Climbing Mt. Babag For A Sunday’s Trek

In preparation for this week’s activity in Alto Peak at MFPI’s All Women Climb, last Sunday, May 17,  despite the Mister’s subtle protest, Liz & I decided to pursue our plan to condition ourselves. I initially wanted to be on a full gear mode bringing in the stuffs that I’m supposed to bring at Alto but decided I would be better off without it. Good thing, I change my mind because I have spared myself from the pressure of keeping up with the rest of the guys. 😀

Liz & I are still determined even if it’s just the 2 of us but still very happy to have these guys with us yesterday. From L – R: Liz, Portia (Liz’s LDI friend), Me, The Mister and Kuya Ali.

My first time in Babag was a little battered because I was carrying some foods for the outreach hosted by another local mountaineering group in Cebu, this time despite joining a group who will be having an outreach again in the same place, we were just free loaders. Thankful to Sir Jorge and Sir Jing for letting us trek with them. Without Liz’s resourcefulness, we would have added to Kuya Ali’s heartaches in Mt. Babag by being lost the 2nd time. Haha!

What’s A Day Trek in Babag Feels Like

Ohhh it was super fun…I felt energized and so full from eating A LOT! Haha! The Mister kept on mentioning how I ate a lot. It was therefore trek eating for me. But gluttony aside, trekking to Babag is easy when you have less things on your back. Unlike the first time, at about an hour from Napo Basketball court, we reached the manggahan where most trekkers stop for lunch, to the Mister’s utmost surprised. He even commented how easy it was which hurts me a little ’cause I was really having a hard time last trek.

Lunch stop after an hour of walking from Napo Basketball Court.

Because it was too early for lunch, we decided to just chill. We took a siesta from 11:00 – 12:00 PM. The Mister and I climbed and slept in the 2nd floor of the mango tree, Liz & Portia in the ground and Kuya Ali settled in the 1st floor.

Liz is dozing off to her dreamland!

The Mister & I cozying up atop a Mango tree.

Portia balancing up sleep!

We had lunched then left the Mango tree stop at 1:00 PM, leaving our new found friends behind to finish their outreach planning. I saw them arranging the school supplies before leaving. We were on our own after. But before we left, Sir Jorge told us that the path towards the flowers were closed but there is a new path. We just had to follow that & make sure we are on an uphill climb.

The sign posted in the closed path.

And it was indeed closed so we went ahead to the exposed path. Then a local kid passed by, when asked, she said we were on track. And up we went. We had some minor confusions on which path to take but we eventually been leaded to correct path. Yay! After an hour of walking up hill, we reached RCPI towers. And I thought that was it. Ohhh boy, I haven’t been warned. It took us almost 3 hours to finally reached the last leg of our adventure, Temple of Leah. But this time, we were walking on a cemented road. We actually had a choice to hail a habal-habal but decided walking is better. 🙂

In summary, here’s our itinerary:

07:00 Assemby at Guadalupe Church
08:45 Ride a habal-habal to Napo basketball court (10/person)
09:00 ETD to Manuel’s Manggahan
10:00 ETA Manuel’s Manggahan, lunch and chill
13:00 Resume trek to RCPI Towers
14:00 ETA RCPI Towers
17:00 ETA Temple of Leah

Comparing this trek to my last trek, the loads will certainly make a difference. Last time it took us 2 hours to arrive at Manuel’s.

Highlights of the Trek:

1. Because we only brought water & packed lunch, our pacing were stable despite the almost 80% uphill trail.
   

2. The tree platforms at Manuel’s is just so cool. Makes me want to pursue my dream of building my own but where? Haha! And of course, the buko & mango were very tasty. The Mister was complaining because we spent Php 95 for I consumed 2 bukos and a mango. Hahaha! Buko is at Php 25 each and the mango is at Php 10.

3. Despite the seeming light trekking, my body aches after, which means, the conditioning was successful.

4. And I was finally able to visit Temple of Leah. Yahooo!

Itinerary Spin-Offs

Because it was my first time to complete a trek to Babag, I just realized that there are more trek itineraries that you could do to make it more fun & adventurous.

1. Day trek entrance in Babag, then proceed to Sirao peak, down to Budlaan as exit.

View of the Chalet camp from the road.

1. Overnight camp at Chalet via Babag, exit at Mt. View.
2. Overnight camp at Sirao via Babag, exit at Budlaan.

Well, that’s what I could think of for now. I’ll add more soon. Happy to have find a new funtrek route for my fun club. But certainly not as fun as what we had in Sirao last time.

*All pictures courtesy of Kuya Ali.