am trying to craft words to describe our recent scale in the highest point of Luzon in the Philippines, but words can't seem to assimilate somehow and only chose a fleeting single word - Different. The experience was neither good nor bad, but it's impact was more of a mixed feeling of exhaustion, excitement, temper, hunger, awe, amazement, disappointments and blistering cold.
Akiki trail isn't frequented much by many mountaineers. If you look into the log book of the main DENR ranger station in Ambangeg, there is only an average of 15 groups who go by the trail each year compared to 80 groups who go by Ambangeg, maybe because of the fear of the name "killer-trail" perhaps. The group's trip was much delayed in terms of planning, individual member's schedule doesn't seem to coincide, perhaps Pulag wasn't meant to be at that time, but after much "gusto", the trip eventually materialized and there were the 9 who dare to walk the trail.
Start towards the Ellet River
Somehow there was this "Bahala na... (Let's see what will happen...)" attitude on this trip. Not that there was no IT but the food planning somehow fell short on the group's scale. Eds and I devised a menu which was composed of Pita Bread, a light but heavy carbo alternative to rice, some soup and raisin bread. In the past we would already prepare our giniling or other viands to compliment the Pita ala the famous Ke-babs meals. I guess everyone was quite busy, that even the northern group who was supposed to meet us wasn't able to prepare because of busy work schedules and quota meetings. We were able to buy some food at the market though.
The road to kabayan was an arduous journey, I guess everyone was abit anxious since the journey took longer than what had been expected from the IT. Once we reached Kabayan, we ate our lunch first and prepared our things. It was mid-afternoon when we started for Ellet River, it took 3 and a half hours before we reached the powerful river itself. The trail was moderate to easy, and the night trek somehow stirred a little excitement. We camped by the river were the sound of the gushing water was the regular ambience and also the lullaby under the vast number of stars. Come dinner time the food was served, we only have a limited supply but I could see from their painted faces that the food wasn't enough.
