Soaring

The group!

Mt. Pulag is said to be the second (or third depending on who you talk to) highest mountain in the Philippines. I had been trying to plan a hike to the summit for a couple of months, and this past weekend it became a spectacular reality.

Stop-over on the way to Kabayan with Ison and
my host brother Rajiv.

Some volunteers and I met with some other friends in La Trinidad. We collected a group that involved five volunteers, two of my host siblings, one of my students, three pastors,  and three others to form our hiking team. I've decided that connections mean EVERYTHING here, and through friends of friends of friends, we were able to get a private ride and a free guide to the top.

Skulls in the Kabayan

We left Baguio en route to Kabayan. Once we arrived in Kabayan, we settled down, and went to see a burial cave. We were invited into a house for dinner and coffee and even got some pure honey from my host family's relatives. At 7:30 we piled into a jeep and headed for the ranger station. We arrived at the mountain at around 10:30 pm and made the quiet hike all the way through the night. We stopped once to heat some coffee and catch a quick nap before continuing the last 1.5 km to the summit.

Sunrise at the summit.

I can't come close to adequately describing the experience through words or pictures. It was truly amazing possibly the most beautiful sight I had ever witnessed. As the sun crept up, the horizon ignited and revealed an ocean of clouds that stretched out before us. As the sun came closer to breaking the horizon, the clouds reflected the colors and glowed all around us. When the sun finally rose, the cold seemed to evaporate and we welcomed the warm rays on our faces.


As we hiked down, the sun exposed the beautiful scenery we had missed the night before hiking through the dark with only our headlamps. Bamboo grassland transitioned into beautiful mossy forests of ferns and flowers. We found a stretch of wild blueberries and enjoyed picking them during our last kilometer back to the station. We made it back down the mountain in time to hop on the first bus back to Baguio, and by that time the hike and lack of sleep had turned us into a group of mindless zombies whose only thoughts were of water and a soft bed.

Isa. 40:31

Disclaimer: I would like to acknowledge Cobra Energy Drink, without which this trip would have been an utter failure.

Let's compare:
Red Bull-50mg of caffeine.
Cobra - 135mg.
WHOOOOO!
(no joke)