Crowded Mount Batulao Hike

After our accent in Mount Pico de Loro and the long wait for any tricycle or busses, we headed to some quiet Baranggay full of Bisaya.. lol.. I somehow forgot the name of the place. We had our late lunch there and decided to stay there for the night then we changed our minds and headed straight to Roberts place in Dasmariñas.

Mount Batulao

Got a bus going to Dasmariñas which showed an Angel Locsin movie, well that killed the time lol. And by the time we were in Dasmariñas, it was raining hard like cats and dogs and mice. At least we were protected by the concrete roof of SM!

The rain was gone after we had our dinner and headed straight to Robert's place to crash. But beer happens! lol

The next day, as expected, we woke up late with a headache but still wanted to push through our Mount Batulao hike. Had a quick breakfast, and headed straight for the bus station bound for Tagaytay.

MT. BATULAO

Nasugbu, Batangas

Jump-off point: Evercrest Golf Course, Nasugbu

LLA: 14.0408 N 120.8011 E 811 MASL

Days required / Hours to summit: 1 day / 2-4 hours

Specs: Minor climb, Difficulty 4/9, Trail class 3 with 60-70 degrees assault

Features: Open trails, rolling slopes, scenic views of Batangas

-pinoymountaineer.com

We only brought rice and a few meals because I was thinking that we could buy some meat and condiments at the nearest sari-sari store there (better to buy from the farmers themselves right?).

Got to the jump-off around noon and it was raining.. again... We pushed on when the rain was done but the trail was as muddy as a the Ifugao rice terraces and it smelled bad! lol... We met some people who went there the night before and some hikers going there. I noticed that almost all women hikers, wear leggings. We took the new trail.

We managed to buy pork meat, a few eggplants and some vinegar (i could only get one sinigang mix). I was planning to make Sinigang soup for dinner. The sari-sari store which was supposed to be selling those stuff was closed. Maybe they went malling. I also noticed some sweet potato sprouts and took some with me, but alas! the owner found out we took some, so he gave us some of the sweet potato crops also.. thats nice of him.

Now we are loaded with food and we are still quite far but not really from the campsite. Noticed a lot of tents already pitched in some of the campsites. We decided to take the last one since there is a water source there and it is near the old trail so going back would be faster.

At night, I cooked the sinigang while the rest, cooked rice, fried some of the eggplants and most of the sweet potato. There was a liquor store near the campsite so we managed to buy a bottle. Since it was a Saturday, it was full of campers and were very noisy. But with the help of the liquid "gore-tex" we slept like a log.

Our next stop: Mount Maculot