Mt. Sembrano is located in the town of Pillilia Rizal. It's funny that I've been living here in Rizal for 23 years now and never have I thought that I'll end up wanting to explore more of my hometown.
To be honest, I don't even know the people I went out with yesterday. I just saw this event on Facebook about Mt. Sembrano and I got interested and decided to join the said event. It was an event organized by group of friends as well. Of course, I invited my friends but then again since they're really not into physical activities; my invitation got denied. Lol good thing, someone still accepted my invitation since she's also curious and would like to try this kind of activity. (Thanks Od! I know how tired you are yesterday. But still thank you for coming with me. :D)
Getting to Mt. Sembrano
Our call time was supposedly 4:30am at Shaw Blvd. Mcdonalds. We arrived just on time but since we're still waiting for the others, we had enough time to have some breakfast. I believe this is the usual meeting spot since its very accessible to everyone. We left Shaw by 6:00am. I'm just sleeping on our way to Tanay, Rizal. It was an hour travel, good thing it's a Sunday so we don't need to worry about Ortigas Avenue's traffic. We arrived at the Barangay Hall by 8:30am. We registered and we paid for the guide fee. To be honest I am not sure how much it cost since we just paid 550php/each excluding food which I paid for 35php.
After we registered. We went to by our packed lunch and started walking.
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The climb starts on a paved road which according to them is the easy part of the hike. It rained during the first 30 minutes of our hike which made the trail slippery. After an hour we reached our first stop, Manggahan Campsite as they call it. You'll be asked to pay again for registration. From this site, its 5 minutes walk to Manggahan Falls which was supposed to be our last stop before going home but instead we went there to rest and eat our packed lunch it was only 10:30am that time, there are a couple of sari-sari stores where in you can buy some refreshments. You can buy some fresh buko juice for only 20php.
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Manggahan Falls is a perfect side trip for your hike. It is just small but you can definitely rest here. I suggest that you visit the Falls after descending from the Summit. T'was the initial plan but then since it's raining we went there before heading to the summit.
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After our side trip to Manggahan Falls, we then again started to climb up the summit. The slopes started to get steeper and its was seriously slippery. I even slipped a lot of times good thing I have no injury. The hike up to the summit was supposed to be for an hour depending on your pace. I believe it took as an hour and a half since we slowed down because we have to be extra careful and we even have to pull ourselves up some rocks just with the help of some tree roots.
When we finally got out of the forest, I got this feeling of excitement because WE are almost there! but still the ascending trails didn't end from there.
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Before heading straight to the summit we then again took some rest and others ate their packed lunch. We are just 30 minutes away from the summit (still depending on your pace lol) Lesson learned; I should have brought my umbrella or a cardigan or something that would protect me from the heat of the sun but I didn't. So instead I just used my towel. Haha.
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And finally!!!! We reached the summit!! It's was all worth it. I can't describe how beautiful it is on top. Seeing the Laguna Bay, Sierra Madre mountains, Pillilia Rizal windmills. It was just so perfect! <3
The descending part is the easiest yet the trickiest part. The easiest because the trails now are all descending the trickiest because since it was slippery you might really fall down which actually happened to me. When we reached Manggahan campsite again, we again ordered their buko juice because we already ran out of water. It was again another 1 hour from the campsite going down. We will be taking a bath on the Barangay Hall according to our tour guide.
On our way down we passed by a store to buy again some refreshments but they already ran out of drinks. The store owner offered as a free drink instead, and offered us for a free bath. They offer it for free since according to her they don't pay for their water since it was coming from the spring so instead we just bought some chips from her store since she doesn't want us to pay for anything.
It was really tiring but it was all worth it when you reached the summit. So happy to meet a lot of new friends and to hear different travel stories from them.
Special thanks to Layag Malaya Backpackers Corp. for organizing this hike. :)
This was my first and definitely not the last climb. <3
