Luzon 321 Chronicles (Day-Three): Tawangan Trail (to Mt Pulag)

Sunrises always give me ecstatic feelings, like the one I woke up to on the third day of our hike. The sunrise gave us hope that we could see the famous sea of clouds from the summit of Mt Pulag. We thanked the locals for the warm accommodation. 

Since I did not read about Tawangan, I did not have idea on its characteristics and difficulty level. The locals kept taunting us about “maliliit na aswang.” They were referring to limatik.

The guides told us that there are four peaks prior to the vicinity of Mt Pulag. But they never mentioned river crossings. I almost got injured from keeping myself dry while doing rock-hopping in one of the river crossings. I did not notice that the rock was loosely anchored. So when I stepped over it, it flipped my left foot that made me run like a bull ready to attack a matador.

We reached the first peak, Halong, with some of us already struggling.  We shared loads. I offered myself to carry one whole bag, which was really easier said than done. 

 And limatik bites were not helping. I got two on my lower legs.

We originally planned to eat after the third peak but due to exhaustion, we took our lunch before the second peak, Al-al. 

Rain started to pour and before reaching the third peak, Gatmoan, I was already looking like soaked in water. Before I knew it, I already had seven limatik bites on my scruff.

I lost Cris on my desire to cope up with the leading pack. I literally ran, as if there was something invisible running after me. Where is the lead pack? Why are they so far? Come on, Garfield, are we there yet? All funny things that I could reminisce have flashed in my mind to introduce the end of everything like in disaster and tragic movies.

The rain temporarily stopped when we reached the Junior Pulag, where you could see a glimpse of the majestic Mt Pulag. 

I tried to remember the trails from my first Mt Pulag experience in 2005. But everything was so fuzzy. All that came in my mind were those in pictures I had. The grassland, domineered by Yushania niitakayamensis, seemed so endless. That after a mound of them came another one, which was gladly introduced by thick fogs and cold wind. The drizzle was inconsiderate.

As the natural lights went out, I began to wonder where Cris was. I left my trail buddy. I hope he was fine. I became a liability because of my poor vision. I had to hold on to the lead pack, or else I would be left in the middle of nowhere.

The limatik bites..

Luzon 321 Chronicles (Day-Two): Mt Tabayoc

August 18. The coldness of the air made me reluctant to go out and excrete the water in my bladder. With my two tentmates tucked on my sides, I stayed still and tried to sleep again. When I walked out of the tent, everything was so quiet. The headlight of an approaching motorcycle let me see the fog that blanketed the lake. The grasses were glistening with rainwater. After my session with Nature, I immediately went inside the tent because it was so cold. My body was trembling with the frozen temperature.

We commenced the hike to Mt Tabayoc’s summit with high hopes for clear skies. Being not so well the night before rendered me weak. The sad thing was my inability to fix my whole body in sync with the prevailing environment. My knees trembled just by stepping over rocks with trappings of algae and mosses. With my sensitivity to the weather, I armoured myself with triple layer of upper garments (including a raincoat and jacket). At first, it was good because the layer trapped the heat released by my body. Further cadences produced heat that was incinerating my whole system. So I removed the two outer layers. However, my muscles shivered so easily with the flow of rainwater on my spine.

The summit of Mt Tabayoc is better than that of Mt Timbac. The locals installed a viewing deck over the canopies. Unfortunately, fogs dominated the surroundings. So there was nothing for us to see but eternal whiteness. It must have been marvellous standing on the viewing deck looking over the sea of leaves.

The descent back to the campsite was quickly accomplished. We were sliding and gliding with the slippery trail. After taking a bath with cold water, we boarded the jeepney for another washing-machine-ride. It was late in the afternoon when we reached the jump-off point for the Tawangan Trail of Mt Pulag. A wagwagan sign in the town’s centre cued us for the hunting of cheap goods.

We were allowed to stay in the barangay hall for the night. Electricity is generated via their local hydroelectric power plant from 1800H to 0600H the following day.