Mt. Banahaw De Lucban
Lucban, Quezon
May 15-16, 2010
Groups: Take Five Hikers
Going in Lucban, Quezon has been so famous not mainly because of Mt. Banahaw or the well-known cuisine of “longganisa” but the annual festival known as “Pahiyas”. The Pahiyas festival is an ocassion for the Lucbanins composing of different varieties of fruits and other delicacies attributable to the place. The “Kiping”, a leaf preserved with different colors, and the “Pancit Hab-Hab”, a variety of noodle that has its own uniqueness because of the way it is eaten, in a banana leaf barely bring to one’s mouth to eat without the use of any utensils. But for our trip in Lucban, joining the Pahiyas is only a sidetrip; hiking Mt. Banahaw De Lucban is the major one.
We left 7-11 Buendia at 3:30 A.M on May 15, 2010, an hour late with our IT. For our Mt. Banahaw De Lucban trip, we joined with the group named as SPiMC. When we arrived in Sta. Cruz, Laguna before we ride a monster truck (a little bit bigger than monster truck in Mt. Pulag), the weather was fine and calm. Our group, the Take Five Hikers, together with Sir Dan of SPiMC opted to have a topload ride on the monster truck. The ride was one of the most enjoyable parts of the trail. We had views of different municipalities of Laguna and Quezon, the famous mountains such as Mt. Banahaw and Cristobal, and a local festivity celebrated by one of the municipalities in Laguna. We also had a view of Lake Caliraya. At 7:30, we arrived in Lucban and rode a tricycle to the market. When we reached the market, we noticed that the people there were so busy. Later as we went by, we discovered that it was the time for Pahiyas. We stopped for awhile to celebrate the festival with the locals. We took some pictures of the different designs and arrangements of fruits and Kiping and also tried the Pancit habhab.
After we bought our supplies and meals for lunch, we started our way to the Ranger Station of Mt. Banahaw De Lucban at 8:30 A.M. We passed by Southern Luzon University and to the local office of Department of Science and Technology (DOST). Before we reach the Ranger Station, the locals gave us a fruit known as Mirinda. This fruit is the one used to have the soda drink with the same name. The taste of the fruit was so yummy (as for me). At around 10:00 A.M, we were already in the Ranger Station, the campsite in Mt. Banahaw De Lucban. Sir Mario, the caretaker of Ranger Station, accommodated us. I noticed that in the Ranger Station, various kinds of flora could be found. The place was also maintained its cleanliness; a home where one could even meditate or relax. After we had our lunch, we started to trek up to the summit at 11:30 A.M.
The trail in Mt. Banahaw De Lucban was not easy. Aside from it being a major climb, the trail was also confusing and the need to hire a guide is highly recommended. Our guide, Manong Silver, reminded us to stay at a minimal distance to each other while on the trek to prevent any one of getting loss. When we were still at half way up the summit (we were trekking for three hours but we were only on the half part of the trail), our water supply was already consumed. Due to the cold weather and the thirst we had that time, we were forced to drink water with a brownish color. This was the only climb that we had where our water supply immediately consumed and dried us up; we had at most 7 liters of water that time and some trails foods, the only loads we had since we left our bags in the Ranger Station. I considered the Mt. Banahaw De Lucban as the most “ASTIG” trail that we had, not only for its so clean trail but also for having a difficult trail to the point that we had to crawl, jump and hop on some parts of the trail and it made us to consume our supplies so easily. We did not drink water for almost 7 hours (for the whole climb)! We survived the trail because of trail foods. At 2:45 P.M, we were on the summit of Mt. Banahaw De Lucban. Not much could be seen on the summit though, being it covered with towering trees and grass. I forced to climb a tree to take some pictures of Lucena City and some parts of Quezon. The rest of my climbing buddies, they were noisily sleeping, snoring here and there ^_^.
After an hour stay in the summit, we had our way down to Ranger Station, a sign that we will start to have a calvary again. Because we were already tired that time, aside from the fact that we were afraid to have a night trek (the trail was really difficult), we hurriedly our way down to have our rest. At 6:35 P.M, we were back in Ranger Station.
We woke up on the morning of May 16 at 6:00 A.M and started to prepare our breakfast. At 10:00 A.M, we started our trek down to Majayjay Falls in Majayjay, Laguna.
We arrived in Majayjay falls at 12:30 P.M. It was really cold to dip in; we had seen some red horse bottles in the waters were some locals put it there to make it cold. Some people also took a bath in the falls. After we had refreshed our tired body, we went home at around 6:30 P.M. Before we had another topload ride to San Pablo City in Laguna, we saw a rare scene in the night sky; Planets Jupiter and Venus up above the crescent moon. The scene was like smiling at us, greeting us for a successful climb we had in Mt. Banahaw De Lucban. The scene was yet another reward to us.
Kaisipan Pagkatapos ng Akyat
Ang akyat na ito sa Bundok Banahaw De Lucban ang nagmulat sa akin na maging handa palagi lalo na sa tubig at trail food. Sa mga nakaraang akyat ko, hindi ako halos nagbabaon ng maraming trail food. Sa akyat na ito, napatunayan ko na ang pagdadala ng trail food ang pangunahing nakatulong upang kami’y magpatuloy sa akyat at malagpasan ito.
_Cory_ Nov. 18, 2010
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