Climbing Mount Babag - My first mountain trek experience

Mount Babag is located in barangay Sapangdaku, Cebu City, having an altitude of 700+ meters above sea level - yes it is a bit high, making you closer to nirvana. With its famous river, falls and trek trails that will surely treat mountaineers one hell of an experience - and as for me, a beginner, It gave me a very rough time!.

Mount Babag trekking

I've never tried mountain trekking before, like I've been to the mountains but not by climbing slopes, grasping on branches just to keep your balance, getting soaked with sweat or worst with rain or either getting cooked under the sun's heat or get wounded, drained and exhausted.  But why try if it's much of a burden, if it means you harm, why find hard time for yourself? -Yes I had asked my self with these questions too.  Simply because some of us need a little dose of adventure to have a fun filled life, full of beautiful memoirs and breath taking experiences. Isn't why life is beautiful? Because of all the experience you had been to? either it be good nor bad it's the lesson we learn that counts most. Who would you want obstacles anyway? None! but because the feeling of fulfillment that awaits in the end makes you feel a better person than before it is why we risk, because some of us aren't contented with what we have, sometimes, we just want to have more no matter what the stakes are.

The face of exhaustion - Mount Babag Climb

Mountain trekking is no joke, trust me! First you get too excited to try the adventure but what your mind is implying is the word "FUN". Yes, you want to try it just for FUN (kiat lang ang nwong) ! I had that feeling at first, I wasn't by all means ready which was so important - to be always ready. I just wanted to try it for fun and I've learned lessons from it. 

When I started trekking and felt exhausted I asked myself "why the hell am I doing this?" yeah, it may sound hilarious but it's true. As the minutes passed and as I began to sweat that gave me feeling of relief - with courage mixed with ego, that started pushing me to the limits; telling myself in my mind "Hey! I can do this! Why can't I and others can? There's no room for quitters",  I just kept moving no matter what, because life's like that it's like climbing a mountain; we can either get to the top the hard way, the easy way, or we can simply stop and quit. Depends on how you act to things, but if you did get there the easy way, you wouldn't be as strong as the person who got there the hard way, so how much more if you had quit? As the wise man once said "Experience is the best  teacher" and "What won't kill will make you stronger". Wew, I was thankful I wasn't killed by the way, oooh, would that mean I am stronger now? - my ego says YES! ^_^

How everything started?

A few of my friends from work (Loserboys as what we call our group) started planning this event, author of the travel blog triptabai.com and experienced mountaineer Mark Gallardo headed the group. Because I wanted to try a new way of having fun and exercise, I hopped in the bandwagon to the road of adventure.

Dated back on September 1, on a Saturday morning, a day after the city was jolted with an earthquake that caused some of our members to back-out  from our so called adventure, which by the way also gave me some doubts to whether or not to continue, but  nothing stopped me/us that day.

Meeting point at Jollibee Banawa/Guadalupe

Our meeting point was at Jollibee Banawa/Guadalupe at 7am, from there we took a jeepney ride to the famous Guadalupe Church. We bought food that will serve as our lunch from a carenderia near the church.

Our Itinerary to Mt. Babag

From the carenderia we took a habal-habal (motorcycle) ride to NAPO that cost 20 pesos each. Arriving around 8:30 (well the itinerary didn't go as planned, but it served well as our guide), we took a slight break to regroup ourselves then started the adventure.

Here we go - Climbing Mount Babag

Following the executive trail guided by Mark, our journey begun, to the top we go - Mount Babag.

From NAPO then off we went - to Mount Babag

For about 30 minutes of walk, we decided to catch our breathe and yes it was that quick! To think we still had started and the top is still too far. Well what can you expect? We're no pro's but our Guts! determination, just what Nike's slogan says "Just do it!" gave us the push, and off we went (continues to trek and breathes deeply).

A short break - Mt. Babag Trek

The next stop we had (actually we had a lot) was at the water source, where we got the chance to relax, had a little doze of fun and decided to take a little drink (body replenished with water, ice-tea and rum) NOTE: Please don't loiter, keep your garbage and help save the world. ^___~

Regroup - Mount Babag climb

At Around 10 AM we continued trekking going to Busay, Lut-od falls. The day started to get gloomy, dark clouds illuminated the sky and it was about to rain. The trail we took going to the falls was not easy, the ground was slippery and muddy. We had to hold on to the trees, branches, roots or something just to help keep our balance. Thank God I/we survived.

Enjoying nature - Lut-od falls

Arriving at 11am we took a dip into the cold water of Lut-od, washed away some mud stains I had from the trail. We were still in at middle of our adventure and things would get a bit worst for me.

After minutes of enjoying the water it was time to trek again, we had to hurry for it was about get passed our planned lunch time. Our next stop was at Manuel's (as what people would call him according to Mark) house - Arriving around 1 PM the rain started to pour on us heavily but with a hungry stomach, we still managed to eat our lunch. We also had "butong" coconut fruit - Thanks to Manuel's family for the hospitality they had given us, God bless you guys. :)

Lunch time - Mount Babag Trek

Our Guide - Mark feeling Cold

The trek continued around 2 PM, we started to feel cold because of the rain and as we were getting near our vantage point the obstacles got a bit harder, challenges seemed to get the best out of me. My back was aching and I didn't know what caused it, maybe because I was so stuffed from lunch, or was it because of the cold weather, or maybe because of our long rest "murag nakalitan", it was really bad. I couldn't walk with a straight posture, feeling like a 60 year old dude. It was hard! But I couldn't stop, I WILL not stop! I am near the top! Indeed, getting to where you are headed is really NOT that easy as what life is, unfair. For about 3 hours of walking, crawling and climbing I/we finally got to the top. The feeling of relief, Victory was mine to keep- YES Finally, I made it. Wow, a whole day of hard work was accomplished. For a first timer like me, it was huge accomplishment to endure such experience despite suffering from injury. A beautiful Fulfillment! Indeed beautiful especially when you get to the top. As what Rodrick would say "I am the king for the mountains".

Conquered Mount Babag at around 5pm

Mount Babag - a scenery of perfection

Heading home, we took the exit trail (about 1-2 hours of walk) to Mountain View, from there we took a Jeepney ride to JY Square to where our adventure filled day had ended.

- Credits to Joie and Leandro for the photos.