MARIVELES TARAK RIDGE 3707 feet

TARAK RIDGE

Brgy Alas Asin Mariveles Bataan
May 9 2016

At 3.30 pm after our successful traverse on Mt Arayat exactly a month ago, we were bound again to North West on the beautiful peninsula of Bataan. A well-known place not just for its rich history but for its beautiful mountains of Mt Natib and Mt Mariveles both popular hiking destination for mountaineers and outdoor enthusiasts. This was my 9^th official climb and 5^th major hike.

It was in the 90’s when AMCI pioneered the first known documented exploration on its summit, now it is well known and famous destination to amateur and professional climbers before Mt Marivles Pantingan’s peak was also discovered by SKY BISCOCHO a pioneer of Philippine mountaineering. Our climb focused on Tarak Ridge.

Joining our team at that time is my friend Jefferson Caparas Barrit and his friend both outdoor enthusiasts, we were total of three. The trail started from Nanay Cording's place to Papapaya River and up to its ridge.  Finally to its summit which has an altitude of 3707 feet. We estimated a 5 hours trek to its ridge which was suppose to be our campsite.The proximity of Tarak Ridge to Mt Mariveles Pantingan Peak is roughly estimated total 12 hours trekking. Furthermore, Pantigan Peak is considered the highest of all peaks in the mariveles mountain range which has an altitude of 4,100 feet.

There is a traverse coming from the other side of Mt Mariveles up to Pantingan Peak down to Bakwat River and up again to the ridge line passing through Elasco Peak downward to the known Tarak Ridge .  Tarak Ridge has  a scale of difficulty of 4 to 9 with a trail class of 1-4.

At 4.00 pm, we were at Nanay Cording's place, the major jump off point of Tarak Ridge. We were 2 hours late on our itinerary, and in a hurry. We planned to camp on Tarak Ridge's campsite by afternoon but we failed to do so because we came late. Its ridge is a 5hours trek from our jump off point. We met fellow hikers resting on the jump off point. They just finished hiking Tarak  a day before we arrived and already on their way back to Manila. After we had our registration on Nanay Cording's  Log book, we commenced our trek on our first Goal Papaya River, we were the last team.

The first part of the trail segment was a typical forest scenery, totally dry because of the effects of El Nino and also because it was summer. I saw large trunks of tree fallen which was cut in half due to strong typhoons that struck the peninsula. Some of those were blocking  parts of the trail.  We had to crawl under or climb over so we could pass through. After 10 minutes, we took our early dinner before continuing our journey.

We arrived on the first view deck by 5PM after 15mins after we had our early dinner.  From the view deck, I could almost see Corregidor Island from a far  and the view of Ridge to the north as we rest for for a bit. We took pictures on our way as we ascend steeper. The soil was golden brown similar to clay but i enjoyed walking through it, because it was much better than a muddy trail. Also,  I had to endure the dusty paved trail while carrying my 25kg back pack. 

 From my left, I saw Rattan, Mahogany and Kamagong and from my right I saw the Ridge.   After 10mins of walking, we entered the forest trail passing through some high grass bushes  which were five feet in tall.  The sun was on the other side of Ridge, so the trail will become unnoticeable.  We geared up our headlights 25min earlier while we were resting on the first view deck. At around 6.00 pm, we  pass the rock formation which has vandalism markings on its side.  It was already dark at  6.15 pm due to tall centenarian trees covering the path. I heard the sound of indigenous birds chirping and chirping around us.

At 6.30 pm,  it was totally dark.  We switched our lights on.  My head light attached to my backpack and LED light from my buddy, Jeff,  lightened our way.   The trail was continuously flat and some of the segment had big rocks blocking it so we need to get around it before we could pass through. We were walking 3hours  from our jump off point. There were hikers ahead of us but we did not exactly know where they were physically at that time, plus with no guide and only a GPS, we just trusted the trail. Since it was our first time hiking Tarak we were not  familiar with its terrain.  I refer from the blog sites I read once.  There were mountaineers went missing in Tarak for 4days because of wrong turns, I was thrilled! (I really like adventures and wilderness.) After 30mins of walking, we saw lights coming from a distance, I heard stream of flowing water, an indicator that we were close to Papaya River.

At 7.10 p.m. we were approaching the lights we saw, I heard voices of people having fun, I saw campfire and I also heard music playing from the radio. We had to cross the river when we arrive in Papaya, which was the camping site, we had to tiptoe on the rocks so we could cross. The water was running smoothly and was also very clear!  Some mountaineers welcomed us and ask if we would joined them.   My group eventually agreed to camp with them because it was already 7.15pm, and because according to our new friends it would took us around 1 to 2 hours of assault in the 2nd part of the trail which is the steepest part of Tarak and also because our team was already starving. Although I was initially motivated to continue, my buddies were hesistant to continue so we agreed to assault the Ridge the following morning.  We set our tent and prepared for our dinner.

We finished pitching our tent at 7:45 p.m..  We prepared for dinner, we got our water source from Papaya River which we used for cooking.  The river was so clean and cool. I set a campfire to dry my shoes because it was soaked wet earlier when we were crossing the river. It was 8.30pm when we finished our dinner and by 9pm LIGHTS OUT!

The next day at 4.45am my alarm woke me up, it was cool, quiet peaceful morning. I began meditating for 15mins on top of a rock before my hiking buddies came out. We started to prepare for our early morning assault and planned to have breakfast on the summit. We just drink our morning coffee, after we pitched our tents. We refilled our water source on Papapaya River and by 5.30 a.m., we were back on the track.

The second part of the trail segment was the steepest part of the trail we have encountered so far. Papaya River lies beneath the heart of the Ridge and is also located on the lowest part.  I have concluded that to ascend from Papaya to the Ridge is considered the most challenging part of the trail considering the time required to reach the ridge is actually just one and half hour.

We started stretching at 5:15 a.m. before commencing our assault.   We crossed the same Papaya river again and continued our trail going to the right.  The trail features  a well establish stair steps made of rock segments.  We met fellow hikers assaulting the second part and was also on their way to the Ridge, yet, we push through until we arrived at the Giant Balete tree.  It was 6.30 am.

I met a professional mountaineer who was also an ultra-marathon trail runner and we had short talk.  He was busy guiding a group of newbies.  It was his ninth time assaulting the Ridge. From traverse to exploration climbs, he had done major hikes ranging from the hardest climbs of Mt G2 in Sibuyan Island and Mt Halcon in Baco Mindoro.  Two of the hardest climbs in Philippine Mountaineering and both 9/9 in difficulty and was dubbed by GIDEON LASCO two of the KNIFE EDGE trilogy. He was set to summit PUNCAK JAYA (carztenz pyramid) in Indonesia late part of this year.  Puncakjaya is one of the 7th Summits in the world and the highest mountain in the Pacific Basin with an altitude of 16,027 feet.   I was amazed by his passion.  As an amateur climber, it was an overwhelming feeling to meet people whom I have similar passion in life especially on the outdoors.

By 6.40 am, we continued our assault on the Ridge. This was the time when the trail got steeper. We continued assaulting   for 30 minutes of solid vertical trail, at 80 degrees slopes. I had to use both of my hands and my trekking pole for support.

We arrived on the ridge at 7:10 a.m.,  I was mesmerized by the stunning view of Corregidor Island, the Manila Bay which was behind me and a preview of Tarak Ridge's summit. We met a large group of fellow hikers descending the Ridge.  They have traversed from the other side of Mt Mariveles. We continued to push through passing the Grassland segment which was dry and golden yellow. The wind was strong as I could feel the cool summer breeze right where I was standing. We pass the the campsite area of the Ridge and there were hikers camping the shaded part of ridge while they were busy making breakfast.  We took time capturing beautiful moments.  It was PRICELESS!

7.45 when we resumed assaulting the ridge towards its summit which was about 30mins away.  The 3rd part of the trail was very dry and dusty, I needed to crawl on the  upper part of it. Eventually not taking precautions, I didn't notice the rattan that scratched my left arm, but thankfully I have first aid kit. By 8.30am we left our bags on the view deck right before the summit which was 10 minutes away.

The final segment of the trail was composed of roots, trees and bagging's that served as handles so that we could push ourselves up from the big rocks covering the trail, finally at 8.45am we were on the summit of Tarak. The half part of it was covered by trees and rocks. We continued walking until we saw the wonderful 270 degree view of Mariveles City, West Philippine Sea and Mt Mariveles. The sun was shinning on the great Sunday morning.

I thanked GOD for the wonderful view, all our efforts paid off after 6 hours of trekking. We rest on the summit for 30 minutes while taking pictures until we met fellow hikers enjoying the majestic view. There was a higher peak so called "elasco peak" but we were hungry that time that we decided to eat breakfast.

We decided to descend at 10 a.m. after having enough time taking good shots on the summit and its great scenery and topography.   I realized how massive Mt Mariveles was. Up until this date, some parts of it has not yet been discovered.   We just explored the known 20% of the whole mountain range.  Probably there were more beautiful peaks waiting to be discovered and I have high hopes someday I can join an exploration team discovering it. There was known story from its peak. It was Feb 9 1942 during the heat of World War II when a young Sgt Toshida Kurosawa, a Japanese Fighter pilot of a (KI97), fought a dogfight batte between an American P40 warplane, eventually Kurosawa's plane (KI97) crashed close to Tarak's summit killing Sgt Kurosawa.

(photo credit to Kevin R Hamdorf)

It was only in the year 2007 when a team of explorers searching for missing WW2 pilots headed by Col. Ralph Wetterhahn (Ret USAF) and a group of Aetas who served as guide retrieved the remains of the missing aircraft together with a tooth of a human being and was believed to be Sgt Kurosawa's remains. The interesting part was it was just hundreds of feet below the summit. (See above photo)

10.30am we met fellow hikers ascending  their way to the summit while we were descending, I saw mountaineers pitching their tents on the ridge. We reached the 1st view deck by 10.45am it was now already hot. We continued descending until were finally back again on the steepest part of the trail.

We arrived on Papaya River by 12noon, we prepared lunch before going back to jump off point, by now we saw the hidden beauty of Papaya River, its calmness, its crystal clearness, its clean and cool water were freely flowing from my foot. We prepared our lunch and after were finished we jumped into the sacred spring. it was refereshing and cool, a relief from the hot weather. We met foreign hikers and local hikers who were also enjoying this wonderful gift of nature. 

(Note that the water from Papaya River is potable and safe)

We finished by 2.30pm we were together with hikers camping just beside the river as we continued our trek by 3.00pm we finally bid goodbye to this beautful gift of nature, We trekked the whole terrain in just 2hours, an hour earlier yesterday when we're ascending. We met felow hikers on their way to Papaya River, and we reached the first view deck on the first segment by 4,30Pm we rest for a bit and by 

5.00pm were back on Nanay Cordings place. Nanay Cording welcomed us, she is the old lady kown to mountaineers hiking in tarak. She own a litte store besde the jump off point. I was carrying a bag full of trash we collected on Papapaya River when nanay Cording thank me for protecting the mountain. I was relieved and touch by this old Mountain lady as she offered us drinks but we were in a hurry because we have to catch up the last trip going to Manila befor 6PM 

By 5.45pm we were on our way to Manila

Mt Mariveles possess a rich history that has not been known to many, and those who sought to discover it will see its hidden treasures. Its people, history and its kindness will make everyone climb back to Tarak over and over again.

TARAK RIDGE
Mariveles, Bataan
Jump off point: Brgy. Alas-asin, Mariveles
LLA: 14°30.357′N, 120°30′E, 3,310 feet (ridge); 3,707 feet (peak)
Days required / Hours to summit: 2 days, 5-6 hours
Specs: Major climb, Difficulty 4/9, Trail class 3

source pinoymountaineer2016