You are a adrenaline junkie and it’s another weekend that you keep on struggling just what to do with it. Well that’s very similar to how my situation was, only that I am not really an adrenaline junkie!
My rest days was just a day away and I have nothing on my calendar to spend it with. Then somebody sent a message asking if I was free on those days. Hell yeah! I’d go anywhere I can afford! Hahaha!
And she got a barrage of questions from me.
Call me kaladkarin, hahaha but it was a no brainier for me if I was to go or not.
Call Time: 4:30 AM
Location: Cubao
I arrived about thirty minutes early in Cubao, but it was almost 4:30 and I haven’t heard anything from my companions. So I hit them up with a message and found out that they left late trying to contact one of our friends. Unfortunately she never responded (turns out that she over slept – too tired from the traffic she battled with the night before)
At about 6 AM we took an FX with a Montalban (Rodriguez) – Eastwood route. Fare is about 50 pesos. Travel time was just about less than an hour. From the town junction we rode a tricycle going to the jump-off point.
We registered at the DENR office payed 20 pesos for the environmental fee, proceed to the barangay post where they collect another fee -I don’t what was that for.
With everything prepped up our guide Wowie, lead us to a trek that I’d never forget.
The hike started by crossing a hanging bridge leading to a residential area where a steep flight of stairs welcomes you going to the real start of the trail. It was quite a warm up for us -which is good. My heart started pumping up as I started sweating.
The trail’s start was mostly an assault until your reach the resting part where you’ll see a great wall of rock. Wowie, our guide, told us that there are many rock climbers scale the wall while showing us some obscure rock formations.
The trail is mostly covered with forest so hiking up the mountain with the Sun shining up and bright was not an issue for us. There were several resting points including the one where the junction between Mt. Hapunang Banoi and Pimintinan.
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On our trek up the mountain, I was thinking if the rocks that we were encountering were the reason why the guides ask us to bring gloves, I was like these are kinda sharp but I think I can live without the gloves.
The way up was a lot of assault, but easy ones. The first and second peaks require a bit of courage and some balancing skills. I think anyone who has some amount of courage can do it… not that technical
The highest peak of them all will be the one to test your courage and skills. Soil would disappear and the trail becomes pure lime stone rocks, nothing flat that you can walk on.
Technical? a bit, yes! Scary? quite. It takes more courage to get to the best parts. But I tell you conquer your fear and you’ll see the best views you ever see.
We finished the climb for about seven hours. Yes, blame it on my two girls. Hahaha! Peace to the two of you! But how can I blame them, we went up the mountain to experience and how can we immortalize such experience if not with photos? So hell yeah, more photos for every climb! HAHAHA!
Mt. Hapunang Banoi so far has been my most adventurous climb, I truly enjoyed it and I’d say that anyone daring enough should experience it! I know that I am not the best writer when it comes to describing mountains but trust me on this one.
Breakdown
FX Cubao-Montalban-Cubao 100
Tricycle Junction-Jump off point-Junction 90
DENR Fee 20 Pesos
Gloves – 50 (mas maganda magdala ng sariling gloves na makapal)
Guide 400 (divided by 3 )
PS I am having trouble uploading photos to my photo host, so pls just check the photos on my fb page which can be found here:
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