mudspring hike

south-east asia → philippines → laguna → los baños

it’s funny to think that after living and studying in los baños for four years, i haven’t been to mudspring until yesterday. well, i hiked makiling during my stay at the university but it’s more on the other side (boy scout jamboree camp, philippine highschool for the arts, etc..) and i’m doing it because they’re more of "because it’s required". my frequent visits to DOST PCARRD at the beginning of semesters is a bit of a hike too. in uplb, you’ll learn to love walking. although you could go around by jeepneys, most students move from class to class by manual walk (probably except when your class is at college of forestry and the next subject is math. hehe). while i was here, i’ve been walking around for my classes too. i lived in at least 5 different dormitories/apartments over my 4-year stay and only one of them was too far from the campus that i have to take jeepney every morning. for CWS (type of military training), i would walk every saturday morning from animal husbandry to baranggay Putho-Tuntungin…or from baranggay Lalakay uphill going to a public school where we do community works and other projects. suffices to say, going around by manpower is a norm around the campus.

i’ve been away from this place for four years. the last time i was here was when i returned my toga (april 2004). busy work has prevented me from coming back sooner, and because i really wanted to pay a visit plus take pictures, i asked the company of some lomo friends. we don’t have real plans other than meeting at 7am in petron slex yesterday (due to extreme heavy traffic we were late). it was nice to say that everything turns good. although apparently most of us are so exhausted that i heard some took a day-off today or came in half-day for work. it was good exercise anyway. more or less 9 kilometers both ways combined, mudspring can be reached around 2.5 hours going up and considerably less time going down (gravity, thanks..) suprisingly, we were warned of robbers so we had to keep our precious cameras and most of us used lomo cams (aka plastic toy cams) instead. lomo cams won’t attract thieves. this is so true. one of us had his bag stolen before, and inside it is an orange holga. his phone got lost, and a few meters around the vicinity, he saw his ponkan holga lying on the ground. haha…they don’t fancy toy plastic cameras that looks like a kinder water jug. hehe

anyway, the trail wasn’t that hard actually. it’s not steep nor a blockade of thorny shrubs. i guess it was just too long for some of us. nearly there, we stopped in a mini-store for some noodles and drinks. further 20 minutes, we reached mudspring. here, we brought out and began shooting again with our digitals. and that, probably, is the biggest difference in shooting film and digital. with digital, you could take a plethora of shots without being too concerned on the composition. you could repeat clicking anyway. with films, every shot is a frame being expensed. although totally out of lomo principle (don’t think, just shoot), i always feel conscious on my every shot. 120 film is not so easy to find these days, plus they cost, as well as processing and scanning. i finished 3 rolls. good enough as i have 2 used rolls at home (giving a grand total of 5 rolls, which means i can now have them developed at digiprint!)

mudspring is a mud pot in mount makiling, an inactive volcano. due to volcanic heat, sulfuric acid breaks down surrounding rocks into clay. it mixes with water and form mud that is very hot, sulfuruous, and acidic. despite having signs that we’re not suppose to cross the fence, we feel it’s still safe to get a bit more closer. hehe.. so we cross the line, and took better pictures. a thing to note here is the smell. they’re similar to rotten eggs or on several occasions i believe, human fart. a really bad one.

after resting a bit and splashing some cool water flowing in a nearby rocky path, we started our journey back. it was faster, and i’m uncertain if it’s gravity or our hungry stomach impatiently need for lunch is pulling us down. arriving at the entrance station, we can’t continue walking anymore, so alvin and ian decided to walk and get the pick-up. 3 among us inside the car, 7 of us (including me) were at the back (sitting like cargos) holding carefully as the road is slightly going down. now at our base (college of forestry), we had a brief stop to change clothes, refresh a bit, some music jammin’, and take a couple more pictures. we proceeded going down at the campus ground, and had lunch carinderia-style. a lot of eateries are closed (it was sunday), and i suddenly remember one that we frequent before. batcave. the carinderia that doesn’t look like one. boarding house outside, fast hot food inside. the same owners are operating the place (a not-so-average-big-boned plump woman and her husband). and just like before, i ordered lechon kawali, with mang tomas of course and 1 and a half rice.

now full and slightly sleepy, we walked back to the campus straight to kwek-kwek tower and oblation, where we sat down on the grass (good nobody told us it’s not allowed, i’m not sure on this one. for 4 years, i don’t often see people sitting and dawdling on the grass in this part. freedom park of course, but this grassy part in front of oblation?). the sky was dark, but there was no rain. finishing my third roll, they ran out of films as well, we decided to call it a day.

i guess since glai was overly tired (as all of us are),  i offered to drive going back. hers is the same type of car, a purple honda city, but with 1.5 engine. a bit obvious by now that we love stopovers, we had the last one in an slex shell station. kfc dinner + starbucks.

full event album -> here 

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some info regarding the hike:

entrance fee: Ps 5.00 per human hiker ;D
time cut-off they allow hikers to start: 1pm (mudspring) , 2 pm (flatrocks), peak-two is currently closed
contact number: +6349 536-3572

how to go from manila (north): use SLEX, until the end. exit at ‘Calamba-Los Baños-Pagsanjan’. this is the very last exit of  SLEX at the moment. straight ahead national road passing by waltermart calamba on your right until reaching an intersection with stop light and jolibee on one corner. turn right from the intersection. further straight, you’ll reach the town of los baños. from some point you can already see makiling on your right. a few more kilometers, you will pass by olivarez los baños on your left, and then another intersection with jolibee on its corner. turn right here. straight ahead and you’ll be entering UPLB. there is a 5-peso entrance fee (per vehicle) for outsiders. after passing the gate, turn right. now do yourself a bit effort by looking for college of forestry. (still far up from the gate) this will be the base of your hike. there will be signs for directions heading to the trail.

tips and notes: at the moment, you can hike flatrocks (relatively short at sub 1-km) or mudspring (more fun and longer at ~4 km). they collect 5-peso per head fee at the start of the hike. be careful of your belongings as there have been reports of holduppers. if the story says true, an armed young boy harassed and mugged a group hikers of 11! now, this is not to scare you! of course there wlll always be risk when dealing with the outdoors. be vigilant and be wary of your surroundings! *nothing bad happened when we were there*