Mt. Pico De Loro

Rising at 664 meters above sea level, Mt. Pico De Loro is a minor climb. It's usually the mountain picked by first time climbers. Four years ago, my first climb was Pico, too. Having no experience on other mountains to compare it with, it was difficult to say whether its terrain was rugged enough.

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It's been my personal panata to hike during Valentines; I invite or get invited by people from my environmental organization in college. When I was invited late January, I couldn't make it because I had work. Then I had this brilliant idea: I'll make mountaineers out of my co-workers. With that, I will no longer have trouble looking for people to invite when adventure fever strikes.

The original plan was to recruit Frankie and Ella. Then I would invite one fellow from EARTH-UST. And another member, a seasonal climber who knows the trail too well. Maybe Mads. I only wanted to recruit few newbies because I didn't want them to outnumber the seasonal ones. My reason was obvious. Think of a scenario when there are only two seasonal climbers to offer help to four newbies who couldn't make it just when you all are in the assault part. Help is limited. I didn't want that to happen.

13 February 2010 - DAY 1: I need a windbreaker!

So here were the final recruits: Eli (seasonal, my EARTH-UST fellow), Noella (newbie and former co-worker), Ella (newbie and present co-worker), Melle (seasonal, present co-worker), and Francis (seasonal, Melle's friend).

In the next pictures, Melle a.k.a. assault summit boy would be missing. He's always ahead of us.

There are buses in MRT-Taft Station that will take you to Cavite. We were looking for one that would drop us off to Maragondon. We were told that buses with such route will come from Lawton, and would take a while before they pass by to Taft. It was already 7:30. By some instructions and PR of a bus conductor, we were lured to ride the bus to Trece Martires.

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At Trece Martires, Cavite, we asked a group of drivers how to get to Maragondon. One of them offered his jeep for P1000.00. I didn't know why they wouldn't take us to Maragondon because from there, we'd just ride a jeep to Ternate after a last minute shopping at the wet market. If I remember correctly, Melle explained that Maragondon is not a usual route. Our only option was to rent a jeep unless we want to wait forever for other passengers who were also bound to Maragondon.

At last, we arrive at the jump-off point.  Magnetic hills never cease to amaze me. Hehe. :)

Here now is assault summit boy. Grab him before he's gone.. There were no problems, except that Noella almost gave up to the weight of her bagful of food. Wahahaha! Dude, don't tell me I didn't tell you to pack light :p The most important things that a climber must bring are swiss knife, headlamps or flashlights, extra clothes, trek water and reserved water, canned goods, and first aid kit. The preferred clothing is light, usually shorts, just like what I wore, but because I was worried about my legs getting bruised and not wanting to wear those heavy cargo pants, I just put on my reliable soccer socks. Climbing shoes are better than strapped sandals, but the latter was what I wore :p And oh, don't forget your bonnet and windbreaker.

tuna, corned beef, sardines, and other no-cook food are convenient to bring

But Francis is a gentie. He offered help. Noella was sort of expecting that he'd also offer a lift. Jk :p I was trailing behind the entire hike, and Francis kept behind me as a "sweeper." I took my time taking pictures. I must've driven assault summit boy impatient up there :)

Blurred cos my hands were shaky. It was because as I carried myself onto a huge rock, I looked for a low branch that I could hold on to for balance. Deym, I didn't see that the branch I chose was full of thorns! What was that plant? Good thing I didn't sustain cuts. Whew.

Noella and Eli

Three hours after (lol 3 hours!! ang bagal!), we reached Base Camp II. I caught up with assault summit boy calling out to Ate Ella and Ate Eli. Erm, well, the two sort of went to the dangerous zone. The cliff! It seriously made me nervous. I called out, too. I wanted to give them some scolding. Hay, kids. Lol.

Finally, Base Camp II. Pitch the tent boys, cos we're really exhausted. Well, it's too hot to lie there anyway, so we just settled under a shady nook of bamboo trees, and greeted groups and groups of mountaineer that followed us. We had neighbors, but we're not crowded.

The earth pad, man. Mawala na ang underwear, wag lang ang earth pad :p

But what is a summit without such excellent view?! After a long rest, Ella, Eli, Melle, and Francis assaulted the summit just in time for sunset. Only summit boy explored the rock formation. Noella and I, well, after much grass grabbing wanted another adventure. We were a few feet away from the summit when we decided to drop it. But not without much effort...

MAY BANGIN!

We didn't know how to descend. there were no rocks to step on, just those grasses to hold on to. we just let ourselves slip and grabbed the grasses to control the pace of our butts.