Mount Maculot

January 13, 2014

The famous "Rockies" of Mount Maculot

Our third climb in a span of one month. This climbing bug has really infected my system. Mount Maculot is popular to climbers (both for beginners and seasoned ones) due to its close proximity from Metro Manila. It's just a couple of hours away and the difficulty to climb the mountain is just around 3/10 (ALU's personal rating). Do not get me wrong, even though the climb is easy the view from the "Rockies" is scenic, it gives someone a full view of Taal Lake. Most climbers opt to only reach the Rockies and refrain from climbing all the way to the summit, as the craggy portion of Mount Maculot is more popular than its peak. Our team did not reach the summit in this climb we started at around 09:00 in the morning.

Mount Maculot has been comercialized due to the huge volume of climbers that frequent the mountain. There is a store at the Campsite where hikers can buy instant noodles, canned goods, water, and alcoholic drinks. The Campsite acts as the fork going to the Rockies and to the trail that leads to the peak.

06:15 Boarded the Bus at LRT Buendia bound for Cuenca, Batangas.

Bayan ng Cuenca Welcome Arch

09:00 Arrival at Bayan ng Cuenca. From the National Road, we took a long walk on concrete road passing through residential houses then we stumbled upon a registration area organized by the barangay officials to ensure the safety of the climbers. After paying the small fee for our safety (I highly recommend the registration so that there will be people that will search and rescue you just in case something bad will happen, there has been a case of a climber falling to his death at the Rockies). The houses gradually thinned until we reached a signage that points to a rocky road.

 The Municipal Hall of Cuenca with Mount Maculot on the background

At the registration area 

 The signage going to Mount Maculot

The Mount Maculot Signage

10:00 We passed by the tablet that marks the start of the trail. The path going to the Campsite was straightforward and easy to trace thanks to the efforts of different mountaineering clubs that placed signboards along the trail. There were some parts of the trail with made up stairs, making the climb easier. We also observed vendors of "buko" juice on numerous resting stations along the trail, giving climbers a refreshing drink during short breaks. You have buy from them or you may choose not to patronize them to discourage the locals from commercializing the area.

 The Stone Tablet

 I was fascinated by this smooth boulder

 A group of climbers resting

Be careful at steep parts of the trail

 The 1st buko juice station

Some made up stairs

 Group photo at a resting station

Congestion along the trail

11:00 We reached the station where we had the first chance to view the lower grounds, this is also the last station where there is a "buko" juice vendor. After taking a short rest we continued towards the campsite.

 A few more steps before the last buko juice station

 The grassy vegetation near the campsite

 Cuenca, Batangas

 Pro climbers taking it easy

Framed group photo

The summit of Mount Maculot

11:30 Arrival at the Campsite, our group was shocked by the volume of climbers taking their lunch in the area, some even brought precooked "adobo" and reheated the food with their butane. We took our quick lunch of burgers and then immediately went to the Rockies before the other climbers as the congestion would be a bother in shooting our "epic photos".

The convenience store at the campsite 

Climbers eating their lunch 

Hikers reheating their adobo

12:30 After changing to our outfits, our group went to the Rockies. It did not took me long to realized that it was hard climbing the rocks in my slacks! But it paid of since it was difficult to change clothes at the Rockies. We spent almost 2 hours taking photos in the area, it was really the climax of the climb. The Rockies features many edges for climbers to get those magnificent landscape backgrounds. I'll Let the photos tell the story on how breathtaking the view is from the Rockies.

Mount Maculot's Rockies!!! 

The catwalk trail going to the Rockies 

Candidate No. 1 & Wildcard

Candidate No. 2 

Candidate No. 3

 The lush forest of Mount Maculot

Ralph Lauren Endorser

 Late for my meeting

The Speedo endorser

13:20 After the photo ops we went to the other side of the Rockies where the Taal Lake and the crater was more visible.

Vanessa & Vicente on their emotional reunion 

That island at the back is the Taal Volcano 

One of my favorite shots of the climb 

 A monkey emerging from the rocks

 Vanessa relaxing at the Rockies

 Mount Maculot Summit as seen from Rockies

The final hurdle at the other side of Rockies

The cliff overlooking Taal Lake

14:20 After almost depleting the memory of our devices we decided to go back to the Campsite and descend. We did not opt to Traverse Mount Maculot by Reaching the summit and descending through the Grotto as we can not assure that we'll be able to get back to civilization before the dark.

Group photo pic on top of Rockies 

On our way back to campsite 

Descending the Rockies

15:30 We passed by the 1st "buko" juice vendor that acts as the 30 min mark from the starting area. Before we completed the trekking, Sushi managed to fall on a steep part of the trail. Fortunately, there were stems and shrubs that stopped here snowball roll all the way to the bottom. Of course, after ensuring the safety of Sushi and taking some photos of the momentous event, we helped her get up.

This part of the trail was dry and slippery 

Justin saving Sushi from the fall 

This picture completed my bucketlist for Mount Maculot

16:00 Back to the starting area, we took a short rest while cooling down with a nice halo2x.

The halo2x store

17:00 We reached the National Highway and took a jeep to Lipa Bus Stop.

18:00 All of us were hungry upon arriving at Lipa so we decided to take our dinner before boarding the bus.

20:00 Touchdown Manila ...

Total Expenses Summary:

• Food & Water                                     P  108.00
• Bus Fare (LRT Buendia to Cuenca)                    150.00
• Registration Fee                                     10.00
• Coconut Juice                                        15.00
• Halo2x                                               25.00
• Jeep (Cuenca to Lipa Bus Stop)                       28.00
• Dinner (Mang Inasal)                                103.00
• Bus Fare (Lipa Bus Stop to LRT Buendia)             107.00

                    TOTAL                            P  546.00

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