My First Hiking Experience - Mt. Balagbag

I never thought that reaching and making it to the top of the mountain would be one of the most satisfying achievements I have ever done in my entire life. Indeed, biglaang lakad are the best!

Our hiking topics were started a day before we went to the location where the mountain is. We were just talking about a friend of my friend who just recently hiked the mountain with his friends and seeing their photos really made us excited too to hike that mountain with ourselves. So after a few hours, our class is about to end too and we don't have a class for tomorrow so before we go home, my friend Jasmin invited us for an adventure and that is to climb that mountain, since I don't have experience yet in hikings I get really excited to that adventure and I know to myself that it would be fun, I said yes with a very excited face. My other friend Mych who never said no was really excited too.

February 14, 2018, this is the day of hearts, the day we hiked Mt. Balagbag. We bring food with us ofcourse, I bring San Marino Corned Tuna and a tupperware full of rice.

As we made our way to Rodriguez, Rizal (where is Mt. Balagbag located). I've saw how the life of people living in that area were so unindustrialized. It feels like I'm now on the other part of the Philippines and I'm already too far from my home and my city. But the life there were so simple and peaceful.

As we reach the terminal, we need to pay for an entrance fee, after paying for it we were asked by drivers if we want to ride because it will took us time before reaching the foot of the mountain, so we decided to ride a tricycle. As I remember, our ride took maybe 15-20 mins, since the road along our way was too rocky, it hurts my butt actually 😅.

And finally! We reached the foot of the mountain, the trails are so easy to walk through especially for people like us who are just beginners in hiking. This is what the trails looks like.

My friend Jasmin bring his boyfriend with her and another friend of us named Alejandro so it would be safer for us since we're all girls.

We started walking at around 10 am, but we were so lucky that time because even though that we are late and 10 am isn't a good time anymore to hike, the sun were covered by clouds that makes it more easier for us to get there for a short period of time since it's not too sunny. As we reached the middle part of the mountain, we saw a small community there, we stayed there to rest our feet for a while. The people there were so nice, we had a small talk to one the owner of sari-sari store there, she said they have no electricity in there, they only use solars for their lights and radios. There is also a small resort there which we never expect that's why we didn't had a chance to bring extra clothes with us.

I took this photo of my friend while we were staying at ate's sari-sari store. We are halfway there!

After another hour of walking, we finally reached the top of Mt. Balagbag. As I'm so thin I became a bit nervous because of the strong wind up there. It feels like the strong wind will take me so I mostly stick to my friends or hold to any rocks I see. My phobia in heights rises too as I saw how high that mountain is, I could clearly see the whole Rodriguez.

Here are my photos hihi.

Sorry if I can't show my face, my face would ruin the scenery so I better hide it LOL.

While we were enjoying the view from this part of the mountain, we've noticed that there are some cottages on the other part of the mountain where it was higher and because that we're all explorers, we've decided to go walk and climb a little more again so we can rest in those cottages. We reached the top of the moutain at 12 noon therefore it's a perfect time for us to eat our lunch while enjoying the wind and the view at the same time.

Because of the strong winds, all the cottages there becomes like this:

You can clearly see the direction of the wind from these cottages, but still they're okay and still strong and safe to stay for a while. We were the only people who are there that's why it feels like we own that mountain. We put our bags in our chosen cottage and ate our lunch in the middle part of the mountain.

These are the photos of us, pretending that we're the powerpuff girls and we already owned the world 😂.

And ofcourse the jumpshot that should not be lost in hiking photographs.

It was so fun.

The rocks, the mountains, the wind, the clouds were so perfect. Feels like I'm in a paradise, away from sadness, away from problems, away from toxic people and pollutions. Also, I overcome my fear of heights too that makes this adventure really unforgettable and is indeed a great adventure for me.

Thank you Mt. Balagbag for the experience!

And also,

Thank you for Reading!

Have a great day wonderful people ♡.