In celebration of Earth Day 2002, the Philippine Airlines Mountaineering Club conducted a coastal clean-up and survey of Taal Volcano’s South Peak last Saturday, April 20, 2002. The event was organized by PALMC’s Environment Committee in cooperation with Taal Lake Yacht Club (TLYC) owner Commodore Peter Capotosto to map out a possible mid-term joint venture to address Taal Volcano Island’s garbage problem brought about by the increasing commercial tourism.

A number of PALMCers backed out the last minute leaving a tight knit group composed of Banny H., Elmer and Grace C., Romy V., Rina T., and guests Rebo and Jackie to pursue the project. We left Manila at 5:15 AM and arrived at TLYC an hour later. After final briefing and last minute preparations, we set off at 7:30 AM on a banca courtesy of Taal Lake Yacht Club to the volcano island with Mang Mon at the helm.

The Taal Volcano Island South Peak was summited via the rarely used Pulang-bato trail a few meters from Calauit pt. Our contact person is Aling Loring Kalinasan who has huts and resting areas on the trail head. The trail is not established and goes through camote plantations. From Aling Loring's house take a heading 330° to a big camachile tree on top of the ridge.

The Pulang Bato approach is light to moderate and the crater ridge accessible in less than 20 minutes. From here we observe breath-taking views of the crater lake, the volcanic fissures and the boulder island to the north and the imposing walls of Mt. Makulot's east face casting it's looming shadows on Taal lake to the south. A well-established trail goes down the ridge to the Crater Lake and volcanic fissures (approx. 20 minutes). Another trail on the crater-ridge leads to the South peak (approx. 25 minutes).

The South peak trail is also light to moderate but fully exposed, few trees provide shade for brief rest stops, enough to savor the April southwesterly winds sweeping through the ridge. A variety of birds nestling on both sides of the ridge were photographed and observed by Banny Hermanos for identification. Birds are on an egg-laying frenzy this time of the year as nests were even found on the trail! From the summit of Taal’s South Peak (297.2 m. ASL) the more popular geological features of the volcano island may be seen including, the Kaygabok lava flow (1968-69), Mt. Tabaro and Binintiang Munti Crater in the south west, Alas-as lava flow (1968) in the west and Binintiang Malaki in the north west. Established trails down the ridge to Alas-as in the west leads us to speculate on a possible thru-hike of Taal Volcano's crater-ridge-rim.

Having succeeded in our objective, the group decided to go down the same trail to Pulang-bato. Stronger afternoon southwesterly winds continue to blow and made our banca trip back to TLYC a little rough. Half-wet on the banca we decided to take a final dip in Taal lake’s refreshing waters a few meters from the club. Soon as we set foot on the club, Romy V., Grace, Jackie and Rebo put their secret recipes together to prepare a sumptuous lunch. After a brief siesta we took advantage of the occasional summer winds boarding Topper sailboats with Elmer C. holding an impromptu learn to sail class.

We capped our day observing the rare planetary alignment (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon) in Tagaytay City and finally dinner courtesy of Rina T. We would’ve wanted to stay on until midnight to observe the Lyranids meteor shower if not for our pressing personal commitments. Anyway, plans are afoot to organize the next Envirocom activities including lectures on LNT, orienteering and GPS, outdoor photography, astronomy (June-July), tree-planting (August)and the International Marine Alliance Coastal clean-up (September), as well as the Thru-hike of Taal Volcano Island ridge-rim. Hope to see you then!