Apo 2009

Mt. Apo Annual Trek

April 7 - 12, 2009

Day 1 April 7, Bansalan

Prior to our climb, we headed to Bansalan, Davao del Sur and stayed the night at Ike's house. We arrived around 7 pm and after dinner we sampled Ike's mother's bahalina a local wine made from coconut. We also sampled Darlina a bottled bahalina made at Darong. [image 01] The fine print on the bottle actually reads: "The right wine in Darong place." Cool eh?

Day 2 April 8, Start of Trek

The next day we left very early in the morning. We had a sorta time table to follow. I say sorta because if you knew my hommies you'd soon learn that there's really no master plan at all. The motto mon amie is: "Climbing without planning." Hahaha! Oh yeah have I told you we got lost on our way to the peak of Puting Bato at Samal Island last year? That's another story. Now back to Mt. Apo. Same as last year we decided that we'll still pass the Bansalan trail going to Macadac to the peak down to Lake Venado despite the fact that we have not really memorized the trail. We were just banking on the chance that a group might also be there whom we can tag along.

[image 02] That's me and Ike at the jump off site, a place called Pluto. Beats me, I have the same question too. When we arrived we saw another group getting ready to start the trek and what you can see in the background are not clouds but semi thick fog.

[image 03] Lunch time with my hommies and a little fooling around with the camera. Yah know testing testing. We're not yet halfway.

[image 04] After passing vegetable farms we came upon slopes of grassland. After that we entered forested area. At some point in our long walk we saw two trees intentionally felled for their lumber. Isn't it illegal? Too bad that at that time it was impractical to rummage for the cameras buried deep inside our bags. We reached Macadac our jump off site for ascending the peak at around 6:30 in the evening. That was like an 11 to 12 hours walk. It was long and tiring but tons of fun. Twilight was a challenge for trekking, always is because even with my flashlight which had fresh batteries I had trouble seeing the way. Tsk tsk poor eyesight.

Day 3, April 9

Yesterday's walk was a record speed for us as last year we had to spend the night at a camp before we reached Macadac. Thanks to Jeffrey, the other group's porter. He made us take a short cut. [image 5] Anyway this photo was taken at the tinikaran (a tree name) nursery maintained by the DENR for its reforestation program. This was early morning of day 2 but it looked and felt like late afternoon. It was foggy and there was a threat of rain.
When we were already 20-30 minutes near what we mountainers call the entrance to the peak campsite, it finally did rain hard. It was the first time in all years that I climbed Mt. Apo that I experienced a downpour while trekking. At the peak campsite DENR director what's-his-name was there to welcome us "visitors" and then made us write our names to their logbook for monitoring purposes. When the rain did stop, the first thing I noticed were lots of sacks with "Nabubulok" (biodegradable) and "DiNabubulok" (nonbiodegrable) written on them. Pretty good since a lot of irresponsible mountainers leave their bottles and plastic lying around at the campsite.

Day 4, April 10

[image 06] Me and Kiks and Arnold our married couple climber friends at the peak camp site. They went with another popular adventure group and they are also one of he founding members of their own adventure group. My party? We don't belong to any group, what we do is we just tag along. We really can't afford to put time and effort to regular meetings, regular climbing/mountaineering activities, and dues things that are expected of regular members. Or maybe we are just kuripot. ;p

[image 07] It was already sunny when I posed for this before we descended to Lake Venado. Behind me are some of the peaks that climbers can explore. The most popular is the Davao side since they say from there you can view the sunrise. The weather did not allow us to see the sunrise this year. It was so cold and the wind kept blowing hard on our tents the flapping sounds wouldn't let me sleep peacefully plus one of the poles on Coleman broke. Yaiks! We tried anyway to ascend the Davao side peak to "feel" it. Halfway up you can see the boulders in fair weather but this time, it was zero visibility. Even the video that Ike took resulted into something like a negative shot where only the outlines and the important parts of an image show up. It was like a "Blairwitch" video in bad weather. Ike went ahead to the top but D and I decided to just stay halfway. The wind was stronger here and it was amazing to see it moving in every direction on the mountain face courtesy of the fog. Before long even though there was no rain we found our jackets wet. My hommies' mustache had water droplets. It was amazing, really amazing.

[image 08] See that body of water in the background? That's Lake Venado. We reached it about an hour and a half later. This is one of the reasons why I always go back. The beauty of it all is breath taking it makes you realize over and over the wisdom of the Creator.

[image 09] No one really minds what sorta sun protection you bring with you. Bringing an umbrella is a tricky thing though you'd really have to be extra careful that you will not damage its pokes.

[image 10] I noticed there were fewer campers this year. Is it that we were too early? They left already? Or could be that a lot of them never came since on there will be a national climb in Bukidnon.

Day 5, April 11

At the Venado area as we prepared to leave for home, it rained again. I had pictures of us wearing our rain gear with the Lake Venado hidden by the thickest fog ever as our background. This thick fog was everywhere the trees looked like enchanted forest where any moment fairy creatures would come out to dance with the mortals. I would love to show those pictures if only my darn computer would read the camera. Grrr.

Zing, back to reality! What pisses me off with other campers is their utter disregard for nature and their fellow climbers in that order. I mean we came there for the peace and quiet which eluded us because there was a VERY noisy group that on shouting and shouting (drunk?) until 1 or 2 am. I wasn't able to get good sleep.

Then there are some who don't properly dispose of their fecal matter and what's worse is they intentionally defecate on the trail. Leaving unwitting passersby more than mud on the soles of their shoes. It almost happened to one of my companions. Darn!
This year we did not pass the trail going down to Kidapawan. A spur of the moment decision was to pass the so-called Tinikaran trail. Sky told me this is the trail where I will be able to see the biggest tallest tree ever. Hmmm....

[image 11] The long and winding road led us to this giant of a tree. Rough estimates say that it would take around 5 to 6 adults to embrace it. They told me, there are many of them on this trail.

[image 12] This is the Mountaineer's Creed. Let's add "Defecate properly and Keep quiet" in the mix.

Day 6, April 12

If we had our way, we would have been home in Davao City by late evening the day before. Try as they might, Kuya's ride wouldn't start huhuhu. We had to spend the night at Kapatagan in a store. Haha!

[image 13] That is a flower farm in Kapatagan at the foot of Mt. Apo. I don't know what kind of flower these are but that didn't stop me from admiring their beauty. If it were not foggy, you'd see the mountain slopes from where I was standing.

[image 14] In this picture only the peak is covered with fog. The foreground is Marawer Elementary School.

We finally reached Davao City by midday and I was home by 2 pm.