lagawan: Mt. Pico De Loro - The Need for Heights

June 12, 2010 and this will be my second climb. I got invited by an old friend to celebrate the Independence Day by climbing Pico de Loro in Cavite. I read stories about it in the internet and I was excited to see at first account what it feels like to reach the summit.

We boarded a van from Alabang in going to Trece Martirez, Cavite. And then from Trece we rented a jeepney to take us to DENR. The jeep is going to fetch us the day after in going back to Trece. It was a long trip uphill along Governor’s Drive so I feasted my eyes with the trees and the mountains. It was green up ahead until we passed by the quarry site of Cavdeal and it was a horrible thing to see. Some mountain were almost half its size because of the digging. I only saw it on tv but I felt something when I saw it personally. This is where they get their gravels and sands to build sky crapers and sky ways in the city, I thought to myself.

Group picture before the trek

We arrived in DENR an hour after to register. And then the trek started. I forgot what it felt like when I first had my climb in Mt. Tarak, but Pico is exhausting, tiring, hurting, and daunting. I should have stayed home instead of hiking this rocky side of the planet, and we were not even halfway yet! My shoulders hurt and my hands were nearly giving up. My legs are enduring the load. We make occasional stops to rest and the suffering continues the moment we proceed. But I guess that’s the best part about trekking a mountain. You bleed just to know you’re alive, so the song says, but in my part, it’s a test of fortitude on how far I can go despite the body giving up on the weight. I have to feel the pain. And I guess all of us have masochistic personalities of some sort.

Now, fast forward to the campsite (finally!). It was breathtaking up there, seeing everything down. I realized I had fear of heights on my first climb that I could not even dare look down, but I believe I did well this time. We have to rest for the night and climb the summit on the following day. It rained so hard after dinner that our tents become flooded and we have to re-organize ourselves and share tents. Our gas gave out and we had to make a little bonfire with the help of the magic fire which was purchased in Ace Hardware, that was manufactured by AMSPEC. The magic fire is a block of paraffin wax that I guess is made from the scrap of crayons. It is a very good innovation from AMSPEC (note: not a paid ad. AMSPEC’s one of our good customers).

The next day, we trekked the summit. PICO de LORO, as the name suggests, looks like the beak of a parrot when viewed from below. There were two peaks, one is very steep, and the other one is situated in parallel which is a very huge rock that you have to cautiously climb because there is only one old rope that you can hold on to. This is the best part about Pico because you have to climb the rock one at a time. If you love wall climbing in Market! Market! or SM Las Pinas, then you’ll know how it feels like to get to the top.