My partner was at Victory Liner in Cubao last night trying to get a bus ride to Baguio but they ran out of tickets because there were A LOT of hikers from manila going up to Baguio. Which confirmed my assumptions that there will be lots of hikers going up to Pulag on the weekends. First off my bf wanted to sign us up with a group in fb called Backpackers United as they have slots for Mar 3-4, but I saw that there's going to be A LOT of people going (like 30), and that's just for their group. Unappealing to me, not that I'm being asocial, but with a group of 30 means I am going to be sharing the peak with 30 other people and the campsite, and the bathroom, and the trail...and then I wonder how many of the 30 people would be whining about how hard it is to walk or how cold or how bumpy the road is...I've seen all that drama before,... plus more people means more incidence of losing your stuff... I'm going to the mountains to enjoy the mountains and not be annoyed by people. If I wanted to do that I can just stay at home hahaha...
But anyway, the weekends are reserved for trips with family already...so Mt Pulag is a no-can-do on Mar3-4... My partner contacted Maam Gina (sp?) at the DENR office to inquire for transportation. why? Because there's only two of us and not a jeep-load. To truly backpack Mt Pulag, we had two options: (1.) Commute by Bus or (2.) Hire a freakin expensive jeepney for approx. 8000php. Ma'am Gina opened a third option for us by presenting an option to add us to an existing group that will hike on Feb 28, if there is such a group. So how we're going to get to Mt. Pulag is still a big question mark, which is great because I love surprises hahaha! At least now we have a Plan A, B, C.
Parang sa perya lang, pull the string and we'll get there anyway hahaha.
So Plan A is to join other hikers in Baguio on a jeep arranged by Maam Gina, and get our butt up to Mt. Pulag.
Plan B is to ride the Bus (not sure if it's still Norton buses or A-line, but there are buses..confirmed at Dangwa Station) to the DENR office then figure out a way to get our butt up to the Ranger's Station. 1st trip is at 10am and it is advised that we be in the station 2hrs before the bus leaves because tickets run out fast. If we run out of the 10am trip, we'll have to ride the last trip which is at 1pm. Either trip will land us on the Ranger's Station at late afternoon, so plan B will require us to either hike up to camp 2 in the dark OR stay at the ranger's station and opt to hike up the next day (making the whole pulag trip 3 days not 2).
Plan C is to hire a jeepney for 8kphp. Which is feasable if there are people who would like to join us... Target date is Feb 28 2012.
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