Birthday Hike At Mt. Sipit Ulang Paniki Trail

by - Monday, January 04, 2016

Mt. Sipit Ulang


I've been planning to celebrate my birthday for the whole month of January, after all, I am celebrating mg 27 years of existence in this world!

My month-long birthday celebration consist of different activities that I personally love and has meaning to me and that those will be combined in one month. These are Hiking, Wakeboarding, get a tattoo from Whang-Od a Filipina tattoo artist from Philippines who is considered as the last mambabatok from the Butbut Kalinga people and the oldest tattoo artist in the Philippines, and Volunteer on one of the orphanage.




--------------------------------------------------
Book your trip with Booking.com! It's safe and can guarantee low price!
--------------------------------------------------





I celebrated my birthday last Saturday, January 2, and head to my first activity for the month and year:Hiking. The plan is to hike Mt. Pamitinan but my older sister insisted that its a difficult hike so she suggest going to Mt. Sipit Ulang, both located at Rizal. Though my first choice is Pamitinan, I agreed to her, after all, she's been to 6 different summit last year and my last hike was like years ago.

Together with her officemate, ate Love, we head to Rodriguez, Rizal. Me and my sister left Bulacan and arrive at Farmers, Cubao. We buy breakfast and lunch at Jollibee and secure a seat at FX terminal just beside the Jollibee. We arrive at Montalban, Rizal and take a tricycle to barangay Mascap and reach the drop point, did some registering, go to the bath room and ready for the trail at 6:30 am. Honestly, I prefer going early so we can start early in the morning so we can finish the trail before noon and goes home before sundown. So far, we've made the first plan.

Mt. Sipit Ulang is famous for its rock formation atop the summit that looks like "crab's claw". The word "Sipit Ulang" is literally "Crab's Claw".  Our guide, kuya pogs, told us that it just recently opened last July and already gained popularity from hikers. He also says that peak day is during Sunday. When we got to the drop point, there were one group who is already signing-up.


drop point at barangay Mascap

We are ready to go! Let's start the adventure!


The first part of the trail is easy, we cross river(??) first and then muddy trail. The best part of the trail are those caving! I love caving so much! Inside the caves are beautiful rock formation. There were small passages to almost impossible to pass through but we manage! On and on with up hill and cave. And we are so fast and almost not resting.


Inside the cave! I personally love all the caving part.

One of the most beautiful rock formation inside the cave. If you will look closely you will see sparkling something there.

Yep! Another climbing/scrambling!

Along the way, you will pass this boulder that you can actually climb on it. There is a wooden ladder to help you climb and you can actually take a photo there. I am really not good in measuring distances so I'm not sure how far is this from the summit but I know we are almost there.

 



After this boulder we reach this cliff/edge trail that we need to climb and I am starting to feel the weight of my bag and the sun starting to shine brightly and I am catching my breath already.

This is the part where I thought we are almost over but wait, sabi ni rock, there's more!


My knees and my legs are all shaking up. Before that, I got my left ankle injured for consecutive twisting while walking. But my mind is set to finish the summit! Did I mention I am afraid of heights? Oh yes, I do! I don't know why I enjoy adventures like this but yes I am afraid of heights. But the view is just mesmerizing and breath taking so how can the fear of heights hinders me from seeing one?



Little did we know the real trail is coming up! There were rock trail along the way, honestly, I already forgot the detailed part where we started scrambling the rock formation all I know is that we are there already climbing to its peak. I am already tired the moment we reach the "super trail"as our guide calls it.

This is the best shot I had. It was against the light and I am no pro editor.

I asked our guide to take a photo of me for successfully passing this so-called "super-trail"

Finally, after a couple of scrambling and climbing, well most of the time I do sitting just to go from here to there. We reach the assault of summit, at last! Of course, we rest for a bit and prepare for the next minutes of non-stop picture taking, I guess.



The view from the top is breath taking! I love nature so much and nothing compares to the beauty of it! Though shaky and pulse raising high we manage to reach the summit at 10 am. The guide says we are fast at first but holds up on the rocky trail. Haha!

But my left ankle is still aching so bad every time I put weight on it so few photos taken atop the summit plus I am already chilling and shaking and can't go more heights anymore. :P


So that ends our way to summit. Going down, we take the easiest route, they called it banayad trail. It was easy, but be extra careful because of the moist so its slippery.

The following photos our some of my favorite from our trail. It shows most part of the paniki trail. It was beautiful! I hope you will fin the photos below amusing as much as we do.






















This is another boulder beside sipit ulang that you can actually scramble too

Success!

Leaving no trace but pictures! Thank you Kuya Pogs for taking care of us during the trail!




--------------------------------------------------
Book your trip with Booking.com! It's safe and can guarantee low price!
--------------------------------------------------




Day Hike Itinerary
4:30 - 5:00 AM - Meetup at Jollibee Farmers. Buy food to bring if prefer
5:00 - 5:45 AM - Travel time to Rodriguez Rizal (Total gas station)
5:45 - 6:10 AM - Tricycle travel time from total gas station to brgy. mascap
6:10 - 6:20 AM - Register at Brgy. Mascap
6:20 - 6:30 AM - Go to the bathroom 
6:30 - Start the trail
9:30 AM - Summit
10:30 AM - Descend
12:30 NN - Brgy. Mascap/ Lunch

Budget 700/Person (3 pax)
40php - bulacan to farmers via ordinary bus
100php - 2 burgers from jollibee :p
50 - fx from farmers to rodriguez rizal
150/tricycle good for 5 (we are just 4 so 50 ea)
50 - registration
500 - tour guide (but we pay 750 because Kuya Pogs handle us so well)
45 - lunch meal at karenderia
150 - tricycle going back to total (50 ea)
50 - fx going back to Litex (this is nearer for us than cubao)
25 - ordinary bus from Litex to bulacan

We also went to the Falls afterwards and will tell you the whole story on my next post. 


Where to climb next?

loves,

Ellie

You May Also Like

6 comments

  1. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MONTH, ELLIE!!!!!
    I love your adventurous spirit; every Capricorn I've ever met is a stylish daredevil (no lie)!
    May your new year be lovely and prosperous.<33

    Vegetarian CourtesyCheesePapas

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ellie, I'm sorry to hear you hurt your ankle... I hope it heals soon.

    Happy Birthday again..and of course you deserve to celebrate.♡

    I'm afraid of heights too... I've been working on it xox

    ReplyDelete
  3. I hope you had a great birthday!
    looks like a great time
    xx
    http://anoddgirl.blogspot.com.au

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi. Me and my bestfriend will have a weekend hike in Sipit Ulang. Just hacve a question about the registration and guide fee. According to pinoymountaineer.com the regsitration fee is at least 20php since it is actually a voluntary fee to be donated and the guide fee is 400php. In your itinerary, these two fees are quoted "50php and 500php". Are these two fees been change? Looking forward on your response. And have a wonderful birth month celebration. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hi, I'm really sorry for the late response, yes, its 50 and 500 now, it seems that their price have changed and thank you!

      Delete

Thanks for the wonderful message!