Warrior Pilgrimage

Featured in www.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on June 4, 2008

THE MOUNT DULANG-DULANG TO Mount Kitanglad traverse climb is still more than a month away yet it never escaped the attention of Doc Abe Manlawe, especially the physical conditioning of those who will compose the team that will assault the physically challenging trails of these two very high mountains located in Bukidnon Province in Mindanao.

Even as the Cebu Mountaineering Society (CeMS) is still in the middle of mourning borne out of the loss of one of the club’s beloved member in the person of the late Sir Paeng Tura last April 17, 2008, we started our training schedule right away last April 20, a Sunday, beginning with a three-and-a-half hour trek in the hinterlands of Cebu City.

GUADALUPE-NAPO-KALUNASAN-OPRRA-KALUNASAN-GUADALUPE

On that first weekend we started at 6:30 in the morning from the grounds of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish following the mountain road toward Sapangdaku then towards Napo. It was very cool up there even as it was still in the middle of summer and we passed by many mango tree plantations as we neared Kalunasan. We were six of us: Doc, Julienne Rivera, Jecris Dayondon, Sam Lim, Roy Ragaza and me. At Kalunasan the road began to move downward and we now trod on asphalt and concrete roads passing by BBRC and CPDRC.

It was already hot and we felt the sun burning upon our shoulders as we trudged towards OPRRA and exiting at the Boy Scout camp towards the vicinity of BBRC and CPDRC then we took a left turn towards Guadalupe. At the last two kilometers we felt the heat of our own body that goaded us to run downhill, sweat pouring unabated in mid-morning. Everyone were exulting at the sheer joy of finally letting loose our limbs after an eternity of inactivity.

Act one over and we gained something like 14 kilometers in our first training day...READ MORE (Press CTRL + mouse click)