Pamitinan-Binacayan-Wawa Dam: Nature's Trinity

19 March 2016

Hi Ram!

Hope all is well. I'm super stoked to tell you about my supposed twin hike. ''Supposed", yeah. Alright, details later. Again, this is one of those events organized by my friends from Sabit Wanderer.

So we met up at around 4am in Jollibee Farmer's Cubao and waited for an hour for all the participants to arrive. Then we headed straight to Rodriguez, Rizal where the 2 mountains are located. Of course I was sleeping in the Van. Hahaha! We arrived at the jump off at around 7am.

My Kurobe at the meet-up place.

I left some of my things in the van to lighten my bag only to regret it later dahil bumiyahe pa pala yung van and, sadly, I lost some of my things. Moving forward, we registered at the jump off point, secured guides and off we went! The first mountain was Mt. Binacayan.

The sun was just rising.

The trail was rocky especially during the first part.

And since I was among those who were at the start of the line, I got the chance to take a pic of the group as they crawl their way up the rocks.

Zombiesssss!!!

And a panorama of nature:

TAKE 5!

As we go higher, the view becomes more & more spectacular!

Of course, this is mandatory.

With the group.

And when we reached the "pre-summit", what? Of course, PICTURES!!!

Meeee!!!

More meeee!!!

And even more ME!

After our photoshoot, we started our descent back to the jump off point and had our lunch.

Now this is where I am going to explain to you why the "Twin Hike" didn't happen. After lunch, everyone was feeling tired. I myself was feeling tired, too. Specifically the soles of my feet. The rocky trail must've taken its toll. So the group decided if they still wanna push through with the second mountain. Unfortunately, majority decided not to pursue it anymore. Not to mention that most of the participants are beginners and first-timers.

Well as for me, I still had strength pa naman to climb Mt. Pamitinan. But it was almost dusk and I worried that if I push through with it, I might not be able to experience Wawa Dam anymore.

So what happened is that majority of the group headed to Wawa Dam na while the rest decided to climb Pamitinan. Pam led the Pamitinan group & Ardie headed the majority of us to Wawa Dam.

On the way to Wawa Dam.

It was a bit crowded when we got there.

Reminder not to litter.

The hypnotic waters of the Dam

And of course, mawawala ba ang inuman?

Now, let's get wet:

Some new friends. Yey!

And then we headed back to the jump-off, washed off & continued the inuman session there while we waited for the group who climbed Pamitinan.

While we were enjoying our drinks from our table, there was a group of Manongs on the other table who were apparently celebrating one of their friends' birthday. Guess what? They gave us some of their pulutans!

After the group that we were waiting for arrived, we waited for them to finish washing up while we took turns in the videoke. Oh please, you know I don't sing. Haha!

And then we headed home.

I was happy & sad at the same time.
Happy because I gained new experiences & new friends again.
Sad, because I wasn't able to achieve what could've been my first twin hike :(

Well, there is still a lot of mountains out there. Who knows, I might be able to do a Pentalogy someday.

How bout you?

I bet you're on your 100th mountain now, aren't you?

xoxo

-RAM