Mt. Daguldol Chronicles: Treasure Beyond the Epic Mud

I remember waking up this morning with so painful back and legs. Browsing the pictures posted by some new friends, it brought me back to the trail caked with thick mud leading to the peak of Mt. Daguldol in Batangas.

With the journey being reviewed as a “minor” climb, I somehow expected a bit of ease while treading the narrow way off to the summit. I had been to Mt. Makiling when I was still a high school student, then to Mt. Tagapo more than a decade after, and followed by Mt. Pinatubo just this May. So upon hearing it’s just really a “minor” climb and a day hike would even do, giving way for us climbers to take a plunge at the downhill beach resort on the following day, I did perceive it to be easy at my own pace of exhaustion tolerance. However, I was wrong, terribly wrong.

In my estimation, that gaiting through the beach alone made one fourth of the journey already. Imagine that!

A long walk by the beach of Laiya was the gunshot of the trek. Coming from the resort where we checked in, there were no less than five other resorts that we had to walk past by, taking us closer to the rocky shoreline. Subsequent to it was a challenging long, long stairway carved on the big rock at the seafront. 

This was our only access to the other end of the beach at morn because some parts of the shoreline were still soaked in seawater.

I would say that the trekking proper started here: from a woodlands entry point that reads, [Sitio Catmon]. The drizzle seized a little of my hope to reach the peak early. Things like “I don’t want to finish the trek sopping wet” and “It’s never gonna be fun worrying about possible landslides here” bothered me. Gladly the sky was very tightfisted to discharge only meager count of rain showers to grant us a rather cold milieu while walking endlessly to reach the apex.

Big round of applause to this Merrell WaterPro Sable sandal for a job well done - no slips, zero blister!

Moment by moment, I could hear my own heart pounding like crazy. I just had asthma attack less than two weeks back, and now I endeavored my lungs to conquer this so exhausting adventure. I had a complete battle gear to defeat this limitation anyway ─ oust all food that would trigger the allergies, nebulize before bedtime and of course, my ever-faithful inhaler. Before heading to this trip, I was sure to have secured my lungs enough. Whenever I hear my heart crying for a little rest, I would stop, breathe well and take a sip.

Along the way, I was contemplating how on earth could those cows and horses find their way to the ridge!

Each step leading us closer to the mountaintop was getting more difficult because of the slippery, muddy trail. I could recall a certain spot a few meters away from our destination where my left foot hopelessly doused in mud. Thanks to the noble men who helped me out, gave me a hand to pull my poor limb out from the miry clay.

A quaintly attractive place was our priceless reward
─ another presentation of how artistically this world was made by God.

When the fog was all over the place, everyone’s hope grew fast! We knew the apex would be within reach in a while. After four hours (or five) of painful mountain climbing through the woods and muddy track, a wonderful greenery welcomed us. So green it was very relaxing to lazily snooze beside a tree.

The descend, however, would be another story. Remember that what we went through on our way up would either match or worsen the level of difficulty because of the epic mud. Let me finish this first part by saying how honestly painful all that was for us to hit the goal of reaching the summit of Mt. Daguldol. Nevertheless, each foot was fed with satisfaction upon the foretaste of green sunny space, which our travel mentor quoted as “a golf course” at nearly 700 meters above sea level (MASL).


WOWtrippers once again succeeded in bringing the real WOW to every backpacker who joined this adventure. Rain or shine, through the drenched and muddy slopes, the team didn't put us down.

(more soon...)

Posted in: itchy feet,Luzon,panoramica