My Adventure to Tanudan

Tanudan has a lot of Tourist spot which is still unexplored, I spent my holy week climbing the rugged mountains of tanudan specially Mt. Binaratan and Matabor falls.I have only one day to prepare for the climb so i went unprepared.
From Tabuk we travel through the rugged road of Tanudan until we reached the end of the road which is the start of our adventure.From tattakkan Tanudan we decided to spent the night at Barangay Dacalan after a long hike and river crossing.We spent the night planning for our climb at Mt. Binaratan..We are being warned by the people that the place is infiltrated by the NPA (Mt. Binaratan is the boundary of Tanudan Kalinga and Mountain Province).So we even armed ourselves with automatic rifles just incase ,we will die engaging them.We hired people to guide us through our climb and to make a way for us because the place have never been explored for a long time.We are told that we are the 2nd team to attempt before this Group from UP although they didn't make it to the summit so we will try to attempt to be the first outsiders group to reach the summit..We are even surprised to know that 95% of the people of Dacalan didn't even went to what was called "The Silent Mountain" Mt. Binaratan..
I have a lot of hiking experience when i was still a cadet from PMA. We even climbed Sto. Thomas from PMA to Kennon to Mt. Sto Thomas..Our footmarch from Baguio to Poro Point La union, Our FTX at Ternate Cavite But i still consider Mt. Binaratan to be one of the challenging adventure. It is very hard to climb a mountain when there is no existing way,Just Like Mt. Binaratan..Maybe someday when the site will be promoted it will soon develop into a tourist spot and to be declared as protected area..
One of our cameras have been soaked in the middle of the river when one of our companion slip when we are crossing the river.The trail is so bad,The path is full of blood sucking leech (matek), Black ants, and it is very slippery.The land is always wet but you can't find a stream with in Mt. Binaratan(Silent Mountain)..We decided to established our camp atleast halfway to the summit because it is the only place where we can find water although we are still frustrated due to the facts that we can only get a drop of water at a time (Imagine filling a galoon with only a few drops of water)..Our main goal is to document and film the place but since the place is so foggy and the sun doesn't cooperate we decided to spent the night at our camp site hoping that tomorrow we could see the sun and the fogs will disappear inorder to take the perfect shots we want..The night is even disappointing although exciting because of the extreme cold much worst it is raining, majority of us doesn't have any tents,only hamoks..Our plan for the night to go hunting for deers and wild pigs didn't even pursue because of the rain, so our breakfast is "Pa-it" rattan and can goods, our cofee is from the leaf of this tree they call it "Itsa tree"..
We are even disappointed to wake up early in the morning only to see the same weather although we decided to pursue to the summit despite bad weather condition..We can't even have the perfect shots we want..All the scenery is covered with fogs, sweating in cold place hiking the rugged trail (I can't even tell if it is a trail) and atlast we reached the summit proud to be the first group regardless of the locals who go their but they are only few to name.We take some pictures and video despite the weather,we stayed their for atleast one hour.We leave the place going directly to Dacalan where we spent our first night.The people are hospitable, we eat for atleast five times for our dinner (House to House invitation) wild pigs,eels,small fishes etc...The night is memorable, I love to drink Gin while i hate it in Tabuk, we consumed 10 bottles of gin (Round) our pulutan is "Ugadiw" small fish..We wake up early the next day without feeling any hang-over..Our next target is Mt. Matabor where we can find the highEst water falls in Kalinga or the Cordillera i think or whatsoever because it was not even measured at all..The way to the waterfalls is the river itself so we decided to left our backpacks because even the river is so deep in some places..From Matabor we go directly to Lubo Tanudan to spent the night..same experience house to house invitation..They even butchered a pig for us, gave us some tokens like softbrooms,cofees etc..wake up early din after a long night of drinking (I think 3am ako nakatulog)...The only problem left for us is to climb again Mt. Tatakkan where we can find our service vehicle but not like binaratan it is a establish trail..someday when Mt. Binaratan will develop the climb would not be as hard as we did.It is an easy climb only when the place is develop..
Legends told that Mt. Binaratan "Silent Mountain" is the hunting ground of Kabunian,In one case ,he can't hear the barkings of his dogs so he ordered the birds to stay silent..long story to tell just read the books na lang hehe..