Last July 29, 2007 | Click on the pictures to view the larger version – It all started with a small joke in the forums to go 4-wheeling soon. With this bunch trying to satisfy our thirst for mud it didn’t take long for the list of interested parties to grow.

It has been raining on & off for days before we this trip, so I was pretty excited to see some 4-wheel-drive (4WD) action. Not to mention to see old friends again and meet new ones — there are a few who will be coming from a couple of far away places: members of the Pampanga Off-Road Club, Inc. (PORCI), and Balisong 4×4 Club of Batangas.

There’s not much to tell in words so I’m going to keep this article short. But our route took us to Boso-boso 2, Ka Vergel’s Trail Stop at Mt. Maarat (for lunch), then to the Mt. Maarat Tabletop. We were supposed to go down to the Creek Wall but we noticed the weather was about to turn for the worse.

You see, we love going through mud, getting stuck, recovery, and the works but as much as possible we try not to leave our vehicles in the middle of nowhere overnight. Mt. Maarat is a whole lot of fun, but when it has been raining for quite some time going up and out from the trails is almost always impossible when the terrain is wet. The reason behind this is it’s really hard-packed ground below the surface and loose, powdery soil on top. Think about it. When it rains even the most aggressive mud tires out there won’t have a chance. I think we would be needing snow studs…

Anyway, because of the weather and the number of vehicles in this trail we decided to let the out-of-towners (PORCI, B4C — first-timers in these area) go down to the Creek Wall and back up before it really rains. The others can come back almost anytime.
OK, so after lunch at Ka Vergel’s 4×4 Philippines & Trails, Travels, & Gears held a surprise raffle for this day’s participants. Prizes were Ambi Pur Starter Packs (c/o Ambi Pur), a Rainforest Challenge Malaysia t-shirt & a Rainforest Challenge Malaysia Trail Shirt (c/o Rainforest Challenge Philippines).

You can view the other pictures via the gallery (as of this posting we are still uploading the photos, needless to say during this time the gallery might not be complete when viewed).

We hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed the ride!

Side note: The Indie Travel Podcast might give me Lonely Planet books for writing this. Be advised, though, this isn’t a sponsored post. It’s a little contest that I got invited to participate in.