A very big item in my travel bucket list is to climb the three highest mountains in the Philippines—the 2,956-meter-high Mount Apo and the 2,938-meter-high Mount Dulang-Dulang, both in Mindanao, and the 2,922-meter-high Mount Pulag, the highest mountain in Luzon. Of course, it made sense to first climb the latter, the nearest to home of the three.
I booked my climb to Mount Pulag, with my son Jandy, through good friend Violeta Imperial, executive director of Nature Awareness and Conservation Club Inc. All in all, we were 13 in our group and we were going to climb the mountain via the easy Bokod Route, which has the mildest grade. We all met up at the Victory Liner Terminal in Pasay City and left on the 9 pm bus for Baguio City, the jump-off point for our climb. After running the gauntlet of traffic along Edsa and two stopovers at Tarlac City and Sison (Pangasinan), we arrived at the city by 3:45 p.m., then boarded a chartered passenger jeepney that would take us on a two-hour 80-kilometer drive, through winding zigzag roads, to Kabayan town where we had breakfast at Country Road Café and Restaurant.
That done, we returned to our jeepney for the short drive to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Mount Pulag Park Office, where DENR Supt. Emerita Albas gave our group a short briefing on the dos and don’ts while trekking Mount Pulag National Park. From the DENR office, it was another two-hour drive, this time along mostly unpaved roads, to the forest ranger station at Camp Babadak, Bashoy, Kabayan. Along the way are breathtaking views of narrow valleys and vegetable and rice terraces.
The ranger station, a place where mountaineers make final preparations, cook, rest and make last-minute supply acquisition before the trek, sits near a small village at the base of the trail. It being a Chinese New Year holiday, it was filled with trekkers. Here, we met our two guides and hired porters to help carry our backpacks to our designated camping ground at Camp 2. It was a 7.5-km hike to Mount Pulag’s summit but we were to do it in stages.
We started our climb at 10 a.m. and there were already worrying gray clouds ahead that brought about a slight drizzle, necessitating our wearing raincoats. Sure enough, it began to rain, making the quite steep trail wet, muddy and slippery. We arrived at Camp 1 by noontime. Here, we rested briefly and ate our packed lunch of rice, chicken adobo and canned tuna.
As the altitude increased, we made frequent stops to catch our breath, hearing the rapid beats of our own hearts amid the weird silence. Continuing on, I began to question myself and my sanity in being here. It was already raining profusely when we reached Camp 2 by 3 p.m., and we had to slog through the mud just to make it to our tents. There were thoughts in my mind of continuing on to the summit in the remaining daylight but decided against it. Big mistake.
That night, it rained heavily and the wind picked up, allowing condensation to seep through our tents and drench our sleeping bags, socks, gloves and shoes as we ate our supper. I didn’t sleep a wink as I shivered all throughout the night, with temperature dipping to almost zero. Waking up at 3 am to trek the remaining distance to the summit where, on a clear day, mountaineers usually await the sunrise above a sea of clouds, was out of the question.
Daylight and a warm breakfast was a welcome relief. It was still drizzling when we broke camp and made our way back down the trail. As we descended, the weather started to improve and the sun soon shone when we reached Camp 1. The camp was filled with trekkers and tents when we arrived. Here, on a hill above the camp, we had a clear and beautiful panoramic view of Mount Pulag’s so-far unattainable grassy summit, as well as surrounding pine-cladded mountains.
As our descent was easy and more leisurely, I had more time to appreciate the mountain’s high plant diversity (home to 528 plant species, 42 percent of which are endemic to the area). I was also struck by the variation in flora, from tall pine trees that clad the mountain’s hillsides, wild orchids thriving on its slopes up to the 7,000 foot level; a 5,877-hectare elfin forest with small stunted oak trees heavily overgrown with ferns, moss and lichen found at the 1,500 meter to 2,600 meter (4,900 foot to 8,500 foot) level; and a natural, windswept, 804-hectare montane grassland at the summit. The beauty of it all more than mitigated my frustration of not making it to the summit.
Mount Pulag has not seen the last of me.
Image credits: Noriel de Guzman