With its summit hosting several telecommunication infrastructures, Mount Kitanglad is not your usual camping mountain. The only thing that kept people in making it a list in the bucket is that it is the fourth highest peak in the country (2,899 MASL) next to Apo, Dulang-dulang and Mt. Pulag.
On October 30-31 this year I climbed Mt. Kitanglad for the second time through an invitation from Lakaw ni Paw, definitely one of the most-sought climb organizers in Mindanao. My reason of not voting for the elections on October 30 other than climbing this mountain is to revisit the biodiversity of Kitanglad mountain range, plus the fact that nobody from among the election aspirants in my place talked about environmental conservation platforms, thus, I’d rather be climbing and enjoying the company of old friends in mountaineering and some new faces.
I observed few unique mechanisms employed by the authorities in Mt. Kitanglad in terms of trekking. First, the Protected Area Superintendent (PASU) Office handles the registration unlike in Mt. Apo where it is undertaken by the respective local Government Units. Second, the ritual by the Indigenous Peoples is a mandatory activity prior to climbing. In our part we arrived very early in the morning at a tribal leader’s house for the ritual, which took almost 3 hours to include preparation of materials, the ritual proper, climb orientation and breakfast. I have been to so many places in the country and even outside the Philippines to climb mountain but only here in Bukidnon that a ritual service has a corresponding fix rate. Yes, that’s a huge 4-digit figure per group of climbers. As a cultural worker I always respect local policies like this by the IPs but I pray that the amount would go to more noble programs and projects for the good of the Indigenous Cultural Communities in Bukidnon.
I assumed good view of Philippine Eagle in the first day of trekking but rain poured in the early afternoon. There were very few birds along the trail, but I enjoyed the vegetation in this part of the mountain. I arrived at the summit earlier than expected and did some scanning of avian species in the summit where I saw the hyper migrant Grey Wagtail and resident Island Thrush.
The summit of Mt. Kitanglad is really now saturated with telecommunication towers and bunkhouses, something that really obstructed the beautiful panorama of this mountain made up of sceneries in Cagayan de Oro City, the rest of Bukidnon mountains and even glimpse of Southern Mindanao areas.
Day 2 was a lot better in terms of finding birds. Apo Sunbird was all over, so with the Mindanao endemic Apo Myna. There were also sightings of Chinese Sparrowhawk, Mountain Shrike, Rufous-fronted Tailorbird, Black and Cinnamon Fantail and Negros Leaf Warbler. Mt. Kitanglad definitely shares similar species of birds in Mt. Apo.
