Vulcaneering at Mt. Bulusan Pt 1: From Bulusan Lake To Camp

As early as the end of January, plans have already been made for us to go on a climb to Mt. Bulusan in Irosin, Sorsogon during the Holy Week on the first week of April. Calendars have been marked, leaves of absences from work have been initially filed, bus tickets have been booked… Holy Week came around, and Typhoon Maysak loomed, with all forecasts saying that the region where Mt. Bulusan is located will get the brunt of the typhoon. (So we moved things around a bit and decided to head up north, instead, to Batad. I chronicled that trip in these posts.) We then moved our Mt. Bulusan adventure to Labor Day weekend. 

(Disclaimer: All photos are mine unless otherwise indicated on the pics.)

Originally, there were almost 20 of us, half is Team Baguio, and the other is Team Manila. In the end, due to conflicting work schedules, others had to cancel, and only Team Baguio was intact (ok, except for one who cancelled) and the five of us were joined by two others from Manila.

Our seven-strong team met up at the Araneta Cubao Bus Terminal in the afternoon of the 29th and took the night bus to Irosin, Sorsogon. It was such a looooooong trip, especially for us, who had to take a 6-hour bus ride from Baguio to Cubao, followed by another 12-hour bus trip from Cubao to Irosin.

We arrived at Irosin at a little past 8am, had breakfast at a local eatery, and took a tricycle to the Mt. Bulusan National Park.

The Bulusan Volcano Natural Park, or BVNP, is 3,673 hectares wide. It is a rainforest that is considered to be a protected area, and in the middle of it is Mt. Bulusan, which is an active volcano. (And, yes, it is active. On the day of our assault to the summit, right after we left the crater, it spewed smoke. PHEW. But I’ll talk about that in a later post.) It was designated as a National Park in 1935, but only declared as a Natural Park by the government in 2000.

We were welcomed by the staff of AGAP, and they had our blood pressures taken, with a short orientation. We were also given our IDs, and were made to sign waivers. We also took the time to repack so we can bring only what we needed, just to ease the load. We then had lunch, and set off.

The waiting area was situated by the Bulusan Lake itself, so you can enjoy a view of the entire lake. There was even a miniature of the entire Bulusan Volcano Natural Park, just to give us a bird’s eye view.

The whole climb was coordinated by one of our companions with AGAP Bulusan, or the Aggrupation of Advocates for Environmental Protection of Bulusan. Two guides were assigned to our group, and let me just give major propz to everyone who made the whole adventure awesome!

To get to the jump-off point of our ascent up Mt. Bulusan, you have to ride on kayaks and row your way across the Bulusan Lake. I’ll be honest and say this is my first time riding on one without an expert rower or kayaker on board. We just took assurance from the knowledge that no one has died yet (or so we were told) even if they fell into the water.

Two minutes of rowing into the lake, and we were already enjoying ourselves, even stopping to take photos and videos. Haha!

This is a view of the lake from the other side, where the hike will start.

As part of the advocacy, we were given one seedling of lanzones each, for us to plant on the way. We had to bring them up with us on the hike.

I would rate the hike up the trail as “moderate” in terms of difficulty. It’s actually a pretty friendly trail, with no real challenges or hard spots to overcome. It gets slippery in some parts because of muddy patches, but it was still relatively easy to overcome.

We arrived at a shed, where we were told to leave the seedlings, which we will plant tomorrow, on the way back.

As we got closer to the end of our trek (the campsite), our guide warned us that “matek” or alimatek, or small leech are abundant in the area. Sure enough, I felt something cold against the back of my left hand. When I looked, there’s this small leech and it has latched on. I tried flicking it off, but it has stuck on real good. Our guide said to just let it have its fill. And that is exactly what I did, watching it grow slowly, and feeling that teeny-tiny sensation of suction going on.

ICK.

Then, when it had feasted and had its fill, it slipped off.

So why did I just let it take a bit of my blood? Forcibly prying it away will leave an open wound on my skin, and that will be inviting more complications. By letting it have its way, it will close up my skin, so there won’t be any open wound. Sure enough, when it slipped off, the only sign that it ever happened was a reddish spot, as if it was just bitten by a mosquito.

I wish I had taken a photo of the sucker. I admit I panicked during the first few seconds, then the panic was replaced by revulsion, haha! Then resigned tolerance. So taking a photo did not occur to me until later.

And then, finally, we arrived at the campsite. There was a small shed where the guides will be sleeping. The rest of us will be setting up camp.

There are three main peaks, and the highest among them is the Bulusan volcano itself. From the campsite, you can see the top of the volcano. It is 1,565 meters above sea level. On its other side is the crater, which we will check out the next day.

We started the hike at 1:15 pm, although we started kayaking at 12:45pm, which means it took us almost 30 minutes to row across the lake! Man, time sure flies fast when you’re having a lot of fun. We arrived at the campsite at 4pm. That means it was a 3-hour hike, and that was already with numerous stops for photos. 🙂

Before pitching the tents, however, our guides suggested we check out Lake Aguingay, which is just around 10 minutes’ walk away from the campsite. And that’s what we’ll look at in my next post. See ya then!

(Note: Right now, many tours and climbs to the crate of Mt. Bulusan are being cancelled. Refer to their Facebook page Wild Boars for more info.)