Getting Lost: Mountain of pain and plenty (The Kabayan/Mt. Pulag Trek)

5 MIN READ

By GLORIA A. TUAZON

Kabayan is a place we get to hear often these days but do not know much about. It is a municipality located at the eastern part of Benguet bounded by Buguias and Bokod on two sides and by Ifugao and Nueva Viscaya on the other sides. With thirteen (13) barangays, it is home to more than 12,000 people of three different tribes, the Ibalois comprising the majority and the other two tribes of Kankanaeys and the Kalanguyas. The place primarily thrives on agriculture, producing crops such as coffee, cauliflower and other vegetables and the famous “kintoman” or the aromatic brown rice.

TABEYO SWAMP. Water from the mountains accumulated and pooled to create this swamp in Kabayan. At sunset, Tabeyo Swamp is one beautiful sight, sorrounded by hills and some vegetable gardens which at this time is a logroll of golden hay stacks, ready for the next planting season. Photo courtesy of Gloria A. Tuazon

Tourism is also a word most assimilated to Kabayan where mummies are famous attraction to lure tourists to the area. Also known to most is the pristine sky rise mountain of Mt. Pulag. At an altitude of 9,640 feet above sea level, it claims its throne as the second highest mountain in the archipelago, next to Mt. Apo in Mindanao. This is a mountain considered sacred by the locals, one they dub to be the “playground of the Gods”. This great mountain is home to more than 528 species of plants to include alnus trees, oaks, Benguet pine, ferns, orchids, mosses and dwarf bamboos.

Mt. Pulag is also home to 33 different bird species and other mammals, most of which are nearing extinction. Gone were the running slithe-footed Philippine deers and snorting wart hogs. Today the hunters often go home empty-handed or it takes forever to catch a lone prey. The long-haired fruit bats which are endemic to the place have also dwindled in number. They are part of the threatened mammals in Mt. Pulag along with the biggest known rat specie in the world, the giant, bushy-tailed cloud rat (buwet). A rodent so big it could pass up as a cat.

The serene, solitary trails inside the Mossy Forest at Mt. Pulag. The path for this trek was carved out of the old hunters’ trails, zigzagging among the age-old trees and giant ferns and a myriad of assorted orchids and other flora. Photo by Gloria A. Tuazon

To protect all these, Proclamation No. 75 was passed and approved on February 20, 1987, which designated a huge chunk of the mountain as a National Park. Due to the numerous threats of denudation and decline and for so many other reasons the act was necessary even if the first signs of encroachment was already evident. The beauty of the imposing mountain had to be preserved, to stand tall and ominous as a mystery like it did when it was born out of the earth.

It was in the early morning of November the 2nd, 2007,when a group of 60 first timers and seasoned hikers accompanied by 18 coordinators, rescuers, security, porters and guides gathered to challenge this proud mountain of Kabayan. By invitation from the town officials, strangers from all over joined the three-day Pasiyal shi Kabayan tour.

PULAG VISIT. Some of the sixty-something hikers who dared to brave the freezing summit fog and drizzle of Mt. Pulag at dawn of November 4, 2007 highlighting the three-day trek dubbed Pasiyal Shi Kabayan organized by the LGU of Kabayan to promote consciousness for environmental and cultural awareness. Photo courtesy of Gloria A. Tuazon

It was not just a trek to climb a mountain because it happens to be there. This mini-expedition organized by officials to include the Municipal Tourism Action Officer Engr. Berry K. Sangao Jr. and Councilor Dorothea S. Sental with the active participation and approval of Mayor Faustino M. Aquisan aimed to “promote and develop a sense of consciousness for environmental and cultural preservation” among the participants. To bolster this project Aquisan said an amount of P100,000 was taken out of the municipal coffers to fund the clearing of a permanent trail to the Mossy Forest from Tawangan Barangay, a long-time investment centering on eco-tourism.

As it was, Mt. Pulag is indeed a mountain of plenty. Along the way to barangay Tawangan is the unpolluted, enchanted lake of Ambulalakao (Bulalakaw Lake). To the locals a legend exists that the lake only shows its glorious self to a few it chooses, often blanketing itself in a shroud of thick, white mist. Aptly named Bulalakaw which means “shooting star”, it was believed that the ascendants of the natives used the banks of this lake to gaze at the stars above. The water here is mirror-clear and clean, often freezing cold earning the honor as a consistent finalist in the country’s search for the cleanest inland lakes.

In barangay Tawangan hikers were welcomed and exposed to the cultures of these Benguet tribes. A hearty meal of boiled pork slabs and rice compliment the merry-making. Everybody had a chance to do the tayao, a popular Ibaloi dance, and got to watch the locals perform the butterfly and monkey dance along with the more popular Bendian dance of the Ibalois.

The morning after was a test of courage, will and endurance. Now comes the mountain as a symbol of pain. The paths were carved out from the old hunters’ trails along and inside the foreboding Mossy Forest. Beautiful and enchanting as it is, it is also heart-gripping with the dense fog crawling most of the time among the moss-covered trees, like weeping willows, the moss “dripped” from tree trunks and branches, like limbs tweaking the imaginations of those left alone or lost in its embrace. The deafening silence often contributing to the mystery of it all.

For 20 kilometers or so of arduous and tooth-and-nail dirt clawing and hiking, the forest finally ended to a clearing of rolling grassland. The loud whistling wind was flattening the grass on one side with its force. It is cold up there, at that altitude frost often settles and a few hikers who “bled” their guts to do the climb and finished the trek to late night hours suffered from hypothermia, not to count the stiff, fatigued muscles and almost drained morale. But dawn is a few hours away and the thought of doing the final lap to the summit is hope. And at last it happened. The pain gone, the mountain of plenty was once again friendly after the conquer.

A pinch of sun smiled, like salt sprinkled over the horizon, giving the mountain its final taste. #