Hiking Mount Cikuray

Last weekend me and five of my old college friends went hiking to Mount Cikuray (2.821m) in Garut. This was my fourth time to Cikuray and the first for my friends. Using one of my friend's car, we drove from Jakarta on Friday night. Arrived at Garut at Saturday early morning, we parked the car at Wisma LEC Garut. Then we used local public transportation, an angkot, toward Patrol in Cilawu. Switched to motorcycle taxi/ojek to Pemancar/television aerials as our starting point. Started hiking aroung 8.30 AM, we struggled uphill. I felt not too tired but one of my friend was, so we had to walk slowly. As consequences, we reached Pos 6 or the false peak when it was almost 3 PM. And it started raining, so we decided to make camp at Pos 6 rather than at the actual peak. Usually not many people hiked Cikuray, but this time there were so many around us. It turned out, a group of hikers were doing mass climbing. We glad built camp in Pos 6 as we figured out that we wouldn't be able to get a space at the peak with so many people like this. Sunday morning, at 4.30 AM we left the tents and hiking to the peak, bringing only water and some food. Around 45 minutes later, we reached the peak of Cikuray. And yes, it was full with people and tents. The weather was clear and we could view the surrounding area. There was Mount Papandayan with its famous white crater walls. Far away we could see the top of Mount Ciremai and Mount Slamet. It was so beautiful. We hanging here for about 45 minutes, chatting and taking photos, before hiking back to the camp. Made and ate breakfast of fried noodles and eggs, then we went back to Pemancar and Jakarta.

Trip to Papandayan

I was back camping in Mount Papandayan. Now with old college friends on 29-30 September 2012. There were five of us using one car on Friday night from Jakarta to Garut. We made it to car park near the Papandayan crater at Saturday morning. Two of my friends had to back to Jakarta. So after lunch, only three of us hiking to Pondok Salada. We made camp at that valley, along with other hikers. Monday morning, after breakfast, we broke the camp then hiking uphill to Tegal Alun, Hutan Mati then back to the car park. Around 1PM we drove back to Jakarta. A nice weekend and i felt glad to be able to camp again with old friends.

Trip to Mount Salak

Mount Salak located in the border of Sukabumi and Bogor, West Java. It consists of six peaks, but people only hike to peak 1 and 2. The other peaks are too difficult to climb. And peak 2, climbed via Curug Nangka, also now has been closed because of poor and dangerous trail condition. I have been to peak 1 using Cidahu trail and Cimelati trail. And on 22-23 September 2012, i am back using Cimelati trail. On Friday night we started hiking and made camp at Pipa Bocor. Saturday morning, five of us continued walking uphill without much break. Around 11.20 AM we reached peak 1. After lunch we tried to hike to peak 2 but the old route was washed by landslide. So we had to try new route using the evacuation route of Sukhoi crash victims. The trail was steep and I was feeling very tired. Around 3 PM, as it was colder and began to cloudy and ready to rain, we decided to stop and back to the camp in peak 1. I had decided not to join if my friends wanted to go back to peak 2 in the following morning. That night we rest and ate. Sunday morning my friends back to try to peak 2. Fortunately one of them also decided not hiking and instead waiting with me at the camp. My friends back from peak 2 around 1130 AM and we broke camp. Lunch then we hiked back to Cimelati.