Mt. Balagbag

The 12th mountain in my book and the place where SoLE celebrated its 2nd anniversary: Mt. Balagbag. It's a mountain to go if you live in north, as in QC and you just want to have a quick nature escape because A. it's just situated at Rodriguez, Rizal B. It offers an easy trail and C. Going to there is cheap.

Getting there:
Just 45 php. bus ride from Cubao to Tungko and from Tungko is a 27php of 45 mins jeepney ride (licao-licao sign) going to the jump off.

Trail:
Balagbag has a rocky trail; more experienced mountaineers say that it's like a mini mt. Tapulao because of it's rocky and bare trail. It's not a difficult trek, while it's rocky, the trail doesn't have super assault parts. But still you may find yourself gasping for breath because of too much heat. Like I said, the mountain is bare; there are not enough trees to take cover from the scorching heat of the sun, only grass lands. Good thing though is that there's a community in Balagbag and there are many stores to buy refreshments. We even bumped into an ice cream vendor while trekking. One thing that surprised me about this mountain was its chilly weather at night. It's very cold up there at night that it reminded me of mt. Ugo; and I didn't even had my fleece packed because I thought the coldness would be bearable like that of Tagapo or Batulao or the other mountains in Batangas.

Anyway, the whole celebration of our group was a success even if most of the members weren't able to make it for different reasons. The group, as always, have managed to make it fun. It was fruitful too because we learned many things about Basic Life Support care of our Red Cross friend. And of course, Thank God for the good weather, which made everything perfect. <3

Balagbag Photos:

It was one Sunny climb:) 

P.S I wish I can have my 13th climb on the 12th month of the year, which is also my anniversary as a mountaineer. *fingers crossed my day hike Arayat trav*