Dayhike to Mt. Malipunyo / Malarayat

Having missed hiking last December, I quickly accepted an open climb invite by Ms. SP for a Mt. Malipunyo - Mt. Manabu traverse dayhike on last Sunday of January. With more than 15 participants, she arranged a van to take us to our jump off point in Lipa City, Batangas.

Below are the specs of the mountain from Pinoy Mountaineer's blog:

 
MT. MALIPUNYO (MT. MALARAYAT)
Batangas and Laguna
Entry point: Brgy. Talisay, Lipa
Exit point: Brgy. Atisan, San Pablo City
Elevation: 1005 MASL
Days required / Hours to summit: 1 day / 3-5 hours
Specs: Minor climb, Difficulty 3/9, Trail class 2-3

We've had our breakfast in McDonalds at Lipa City, where I bought a sandwich for my packed lunch. It took us some time to find the jump off point, which set the "we are lost" trend of our hike that day, as it was followed by about 3 detours to find the correct trail to Mt. Malipunyo's summit.

I think we started our hike past 8:00 am, after our prayers and stretchings. Good thing that most parts of the trail are shaded by trees, so its not that dehydrating. Tthere is no food store or clean water source, except on the triangle house.

Coffee and other plants made good distractions on our hike.

Our guide JV took us first on a grass ridge, very near the pointed summit of Mt. Susong Dalaga or Maiden's Breast. It gave us nice views of the neighboring mountains and Mt. Maculot, but its not the right trail to Mt. Malipunyo, the highest mountain on the Malarayat mountain range.

So we backtracked and chose another trail, backtracked again, then found ourselves at the triangle house of a local guide, who was not around that time. There is a trail to Mt. Malipunyo on that area, but we are looking for that steeper and longer trail from the stream. 

To compound our problem, our guide and some of our members got separated, so we wasted about 3 hours due to many detours and waiting for our hikemates.

While waiting for our companions, but now confident of the correct trail, we ate our lunch along the stream with blue pipes at past 12:00 noon. From this point, the trail to Mt. Malipunyo's summit became steep and slippery. Less than 15 minutes to the summit, Mount Cristobal can be seen blocking Mt. Banahaw on the east side from one of the mountain's peaks.

Before 3:00 pm, we finally arrived at the summit. We took a short break and photo shoots, despite the hazy and sunny weather. 

A carved figure of Jesus' head rests on a tree on the summit.

On the northeast lies the Laguna volcanic cone fields, as well as Mounts Atimla and Kalisungan.

Mt. Makiling lies on the north, while Mt. Tagapo and Laguna Lake are behind it.

On the west lies Mt. Maculot in Cuenca, Batangas. On its back is the remaining Taal Volcano and lake.

We arrived back to the triangle house by almost 5:00 pm. Since we expect nightfall by 6:00 pm, and considering that half of our team has no headlamp, we decided not to proceed on Mt. Manabu's summit. 

We went back to the jump off point, then we got transferred to the jump off point of Mt. Manabu. Its where we arranged our dinner of native tinolang manok (chicken in ginger-papaya soup) and grilled tilapia, with bottomless coconut drink.

Above picture shows the aftermath of our boodle fight, hehe. Thanks to Mr. Ramon Villanueva, my coworker and fellow mountaineer, who prepared our dinner food after our long hike. If hiking here and you want a different food than the usual lomi noodle soup, you can arrange it with Ramon at 0917-4543786.