Mt. Daguldol: Trekking in the rain

“Don’t change the mountain, let the mountain change you.”

– Mountain Campers Outdoor Club Inc.

26 August 2007: Rainy season started as early as May in the Philippines. For that reason, the falling rain and swirling typhoon will hinder us to go on hiking, beach/island hopping and other outdoor activities because it is better to stay at home safe, relax and listen to the sound of raindrops falling unto the roof. But we were raring to go; besides we love rain so much.

I’d been in this district (San Juan, Batangas) few months ago. I went snorkeling and beach hopping with my high school best friends and it was good and one of my favorites.

And a few miles away you can find Brgy Hugom, another village of beach resorts with white sand and a bit rocky shoreline. The magnificent view of eastern Batangas and its beaches is unusual during rainy season of the year; big waves, tangled shoreline, and not so good for swimming and playing.

Mt. Daguldol is a minor climb as measured by many. The foot of the mountain can be reach by passing through locals’ homes from the barangay hall or from the shoreline of the village. Since we’re not familiar with the place plus the fact that we are newbie hikers too, we decided to look for a guide to accompany us from the jump-off to summit. The trail going up was clear, established but a bit stiff. Normally, mountaineers tracks the trail for about one and a half hour to summit and did everything in one whole day span, including the swimming in the beach.  Since it was raining that time, it took us roughly two hours of walk on a slippery mud for us to reach the summit.

The summit have cows tied somewhere and fog was all-over the place. It was relaxing and refreshing because of the rain and there’s a small nipa hut on top of the mountain. The view was breathtaking especially the rich greens of the mountain. After picture-taking and an hour of rest we headed down and by this time it was more difficult to walk because of the rain which already covered the entire mountain. I remembered our guide; our ‘arrogant’ guide said that he will not fall to the ground even though how slippery the trail was. But, few minutes after we descended, we saw him slipped and dragged himself to the ground. We just all laughed and annoyed him throughout the way down. But it’s ok; he’s laughing with us too and smiling to himself.

After four hours of ascend-descend, we finally went back to the house we rented nearby the sea shore. We had our late lunch while pondering the tiring and funny experience we had. It was a great whole day hike with rain shower, walk by the beach and an accomplishment of +670 masl elevation.