April 21, 2008; I was invited by Br. Arian FSC to join the Summer Vocation Camp which will be held in Lipa City, Batangas on April 28-30, 2015. At first I was hesitant because I needed to complete very sensitive documents which were then needed in one important proceedings in our Office. But, when it was mentioned that we will be climbing Mt. Lobo, I was totally enticed to join. What I did is to complete all the needed documentations… I was almost sleepless, two days and two nights before the April 28, 2015 activity!
Early morning of April 28, 2015; I rushed to our office to submit all the needed documents. I personally approached my colleagues that are signatories to the documents to ensure that it will be submitted by our secretary without any hastes and blues.
After completing all the requisite matters, I hurriedly went to De La Salle Lipa, the assembly place for the Vocation Camp. I went to DLSL with empty stomach due to time constraints. I arrived in DLSL Campus at around 11:30 PM, all participants were through with their lunch and were about to ride the bus that will bring us to the jump off of Mt. Daguldol (the organizer decided to change the hiking destination. I did not have any chance to leave some of my things that are not needed for the climb and was scheduled to be used only during the post-climb activities… so, I had no choice then but to bring it all the way to the mountain.
Exactly 12:00 noon, we left DLSL Campus and proceeded to Brgy. Hugom in San Juan, Batangas. We started trekking at around 1:30 PM and primarily dealt with the long winding gravel road leading to the trail head.
Most members of the group were first time climbers… some are actually have no idea on what are the things ahead of the trekking activity. The group was composed mostly of Lasallian students from various campuses in Luzon… some are incoming Postulants of the De La Salle Brothers, others were either Contacts or Aspirants. The whole group was headed by Br Mark FSC and Br. Arian FSC.
I was assigned to be the trail sweeper with Boy, one of the commissioned guides. We arrived at the trail head at around 3:00 PM were we had a very brief stop to regroup and to rest.
Mt. Daguldol is 600+ MASL, for some, this rough terrain was not so high. However, the trail head is at 0 MASL… thus, the 600 meters is entirely the altitude gain. For our group it would be ‘something’. At the very first moment, at the initial trail assault, some were shocked. However, in the eyes of the participants, the desire to push with the trekking was passionately burning. This was probably due to the convincing words of the accompanying brothers.
Slowly, we moved together and tried the farthest point that we could reach. We journeyed through coconut and vegetable farm until we reach the midway, a house owned by an old couple that sell Halo-halo to hikers. Before reaching the midway, I suddenly felt dizzy and my whole body shook. Luckily, I was almost 20 meters behind the nearest participant. I requested Boy, who was with me at the tail to keep silent about it, and requested him to halt for a while and rest. Boy took my bag, I “rehydrated and ate some trail food to gain strength. We paused for about 15 minutes before we tried to cope up with the group. Luckily, the midway were the group stopped to rest were just less than hundred meters from where we stopped. I reached the house with trembling knees and dropped shoulders but I tried to hide it from the rest of the group. That time, I knew that if the group will still push to reach the campsite, I may not have enough energy. Fortunately, it was already 5:15 PM, so Br. Mark decided to camp in the area and instead continue trekking in the next day. I hurriedly fix my tent and had a power nap to be able to recover from the earlier trembling and dizziness.
Due to my very busy schedule, I was not able to check the program and the required things to be prepared. So to be sure, I prepared complete meal cycles for two days (breakfast, lunch and dinner plus snacks). I carried my own tent, cook set, stove and lantern aside from the things that should have been left at DLS-L. Yes, I was carrying a large bag while trekking with an empty stomach and sleepless the night before the climb. That’s why my body surrendered.
Around 6:15 PM, I went out of the tent to prepare dinner… I learned that majority of the participants planned to rely on cup noodles for dinner. Only around three or four brought rice and canned good. I took out the 3.0 kilos of rice and 6 assorted pouches of corned beef and tuna that I brought, cooked it and offered to everyone. We ended up ‘pooling’ all our available rice, cooked it together in three batches (because we only have 2 small cook sets and stoves then). Then we combined all similar viands and cooked it together. We literally shared all the available food to everyone. The cup noodles became late afternoon snacks! I did not bring one but I received and enjoyed a half-cup!
After dinner, we enjoyed the Halo-halo and mais-con-yelo that is being sold by the old couple. The couple was even very eager to offer the things that they could share for us to be comfortable. They offered blankets to some, offered their comfort room, and their free-flowing water supply. That time, I assumed that they enjoyed our presence… our laughter and stories! We retired to our respective sleeping bags and tent at around 9:30, joining me in tent was my fellow DLSUD representative, Sir Noli.
We woke up at 6:00 AM and had light breakfast, majority enjoyed cup noodles while some of us opted to buy the steamed banana which was offered by the old couple. We left our things in our respective tents and simply brought water and trail food during our summit assault. At 9:00 AM, we found ourselves enjoy the thick fog and chilling temperature at the summit of Mt. Daguldol. We stayed there for half hour to wait for the clearing which partially came after 20 minutes. We started to descend at 10:00 AM and reached the midway camp at around 11:15 AM. After breaking our camp and packing all our things, we further descended and reach the trail head at 12:20 PM. To further enjoy the last stage of our trekking, instead of using the gravel road in going to the Barangay Hall where the bus was parked, we trek along the shore! We enjoyed the smiling sun, calm blue sea, and various types and colors of shells along the shore.
We reached the Barangay Hall after forty-five minutes… two participants were missing! It didn’t took long for us to wait for them… they were seen by some barangay officials was brought by the barrio patrol vehicle to the place where we are waiting.
2:30 PM, we had our late lunch at De La Salle Brothers Novitiate and further proceed with post-climb activities.
The climb was something… I enjoyed the company of ‘my brothers’, I never knew then that that climb would bring me to a ‘green and holy place’.
Early morning of April 28, 2015; I rushed to our office to submit all the needed documents. I personally approached my colleagues that are signatories to the documents to ensure that it will be submitted by our secretary without any hastes and blues.
After completing all the requisite matters, I hurriedly went to De La Salle Lipa, the assembly place for the Vocation Camp. I went to DLSL with empty stomach due to time constraints. I arrived in DLSL Campus at around 11:30 PM, all participants were through with their lunch and were about to ride the bus that will bring us to the jump off of Mt. Daguldol (the organizer decided to change the hiking destination. I did not have any chance to leave some of my things that are not needed for the climb and was scheduled to be used only during the post-climb activities… so, I had no choice then but to bring it all the way to the mountain.
Exactly 12:00 noon, we left DLSL Campus and proceeded to Brgy. Hugom in San Juan, Batangas. We started trekking at around 1:30 PM and primarily dealt with the long winding gravel road leading to the trail head.
Most members of the group were first time climbers… some are actually have no idea on what are the things ahead of the trekking activity. The group was composed mostly of Lasallian students from various campuses in Luzon… some are incoming Postulants of the De La Salle Brothers, others were either Contacts or Aspirants. The whole group was headed by Br Mark FSC and Br. Arian FSC.
I was assigned to be the trail sweeper with Boy, one of the commissioned guides. We arrived at the trail head at around 3:00 PM were we had a very brief stop to regroup and to rest.
Mt. Daguldol is 600+ MASL, for some, this rough terrain was not so high. However, the trail head is at 0 MASL… thus, the 600 meters is entirely the altitude gain. For our group it would be ‘something’. At the very first moment, at the initial trail assault, some were shocked. However, in the eyes of the participants, the desire to push with the trekking was passionately burning. This was probably due to the convincing words of the accompanying brothers.
Slowly, we moved together and tried the farthest point that we could reach. We journeyed through coconut and vegetable farm until we reach the midway, a house owned by an old couple that sell Halo-halo to hikers. Before reaching the midway, I suddenly felt dizzy and my whole body shook. Luckily, I was almost 20 meters behind the nearest participant. I requested Boy, who was with me at the tail to keep silent about it, and requested him to halt for a while and rest. Boy took my bag, I “rehydrated and ate some trail food to gain strength. We paused for about 15 minutes before we tried to cope up with the group. Luckily, the midway were the group stopped to rest were just less than hundred meters from where we stopped. I reached the house with trembling knees and dropped shoulders but I tried to hide it from the rest of the group. That time, I knew that if the group will still push to reach the campsite, I may not have enough energy. Fortunately, it was already 5:15 PM, so Br. Mark decided to camp in the area and instead continue trekking in the next day. I hurriedly fix my tent and had a power nap to be able to recover from the earlier trembling and dizziness.
Due to my very busy schedule, I was not able to check the program and the required things to be prepared. So to be sure, I prepared complete meal cycles for two days (breakfast, lunch and dinner plus snacks). I carried my own tent, cook set, stove and lantern aside from the things that should have been left at DLS-L. Yes, I was carrying a large bag while trekking with an empty stomach and sleepless the night before the climb. That’s why my body surrendered.
Around 6:15 PM, I went out of the tent to prepare dinner… I learned that majority of the participants planned to rely on cup noodles for dinner. Only around three or four brought rice and canned good. I took out the 3.0 kilos of rice and 6 assorted pouches of corned beef and tuna that I brought, cooked it and offered to everyone. We ended up ‘pooling’ all our available rice, cooked it together in three batches (because we only have 2 small cook sets and stoves then). Then we combined all similar viands and cooked it together. We literally shared all the available food to everyone. The cup noodles became late afternoon snacks! I did not bring one but I received and enjoyed a half-cup!
After dinner, we enjoyed the Halo-halo and mais-con-yelo that is being sold by the old couple. The couple was even very eager to offer the things that they could share for us to be comfortable. They offered blankets to some, offered their comfort room, and their free-flowing water supply. That time, I assumed that they enjoyed our presence… our laughter and stories! We retired to our respective sleeping bags and tent at around 9:30, joining me in tent was my fellow DLSUD representative, Sir Noli.
We woke up at 6:00 AM and had light breakfast, majority enjoyed cup noodles while some of us opted to buy the steamed banana which was offered by the old couple. We left our things in our respective tents and simply brought water and trail food during our summit assault. At 9:00 AM, we found ourselves enjoy the thick fog and chilling temperature at the summit of Mt. Daguldol. We stayed there for half hour to wait for the clearing which partially came after 20 minutes. We started to descend at 10:00 AM and reached the midway camp at around 11:15 AM. After breaking our camp and packing all our things, we further descended and reach the trail head at 12:20 PM. To further enjoy the last stage of our trekking, instead of using the gravel road in going to the Barangay Hall where the bus was parked, we trek along the shore! We enjoyed the smiling sun, calm blue sea, and various types and colors of shells along the shore.
We reached the Barangay Hall after forty-five minutes… two participants were missing! It didn’t took long for us to wait for them… they were seen by some barangay officials was brought by the barrio patrol vehicle to the place where we are waiting.
2:30 PM, we had our late lunch at De La Salle Brothers Novitiate and further proceed with post-climb activities.
The climb was something… I enjoyed the company of ‘my brothers’, I never knew then that that climb would bring me to a ‘green and holy place’.