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| Susongdalaga Zambales Philippines, WW | |
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| | Susongdalaga Zambales Philippines, WW | | | |
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Susongdalaga Zambales Philippines, WW
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| Hiking | 4.84 Miles |
1,535 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.84 Miles | 3 Hrs 23 Mns | | 1.78 mph |
| 1,535 ft AEG | 40 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | by the way.... Mount Susong Dalaga or Bundok Susong Dalaga in Filipino means "Maiden's Breasts Mountain" in English. Since the summit has a double hump, I can see how it was named this way. I have not seen this mountain from a distance yet but I would like to find this view.
I drove to the Barangay Hall of Roosevelt near Olongapo city East of Subic Bay which is a Government office not far from the trailhead. I was not sure if there was a registration needed for this hike. Apparently there was not. I talked to an officer and he said it was very safe and the locals were all friendly. He was nice enough to lead me to the starting point and told me I could park there no problem. I found a GPS route on Alltrails, I believe, and used it as a guide line.
Starting off at around 7.30 am, I was on an old road. The road was a bit rocky but pretty easy to follow. Higher up the road turned into a trail. After about 10 minutes of walking I saw two goats tied up to ropes, grazing in the grass. The owners probably come and check on them every now & then. Further up the road I saw some other goats that appeared to be wild. They were free to walk around. One of the goats was about 7 feet up in a tree. When I got close, all of the goats ran away except for the one in the tree which waited a little longer. I recorded a video. As soon as I ended the video, the goat jumped down from the tree and ran off. I also saw what looked like large snail shells on the trail. I moved two of them off the trail cause I was afraid of stepping on them by accident.
After hiking maybe 20 minutes, I got to a nice viewpoint where I could see Subic bay and everything below me. The views were incredible and I could see some high mountains in the distance. I also saw some exotic flowers, bamboo, and lots of tree cover in some areas. Some of the trees had some much growth that they would have been shelters in the event of a downpour. This is the middle of the rain season. The forecast said something like 50% chance of rain but it seems like the hard rain around here is always in the afternoon.
When I got higher up I saw an old concrete building and some noise was coming from it. My guess is it was some kind of pumphouse. I went up to take a look. There was a goat standing just inside the entrance like a door man. I walked right up and the goat stared at me and didn't run away. Looking inside the building, I saw a few doorways and a pair of sandals in the hallway. There could have been a worker here, but I didn't enter the building to check.
I walked a few hundred feet back to the main trail and continued. I eventually saw some powerlines and then a bamboo hut on the right side of the trail behind a fence. There didn't seem to be anyone there. I could not tell if this was a public hut or someone's house! I was getting closer to the high point according to my topo map. There was a lot of grass in this area but I found trails weaving through the grass. I summited the grassy hill, and found a concrete structure near the top. It didn't appear to be occupied. There was a foundation of a building with a lot of rubble and crumbled rock all over this place. I found a small ladder leading over some of the broken foundation and up to what looked like a grazed area. The trail seemed to dead-end here. I found myself trying to take a shortcut through the high grass to get back down to the trail I was on before. In this area I found some more of the pink and yellow exotic flowers.
There seemed to be several use trails in this area leading in different directions. Getting across the saddle to the high point wasn't so obvious. All of the trails seemed to lead through some tall grass. I was questioning if I was going the right way but the trail continued and eventually I could see a clearing past the tall grass. At least I was making some progress. I followed a trail leading up to what appeared to be a high point. Along the way I saw several areas of short grass, probably grazed by the goats. After reaching the high point I looked across and saw another high point not far away that seemed to be higher. I found a series of trails to get me there but it wasn't so straight-forward. But, I believe my route going down was a slightly better and more straight-forward route.
At the true summit, there was a clearing which looked mostly grazed. I saw some trees that looked like banana but didn't see any fruit. Looking North and Northwest I could see some taller mountains and looking down the mountain I could see some primitive houses. I took a break here for photos, drank some water, had some snacks and started to head down. This time I had a better understanding of where to go. Partway down I felt a few sprinkles but that's all it was. After about 10 minutes, it stopped. The humidity was so high, I was actually hoping it would rain more!
I got back to my car before 11 am, earlier than expected.
Stats:
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round trip distance (miles): 4.84
AEG (feet): 1,535
strava moving time: 2 hrs 42 mins
strava elapsed time: 3 hrs 23 mins
Driving directions:
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The easiest way is to use Google Maps to direct you to 'Barangay Hall of Roosevelt'.
If you are taking the bus you will want to take a bus to the Olongapo, Zambales.
There are several bus companies in Olongapo but apparently there is no central bus terminal.
Most of the bus companies seem to be clustered in one area.
After arriving in Olongapo you will need to backtrack 11 km / 20 minutes to get to the Barangay of Roosevelt.
You could take a trike or grab car but this could get a bit costly.
The road going up to the starting point is a bit steep in some places and you will need to dodge some obstacles in the road.
I decided to rent a car (also costly) on this trip because I was tired of dealing with buses, trikes, and transportation hell. I just set the location in Google Maps and drove to it. A car will cost more than public transportation of course but you will not need to backtrack for 40+ minutes (20+ minutes each way) and you will not need to rely on trikes.
See my GPS route for more details.
Side note about SOME of my frustrations in the Third World:
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I was looking for a grocery store but could not find anything. I drove my car to a 7/11 convenient store and there was absolutely no parking available. Only parking in front for scooters/motorcycles, maybe only a 6 foot strip of pavement up to the main road. I kept driving and found another 7/11 maybe 1 km away. This one had 3 parking spots. All 3 were filled including some idiot who parked a pedal bicycle right in the middle of a 'handicapped car parking space' with the kickstand holding it up. Most likely a POS moron who has no regard for handicapped people. Do that in the US and expect an officer to impound the bike or some pissed off person might just run it over with the car. They are no basic rules here. So, I decided to make a U-turn and park on the other side of the street and walk across. I was sitting there for 3-4 minutes and there was not one single break in traffic. How the traffic is so bad in this place, I will never figure that out. Then, I noticed that the motorcycle that was parked in the lot had driven off, so I was able to back into the parking spot. I went into the 7/11 and tried to get cash out of the ATM. No luck. Machine was either out of cash or out of order. I asked the person behind the counter if they accepted credit card or debit card. She said Cash only or G-cash which is a popular app payment here. It's pretty annoying when you are in a foreign country and can't access cash and can't buy anything using a credit card. So I left and went back to the original 7/11 parking on a sidewalk in front of a fence cause there was absolutely NOWHERE ELSE to park. This time the ATM appeared to be working but then it gave an error. Can't give cash in that denomination - please select a different amount. I tried 3 times and it did not work with any amount. Cashier said the store takes cash only or G-cash. No credit, no debit. It was a huge pain in the pumpkin. I ended up driving back to the hotel where I was able to get cash. Even though I have a rental car, it's relatively useless on the busy-as-hell street. It will be faster to walk to the 7/11 and pay cash so that is what I will do later. I will say there are many nice things about this place, but there are many 3rd World annoyances and frustrations that need to be solved. |
| _____________________
Michael Williams
IT Professional
Rocky Point Vacation Rentals
Ocean Front Condo in Rocky Point, Sonora, Mexico
www.beachfrontmexico.us
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