Katkat sa Palaopao
Mt Palaopao, Sumilao, Bukidnon
It was a good day for trek and mountain climbing. We took an hour bus ride going to Kisolon, Bukidnon to trek and climb Mt. Palaopao, one of the least and underrated visited peaks in the province.
Funny but it happened that oversleeping will lead to Malaybalay City instead of Sumilao, Kisolon.
Since spontaneity for me is high- key and instead of wasting the 30- minute waiting time for a bus back to Kisolon. I decided to climb the talk of the town and most visited peak in Malaybalay which is the Two Trees Mountain.
Amidst the tall cogon- cogon grass is a tree that grew with 2 trunks on it, which was named then after as Two Trees Mountain.
The narrow trail going to the peak makes it more challenging and the 30- minute trek is just a walk in the park.
There in the top, you can see the whole city of Malaybalay while contrasting the vibrancy of green grasses and saturating yourself to the sunlight shining from the above. It was worth a short climb though.
This is a perfect warm up for the Palaopao climb.
Then, going back at exactly 10 am to Kisolon where it's only a 30- minute bus ride to the area there you can see the beauty of Mt Palaopao across the basakan or the rice field while trying to showcase the cross in the peak from afar.
With the very hot weather and environmental temp of 29 degree C, sunscreen and mositurizers, complete trek gear and turbans must be applied.
I call the first trail as the Basakan trail where you need to cross a vast, muddy, butterfly- riched rice fields before you reached the "surprise" trail.
The surprise trail is a trek down to the valley to witness the high current, running river. It was so steep that i was able to jog going down.
From the river point, i realized that Mt Palaopao is a guarded with a big plateau. Crossing the bridge will lead you to another very steep trek going to the Sitio.
In the sitio, you can ask for a tour guide which you only pay for a minimum of P 250. From the sitio, the hell- like travel continued.
Trailing the winding paths going up while brushing your skin to the very tall and abrasive tanglad- tanglad grass.
Surprisingly, along the way you can see station crosses uplifted on big rocks since the Mt Palaopao is ideal for holy week rituals.
The big cross on the peak concludes the 1 and half hour trek. It is so exhilarating that i was able to complete the climb amidst the scorching heat of the 12 nn sun.
The windy area and cloudy skies favored the resting time and the cliff views highlighted gow God make ALL things possible.
*Katkat is a Kagay- an word which means to climb.