Mt. Pulag is one of the mountains I wanted to climb. I pictured the sea of clouds and the first rays of the sun, with its red hands hovering over the peaks. However, expectation and reality are two very different things. The weather plays a huge role when it comes to seeing the famous clouds and sunrise.
It was an uneventful overnight trip to Baguio, where we were supposed to switch to a monster truck to head to the ranger station. However, we had to settle for another van since all jeeps were taken already, because of the number of people making the hike during that weekend. Mt. Pulag has turned into a huge tourist attraction for foreign and local tourists. There were lines and waiting times for each stop we took, from breakfast until the seminar (you had to sit through a 40 minute one for a briefing).
I was hoping it wouldn't rain but many locals say the weather is always unpredictable, regardless of the season. When we arrived at the ranger station to camp, the intermittent rain went back and forth from a drizzle to a downpour. We were all hoping for better conditions to see the sea of clouds or at least the sunrise. We waited anxiously for the sky to clear.
The Journey to the Summit
The sky momentarily cleared when we had dinner and just before we went to sleep. We all tucked ourselves in in delight for a good day of hiking in the early morning. However, just before the start of the hike it began to rain again. This dashed all hopes of a clearing for the sea of clouds and sunrise, but I wanted to reach the summit because I was already there, aching to go.
It was pitch black without our flash lights and it was raining, the poor weather spoiled possibly good photo opportunities during the trek. The rain kept switching from light to moderate to heavy throughout the hike. A supposedly easy and leisurely trek got more interesting because of the mud (which was sometimes shin deep) and slippery paths. It didn't help that the winds were blowing from different directions, making it colder than it should be. It didn't matter if we were wearing rain gear, we got wet anyway, from head to toe.
The rolling hills that I saw in pictures were covered in fog, and you can't really see much ahead because of it. It kept raining even on our way back to camp. However, despite the weather our group made it to the top in varying speeds. The views could've been spectacular if not for bad weather. The mossy forest was one of the highlights, but I just was not in the mood to take pictures, and my camera was in my bag under the raincoat, all of which I didn't want to remove one by one in the rain.
The rain stopped as soon as we got back to camp, it was a little too late, but I was happy I made it to the summit, as one of the people in the group said, in "hard mode".
Relieved to Have Made It
After lunch we made our way back to Baguio and a few stops along the way. Our first one was to get the certificate of "conquest".
The tour included three stops, two of which are a dam and a hanging bridge. I joined Barefoot Travels, a trusted company that takes care of clients from start to finish. The organizers and guides were easy to talk to and friendly, I would recommend them.
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*DISCLAIMER: This is a sponsored post but thoughts and opinions are strictly my own.
