Feb Ender: Mt. Maculot Traverse 2/2
By around 12 NN, we reached the summit. We stayed for a while to enjoy the pleasure of resting and eating a few snacks. After all that preparation, we started to descend.
Descending was thought to be much easier but we were tired and our knees started to get weak so, we had a rough time. Good thing, Kuya Pepe carried my backpack. Of course, I was hesitant to ask him a favor but I would get injured if I kept carrying that heavy backpack of mine. Besides, Kuya Pepe quite insisted and told me that it was way lighter than the ones he already brought (his own, not from other hikers).
A little story about Kuya Pepe.
His real name is Christopher and he is a newbie when it comes to guiding hikers. He have climbed a lot of mountains already including Mt. Pulag, I think. He told us that he could hike Mt. Maculot for 30 minutes up to the summit and descend for 15-30 minutes. I don't know what kind of bones he had but it's impressive. I believed him because he's fit and his shoes were made for hiking. He said he took basic photography classes aside from training in Philippine Red Cross. He told us what and what not to eat in the mountain, the importance of helping one another and other sorts. We forgot to ask why the mountain was named "Maculot", though.
Complete cast!
The edible wild strawberry
As we descended, there were paths that required rappelling. This was taken at the first path which was less steep.
I learned rappelling from my P.E. class back in college. So, I found this activity fun and thrilling! After several years, I finally got to use what I learned from school! Yay!
While Sam and Elai were rappelling down, I waited at the top and asked Kuya Pepe to take a photo of me. Hehe.
Then, he took a photo of me while really doing the thing. Lol.