Escape Into Life's Adventures!

Up & Down Weekend
3-4 September, 2005

Daren called to wake me up. It was only 4am. I was still a bit woozy from the beating those huge tasty crabs from market market gave me just two days ago. I got up and forced a claritin tablet down my throat, my thoughts flying. This is gonna be a long weekend, i said to myself. Mt. Batulao dayhike then Bahura Saddle / Caban Cove dive. I need this, i tried to convince myself. Daren was already at pasong tamo by that time. I took a really quick shower and pumbled with my mountaineering gears.

After frustratingly patching my things up, i called Daren back to tell him i'd be down in a few minutes. It turned out he was already at the elevator lobby so i just took my time making sure i didnt forget anything, especially the goods which will be ApexTerra's share in the Batulao outreach climb. Me, Daren, Bino and Dell bought noodles, canned sardines, laundry bars and stuff the night before and then i prepacked them so it'll be easier to distribute.

A knock on the door and Dar taking his share of the load, we were off downstairs. It was already raining very hard. After a few smoke and talks, we got a cab and told the driver where we're heading. He was one dazed crazy ass cab driver, it took us some 25 minutes just to get to edsa. Its either he's not familiar with the routes here or he was just high on crack. After finally getting to the bus station, we called up John and his friend, Tere, to know where they at already. They were still at buendia, we ate breakfast and waited for them.

They arrived some 15 minutes later. Then we proceeded to the Crow buses bound for nasugbu, the jump off point of Mt. Batulao. The four of us were already seated when Jhem, a fellow mountaineer whom we met in pulag, texted Daren that he was also on his way to Nasugbu, driving alone in his car. It turned out he got late and was left by the first batch of mountaineers. We asked him if its okay if we just ride with him instead. He said okay. I wonder if he regreted texting Daren... hehe. So the four of us got our arses back to edsa and waited for Jhem on the other side. He arrived after some minutes then we're off for nasugbu finally.

We had some good laughs on the way, talks about the pulag climb, whos who and stuff. The rain was still prevalent. Around 7:30am, we were passing tagaytay, we reached the lemery / nasugbu junction under an hour later. Now the only thing left is to get to evercrest, the jump off point. It's gonna be easy, we thought, since three of us have already been there before on a previous batulao climb. Well, woudnt you know, we got lost, thanks to Dar and his porn stories. hehe. Nah, actually we got lost because the evercrest entrance was being renovated and we didnt noticed it. By that time, Diane and Angel were already getting pissed, waiting. hehe.

We asked some locals to find out if we already overshoot evercrest, and yup, we did. The manong said though, that it'll be just a minute back. After 15 minutes of driving back, we started to wonder what kind of vehicle that manong drive around this side of the phi. Must be something that breaks the sound barrier. Contrary to the one minute he had told us, we got to evercrest some 20 minutes after we've u-turned. Diane, Angel and Aiza were still there, waiting for us. There was also another group of mountaineers with them, we found out later that they'll be dayhiking too.

Then we hired a couple of trikes and met up with the the rest of the group. There were more than 20 mountaineers, i estimated, while slappin dirt and mud off my backpack, thanks to daren, again, for not holding my pack, it plunged off while we were riding the mechanical-bull-like tricycle. I can see peeps were really pumped up for the climb. Almost everyone have smiles etched on there faces. A positive atmosphered climb, i thought. After some people brought most of the donated goods to the local elementary school, we all started to hike Mt. Batulao's footsuckin muddy trail.

The rain was not giving us any slack, but we continued on the climb. Some peeps brought umbrellas, others were wearing huge raincoats. Me, unfortunately, i had to do with my thin DryClime windbreaker which doesnt even have a hood to cover my head with. I was soaking wet. The rain would stop for a couple of minutes and then pour again nonstop for another 15 minutes. It was really different from the first batulao climb that i did early this year. It was a really hot climb since it was summer. The trail actually wasnt a big problem since it was not really steep.

It was just the hard raining that made it a little uncomfortable. But hey, you now what? I'd still choose cold rain over the scorching sun anytime. We reached Ate Milas house after a couple of hours or so of trekking. She offered some sodas and after some picture taking in the rain, we started hiking the trail again. It wasnt that long til we got to camp 1, the largest campsite, i think, in mt. batulao. I assumed the group will be camping there since there were a lot of tents that will be pitched for sure. Just seconds behind me were Daren and Jhem. We put down our packs and lit up some smoke that we very much deserved, hehe.

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