Mt. Maculot (MacTrav) | From Grotto to Rockies

One week before this Mt. Maculot traverse dayhike, I joined Trail Adventours in their Twin Day Hikes in Laguna, and with us was the awesomest blogger behind Pinoymountaineer, Doc Gideon Lasco. While trekking the trail of Mt. Kalisungan, I had a little mountain talk with Doc.

My conversation with Doc Gideon of Pinoy Mountaineer:

Doc Gid: Hey Ivan, naka-ilang bundok ka na?
Me: 29 na Doc, pang-30 yung Mabilog mamaya...
Doc: Andami na rin ha... teka, hulaan ko yang mountains mo... Of course Pulag, Tapulao, Arayat, Batulao.. (and so on...)
Me: Hehe... 
Doc: But have you summitted all these mountains?
Me: Ughhmm... well yung Mt. Maculot, Rockies pa lang. 
Doc: Ay, wala na... 28 mountains ka pa lang. haha
Me: Haha
Doc: Don't worry, Maculot Rockies is still a summit itself..
Me: [napa-isip ng matagal]

One week after that talk with Doc Gideon, I found myself walking the streets of Cuenca, Batangas, heading to Mt. Maculot, and my goal that day was to finish my unfinished business - traverse the mountain and reach its summit.

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Sunday - December 16, 2012

My goal in this hike, as I have mentioned, was to traverse Mt. Maculot and reach its summit, and I think the most convenient way of attaining this was to take the Grotto-Summit-Rockies traverse route. However, for some reason, the grotto jump-off  was recently declared close by the authorities, and allowed only as an exit point for traverses.   

For everyone's info, there are 2 jump-offs for Mt. Maculot: the Rockies Jump-off and the Grotto Jump-off. Of course, as their name suggests, rockies jump-off leads to the Rockies while the grotto jump-off to Grotto. Both the rockies and the grotto are view decks of Mt. Maculot, and these two are connected by a single trail that traverses the mountain, passing through its summit.

We headed straight to the grotto jump-off at Brgy. Pinagkaisahan as soon as we reached Cuenca, Batangas (umaasang baka payagang makapag-traverse).

Grotto jump-off. There's a P5 registration fee.

Surprisingly, they let us pass the grotto for a traverse hike, hoorah. They just asked us if we have done the traverse, we said yes (buti na lang nakapag-traverse na yung kasama ko) and they let us pass.

hingal na kagad ako dito pa lang

Following the ascending concrete road (sa simula pa lang medyo hiningal na ako), we soon reached the Stations of the Cross Trail. This trail is purely ascending, hihingalin ka sa pag-akyat. Of course there are stations of the cross along the way up until the grotto. What was good with this trail is that you'll know how close you are getting to the grotto, kelangan mo lang bilangin ang 14 stations na madadaanan mo. It took us about 30 mins to reach the grotto, andami namin kasing stopover, halos bawat station may rest.

trail starts here.

you'll definitely know how close you are getting to the grotto by counting the stations of the cross

most of the trail has this concrete stairway.

and at the end of the stairway, there's this grotto. This place is a vantage point for viewing the plains and mountains of Batangas.

From the grotto, we proceeded with the traverse trail. The early part was a grassland then it turned to an ascending trail akin to Mt. Manabu's trail. Then after about 20 minutes, we reached the vertical part of the trail, it has rope naman so kayang-kaya pa rin akyatin.

the roped segment of the trail. Almost 90 degrees, may kataasan pero manageable naman. 

After the roped segment, it did not take too long before we reached the summit. At 10:45 AM, we've finally summitted Mt. Maculot, yey. This time, I can finally add Mt. Maculot to my mountain collection. Talagang na-challenge ako sa hamon ni Doc, at talagang sineryoso ko, hehe.

Not too far from the summit is a small campsite, we rested and had lunch there before continuing the trek.

summit at last. there's a view of Taal Lake, but not as good as the view from the Rockies

After lunch, we're ready to proceed again with the trek. But I noticed that there were several trails branching out from the main trail. My friend had done the traverse already, but she can't remember anymore where the trail to the rockies is located. Uh-oh

What we did is we followed the most obvious trail, kasi yun ang sabi ng instinct ko at may nakita rin ako na trail signs. After 20 mins or so, the trail ended up on a high cliff, looks like my instinct failed me this time. I tried to scout the area, but to no avail. We had no choice but to return to the summit area, about 45 minutes were lost, tsk tsk.

nasan na ang tamang daan??

Back at the summit area, we saw 2 local kids guiding 2 mountaineers, sa wakas, we asked them where we could find the trail to the Rockies and they pointed us to the right trail, a downward trail to the left of the main trail and it's hiding behind bushes kaya hndi namin kaagad napansin.

From that point, no more confusing trail was encountered. It was just a 20 minute descending trail, followed by a 10 minute talahiban trail.

Rockies viewed from the trail

When we came out from the talahiban, the place suddenly looked familiar, aah we have reached Maculot campsite. Memories from my first hike at Maculot Rockies... sobrang sarap sa pakiramdam habang nag-flash back yung memory nung una kong inakyat ang rockies ng Maculot.

We rested only for about 10 minutes at the famous Maculot 7-11 then we rushed towards the rockies, sobrang excited ako.

after almost 12 months, nakabalik ako ulet sa Maculot rockies..

here are the mountains I spotted from the rockies
click on the photo to enlarge

of course, I also have a panoramic shot of Taal Lake as seen from the rockies
click on the photo to enlarge

After summitting Mt. Maculot and reaching the rockies for the second time, it's time to finally complete the traverse. It was a swift 15 mins descent from the camp site down to plains. To reward ourselves, we bought halo-halo on a store we found along our way.


Sitio Lumampao Again

We just can't get enough. As soon as we completed the traverse, Dawn and I had ourselves submit to yet another strenuous activity - the thousand stair step challenge to Sitio Lumampao. We stayed there until sunset, then again climbed up the stairs.    

it may look easy, but I tell you, it will give you the challenge you are looking for

closer look at Taal Lake

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At last, I reached the summit of Mt. Maculot, big thanks to my hiking buddy, Dawn, for accompanying me in this fun climb.  

You may also want to check out my first experience at Mt. Maculot: Mt. Maculot Rockies and a detailed itinerary for a dayhike: Rockies Dayhike itinerary.