Leo, Ralph and I were invited by Cy to join Mt Ugo Traverse with the Nature Trekkers Club last Nov 30 to Dec 1. We met up with them in Victory Liner Kamias. CY introduced us to her friends Carol and Marvin, but not knowing the rest of the 12 of our group aside from the team leader Suzette. We left at around 930 pm and arrived in Nueva Vizcaya at around 4 am, where a jeep was waiting for us.
When we arrived at the jump off point, it was around 530 to 6 am. We had breakfast and packed our lunch, fixed our things, and gave some of our things to be portered. Our group wanted to take our time taking photos so we volunteered to be the sweeper.
The trek consisted of a 2 to 3-hr hike uphill, then we had lunch in a barangay arriving ahead of schedule. We, Cy's group, went to a nearby hill where we can have our photos taken. Then it was a relatively easy but longer trail ahead of us to the Domolpos Village. Easy because it was flat with some trees for shade. The guide said that there will be a road soon so that the trail will only consist of 3 hrs to the school and will skip the first harder uphill part of today's trek.
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| Of course, there's no mountains without any elevations |
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| A very long dry road (about 2 hours of walking like this) in this hot sun |
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You're going to pass through Mt. Samiento first (O diba? Two mountains pala ang Ugo)
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| Mountain ranges. Lots of them in the trail. |
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| Enjoying the view while resting |
Anyway, due to our excess photo shoots, we somehow lost them along the way and followed another group which was going to camp at the summit. Their porters pointed us to the right direction, which led us to the village proper and finally to the school, where we spent the night. There was water, cr, and our dinner was served by the villagers, boodle-style containing tinolang manok and red rice. We had dinner at 5 pm, had socials at 6 and lights off at 8pm because we were to start our trek at 4 am.
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| At the school where we slept |
Only some joined the socials, so I still don't know the other 8 members of their group. At least 4 of them did the socials with us. They bought 1 bottle of gin cuadros and it was a good thing we have some sachet of juice as a contribution. When we consumed it, they slept already. But we were still restless so we went outside for a while, appreciated the moon and went back inside after about 10 to 15 minutes, especially when Ralph developed fever.
I was awakened by around 1030 pm because of the cold, gathered my jacket, and fell promptly back to sleep. I was awakened at 1230 pm, and couldn't sleep again after that so we just talked and helped cooked breakfast of corned beef, spam and hotdog at around 2 am.
At around 3:30 am, our trek started. It was still a relatively flat first hour, but then there was about a 30-40 minute assault to the campsite. We reached the campsite a few minutes prior to the sunrise. It was beautiful :) Since there were also some trees, unlike in Pulag and in Apo, it was also a bit dramatic hehe
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The nice about-to-rise sun
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| Sunrise in Mt. Ugo with a sea of clouds |
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| Enjoying these raisinets with the sunrise. Yummy! |
Siyempre, photo-ops with the sunrise, solo-solo, then by group hehe CY's group went to a fallen log somewhere in front, and generally had the rest of our photo shoots there, despite the other views hehe Then it was 7 am already, so we had to go up to the summit, had another set of photo-ops with the Mt. Ugo marker, then started our descend a little before 7:30 am.
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| Mt. Ugo |
The descend was steep (some saying it resembles Akiki trail), and it was a really good thing that I have a trekking pole. (Yes, it was really really useful for this mountain!) After about 2.5 km of steepness, there comes a relatively easy flat but longer trail. I feel that we could trek continuously throughout the end, but instead, we stopped at around 11 am in some dry pine forest where we can lay down in the cool shade. We left at around 12:30 am, and continued the hike from then, which was really, an easy trail for me. So from the back, I was able to catch up with a lot of them, until I reached Nilo who was the pacer. We rested in the 5 km marker, where there is another steep descent coming. Aside from the descent, it was also very exposed to the sun, so it was also very hot and dry. The dry loose rocks where the ones that made the descent hard and slippery. After that part, you will reach the water source, and it was another relatively flat descending trail. According to the porter, it was about an hour's trek if I were fast enough. Eventually, there's a small gate, ascend again for about 20 minutes, then another flat trail. And here is where people got lost hehe
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On the way down, there would be lots of pine trees (route looks like that of Akiki)
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Since I was way ahead of CY's group, I wanted to lay down under a big mango tree or in this shady downhill part, where I get to see a view of the mountain ranges and the fields. Unfortunately, I can't do that because I only have less than 200 mL of water left at the time. So I just went ahead. But maybe, if only I didn't lack water, I would have stayed up there, enjoyed the view, have photo-ops by myself hehe
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At around 3 pm, we reached the sari-sari store where people can
buy refreshments. After which, there is only about a km left going to the
hanging bridge and to the road where the jeepney is waiting, usually takes
20-30 minutes according to the guide.
Since we were early, we chatted for a while and waited for the
others to catch up. After more than an hour of rest (it was already 4 plus),
and all of them went ahead (I waited for CY's group), I trekked back again to
see what's keeping them! Haha (Oo na, ako na ang mainipin!) It was about
a 30-minute uphill hike for me (no bags, no stops, just two trekking poles and
my belt bag) before I finally saw the end of our group. We stopped by shortly
in the refreshment stand and continued the last km to the jeep, hurried them
along when I realized it's 5 pm.
We passed the fields and did some photo-ops in the hanging bridge.
By the time we reached the jeep it was already dark.
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| The hanging bridge at the end of the trail |
All in all, Mt. Ugo was a great mountain to climb, with a lot of
flat trails albeit longer to trek. There were always views of mountain ranges,
pine trees, plains. We trekked a total of 32 km to do the traverse from Nueva
Vizcaya to Benguet... and that's not yet counting the trail where we got lost
hehe
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| Strawberry fields |
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