Dayhike Trip: Mt. Manalmon

by lakwatserong tatay

One of my favorite hiking destination that is near the Metro, and could also give your group a complete outdoor adventures from Trekking, Spelunking/Caving, River Exploration and called a Monkey Bridge where you have to cross above Madlum river using two mounted cable wires from each end. Its been few years back seen i've been on this mountain. Nestled in Brgy. Madlum, San Miguel, Bulacan. That's why this mountain is famous of its different adventures, so because of that, i've just set the date for this one day of complete outdoor adventures with Xplorerboyz and new found friends....^_^

Mt. Manalmon's peak

Getting there is just easy as 1-2-3, the travel around time would just took almost 2 hours however it may depends to traffic...^_^. This mountain is located in the town of San Miguel, Bulacan. So if you're coming from Manila, take any Cabanatuan bound bus from Baliwag Transit, ES Transport or Five Star Transport in Pasay or Cubao (php114). Just inform the conductor to drop you and your group to Brgy. Kamias. From Brgy. Camias, you would still need to ride a tricycle going to Brgy. Madlum (php250/5 pax). As you reach Sitio Madlum, there a checkpoint aka 1st registration (php5) and as you reach the Madlum river, you have to choose from two ways to cross the river, 1st is used of bamboo raft (php5) or 2nd is the used of two cable wires  to cross, also known as the monkey bridge (free) to reach the jump off point of Mt. Manalmon. We decided to do rafting since we have our carry on things and we don't want to have misfortunes to get wet while crossing through the cable wires (but we did experience it after the climb and caving adventures). As soon as you get to the otherside, another registration should be taken (php5) and a mandatory guide would also occur (php300-500), it would depends with your outdoor adventure package...^_^

ok,,let's start....

the bamboo raft ride....

With a little prep, we're off to trek to Mt. Manalmon, it's peak reaches at 196 MASL. Considered as a minor climb where could be trekked from 2-3 hours (back and forth, including photo opps...^_^).

the xplorerboyz with our other climbers...

Even though the trek would be short, this mountain requires a mandatory guide, i remember the first time i've been to this mountain, guides are visible but not as mandatory like now, you will just have to talk with locals within the Mt. Manalmon jump off if there are available to guide us or your group together with the caving experience.

A chapel near Mt. Manalmon jumpoff

The trek to summit starts with passing through Madlum cave (some may called it as Manalmon cave). One of its main attraction is the presence of the bats, so better to prepare your headlamps or maybe prepare to bat spoofs, that could be dropped to your head...^_^.

off to Madlum cave

one of the trails...

From there, one of the trails of Mt. Manalmon is the river crossing, my first visit to this place was kind a misfortune, on our way up the river was just knee deep however the following day it rains, causing the river to reach up to chest deep and we need to cross it using ropes with harness and holding your bag with your two hands up....so that why one of a kind experience i have with this river. However, this time it was really different, the river water was just few inches below my knee and under the striking heat of the sun.

one the river bed's

some of the rocks across the river.

of course, we have photo opps , me w/ xplorerboyz..^_^

Then the rest of the trek will be the normal hiking trails. What i mean is the start of quite uphill trek, where the view of the normal mountain trail will be visible. Walking underneath the shades of the trees and of course getting near the rock solid summit of Mt. Manalmon. Below our some of our photos while starting the real trek to its summit.

the view of Mt. Manalmon's peak

Mt. Gola (leftside) and Mt. Manalmon (rightside)

one of our quick breaks.....

where getting near....

it's the summit up there...

that's the place where i take the picture above...^_^

our guide..Kuya Bong...

Madlum River..

lush green scenery of coldillera mountain ranges...

view of the shy mt. arayat...

Kuya Bong, our Madlum guide...makwento & kwela yan toh

Peak of Mt. Gola, pagbalik ko ulit dito, two peaks nah!

Me, with two of our guest trippers...^_^

Mam April's and Mareng Elnie

D' xplorerboyz...(l) joel, melvin, carlo, me, jhovan & shanwar

xplorerboyz with our other guest trippers...

wag gagayahin...babala...^_^

Me @ Summit of Mt. Manalmon fronting Mt. Gola

Our trek up almost took us 1.5 hrs including photo opps along the way and we stayed above the for almost an hour, obvious naman sa dami ko pictures sa taas, actually an dami talaga nyan...konti pa yan... Our descend just only lasted an hour because most of us were really hungry, some of us alreadt ordered paluto before starting our trek, so most of them were really excited....^_^.

Our Itinerary (Dayhike with Activities):
0600 ETD Cubao Five Star Station near MRT station
0815 ETA Brgy. Kamias, San Miguel, Bulacan
0845 ETA jump off Sitio Madlum
0900 Start trek
1030 ETA summit
1130 Start descend
1230 ETA back to jump off (lunch)
1330 Spelunking adventure (Bayukbok Cave)
1600 Crossing monkey bridge experience and chillaxation time at Madlum River
1730 ETD Sitio Madlum
1800 ETA Brgy. Kamias junction (wait for buses bound to Cubao/Pasay)
2000 ETA Cubao/Pasay
2100 Home sweet home....back to Tatay mode..^_^

Our Expenses (Individual & Group):
Php 228 (Manila - Bulacan - Manila)
Php 100 Tricycle to and from Sitio Madlum (php200/tricycle, one way)
Php 300 Guide fee (divided to participants)
Php 10   Two registrations (brgy. checkpoint and jump off point)
Php 5     Balsa crossing
Php 20   Bayukbok Guide fee
Php 115 Preordered lunch (sinigang and tilapia with rice - optional)
Php 100 Zipline activity
Php 10   Toilet use
Php 50   Table rent

My total expense is Php 403 (did not get preordered lunch, zipline activity and trek fee and table rent is divided to all participants, not included my transportation to and from Antipolo). So the safe budget may occur from Php500-700 or safest would be Php1000...^_^

Contact Details:

Cecille Donceras (0909-7779667)
Carlito Carpio (0919-5746470) former president of Mt. Manalmon guides

Next story is all about the other activities we had at Sitio Madlum, from Spelunking/Caving experience at Bayukbok Cave, Test the fear of my cotrippers at Monkey Bridge crossing and Chillaxation/Swimming time at Madlum River. Sad to say we missed to explore more Madlum river, see more of the rock formations and trek to Mt. Gola. But there's always be a next time and i promised myself to do the activities i've missed on this One Day of Fullpacked Adventure.