Kawangis Mountaineers Recollection Climb: Tarak Ridge - March, 19-20, 2011

An exclusive climb for Kawangis members was held last March 19-20, 2011 at Mt. Mariveles, Tarak Ridge, Mariveles, Bataan. This event was held in order for us to reminisce, to talk about times old times and past experiences of the group.


TARAK RIDGE
Mariveles, Bataan

Jump off point: Brgy. Alas-asin, Mariveles

LLA: 14°30.357′N, 120°30′E, 1,006 MASL (ridge); 1,130 MASL (peak)

Days required / Hours to summit: 2 days, 5-6 hours

Specs: Major climb, Difficulty 4/9, Trail class 3

*Pinoy Mountaineer

Actual Itinerary:
Day 0
2300 Assembly at Genesis Bus Terminal, Pasay (At the back of SOGO Hotel near MRT Taft Station)
Day 1
0145 ETD Pasay to Mariveles Bataan
0500 ETA Brgy. Alas Asin. Breakfast (Packed Meal) and register at Brgy. Hall (P40)
0630 Start trek

0600 ETA jumpoff
1000 ETA Papaya river; Early lunch (Packed Lunch), Swimming at Papaya river.
1300 Resume trek to woodlands
1500 ETA Tarak Ridge; set up camp
1500 Explore the summit (there is a mossy forest there)
1730 Back at the Ridge; await the sunset; prepare for dinner
1900 Dinner/Socials
2300 Lights out
Day 2
0830 Breakfast; break camp
1000 Start descent
1110 ETA Papaya river, Swimming at Papaya River.
1230 ETD Papaya river
1500 Back at Barangay Hall, Tidy up. Lunch
1745 Take bus going to Pasay
2045 ETA Ayala MRT

Estimated Expenses	Amount
Pasay-Mariveles-Pasay	538.00
Registration	40.00

Day O
All set, Mheann and I leaved our house at around 10 o'clock pm of March 18, 2011. We headed to Alabang just to meet James and Barbara before going to the group's meeting place. Upon arrival at the Metropolis Alabang, James texted me that they will be running late for about 30 minutes in exact. So we decided to go to a convenient store(7eleven) so we can have some snacks to eat while waiting for them to arrive. When James and Barbara arrived at 11:30pm, we headed to ride a jeep bound to Pasay. We arrived at the Genesis Bus Terminal at almost 1:00 AM of March 19, 2011. When we arrived, Jasper, Klib, Yel and Grace were already there waiting for us. We all boarded the bus bound to Mariveles, Bataan Meanwhile, the group had decided to pick up Joshua, Cherry and Jasmine to MRT Boni station, we asked the bus driver to stop by there to pick up them.


Day 1
At around 5 o'clock in the morning of March 19, 2011, we arrived at Brgy. Alas-asin, Mariveles Bataan. We proceeded to the Barangay Hall to have our group and names registered. The registration costs at 40 pesos per head. After Registering, we look for an open Carenderia for us to take our breakfast.


At exactly 6:30 am, we started trekking, the group of 11 Kawangis members were all excited. The start of trek is from the main highway, entering a concrete road which resembles the road in Mt. Gulugod Baboy and with the signage of Mt. Mariveles and the Tarak Ridge, from there a few walks, you will see a glimpse of the mountain ranges of  Mt. Mariveles and Tarak Ridge. A 30-45 minutes walk from  there to the house of Aling Cording. Arriving there, we take rest and have a little chat with Aling Cording. At around 7:30 AM, we resumed our trek. Aling Cording's dog named "Tiger" accompanied us on our trek.

Tiger @ Tarak ridge hidden campsite

Tiger @ Tarak Ridge

Tiger taking rest @ Nanay Cording's place after guiding us all through out the climb 

At Exactly 10 o'clock in the morning we arrived at the papaya river. Everybody prepared their lunch and James  started to cook rice. We've spent 3 hours of rest there, for us to prepare the last leg of the trek which include the 2 hours assault to ridge campsite.


It was 1 o'clock on the afternoon when we continue our trek from papaya river to the ridge campsite. The first few minutes of walk to a dry river up to the ridges shoulder was very tiring. We begun to walk in a slow pace. Good things is that the weather is good, the winds are very refreshing. As we go up and up, the trail was getting really difficult. You'll have to use your hands to support you on climbing up because the trail get narrow and steep. By 3 o'clock in the afternoon Mheann, Jasmine and I reaches the ridge campsite. The winds blow hard and it's very cold. Luckily we are the first one to get to the hidden campsite. Camping on the ridge is difficult because of the wind blows that it may damage your tent as well as the difficulty of cooking with your camping stove. And by 4 o'clock in the afternoon, everybody are in the campsite. We begun to pitch our tents and prepare our dinner. We haven't tried to explore the ridge because some are tired and exhausted. And by 6:30 pm we ate our dinner and have our socials for the night. As we all know that day is the closest distance of the moon to the earth and without any luck the sky is covered by the clouds and we weren't able to see the phenomenon.

Me and Mhean

Joseph and Narriel

Socials

Bam, Jasmine, Grace, Klib and Jasper

Nariel

Klib and Jasper

Mhean, Klib, Bam, Jasmine and Grace

We had a glimpse of he supermoon late a night

Joseph, Narriel and Joshua

Socials @ the campsite

Joseph and Bam's arrival at the campsite surprising us all

Day 2
It was 6:30 am when i woke up and everybody is awake and preparing for the heavy breakfast. Narriel was cooking the noodles while Klib and Jasper are preparing to cook the foods.

The rest were chatting while Jasper and Klib are cooking our breakfast

Our stove and cookset

Grace, Narriel and Jasmine

Me and Joseph

Waiting for the breakfast

Cooking Set

Narriel and Mheann looking on the cooked noodles

Mheann with my malong

One of our Breakfast

Eating time

Our companion during our socials

Narriel cooking noodles

Everybody eating their breakfast

 After we ate our breakfast, we then proceed to breaking the camp. Everybody gets busy packing up their things.

After break camp, we proceeded to the ridge for picture taking.

Kawangis @ Tarak Ridge

Me

Jasper and Klib on the edge

James and Narriel how sweet hehe

James and Barbara

Me and Mhean

Mhean

Me at the edge

Grace

Mhean - I'm on top of the world

Grace, Klib, Bha and Bam

Me

Kawangis

James and Bha

Mhean

Grace and Bam

Grace and Bam

James - Raaaawwwrrrr!

Kawangis

Joshua, Jasper and James

Grace

Jasmine's babies

Me

Jasmine

Me and Mhean

Rollercoaster ride

Joseph and Bam

Kawangis Group Picture

I say raaaaaaawwwwrrrr!

Bam

Jasmine and Grace

Me

Joseph

By 10 o'clock in the morning we started descending Tarak Ridge. 

We reached papaya river at 11:30 am, Barbara and Klib got injured and they weren't able to stay for long at the papaya river. Together with Jasper and James, they started to trek back to Nanay Cording's hut. Meanwhile the rest of us stayed on the papaya river until 12:30 pm.

Cold water of papaya river

The rest taking a bath at the papaya river

By 2:30 on the afternoon we reached Nanay Cording's Hut. They provided us Buko Juice for refreshment. Meanwhile Nanay Cording massages the injury of Barbara and James. We stayed there for a couple of minutes.

By 3 o'clock in the afternoon we reached the barangay hall. Me, Mhean, Jasmine and Narriel take a shower while the others proceeded to the carenderia for the late lunch. And by 5:30 pm we boarded to genesis bus bounded to Pasay. The climb was successful although we have some injured but all in all it was a great experience. Everybody was happy by accomplishing Tarak Ridge. Everybody was looking forward to another happy adventure with KAWANGIS.

Next episode: Mt. Gulugod Baboy - Hopefully Me and Mhean can join, if budget permits hehehe.