2012: Mt. Purgatory Traverse

My leg muscles and feet are aching as of this writing. Scaling 3 peaks in an overnight climb is not a walk in the park but the experience was fun, unexpectedly educational and did I mention fun?

I will let the pictures do the talking since any adjectives I will place in here would sound too redundant 🙂

We left Manila at around 10pm and arrived in Baguio 5:45am, took a taxi to the bus terminal going to Japas, earliest leaves around 7am. Bus ride was cool and I slept most of the way going there. No signs were available to distinguish if you are in the junction going to Mangakew. We had to wait for almost 2hrs before a jeepney picked us up. Ride going up to Mangakew is like the same experience when you ride jeeps to the Ranger Station in Pulag. The difference is, road to Mangakew was new; looks like it’s not wide enough to maneuver 2 jeeps.

Took lunch at the jump-off before starting to trek up to the first peak which was Mt. Pack.

Trails were covered with moss, trekking was mostly cool

Some parts of the trail up to Mt Purgatory near the summit:

Summit has 3 wood posts from a logging company which had big cable wires used to transport logs.

We camped at Tambaw which is another 2 hrs trek from Mt. Purgatory. Campsite had latrines like those made in Mt. Pulag and we were the first ones to camp there. Campsite was not open when the other groups did the traverse. I heard we were the 3rd or 4th group to climb this mountain and first one’s to use the campsite. Yay!

The following morning, one local gave us free coffee and a taste of highland camotes (sweet!)

And our guide asked us to sample a local delicacy from the pine trees:

They did, I didn’t…hehe

Started trekking again at around 7:53am to the 3rd peak Mt. Kukumpulto/Tinengan view deck (spelling to be determined if correct and MASL but organizer of this climb said all peaks we scaled were above 2000).

trails going up to the 3rd peak:

Peak was windy (they compared it to Tarak Ridge)

These were present on the trails inside the mossy forest. Shows ingenue and creativity of the locals when it comes to art and wit:

Going down, we had to pass by narrow trails, hanging bridges and walked 4 hours on a paved road (some parts cemented) since road from Bokod Central was still closed.

Seen Pigingan Falls…

Took showers and changed at the police station before taking a jeep ride top load going back to Baguio. Ate at Good Taste Restaurant, went to the night market in Session Road (this is becoming a habit – 3rd climb in Benguet, always passing by Baguio and never missed to eat in Good Taste and going to the night market) before our bus left at around 11:30pm.

If you want to join climbs, contact Onith Marcaida thru Onith’s Adventours

or get in touch with Jalaman Francisco at his facebook page Ako Si Jalaman

Had fun, fun, fun! 🙂