Mt. Mariveles (Tarak Ridge) | Tarak Peak at Last

Have you ever had this urge to climb a mountain just so you can test (or probably show off) your newly bought, still-fresh-from-the-shelf item or mountain gear? Haha. I actually did that when we climbed Tarak Ridge in Mt. Mariveles several months ago. The kid in me simply wanted his newly bought ANBU Mask to be displayed on the trail. Is it not obvious that I'm a Naruto fan?

Alright, I'm just kidding. Actually, my sole purpose in doing this hike was to finally reach Tarak Peak and have a picture at the famous tree which I never had in my three previous Tarak Ridge hikes. Yun lang naman, wala nang iba.

__________________________________________________________________________

Sunday - August 11, 2013

Time was 7:30 in the morning when our team reached the breezy Tarak Ridge. It was after trekking for 2 hours, more or less, on the familiar trail of the mountain which I've done three times last year. It's good to see Tarak ridge once again. Compared to the last time (which was over a year already), everything looked pretty much the same—there's the grassy ridge with bits of edgy rocks and a perfect view of Manila Bay.

Praise the heaven for giving us a great blue sky that day, despite the storm's presence somewhere east of Luzon. 

Cavite and Batangas mountains spotted from Tarak Ridge

Equipped with overflowing determination, I battled the laziness that defeated me three time last year when I hiked this mountain. Hindi na ako papayag na hindi ko na naman marating yung Tarak Peak dahil lang sa tinatamad ako.

So after posing for some drama photos at the ridge, I rallied everyone towards the peak.

march to the peak!

Hiking up for the peak was not as challenging as what I initially imagined. We simply followed the obvious trail, entered a forest, and vwalla, there's the peak already. You know you're at the peak once you see the famous tree.

there's the ridge as seen from the forest entrance.

inside the summit forest

the other peaks of Mariveles mountain, visible from Tarak Peak.

As mentioned earlier, it was my goal to have a picture at the famous Tarak Peak tree. The iconic tree that can only be seen in Tarak. Not so long ago, it still has thick vegetation, but now, it's leafless, seems like a dead tree already.

so here it is, at long last! A proof that I reached Tarak Peak
*notice the ANBU mask I'm wearing.

We were not yet done taking photos with the tree when all of a sudden, thick layers of clouds appeared and engulfed the summit area. Temperature dropped as well. Napilitan tuloy kaming bumaba na.

clouds slowly eating the whole mountain. oh no!

Fearing that rain would soon fall upon us, we quickly descended Tarak. Passed by the rooty trail, Papaya River and back to Aling Curding's place.

Rooty Tarak trail

We had a break here in Papaya River

At Aling Curding's place. Coincidentally, it was the old  lady's birthday that day. So she treated everyone with sweet Biko and Pancit. Intant free lunch for the whole team! Happy birthday again Aling Curding! 

Early birds catches the worm they say. We arrived at the highway earlier than expected, I think it was 1 o'clock something, so definitely we'll get a worm. What I'm referring to is that we're having a side trip to the historical Mt. Samat (up next).