My kind of Friday chill and Saturday trip with some close friends last weekend was definitely a blast! It was my friend, Vanessa who wanted to hit the highlands a few days back for a pre-climb adventure with John and others who had never tried hiking the long trails before, and I agreed to it even though I feel like I just got home from my Bukidnon trip that made me conscious of my growing mid-calf or gastrocnemius muscles.
Vanvan and I, from Agdao, met first at around 6 am and joined the boys in Matina where we waited to ride a public L300 van bound to Calinan market. From Calinan terminal, there are a lot of habal-habal around who would bring you to Tamayong Purok 4 in 40 minutes for Php60/pax. 2-3 persons would fit in one motorbike.
It's time to move our muscles! We started the trek in Purok 4 at 8 am, although the rough road is still accessible by a vehicle passing banana trees to Sitio Sicao. The trail could be confusing and we almost lost our way but fortunately, we saw a farmer and he pointed us the right way.
At past 10 am, we arrived at Sitio Sicao and registered at the hall for Php150 each. There were a lot of differences since the last time I visited here for Mt. Talomo in 2013. The small wooden bridge before reaching the village wasn't already there, the welcome sign was new, and more modern houses were built. There was also a store extended beside the hall, an open dirty kitchen at the back, and two comfort rooms. I thought we would be staying here for the night but Vanvan said we will be camping in Sitio Utan, quieter and nearer to the waterfalls which we will be taking the next morning.
We got two young guides to help us reach Sitio Utan and arrived there at noon. There, is a home where we stayed to set up our tents and to help a family with 6 kids.
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| View from Sicao Village downhill |
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| Walang forever besh! Lol☺ |
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| Sugarcane/"Tubo" break with our guides |
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| Sitio Utan's basketball ground |
We still have to cook rice for lunch and they asked for more viands beside the Pork Adobo Vanvan cooked beforehand, so we were able to eat past 1 pm. All worth the wait because John set up the food like in a boodle fight and we savored it with a spicy "Pinakurat" vinegar. However, one of our little guides was an Adventist who doesn't eat pork and many locals there have the same faith too. The rest of the afternoon was indeed a chill mood. When darkness almost came, we prepared spaghetti and tocino for dinner but after cooking, I timed out sober after 3 shots of Tanduay. I wasn't able to eat my dinner! They were trying to wake me up but I was fully asleep. I just felt very cold by midnight then went back to slumber after putting my socks on. We woke up as early as 4 am and prepared for breakfast and packed lunch. Finally, we headed to the waterfalls...
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| Pitstop! |
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| 3rd river pitstop | Over the top of a waterfall |
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| Back view with Mackyboy |
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| Potable water source |
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| Technical descent |
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| Crossing the strong current to Sicao Falls |
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| Safety precaution to cross the river |
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| The majestic Sicao Falls |
We reached Sicao Falls in 3 hours.. (You wouldn't literally be in a hurry with Vanessa). Though we passed some difficult trails of slippery descents, it was way better without carrying our heavy bags (and I find John has a good pacing.) I was enchanted by its greatness and beauty. The water was freezing cold that watching it was enough for me, but John later invited me to go at the back of the waterfalls and I followed. I was frightened I might slip but getting there gave me the best feeling the entire trip. We didn't dive in though, still it gave me chills. Rey, Joshua and Vanvan just dipped for awhile chatting nearby like in a Jacuzzi. We planned to take our lunch in Tres Marias Falls which is just a little further from Sicao Falls (about 10 minutes river-trekking) but our little guides, "Sonyboy" and "Mackyboy" didn't want to go because they said its colder there. SO we hit Tres Marias on our own...
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| My best waterfall moment with Sicao |
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| Tres Marias Falls |
The 5 of us just watched the waterfalls for awhile, took some pictures and went back to Sicao Falls to eat. At around 2 pm we set back to the same trail. I was hoping we'd try the river trekking back to Sitio Utan but some guys said it was really difficult and risky. I was conscious of the time we've got to take so I didn't pushed it. We took the trail back in more than just an hour, picked up all our bags and went to Sicao Village for another 2 hours. Our 2-day climb was a failure; we need to extend one more night, but we're out of goods so we decided to stay in Sicao Vill. where there are a lot of stores to buy food. In the village, we already asked for someone who could cook us food so we could all lighten up and 2 women in the neighborhood agreed. We asked them to do the same for us the next morning, but with different menu, and we paid them well in return.
The next day, we woke up unhurried and just waited for our breakfast delivery. We left after 8 am and hiked only 1 hour along the banana trail back to Purok 4. Wow!
☺...Random shots...☺
