Viajelogue by ElleViajera: 2011

DESTINATION: Mt. Cristobal a.k.a. The Devil's Mountain 1,415 MASL

JUMP-OFF POINT: Bangkong Kahoy Valley, Dolores, Quezon

EXIT POINT: Sitio Awas, Brgy. Sta. Elena, San Pablo City, Laguna

SPECS: Major climb, Difficulty 6/9, Trail class 3-4

CLIMB DATES: September 10-11, 2011

It was supposedly a reunion climb with my Apo Team. However, my Apo Team brought newbies and it would be better for them to take the back-trail route. That is why I built a team of six to do the traverse. Since our trek lead, Josh, had a Mandarin class the next day, we have decided to do a dayhike. I had warned my team though to prepare for the worst scenario and assigned people to bring a tent, a stove, and a cooking set. I also informed them to bring a headlamp just incase we had to trek at night time.

Meet-up was at 4am at Jac Liner in Cubao, but because some came from Baguio City, the assembly time stretched to a few minutes before 6am. We arrived in San Pablo around 8:30am and were still waiting for some, so we decided to have breakfast. We headed for Bangkong Kahoy Valley Resort that served as our jump-off point. We started trekking half past 10am and arrived at the Montelibano House just before noontime, so we decided to have lunch there.

We cooked carbonara for lunch and decided to let the first group go ahead of us. We resumed trekking around 2pm and arrived at the crater area just before 6pm. We headed for the summit and arrived there around 6pm. We had some coffee and geared up for the descent half past 6...

The descent was sloped at 85 to 90 degrees. It was very slippery from all the mud and we had the cogon grass to hang on to on the first hour of going down. The most challenging part of it is climbing a big rock that prompted us to use the rope that Elmer brought. It was really dark and our headlamps only allow us to see things clearly at a distance of a few meters ahead of us. After about five hours of downhill descent and I was growing weary because I couldn't find the supposedly landmark of mine that leads to the more familiar banana plantation and grassland, I decided to call everyone to huddle up.

"Guys," I called out after motioning everyone to take a seat in a steady place around the sloped area that we were situated at, "I don't want to cause any alarm but I think that we are lost. We've been going down for 5 hours now and basing on my experience, we would already have been around 800 meters down but judging from the city lights that I can see from here, it seems like we have only gone about 400 meters. I noticed that our altitude have not changed in the last few hours, considering that all we were doing was sliding our butts off in those steep downslopes."

One of them said that she remembered passing through the same spot twice or so! I prompted everyone to ho,d hands so that we could pray together. We then recited our prayers to gain assurance that we would go past through the situation. While praying, one of my crew cried out: "My God... God!!!!" to our horror. We knew that something was happening to her... After praying, I asked her what it was about. She said that she saw a man with shadow-like appearance that was trying to stop us from praying. Goosebumps attacked me, but I prayed for more courage and focus. I told her that I acknowledge what she felt, but I would not be validating the presence of the entity.

I consulted the group who to call among our the people in Metro Manila. I decided to let someone in the city know that we were getting lost in the jungle, but that someone had to be mature enough not to panic. We decided to call Professor Edwin Don Padrilanan of FIMO. He gave us sound advice and even encouraged us that we were near a community of farmers. It was enough to strengthen our faith. I told everyone that we were not leaving that place unless each one of us had regained our emotional strength. When I looked at our buddy who saw the entity, she was looking fiercely at me to my horror! I asked her, "Do you remember where we first met?" And she answered in a cold tone, "I don't know!" And fear in me had built up even more.

I asked the Lord to guide me into doing the right thing, and I had decided to recite yet another prayer just before leaving. "We will pray "Our Father" before we leave," I announced. One in the group claimed not being familiar with the said prayer, so I said, "I will recite it first and you all will follow."

"Our Father in heaven," I started. Everyone in the group, except the one who saw the entity, recited after me! I almost freaked out!!! I commanded her to pray with us, and the next time around, she recited the prayer with everyone else...

After praying, I found her staring at me, this time, with tamer eyes. I asked her if she could remember my name, and to my relief, she did... We then resumed trekking. It was amazing how, after the said episode, just about a few meters ahead--was the spot that I had been desperately looking for! It was the spot that led us to the banana plantation, and a little later to the grassland! It was like a miracle!!!

After a few more hours, I had decided to call for an e-camp. We couldn't push more. We were dead-tired from all the commotion after getting lost in the wilderness.

We woke up the next day (a few hours after) feeling invigorated and ready to resume the descent. After another 4-5 hours of walking, we finally saw some houses and a concrete road! We found out that we reached Brgy. Sta. Elena... We were aiming at exiting in Rizal, Laguna. It didn't matter, though. As long as we were back in civilization, we couldn't ask for more. We had lunch, took a bath, and left for San Pablo.

We took the bus back to Manila and decided to have out post-climb socials in a public utility vehicle.