#maranat

Overview

Many people call it Mt. Maranat, but from what I've read, Maranat is actually the falls located in that mountain, i.e. Mount Oriod. 

The jump off point of the trail to Maranat Falls is located at Rodriguez, Rizal, and is actually the same jump off point to Mt. Balagbag. Some people would opt to traverse Mt. Balagbag and Maranat.

There are numerous ways to get to Maranat Falls, as we ended up taking a different trail back to Balagbag Health Center (where the registration is) from the one we took going to the actual falls. It's a lot better to get a guide.

Difficulty

In terms of difficulty, it's around trail class 1-3 as it requires you to climb up some rocks from the falls to get to the campsite. This is, of course, minimal.

The trail is a series of up and down slopes with the steeper ones closer to the falls.

Itinerary

We decided to stay overnight at the campsite near Tatay Nestor's house. Below is what transpired in our trip.

DAY 1

After discussing the details amongst ourselves, we decided on taking a van to Bulacan instead of taking a bus. With that in mind, cost might not be the cheapest, but alternatives will be mentioned in the IT as well.

Pre-Climb

0430 - ETA First Meet-up Point: BGC

I picked up the first group of stragglers (haha) at Starbucks, Bonifacio Global City, just because it's 24 hours and we decided to meet-up really early.

Once everyone arrived, we headed out for Eastwood to pick up the second batch of happy campers.

0530 - ETA Second Meet-up Point: Eastwood

0600 - ETA Jollibee, Philcoa

After picking up the North people, we headed out to Jollibee, Philcoa to pick up our last member. We also ate breakfast here and did some last minute purchasing at 7-11.

0800 - ETA Tungko, Bulacan

From here, we walked to the market right across the street to buy ingredients for our food for lunch and dinner (one of our fellow hikers makes great tinola, haha). 

After that, we headed to the terminal right beside the market to line-up for a jeep to Licao-Licao. Jeepney drivers there don't usually head out unless the jeep is full, so you might have to wait a while before you head out.

0900  - ETA Licao-Licao Terminal

Once we arrived at Licao-Licao, we redistributed our pack, went on bathroom breaks (and watched this puppy being all chill and using a rock as a pillow) and then proceeded to the trail going up the jump off point. 

For those who want to take the trike, you can take these pink babies up that rocky road. I'm not quite sure how much it is as we opted to walk up the trail.

Climb Proper

0930 - ETA Jump Off/ Begin Trek

We arrived at the actual jump off at the Balagbag Health Center to sign up. Sign up fee is at (P 10). You can also get a guide there. 

They say in some blogs that the price of the guide depends on your haggling skills, but we ended up not haggling. Our guide asked for (P 500) just to lead us to the campsite.

We took a while going to the falls since our guide took us the wrong way (the irony). That little hiccup didn't cause us to have bad vibes because we got a nice view along the way. (I could go on and on about how our "guide" wasn't being much of a guide, but no to bad juju!)

1430 - Maranat Falls

Maranat Falls is a beauty.

We were greeted by the sight of clear water, smooth rocks, and a dozen more mountaineers wading and/or making their way across.

In crossing the falls, you are given three different options. The safest is to wade in the river and cross from there. The second is to go around up and down the rocks to cross the area. The third is to use the rope to shimmy your way from one end to the other.

The guides in the falls adviced people to cross the water instead as the rocks are slippery. Our guide, however, suggested that we cross via the various rocks around the falls. Took us a while since we were passing our bags from one person to the other but we made it safely. 

After this, our guide asked permission to leave since the campsite is just up ahead. At this point we were pretty glad to part ways with him.

We then sat at one rocky area near the falls to prepare lunch.

1630 - Continue to campsite

After lunch and a bit of resting, we proceeded to the last part of our hike - the ascent to the campsite. The ascent takes about 15 minutes to 30 minutes give or take. After climbing around rocks, you'll have a steep trail up the campsite.

1700 - ETA Campsite

The campsite can fit an amazing number of campers. There are lots of places where you can pitch your tent. Also, Tatay Nestor allows people to use his comfort room and to take some water.

That's his house over there.

We set up camp in a slightly sloped area since there were already about 50 campers who arrived earlier than we did.

Day 2

0630 - Wake up/ Breakfast

We woke up to a dreary, cloudy morning. We experienced some rain overnight and it was quite chilly.

We had our breakfast and had our quick/ not-so-quick bathroom breaks before breaking camp. We knew it will be raining soon and we didn't want to get stuck at the campsite for another day. They say that the water at the falls can reach up to the rope when it rains.

1030 - ETA Maranat Falls

We decided to wade through the water this time, passing our bags from one person to the other to keep it dry. Some of the mountaineers used the rope for their bags. After crossing, we rested a while since our friend's foot was bothering him. It was extremely swollen from a nasty trip on our ascent the day before.

1230 - Proceed to "descent"

I say the term "descent" loosely because as I've mentioned before, the trail is a series of ups and downs. We had to take it slow since we had an injured member, but then again, he seemed faster than me when walking. Such a trooper!

By this time, it started to rain heavily on us. We were cold ... freezing. We had to keep moving to keep warm (and of course, to arrive sooner rather than later since the last jeepney trip is at 6pm).

We only stopped for a quick "lunch" at around 2pm consisting of Fita, Pili Nuts, a can of Vienna Sausage (easy-open lid, thank goodness), and spicy tuna (again, easy-open lid). We were scooping out the tuna with the Fita. Haha. No time for utensils. We had to hurry.

Once we started seeing various houses, the trail got a bit confusing. Many forks on the road. We got lost a few times (under the rain) but thankfully there were other mountaineers heading down/ going up that helped us find our way back.

1630 - Arrive at jump off

Finally, we arrived at the Balagbag Health Center, where we signed their logbook signifying that we safely made our way back to the jump off point.

We were able to towel down (while some opted take quick baths at the health center for free) and keep ourselves slightly warm given the fact that the winds were blowing full force accompanied by the downpour. We discussed the best way to go down to Licao-licao and decided on taking the trike.

Apparently, because of the weather, only two trikes were making their way up and down the dirt road. We had to wait for the trikes. At that point, the kubo we stayed in provided little shelter from the storm, so they allowed us to stay in one of their offices.

1930 - ETA Licao-Licao

A trike arrived at around 7pm so half of us went down ahead of the others. We waited for about half an hour before the other half of our group arrived in Licao-Licao. Some of us took a quick dinner from the carinderia (menudo!) and then we took the last jeep out to Tungko. Since it was late and the jeepney driver waited for us, we paid P30 each for the ride.

2045 - ETA Tungko

The reality of what we experienced and the relief that followed was fully felt once we reached Tungko. We were safe from the cold wind and rain, and we were pretty sure we'd be able to get home by then.

We had some well deserved Jollibee after that crazy experience.

2130 - Leave Tungko (Go home! :D)