Life’s Sneak Preview

"Von gee, mag canopy walk mi sa Claveria on January 21st. Kulang mi ug isa sa group. Join ka?" This was the text message I received from my college friend Arbie a couple of weeks ago. Thrilled as I was, I replied a big YES instantly. Yeah, I would never really pass up on the chance of having to tread through the Canopy Walk of Claveria, and when that opportunity came, I was so overjoyed I never mind it would cost me a day’s salary, hehe!  So there I go, getting all excited for my "buena-mano" adventure for the year. I was part of the team, composed of the people from Philippine National Bank, Unifruitti Phillippines, Inc., Philcom Corporation, General Milling Corporation, City Budget Office of Cagayan de Oro, Xavier Universtiy, and the De Oro Mountain Explorers (DOME).

The Canopy Walk is situated in a lush virgin rainforest in Claveria, Misamis Oriental that is almost two hours ride from Cagayan de Oro City. Being able to experience the Macahambus and Mapawa adventure, I thought that walking through the Canopy would come so easy and effortless to me. I was wrong then ‘coz when we finally arrived at the jump-off point, which is at the foot of the mountain, our trek guides told us that we are to climb atop that peak locally called Mt. Magbais to be at the canopy itself. So there we go, hiking up the mountain for about an hour or so. Whew! I was panting all over! And as I was catching my breath, I felt I would lost my energy by the time I get to cross the hanging bridge.. aarrrgggh! "Well, well, well.. take it easy Von" I told to myself. "You’ve survived the 8-hour Mt. Kitanglad trek before, so there’s no way you shouldn’t outlive this adventure."  Hmnn.. after so much self-assurance, I engaged myself and took pleasure with the sight of the lush  vegetation, got wet as I frisked on the small rocks at the miniature river I came across on the ways and relished the coldness of the foggy and misty surrounding. With that, I have put out of my mind whatever exhaustion I am actually feeling and never did I realize, we have finally arrived at the canopy site at long last. Yahhoooo!! We were all set for the ultimate canopy adventure! It was so good then of Dominic, one of our groupmates, to initiate a group prayer before we finally start the canopy challenge.

Now, time for the cable slide, the foremost one would do prior to walking to the five hanging bridges one will be braving up against. At first glance, I thought it was a zipline ‘coz it looked like one. But when I saw how it was maneuvered, I noticed the difference. Zipline was a free fall one, you’ll just arrive at the end of the cable in just a wink of an eye hehe! The cable challenge we did was quite different. Your way of traversing to the other end of the cable will be controlled by the trek assistants who are maneuvering the pulley. I then asked Cocoy, one of our guides from DOME, what do we call it if it’s not a zipline? Well, it’s called "tyrolean traverse", he said. (I hope I spelled it right, hehe!).

Having been able to try the more risky zipline at Macahambus, my descent through the 120 feet tyrolean traverse to get to the first platform was easy. After checking that my safety ropes were securely strapped up to the cable, off I took to the air, I was feeling so elated! From the primary deck where I landed from the glide through the cable, I kept in my mind what was previously  instructed by Cocoy and Meg, that one should maneuver along at the hanging bridge, meaning, one person at a time.  And as safety precaution, make it a point that the hooks of the two ropes attached to the body are securely fastened to the main cable and when one lands to another deck, by the way, there are five decks to get to, NEVER transfer both hooks at once, but individually. While keeping one hook at the main cable overhead, transfer the other hook to the cable circled around the tree on the deck, and after successfully doing that with the first hook, move on to the second hook. I assume you have guessed the reason why is that so.

As I glided along the 2-inch bars of the bridge, I felt as though I was walking in the sky!  I had to admit I had fear of heights.. but that was long before, hehe! I have somehow conquered that fear already. It was quite a flattery then to hear our trek guide Meg commenting on me while she was taking a snapshot on my ultimate canopy walk – "Kalma lang kayo ka galakaw, morag wala lang sa imo."  Well, maybe because I’m small, my weight wouldn’t cause the narrow, rickety bridge to swing over, heheh! But then the other fact is, crossing hanging bridges had become one of my passions already, hehe!  As I set my gaze below, I couldn’t help but be captivated by the breathtaking site. You can have an aerial view of the perfect panorama of Mother Nature — a magnificent landscape, green trees, vast land crops.. all nature’s bounty, you would be awed by God’s greatness. Thank you, Lord!

I was about to get to the last platform, but ooops! There was that portion between the fourth and fifth hanging bridges wherein height was all that matters hehe! The main cable where the hooks were fastened was too high for my both hands to reach, so I had some difficulty transferring the hook to the cable leading to the fifth and last bridge. I felt as though I was one of the contestants of Extra Challenge being yelled at by Paolo Bediones: “Von, anong petsa na?” ‘coz it really took me several minutes trying to figure out what to do. Well, I finally got the technique – pull the harness down to the best I can so the two hooks fastened on the very high cable could be reached by my hands (thanks to the instructions of Arbie and Apple, hehe!).

I was at the final deck at last.. with Arbie, Apple and Nice. Linnette and Judith then followed. We were to take our lunch in there.. but ooops! It took us about an hour waiting for our packed lunch to be delivered by our porter. It was starting to rain, though.. and the fogs were starting to cover the entire scenery. Brrrrr.. it was so cold! We were all shivering!!  And the thought that we were still halfway of the entire adventure (’coz we have to cross again the five hanging bridges, go  through the tyrolean traverse, and trek down the 1.5 kilometer sloping trail before we could get back to the place where our vehicle was waiting) had only made us even more hungry! When our lunch was finally delivered (thanks Meg for such an effort), we ate as though we were vultures, heheh!

Now, time to clean up our mess, & prepare for the last half of the adventure. Aaarrrgghh! When we finally arrived at the deck after the cable challenge, the rain had poured out heavily at last! So we went down the hill, traversing those slippery trails all drenched out! I was quite amused when Judith remarked "dugay-dugay  napud ko wala nakaligo sa ulan!" Whew! Sounds interesting! The last time I had myself drenched under the heavy downpour of the rain was when I was in college, hehe! So..ako pud.. maligo nalang pud sa ulan! Hahaha! And not only that. Despite of the heavy rain, the group still went on side tripping at Magbais River where one could witness the ohhh so inviting flush of the falls (the group called it Arbie Falls then, hehe!). Brrrrr! I was chilling all over ‘coz the water was sooo cold, it was like dipping yourself in the ice water, hehe! Whatta thrill!

It took us about more than an hour before we could finally depart Claveria due to some "mechanical" problems. To make the story short, 3 times lang nuon mi na flatan ug ligid! Well, I guess it was still part of the adventure, hehehe! We were still thankful ‘coz we were all able to go to our respective homes safe and sound. Thank you, Lord.

In behalf of the entire group (Arbie, Apple, Nice, Dominic, Plom-plom, Jaz, Donna, Neneth, Melvin, Maui, Jo, Doty, Judith, Linnette, & yours truly), I would like to extend our deep gratitude to Meg and Cocoy of DOME for guiding us through the entire activity and for bringing us this opportunity which comes not too often in our lives. And I dare all those nature aficionados, thrill-seekers, or just about everyone to try on this adventure you should not miss in this lifetime!!

See more snapshots at my nature trek photo album.