide you through.
Got our photo taken at 11am.
At this point, we were headed to Mt. Ulap, the main peak.
We ate lunch here as we waited for the rest of the group to
come along. During our walks, we got separated from the bunch because first,
some group got ahead of us since Gungal, then there were other groups who
scrambled through our crowd, then there was heat of the sun so we opted to find
a shelter which was so far away. There was mostly grass land.
It was high noon when we reached Mt. Ulap peak.
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Behind us was the Mt. Ulap peak. Last assault and then there was mostly descent coming our way. |
Looking back at where we were. It was awesome.
At Campsite 2. I did not notice where Campsite 1 was though. When I decided to go to Mt. Ulap, I was offered with an overnight camp. Since I was not comfortable spending the night with groups of people I would just meet in the trip such as this, I declined and went for a day hike instead. I would love to if given a chance to be with long time friends who can tend for themselves and are more mature in camping. Soon after, I camped out with friends on the next mountain on this blog (Mt. Daguldol in San Juan, Batangas).
One of my new friend resting in the background not minding
the heat of the sun at 12noon.
This is where the tents are pitched.
7km mark. From here on, it was all descent and take 5
is a must.
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| This was one of the stops along the trail. |
9km mark concludes our journey.
But without Mang Inasal it wouldn't be complete.
Post script.
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After the trek, we rested, and found a paid shower (20pesos
per bath, 10pesos for comfort room use) down the road.
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Short review on the trip: I enjoyed the place definitely, but I did not appreciate the noise pollution and too much crowd. I was part of the crowd but I did not bring the city night party with me. The place was totally crowded at the first few kilometers I thought I was in the national park. The difference in pace dictated if it would still cram along the trail. Loudspeakers played on the background too, they should have known the word peace and serenity. Some folks also had taken the time of their life in resting in the coveted and very scenic positions which took most of us longer on the trail.
