Luzon's highest peak, Pulag

Finally, after almost a year, my blog post about our 2010 Pulag expedition...took me this long coz it's hard to select photos, with the many photos my friends took and with that I would like to thank May, Icoy, and Byron for the photos. 

This is my second time, the last time was sometime in November of 2003(?)...this time it happened on 10 December 2010 with my hiking buddies Icoy, Tiny, May, Chrome, Omar, Gids and Byron...from this trip we got the name Petiks =)...

we started the long journey in South supermarket, straight from the office at 7:30PM from work to a long journey of hopefully adventure with pleasure =) from here we took the bus going to Cubao

we met May there, fresh from the airport coming from Singapore....we arrived in Cubao enough to buy an 11PM ticket for Baguio and enough time to have dinner and a little chat with my Buddy Carina who couldn't join the trip so she just send us off (plus trail food pabaon)

from Cubao to here in Baguio, Victory liner's passenger's waiting area...we arrived a little early so just tambay here while waiting for the sun to shine and for the stores to open, coz we need to take breakfast and take out lunch

on board our service jeep, from Baguio Victory liner's terminal we went around downtown to have breakfast...too bad our official travel breakfast fastfood is not yet open so we ate breakfast in Chowking instead of Jollibee

love the pink jeep, girly color but asteeg and mind you the name of our jeep is "Mountain guide", so fitting!

Since we arrived early, we then had some spare time to visit the Ambuklao dam and do some pictorials....actually a lot of pictorials...can't help it, pictorial people!

after almost 3 hours of jeep ride we arrived in DENR office for the briefing and registration

then load again to our mountain guide and off to the ranger's station....the ride was super duper bumpy

this is the ranger's station where we met the guide and the porter for our common stuff...this is also the last chance to take a bath..only me and Chrome dared the super icy cold water (my hiking buddies way back in 2003 were braver coz we all took a bath =P)

after this pictorials, we proceed with our trek to the beautiful Mount Pulag

it's very hard to breath! according to blogs a trek in Pulag is actually enjoyable because of the cool weather and the beautiful sights along the trail...so forget about catching up on your breathing and focus on the beautiful scenery......

now, we're actually enjoying the trek...we can now appreciate the beautiful pine trees, the fog greeting us

this is camp 1....we had a long rest, charging up with power bars and jelly ace....Tiny's with our guide, below them is our porter....i'm too tired I wasn't able to get their names =( (we just call them Manong!)

we are Pulag's first batch of visitors, we actually had the opportunity to select the best camp site to build our home...it's very cold, fogs are everywhere... after pitching our tents, we prepared dinner, we ate early also.....the sky is clear, so many stars, it's supposed to be a best time for socials but it's tooooooooooooo cold outside that we we'rent able to talk about the reason why Janet didn't join the trip (which she allowed me to share to the group =P) 

lights off early...the tentmates: Icoy and Tiny, May and me, Byron Chrome Omar and Gids....we all had a hard time sleeping, we couldn't warm ourselves...May and I tried the candle, Omar even put himself inside the plastic bag, he's making the sound the whole night....we're all looking forward to morning!

it's a very long night! now ready to go to the summit...Manong is not up yet...but since we couldn't sleep, we wen't outside our tent so we can acclimatize

good morning Pulag! all the sunrise pictorials....

our version of Sassy girl....oh Sassy tree!

finally, after walking for forever.....the summit!

the sea of clouds!

the FHM models! hehe....the asteegs braving the colds of Pulag....topless!

welcome to Luzon's highest peak! be above the clouds!

the vast bamboo grass land....

Pulag's autumn...i call it that way because of the many colors of trees on this portion

the summit is truly a feast for the eyes...now preparing the feast for the tummy

since we cannot bear the colds of the night, we unanimously decided to spend the night in the ranger's camp

while preparing for a sumptuous heavy snacks, the rest are busy with pictorials with our hiking stuffs (thank you Janet for supplying most of that, thank you Mark also)

last look at the sea of clouds plus waiting for the beautiful sunset.....that's our guide Manong Terio looking through the many pose we did!

jumping for joy! about to take off! drowning in awe! leaping for joy! all the jumpshots =)
soooooooooo amazing! God is just sooooooooooo amazing...looking through His wonderful creation on top of the highest point in Luzon...I am in AWE!

meet the Petiks: Icoy, May, Omar, Chrome, Mary, Gids, Byron and Tiny =)

loving both the sunrise and sunset!

braver than my 2003 buddies, we took the night trek...something new! equipped with head lamp (mine I would like to thank Edsel) plus the reminder that we will not walk far from each other...we brave the night! we somehow had a good sleep in the ranger's camp who by the way is so free that night coz the hikers are all up in the camp site...just us again! we had a good dinner of DINULAING it's a combination of Dinuguan and Laing especially prepared by Omar and Gids....

after breakfast, we went around the community...we bought cabbage and potato for pasalubong, then had a quick pictorial in the green lake...on our way to the house of the owner of the mountain guide jeep, we we're treated with a lemon harvest experience =) we found a new friend in the person of Changga (thanks Icoy for the correction) and Anne

certified Pulag hikers! then we bought a souvenir shirt to put in the DENR wall =) that shirt plus the shirt were wearing =)...

after a long bumpy ride going back to Baguio, we arrived early again, so went around Baguio, Gideon's first ... we had coffee in SM Baguio, visit Ukay stores then kill time in Burnham park then we we're invited for a dinner by May's Kuya's in law...just like in 2003 we had a free dinner courtesy of Mark's brother....some things never change =)

hmmmmmmmm...will I still go back to Pulag? hopefully YES!!!!