Tukduan Banoi

Last Friday night, Pat and I decided (I agreed to go since he already prepared my hiking gears. Yey!) to go with some new friends to Tanay, Rizal to climb Mt. Irid and Mt. Palaguio. We met up with friends at Cogeo, traveled to Sta. Ines in a 4x4 jeep which shook my whole system (though I still managed to take a power nap.Hehe) We arrived in Sta. Ines at 3am and slept in the barangay’s covered court. (We have to register at the barangay hall which opens in the morning)

The actual trek started at around 8am. The trail involves crossing 11 rivers and walking on sloppy, muddy roads. We stopped at a ‘sari-sari’ store, and found pigs on a very awkward position. (No animals harmed during photo shoot)

We reached the bunker at 1pm. We put up our tents, ate late lunch and mingled with friends. The climb to the summit was set on the following day.

Fast forward to Sunday morning. There was a change of plan. Instead of going to Mt. Irid, the participants were divided into two groups. One group will go to Mt. Irid and the other will go to Mt. Tukduan Banoi. We went with the latter.

The trail to Tukduan is exposed to the heat of the sun that I felt dry, tired and thirsty all the way up (even though I drink every time we do a quick stop). Anyhow, after four hours, we reached the summit...and I felt rejuvenated!

The climb going down was fast and easy. And look, we saw a rainbow! (Too bad, the end of the rainbow is on the other side of the mountain) :)