Mt. Makiling Traverse (MakTrav)
San Bartolome, Sto. Tomas, Batangas – UPLB, Los Banos, Laguna
May 12, 2012
peak 2 summit..hubaderos! what limatik??
There are few peaks remaining in my bucket list. Finally, i have conquered what that they call “maktrav”. Mavtrav as it is known for mountaineers is short for makiling traverse. There are different routes to scale Mt. Makiling coming from the town of Sto. Tomas but most of them are closed for rehabilitation purposes.
Coming from Manila, there are plenty of Batangas bound buses that passes by the town of Santo Tomas. From the Towns Public Market, tricycles offers their services to the barangay hall of San Bartolome at the price of 50 pesos. These serves as the official jump-off of mountaineers. There will no so store from here, so it is a good idea to buy your supplies beforehand. All hikers, mountaineers, visitors are required to log-in at the hall and pay the fee of 20 pesos.
The route is very much straight forward. But outmost care and vigilance is still the best key to have in your expeditions. As much as I would like to start running, the route tells me otherwise. As the route starts to get narrower and greener, the elevation gets higher. Sooner than expected, there was stampede in my heartbeat. The view of the nearby towns of Batangas, the Taal Lake, Tagaytay and Batulao appears every now and then. From thereon to the summit was a lung busting assault.
“Limatik” a small kind of leech found in dense and mossy forest like Mount Makiling are abundant in the area. There are generally harmless but these blood sucking creatures sometimes creep into our eyes that may hamper our vision. Almost all mountaineers have their own fair share of horror stories regarding their encounters with the leeches. Luckily for me, I found them friendly compared to cockroaches. I was not bitten by one but some of them were already creeping on my arms and i just easily fend them off.
As we began to found some clearing off the mossy forest, boulders of mountains began to appear. These just mean that we where already on the peak of one mountain among the number of summit along the ridge of Makiling. The rope section was technical and at the same time challenging even for experienced mountaineers as they where off some cliff and some where tricky. Breath taking view along with death defying slopes are on treat while hanging for your dear life on this section.
After almost 4 hours of traverse, we were already in peak 2. Already facing the town of Los Banos, it was time to take a break and have our lunch. From there, it was long way down. Trails become runnable but the roots, steep steps, fallen tress makes does not help the cause. I remember falling hard at least 5 times. The place was very similar to McRitchie Resevoir in Singapore where TNF 100 SG is always held. With the total time of 5 hours and 40 minutes, we reached UPLB gate.
my first limatik bite!;p
towering makiling..view from sto tomas
paved trail..goint to the foot of the makiling
forest reserve of makiling
take 5..maaga pa daw kasi kami!:)) hahaha
hand rails..:))
mt manabu
gapang boypi gapang
peak 2
agila base, UPLB
rock and roll..mudspring
the memories of BDM 160!:p
**Makiling Quest winners only tooke less than 3 hours to do the traverse. Im thinking to go back, its going to be a competitive mode this time!:p
Now whats next?? Cristobal, Banahaw, Malipunyo..ill try to find it out, soon.:)
special thanks to:
xerxis “peacock runner” tan
Expenses:
Kamuning to Sto. Tomas (aircon) = P 100 (estimate)
7-11 sisig (for lunch) = P 29
San Tomas to San Bartolome (tricycle) = P 50
San Bartolome Brgy Fee (BIR fee) = P 20
Buko Juice = P 15
Los Banos to Kamuning (aircon) = P 100 (estimate)
______
total P 323
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