Sabangan, Mountain Province
25 to 27 February 2012
On board Victory Liner, we head up North to trek the majestic Mt. Kalawitan. We reached the summer capital of the Philippines early in the morning of February 25. We were delayed by an hour due to the volume of tourists and travelers going to Baguio to witness the Panagbenga Festival.
 |
| Jump-Off Point |
We departed for Halsema Road past 6AM after buying our supplies at a nearby 7-11 store. Our first itinerary was to scale Mt. Timbak.
 |
| Top Ride |
Travelling atop a passenger Jeepney, we enjoyed the 2.5 hrs road trip on a winding road going up to Halsema Road. We reached Halsema Road almost 9AM and due to tight schedule, we were advised to summit Mt. Timbak in just 45 minutes.
Atop Mt. Timbak is a very nice view of cascading ridges of the Cordillera Mountains and the surrounding Rice Terraces.
 |
| Mt. Timbak |
We left the Halsema Road heading towards the Municipality of Sabangan at about 10AM. By 12Noon, we were all at the Panorama View Point in Sabangan, the jump-off point to Mt. Kalawitan. We had a nice lunch at the coffee Shop.
At the jump-off point, we met our local guides and we also had last minute reminders from them. According to them, we were the third group to scale the mountain. We started trekking Mt. Kalawitan at around 1PM towards Apa Campsite. The weather was great. We passed by Chico River and then Dagiwdiw Rice Terraces.
We reached Apa Campsite just in time before dinner. Just beside the Campsite is the Kapangdanan River. At the Camp Site there are three cottages, namely the Hunters Hut, Kanog Hut and the Martel Hut. We stayed at the Martel Hut and Kanog Hut.
 |
| Hunters Dance |
The locals at the campsite were very friendly and accommodating. After having dinner, the locals played their gongs as a way of welcoming us. We all enjoyed listening to the sound of gongs and watched the locals dance gracefully around the bonfire. We had nice socials at that night. Before retreating to our respective Huts, we were told that the hike going to the summit of Mt. Kalawitan in the next day is going to be challenging.
We woke up early the following day and prepared to summit Mt. Kalawitan. We started trekking at 6AM. The trail was very good and so does the weather. Similar but shorter in length than the trail of Mt. Pulag - Akiki trail, Mt. Kalawitan trail is generally steep. We passed through pine trees at the beginning of the trail. We entered the mossy forest next and then reached the Last Panoramic Viewpoint.
 |
| Mt. Kalawitan Summit |
Our cut-off time to reach the summit was 12PM and so we had to adjust our pacing as we ascent. We reached the summit past 11PM. Mt. Kalawitan's peak is quite plain compared to the peak of Mt. Pulag but nevertheless, the view is still awesome.
We stayed at the peak for 45 minutes, had lots of picture taking and enjoyed our lunch. We started our descent to Apa Campsite past 12PM.
We were all back to Apa Campsite by 5PM.
====================
====================
-----o0o-----
No comments:
Post a Comment