"Never underestimate a mountain because of its elevation."
Mt. Marami taught me this.
It has become a habit of me to do a background check regarding the mountain that I have to climb, but I never did that when I am about to climb Mt. Marami in Cavite. Maybe because it was the mother mountain of a friend of mine and she was able to summit it. I thought to myself that climbing this mountain would be easy for me since I've already climb a few mountain before. As well as its elevation is not that high, compared to the last mountain I have been into which is Mt. Daraitan. I thought that climbing this mountain would be easy since I was able to survive Daraitan's elevation and trail, but this mountain taught me a lot of things.
The weather was nice, there are a lot of stars and the moon's shining brightly when we left our house going to the meet-up point. But things have started to change when we reached the Greenfield, the rain starts to pour, but the event pushed through. From Mandaluyong to Cavite, wala kaming nadaanan na walang ulan, umuulan talaga, umuulan ng malakas. Somewhere in Cavite where we pick up one of the joiner, tsaka ko pa lang nalaman na may bagyo at signal number 1 na sa Cavite that time dahil sinabi niya sa amin. Iniisip ko kung dapat pa ba kaming tumuloy, that the organizer should already cancel the event since bumabagyo na pala, but then again the van started rolling again on its way to Mt. Marami's jump-off point.
It was still dark when we arrived at the jump-off point, the rain is pouring non-stop, We are told to wait for the rain to stop or until 6:00 am before we start the trek. The rain as expected didn't stop and so we started our trek at 6:00 am.
Hindi pa kami nakakalayo sa jump-off nung batiin kami ng putik, malalambot na putik. I was wearing my sandals that time because we were told that there would be a river crossing, and since that day I promised myself not to wear a trekking sandals when hiking, never again. Hirap talaga akong maglakad sa putikan pag naka-sandals ako, una dahil nadudulas yung paa ko sa sandals at nawawala yung sense of balance ko, pangalawa masakit sa paa yung straps.
Dumaan kami sa trail kung saan puro putik yung daan, putik everywhere. Kaya pala Mt. Marami kasi maraming putik sabi ko pa sa sarili ko.
River crossing, it was my first river crossing ever. Umaambon na lang nung nadaan kami doon pero mataas yung tubig, 5'3" yung height ko pero umabot sa hips ko yung tubig. Doble ingat kami sa paglalakad dahil malabo yung tubig dahil sa ulan. The river crossings went well. Nag-enjoy naman ako.
Matapos yung river crossing, the real battle started. Sobrang lala na nung putik, mabigat ng ilakad dahil nadadala na ng sandals yung putik. May time na malulubog sa putik pag na swertehan at nadaan sa malambot na lupa, meron namang dudulas na lang dahil halos wala ng bato sa lupang dadaanan.
By that time I was already thinking to myself na hindi na ako mamumundok ulit, next event namin was supposedly Mt. Irid, pero during that time sinasabi ko na sa kasama ko na hindi na ako tutuloy sa next event, and Mt. Marami would be my last mountain to climb. Sagad na yung pasensya ko sa putik. We were walking non-stop, non-stop din yung ulan, unli pa yung putik.
Nakarating kami sa ikatlong pahingahan bago pa makarating sa summit, saglit naming nasulyapan yung summit dahil saglit lang nawala yung ulap.
"Ano pang sense ng pagtuloy sa summit, wala namang clearing." yun na lang yung iniisip ko para hindi masyadong nakakapanghinayang na hindi kami nakatuloy pa-summit.
Umabante na yung mga kasama namin at naiwan kami doon sa ikatlong pahingahan, isang oras at kalahati kaming naghintay sa mga kasama namin na makababa hanggang sa may isang grupo na galing na sa summit ang bumaba, at doon na kami sumabay pababa.
Sukong-suko na yung binti at paa ko, halos ayaw ng humakbang sa sobrang pagod. Kung pupwede nga lang magpadulas na lang mula taas hanggang sa jump-off baka ginawa ko na dahil ayaw ko na talagang lumakad pa.
Safe kaming nakabalik ng jump-off, salamat sa guide na nahatak namin sa ibang grupo which is si Sir Joel. Salamat din doon sa tatlong babae na pax ni sir Joel kasi pinaubaya niyo siya sa amin. Hahaha.
Revenge hike: Mt. Marami 2.0