LAGUNA | Mt. Makiling UPLB Trail

Mt. Makiling the ever mystical mountain in Luzon, home of Maria Makiling, the "diwata" or fairy who believed to be taking care of all the mountain's rich resources from fauna, faura to waters. Like everyone knows about the mountain's legend,  it's slopes forms a female shape lying on the ground. This inactive volcano attracts mountaineers and nature trippers to enjoy and experience the great naturals it posses.

Most of T.E.T.R.A. group, group we are with, came from Manila, so basically they went from Buendia, P99 each and rented jeep to UP Los Banos, P15 each. On the other hand, we, Lovers' Lakwatsa came from Cavite, so we went there through a van from Pala-Pala in front of Robinson's Dasmarinas to Los Banos about 1 hour for P95 each then a jeepney, P8 to the said University.

Saturday morning at UPLB jump-off, we started the trail about 10:45 AM, we registered first and pay P10, gave us the trail map and opt to trekking. The group decided to take UP trail to summit and try traverse trail to Santo Thomas, Batangas in our descent.

TRAIL

UPLB Trail Map to Summit (Station 30)

Tall trees around.

Trail is good, you wont get lost.  Based on the Trail Map, there are 30 stations. On station 9 and 10, food and water refill are available. After 3 hours of walk, we reached the first food station and took our lunch. We brought pack lunch and some just bought there food and drinks they want, soft drinks if you wish. :)

After taking care of our grouching stomachs, we started our trail to campsite again.

Agila base after an hour.

In our trail up, we saw this beautiful creatures along our way. The snake on the upper left was found dead, I don't know how but it was noticed to be killed intentionally based on it's wounds. On the upper right, cute orange millipede resting along our way and group of fungi and unfamiliar flower at the bottom.

Like any other rain forest, Mt. Makiling's  famous small but terrible creature "Limatik" resides and infest in this particular trail, UPLB. It's really scary because this blood sucking creature might get into your skin, eyes or ears without noticing it. When it gets into your skin and the "sucking" process happens, the wound made will continuously bleed. Moreover, it's kinda slippery so others can't get it off and immediately panic!

ANTI-LUMATIK TIPS: 1. Always check your clothes or ask others if you have any hitch hiker leeches already  2.Cover your ears using a bandanna or ear plugs if you have any 3. Avoid too much contact with leaves, plants and trees around, those are just waiting for they're potential victims. 4. In case the leech already sucked your skin and can't get rid it off, get a dry towel or try pinching it tightly in the middle then remove it. Don't worry they'll not break easily, they're really tough I tell you.

It took us awhile to find a better campsite with a wider area because we had 6 tents in total. The trail is quite long and not that steep, it's just that lumatiks are flying around. 


Finally after 4 hours of hike from the food station and being paranoid about the Lumatiks, we found a campsite that would fit  us. It was really tiring and up to that point we were concerned about the leeches and had to fix everything that would help our tents to avoid it. We had to remove dried leaves, avoid submerging our tents near plants/ grass and provide enough light to see those suckers. 


We break the camp 6:00 AM and decent through traverse trail.

AT THE SUMMIT
It took us 3 hours to reach and enjoy peak 2. The scenery around is mostly covered with dense grass and trees.

ITINERARY

MOUNTAINEERS at the jump-off (from left to right), Jasmin Balingit, Aldai Clifford Benito, Raymond Rotairo (bf), Karl Kevin Hizon, Mikel Arcinue, Ryhan Rinon Carascal, April Joie Ramirez, Michael Halog, Jay Adrian Evidente, Eric Joseph Balingit, John Vincent Balingit, Jacqueline Salmorin, Aime Maranan (me) and Fil Angelo Haveria

CHECKLIST

BUDGET

BTW this our 4th Mountain to beat. Photo at Peak 2 summit together :)! Me and My BF (the Lovers' Lakwatsa ) and T.E.T.R.A group used UPLB trail just for trek to summit but battled traverse trail in our descent to Sto. Thomas, Batangas. Limatiks greatly infested the previous trail and luckily haven't sucked by those. :). Meanwhile they were dispersed on the second trail, maybe due to it's surroundings' condition and temp which is kinda dry and humid.

** Acknowledgement to April Joie Ramirez for other photos exhibited in this post. Thanks :)