Mt. Pulag

The view from campsite 1

Ambuklao Dam

Stuck

With my friends at DENR

Farm terraces

Mt. Pulag located in Benguet is the highest peak in Luzon and third in the Philippines.

Mt. Pulag was a dream climb. We witnessed the open view upon reaching the summit --- a heaven on top of the world, a view beyond your expectation, a majestic sea of clouds. But these were only scenes that ran in my mind.  These are the things I looked forward to when we joined an organized trip to Mt. Pulag.

Unfortunately, not all climb stories has a happy ending, sometimes it ends with a twist just like what happened to us.

This is not a fairytale-like post compared to other bloggers’ post that definitely described a clearing on the top of the mountain. [*Sob*]

To cut this story, we didn’t reach the summit due to bad weather.

The sun was about to set when we reached Camp 2, the weather is clear and we have witnessed the sunset. I thought the sky would be clear in the morning. But sometimes we cannot predict the weather. That night, the wind grew strong and the heavy rain poured down. We were all hoping that it would stop. We woke up at 3am and brave the wind and rain. We are hoping that the rain would stop during our assault to summit. However, the wind and rain were really strong that we decided to abort the trek and just return to the camp.

At 9am, we packed our things and tent under the chilling rain and freezing weather. We are soaking wet as we descent.

But all of us were happy. It is still a grateful experience. Sabi nga nila, “it’s not the destination, it’s the journey.”

Because of that journey...

1.  I met new fellow travellers/ hikers

Some photos taken by Erlyn dela Cruz

2.   I experienced top load (to ride on top of a Monster jeepney)

3. My first time to camp overnight and sleep in a tent

Grassland at Mt. Pulag

4.   First time to see clouds above me on a mountain top

A friend also told me that Mt. Pulag is just there and we can go back anytime we want. And we will go back and have that sweet revenge to conquer it again.