Revisiting Mt. Sembrano

Pilillia, Rizal
17 July 2016

We welcomed a new sunny Sunday morning at McDonald's Valero. Our call time was 0300H. I arrived early and while waiting for Jeannie and Myra's team, I had a quick breakfast and then packed my things ready for the climb.

We were heading to the province of Rizal for another adventure at Mt. Sembrano.  We left McDonald's at 0530H. We were five.

Mt. Sembrano is located in the municipality of Pilillia, Rizal province. It is approximately 54 kilometers away from McDonald's Valero and 2H 13 min drive on private vehicle according to Google maps. We took the Manila East Road (R-5) to Pilillia.

The road was generally clear of traffic and we had a nice journey to Pilillia. Journey to Mt. Sembrano's peak starts from the Barangay Hall of Malaya in  Pilillia.

While approaching Barangay Malaya, we had a nice view of the colossal windmills perched atop the lush green slops of the surrounding mountain range.

Photo source: https://biketourphilippines.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/wm.jpg

We reached the Barangay Hall at 0828H, registered and arranged for a guide.

At 0854H, we started our adventure walking from the municipal hall towards the start of the trail. Quite late though, our target time to start trekking was 0600H.

We started trekking on an open trail. At 0903H, we had a quick rest. We enjoyed our usual favorite refreshment - buko juice. There were also fruit vendors.

At 0915H, we resumed trekking on a covered trail. We felt as if we were at the middle of a thick jungle.

The trail actually looked like an old water way coming from atop the mountain. We enjoyed bouldering on an inclined trail.

 

At 1054H, we reached the exposed trail now leading to the summit. On both sides of the trail were tall fresh-green cogon grass. 

 

The first time I trekked the mountain on a summer season, it was brown and dry.

At 1103H, we reached the first summit. Our guide called it summit #1 and we had a 10-minute rest and regrouped. The area is completely exposed.

From the first summit, we resumed trekking to the second summit. We were there at 1117H. Our guide called it summit #2.  Just like the first summit, second  summit is also completely exposed.

Due to the intense heat of the sun, at this point our water supply was running dry.

From the second summit, we started the assault to the peak at 1130H. It was hot at this time.

At 1225H, we were at the peak and had a quick lunch. The peak is completely exposed and plain. It is actually an excellent camping site.

As the sun got even hotter, we decided to start our descend at 1258H. We were quite slow on our descent because of the steep and slippery trail. We reached the Kubo, where we earlier had a fresh buko juice near the waterfalls at 1440H.

At 1535H, we were back at the jump-off point, tidy up and left the place back to Manila at 1630H.

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