The Pinnacles are beautiful rock formations at the top of a mountain range in Mulu National Park. The first day, we took a long boat for about 1.5 hours up the river to a junction called Kuala Litut. When I say "junction", I mean the boat man pulled over along the bank and told us to get out. I thought we were stuck so I was expecting to try to push the boat away from the bank but then the boat driver said "we have arrived". Once we found the trail, we saw a few local people and spotted the trail to Camp 5, the mountain hut we were staying at for 2 nights.
We started the 9 km (~5 miles) trek through the jungle, our advice from the boat driver was: "follow the footprints." The trail was flat and rather easy to follow and we crossed some beautiful swinging bridges along the way.
About 30 minutes into our hike though, the rain came. It first started as a sprinkle so I got out my backpack rain cover and put it on my backpack thinking I am ahead of the game and my stuff will remain dry, yay! But then it started to rain harder and harder...Austin and Beau didn't have rain covers for their backpacks but we had brought some big garbage bags to use as an alternative option for rain protection. The rain felt like a literal shower and after about 10 minutes we were sopping wet and the trails turned into small rivers. One piece of advice a national park worker gave us before we hopped on the boat was: "if it starts to rain, no problem, just keep trekking!". At the time, I thought we may get some light rain but didn't think too much about his comment. We all look back at his comment and chuckle since I think he knew we would get plastered by this storm that lasted a couple of hours. We trekked another 1.5 hours through the pouring rain and honestly, once you accepted everything was going to be soaked, it was kind of fun because it was crazy being in such heavy rain! I love new experiences so we tried to make the most of it.
It was relieving though to spot Camp 5 and shelter. Upon arrival, we wanted to get out of our dripping clothes and shoes and hopped into the shower. When we unpacked our bags, we quickly found out our waterproofing wasn't too successful. Looking back, I am not surprised at all, we should have planned a bit more and had a better waterproofing system. We hung up everything that was wet and we each had some clothes that were dry (phew!) so we threw those on and then met our guide (Ric) for the next day's hike: Pinnacles. We also met the other people in our group which was a Belgium couple named Melanie and Maarten. They became good friends of ours and we ended up caving with them a few days after this hike.
The camp was basic with open air spaces, mats on a platform for sleeping, mosquito nets to protect us from the insects, restrooms with showers, and a cooking space with drinking water and stoves.
All fresh and dry at the beginning:
Boat ride:
First swinging bridge:
Camp 5 and all of its' glory after a raining hike in:
Kitchen area:
Outside of Camp 5 (not on our day of arrival though):
The next day, we started bright and early at 6:00 with our guide, Ric. The hike itself to Pinnacles was more of a climb. It was 1.5 miles (2.4 km) to the top and we gained 4,000 feet (1,200 m). Since it is a pretty dangerous hike with the incline, the park requires a guide for each group. The climb was utterly insane and such a work out. I loved it all!!! The final section was so much fun with the ladders, scrambling/climbing, and ropes. It was an incredible day and we were on cloud 9!
Photos from the day:
On the 3rd day, we decided to hike back to the boat early so we could avoid getting hit by an afternoon storm. We thankfully had a clear morning of hiking but most of the trails were still swampy from the heavy rains the past few days so we had very wet and muddy feet. Once we got back to the "junction", our boat man was there and we headed back to the national park headquarters. Despite the rain and wetness, it was a challenging but really really fun few days of playing in the outdoors which is something I have always loved!