Mt. Ugo - "Fabulous Climb"

Sunrise at 2186meters above sea level... Mt. Ugo (where the cows are salt-deficient they are willing to eat nette's trek pants just to get a little!!)




as promised, Mt. Ugo was fabulous...led by our "fabulously fashionable" TL, Tony Boy.. and our totally awesome GL Alman.. (who liked to call our campsite - The North Face Avenue... where rich people live!) hahahaha, and i say this, only Alman can carry on a joke like that..

TC3 was for me the culmination of every training climb we have had so far.. with an added bonus of beautiful vistas that can sometimes be so breathtaking i just had to take pause and drink it all in.. Aries had to keep reminding me not to take so much time.. he left me once on the trail and had to come back just to check on me.. i took so long because i walked sooo slowly all the while looking at the scenery and surreptiously cleaning myself up under the rain! (talk about no shampoo and soap for two and a half days!)

our group... dex; nette; rhyan; alman; aries; kim and ai

nette was the source of "joy" in the group... she was such a sport and kept saying she was now so confused - whether she is a heifer or a pig!! her trekking pole which was a coleman was bent like a paper clip! apparently this was her second incident involving a trek pole - earning her a spot in TB's list as the only person he knows who broke two poles! she jokingly replied that yeah, coleman's load limit was at 2tons.. she does not really know why it couldn't support her.. hahaha perhaps she is over 2 tons?

we called our group the "Pugad Baboy" - and kim, the only slim person around and very OC in the kitchen was lovingly referred to as Brosia! the very thin helper in the Pugad Baboy household..

dex was the mess kit and trowel guy... this was because he is either holding his mess kit asking "where is the food??" or the trowel... "pare, major muna ako!" hahaha but damn, dex is fast.. he was our lead pack and he kept to that role.. but even if he was way ahead he still stopped to wait for alman and kim to regroup..

aries was the perfect trek buddy... he would never leave me alone except when he went ahead at bajay's campsite to beat the rain... but then again he came back to check on me.. he was also my human blanket, oftentimes waking him up at night to ask him to turn his back so we could be back to back thereby generating more heat...

the first night was so COLD! i think my system was in shock for quite some time and my fingers could not obey my brain... but Alman our GL worked so fast so that in no time at all, we had our tents set up and our parawing... i say this, the way Alman moves in the campsite is something i would like to learn for myself... fast, efficient and with minimum effort..

but of course right after we were set, Alman launched into his "o, ha? uhm ha? look we live along North Face Avenue and the rest are just shanties, i pity these poor people" he can really carry the joke with a bit of nouvo rich affectation!

second night was PARTY night!! the drinks were overflowing probably because most us didn't get to drink much on the first night... o-la-la there were a lot of revelations that night including xenon's top 5 and our top fives as well... alman even said his top three!

some people got really drunk... while some of us laughed REALLY loud! bajay had to put a stop to all our shenanigans at around 12midnight for fear that some might not be able to wake up the following morning to trek..

morning after found us a bit slower in packing and in preparing our meals... we were quite relaxed since the trek to tinongdan was just short.. indeed it was..pretty soon we found ourselves over the hanging bridge..

our group decided to take a bath there instead of going all the way to the barangay center... nette was quite excited to go to Baguio since it will be her FIRST! i told her to go to the wet market since she loves to cook and the veggies were so cheap there..

Baguio was short-lived... we left at around 9:30pm and reached manila around 3am.. ahhh another fantastic weekend!!