To ease my suffering a bit, I decided to leave a bottle of water (1 liter) behind, but the leader learned about it and put the bottle in his backpack instead, which made me feel guilty for making his load heavier (Good thing I forgot about and lost my cardigan somewhere along the trail: it would have made his backpack a lot bulkier!). After a while I decided to get rid of some more weight but knowing that it will again be absorbed by the leader, I just sneaked a box of brownies out of my backpack and left it by the trail. A few meters up, we decided that it would be a lot better for me if I changed my pants into shorts. I was then going to leave my folded jeans but the leader again made space for it in his backpack, so I put it in mine instead and pretended that I didn’t mind the added weight. But when we resumed the trek, the jeans disappeared the way the brownies did. We kept our pace and stopped for 2-5 minutes once in a while. We encountered some mountaineers along the way who jokingly told us, “Malapit na, walking distance na lang!” And that was how I survived the night trek, walking on all fours (which, because of the steep inclination, wasn’t so obvious – I hope) to distribute the weight of my already light (relative to its original weight) load, making my companions’ strength my inspiration while thinking of how easier the climb could have been for me if only I had prepared myself for it, and assuring myself that, “malapit na, walking distance na lang”.      

              When we got to the top, I found out that it took the morning batch 3 hours, while it took us only 1 ½ hours, to get there. I would have wanted to strangle our patrol leader then, but he explained that he wanted us to keep a steady pace because he didn’t want the night chill to creep up on us which could lead to bigger problems, and that got him off the hook. And the torturous climb was worth it, anyway. Although there were a lot of people there, Mt. Maculot being a popular climb for beginners, the magic of being on top of the mountain was still present. The starry sky and howling winds at night, the chilly air, the climb up the Rockies, the sight of mists rising from the ocean below and forming into clouds (I didn’t know that evaporation could happen that fast, that visible and at a temperature that low!), the feel of rain clouds enveloping and passing you by, the wonderful view, and the feeling of having conquered your fears and weaknesses were very, very rewarding!

This trek reminded me of some important pointers that we need as we go through life:

• Get enough sleep and exercise.

• Plan ahead.

• But sometimes spontaneous decision-making is good, too, because it gets you doing things that you would have been scared to do if you had given it much thought.

• Sometimes you might feel like giving up, but if you push yourself some more, you’d be surprised at how far you can still go.

• The more you think of what would/could have been, the longer it will take you to move forward.

• It is better if you stop once in a while to enjoy the view.

• Travel light. Get rid of unnecessary baggage.

• It is okay to let someone else carry some of your baggage; just make sure you feed him well (according to our patrol leader when he learned about the things that I left behind).

• When we went down the mountain, we found my jeans, brownie box (already empty) and cardigan, each neatly hung near the benches of stopovers. Learn to let go. If it is really yours/meant for you, you’ll get it back.

• Have faith in the kindness of strangers.

• The journey may be long and torturous sometimes, but if you keep focused and persevere, you’ll finally get to the destination you are aiming for; and when you do, it will be very rewarding.

• Three hours, one and a half -- what's the difference? Walking distance lang lahat ‘yan!