Highest Peak of 'Pines...Attempted

A few days ago we attempted to summit the highest mountain in the Philippines...Mt. Apo. It is located a few hours outside of Davao City and its a popular destination among local mountaineers. They have a few major hikes each year when hundreds of people climb at the same time. Holy Week, for example, is a very popular time to climb anything that has a steep slope. Our guide said that one year over 10,000 people climbed. Since most mountaineers here aren't known to be the best environmentalists (who can blame them in a society where littering is almost encouraged and is definitely not discouraged) the mountain was covered in trash, causing the national government to shut down on trekking in the area until the municipalities cleaned up their trails and set up some stricter measures to deter further destruction.

There are many routes to the summit, but we chose to route from the municipality of Santa Cruz about 45 minutes away from Davao City. This is not the most famous route, partly because it takes longer than the others, but it was the one we found the most information about in Davao and the other route required that we travel to Cotabato, which is both farther and a little sketchier than the Province of Davao del Sur.

We arrived in Santa Cruz a little late to head up the mountain the following day, so we had a day to kill while the guide got ready (meaning he bought rice and made us buy 3 times as much fuel for the stove so he could cook his rice). During this day, we decided to go river tubing down the mighty Sibulan River, which gets its water from the mighty Mt. Apo. We had both been tubing in the States before and thought that while we were not experts, it would be pretty easy cruising down a lazy river. Wrong! Silly us, we are NOT in the US and people in the 'Pines are not afraid to let customers do some pretty crazy shit unlike America where everyone is afraid to get sued. We travelled down a section of the river in an inter tube with a guide holding on from behind pushing and pulling us around the large rocks in the rapids. Now, not to worry, these were class 5 rapids or anything, but it was a bit thrilling the first time we went down.

Beginning the Trek
The next day we got up bright and early to begin our trek to Mt. Apo. We opted for the additional Sibulan River trek which we heard would cross the river about a dozen times and lead us to the bottom of the highest waterfall in the Mt Apo area. Note: the river we were about to trek was the same river we rafted the day before. The raging torrent of water was difficult to cross and about half way through we abandoned the idea in favor of the steep slopes of the foothills of Mt. Apo.

Everyone in the hills gets around on horses or carabaos...we saw children as young as 7 maneuvering the large animals as if their bodies were connected. It was amazing and it made me a little jealous that we were hiking with our heavy packs while there were so many pack animals sauntering past. The beasts of burden also made for some interesting trails, which were largely used for them and thus were rutted deep into the soil.

We reached our first destination Sitio Tudaya in the early afternoon and proceeded down a steep cliff to Tudaya Falls. Now, many places in the Philippines have stories of the Japanese hiding gold in the hills and caves and there are many speculations as to the where abouts of the elusive golden Buddha. Mt. Apo is no different where the indigenous tribe, the Bagobo's legend has is that the waterfall is man made by the Japanese to hide their matchbox sized bars of gold along with the golden Buddha at the bottom of the vast flowing falls. We somehow doubted the validity of the tale, but nevertheless it is an amusing one...After a day of steep trekking, we weren't sure that the falls would be worth it (see previous entries on falls). But when we arrived it was absolutely breathtaking. It blew all of the previous waterfalls out of the water. The flow of water was incredible and created a mist that showered down on us like a gentle spring rain. It was twice as tall as the waterfall in Libertad and had at least twice as much water (it was the source of the fast flowing Sibulan River we had been crisscrossing earlier that morning).

Digression about our guide: The Excuses Man. He had a different excuse for why we couldn't do what we wanted every time we talked with him. First we couldn't take a different trail down the mountain because their might be militants hiding on the peak, then it wasn't the militants, but the length of the trail that deterred him, but that really wasn't it either, the main problem was that is was slippery. Basically, he was about as Filipino as you could get. He hated to tell us "no" and he especially didn't like to tell us the truth as to why we couldn't do what we wanted.

The second day we actually began hiking up the grand mountain. I could not believe that 10,000 people a year could hike up the path. It was extremely steep and slippery and overgrown. Until this trip, I was fond of tree ferns...they looked so soft and gentle...but in reality they are the devil's henchmen. The large fronds fall to the ground where their sharp thorns grab on to anything in their path, including clothes and even worse, skin...ouch! Though the slope up was steep, the trees were some of the largest we'd seen in the Philippines. The trail we were on is an old hunting trail and as we reached the forest we came across a Bagobo wielding a gun...I don't know what he was looking for because we certainly didn't see anything more than bugs and a few birds during the entire trip, but supposedly there is still some wild boar. Or maybe he was hunting the majestic Philippine (aka monkey-eating) eagle one of the largest eagles in the world, which makes its home on the volcano.

On the third day of hiking we hit the boulders. We started climbing what looked like a dry riverbed, only we could faintly here the sounds of running water, which got louder as we climbed higher. When we turned a corner we were hit with the sight and smell of sulfur steam jetting out of the side of the mountain. It smelled like rotten eggs and left of film of yellow dust on the surroundings. There were small vents throughout the boulders which blew out hot air and were surrounded by yellow rocks. After sometime of boulder hopping (approximately 2500 m up a 3011 m mountain) The Excuses Man gave a sigh at the path ahead and slowly turned toward us to state that the trail had been destroyed by a landslide. He told us to wait awhile to see if the clouds which had rolled in would clear (because this might also clear the landslide?). We discussed the topic at much length. The conversation mostly consisted of The Excuses Man lamenting at the sorry state of the trail and us trying to convince him that we could still make it to the crater. Alas, our cajoling was in vain and we made our way back to our campsite to pack up then head down to Sitio Colan where we would spend the night.

After our hike we congratulated ourselves on an attempt well tried with a nice long soak in the Colan hot spring. It is a gorgeous steaming hot spring hidden among the hillside fields and as you sit in an almost completely natural pool your eyes wander to the forested hills beyond. I

Random Tidbits:
Motor rides: two of the scariest motor rides ever ridden. The drivers had to "run" up the steep hills so their motor wouldn't stall.

As went down the mountain: footpaths became small bumpy dirt lanes which turned into wide winding cement roads while the horses became motors which transformed into vans and other large vehicles. Back to "civilization" as they say.