Hike Schedule: August 2015

Updated: August 18, 2015

Hello! Posting my scheduled hiking escapades for August 2015.

Date	Hike Schedule	Remarks
01 – 02 August 2015	Mt. Damas San Clemente, Tarlac	GAME – NEST Invitational Hike
16 August 2015	Mt. Maculot (Rockies – Summit – Grotto) Traverse Hike Cuenca, Batangas	Organized Hike
31 August 2015	Mt. Lobo Lobo, Batangas	2nd PinoyMountaineer Environment Committee (PM EC) Environmental Awareness Climb

These schedules are tentative due to possibilities of rain and thunderstorms especially that August comes on the rainy season in the Philippines.

In case you want to join or plan to organize a hike with me, don't hesitate to comment. You can also contact me at thathandsomemountaineer@gmail.com. Saturdays and Sundays are the best options for hike scheduling. Thanks!

Read More

The Start of the Hike: HOW I STARTED MOUNTAIN HIKING?

“Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.” ― David McCullough Jr.

When I was a kid, I remember how I wanted to fly and see the things from a bird’s eye perspective. I wanted to know how it feels to see a full view of the planet and anything inside it.

That dream started to materialize when I started hiking.

Hiking was not a new thing – I’ve been invited a couple of times by my friends to join them but I find in impractical at first. I mean, who would waste their time and effort to be exposed to heat and be too tired climbing mountains when you can stay in your home, sit down and relax while watching television or go to a mall and hang out with your friends. The fact of snakes, leeches and caterpillars added to the fright and so I rejected all of the invitations. It wasn’t just for me, I told myself.

These perceptions changed after I went for a required camping on one of my classes in UP. That was back then 2013. We went for a hike in Mt. Makiling and it was my first time to spend four hours of my life just walking through the muddy and rocky trails of a mountain, welcomed by insects and leeches. We never reached the peaks, it was just more of a messy trail formed for such class. That was my first time. It was the start of my mountaineering escapades.

What made me hooked to mountain hiking then? 

Simple – it’s the beauty of the undiscovered and the feeling of being one with nature. I’ve been an advocate of the environment. For the past seven years, I’ve been living in metropolitan suburbs and we would all agree to the fact that in the cities, pollution is everywhere. It has been my hobby to visit parks and places where I can find peace with nature, but after my first hike, I found myself wanting to embrace that peace and solemnity I will never find on a park - solitude of hearing

The sight on the summit and the feeling of being a conqueror add color to the hike. I never reached the summit on the first hike, yes, but it made me push myself forward to conquer a summit because I know that the summit has that single thing that only it can provide – a majestic view of the planet. Though one can take an airplane and see the earth from a high altitude, the price one will pay in reaching mountain summits is worthy, with all the efforts you took just to climb and make your way to the peak. Both of them leads to the thing but one will fill that’s he is more of a conqueror on a mountain.

Hiking might be really gruesome and tiring but nature has a lot to offer and that is the wonder of it. Like what I always tell my friends who want to try hiking, hiking requires courage. It needs a deep sense of appreciation – that after all the sweat, leg hurts and back pain that one might experience, the reward is priceless.

After my first hike, I am happy that until now, I am continuing this passion to conquer and discover mountains. As they say, it’s not the mountain that you conquer – it’s yourself, and I would always want to conquer myself. To conquer mountains.

Read More