Expectations
I do not know what I was expecting with my first time hiking. Not gonna lie, i thought it would be easy, like taking the stairs. I thought as well that it would be chill, a little incline would not hurt. I imagined that this would be a nice little walk with my girlfriend
Preparation
We went a mall for the preparation. i bought myself a Sandugo hiking sandals, colored blue. they fit nice and it is very easy on my feet. the clerk helped me to properly strap the sandal on my feet. To be honest, i was just going the buy a normal sandal for the hike, thankfully my girlfriend was there to properly guide me since she hiked before. After purchasing the hiking sandals, we went to the grocery section to buy some food. A lot was purchased. We purchased piaya, bread, gatorade, canned foods, cup noodles, and also burger and chicken from a local store. There were more foods that we bought, but that is the foods on the top of my head at the moment.
How Did We Get There
We joined a joiners group, actually my girlfriend did all the work, i was the passenger prince. She coordinated with the guide, and i was added to the group chat for the pickup point and quick QnAs for the hike. I thought, it will be easy so i didnt really asked anything. All i did was list my name and my partner to the list of where the pickup point we will be meeting and if we are partially paid.
After a few days, it was time to go to the pickup point. The meeting time was 9pm, we were there a bit late, around 15-30 minutes, if i remember correctly. There were a lot of people that was picked up first, and that is why my and my girlfriend were not sat next to each other.
The trip was around 6 hours? I forgot since this was in February. We stopped on a place where there are food eatery. We ate and after that, we proceed to travel.
After a few hours, we were at the place. The destination we have stopped is at the residence of our local guide. Their place is pretty old, their building are bare cement blocks and wood. Since the place is rural, i think it would be normal for these types of houses for some bare materials. The ground as well were sand, it seems that they have put it there. The time we arrived was around 4am.
There were a handful of minivans parked in this property and they were there because they were first to come there. Ofcourse, other hiking groups were already there, some were stretching and preparing for the hike and some were just looking around. Before starting the hike, there were debriefing first as to what is the description of the mountain, expectations and what we would be encountering, and heads up about the trails we were going to be traversing.
As far as I have remembered, when we were debriefing, the hike guide asked if if there were any beginners, i think out of twelve, i think half of us identified ourselves as beginners, including my girlfriend, even though she hiked before. There were some discussions on what route we should take and plan as a group the path we take. While we tried to come to some camaraderie and group effort, we really did not hike as a group. Hopefully I will explain further about this.
Our guide told us that the walk will be around an hour, but with tricycle, it will be only a 45 minute ride. Me and my girlfriend decided to just walk since the ride was 100Php(like $1.5) per person. While it may seem cheap, I was cheaper. It is also a good warmup to just walk since we have been sitting on the van for quite some time. None of the other joiners chose to ride the tricycle.
They told us that there were two paths as well at the start of the hike, the old and the new path. The old path turns out to be a private property, so we will need to pay 10Php to pass, and the new path is free, but they said it is a bit harder.
Walk To The Start
4:23, we started to walk towards the start of the hike. It was just like going to school early. Just like what the elderly people did back then. The road was rocky, and undeveloped, sometimes a one way road, and even there are parts where there are routes specifically for person only and tricycle only. At the beginning as well, they let us know about a tricycle ride that is available. Of course, the ride will be an out of pocket expense. Everyone in our joiners group preferred to walk rather than take the ride.
When we were walking, me and my girlfriend are the one in the middle, the front is like 20 meters in front and the back is 30 meters, i’d say. We are so excited since this is our first time that we will be hiking together. My girlfriend had some experience with hiking, and she really loves to go to another one, i am glad to help her with this goal of hers. While walking we were just having fun, being excited on whats to come and asking her some tips and her experience as well. I also found two cool sticks, staff-like arch. I think i have a video of both of them, i might need to censor the photo so that you guys would not see me yet!
There were some people that were ahead of us, from what i have seen, they were in the middle of debriefing. After they have finished their little debrief, it was our time to do it as well. The Tour guide has introduced himself and two other local guide as well, the main guide said that there are 2 person who will be with you, actually 3, including this main tour guide, the one will be in front and one from the back. The rules are the you can only as ahead as the front tour guide, and can be at the back as back tour guide. I know I am not explaining this clearly, but hopefully you understand.
While we were walking towards the start of the first peak, there were other paths to the start. And usually, the hiker guide at the front would stop to a checkpoint for us to regroup, then continue on walking. On the second checkpoint, we have noticed that two of our joiners are not with us. We were wondering where they could be. The hiker guide at the front said that the two lady hikers were not with her, and was did not get past her. The hiker guide at the back said that they were not with him as well. Us in the middle, we may have seen these two hikers, but if i remember correctly, they were behind us, meaning they might be between us, the middle group, and the back group. There were also some paths that lead to the start of the hike as well that we did not traverse. We have suspected that they may have went on their own way to the hiking spot. Since at the debriefing, these two ladies seems confident about their hiking abilities. When we were debriefing and was discussing the path to take, the easy on or the harder one, one of them let us know that it will be easy, so we will just do the hard one, since it can also challenge the new ones. After hearing that, I cannot resist to judge her a bit on my head. Going back to the second checkpoint, they have decided that the hiker guide at the back and the main hiker guide will go back and check if they might have been going on their own pace. So they went back to check for them.
After some time walking to the foot of the mountain, we had rest for a few minutes for the hiker guides to regroup with us and hopefully, bringing the two ladies with them.
When they came back, they did not find them.
But we have received an update about them. Remember when I told you that at the start of the hike, there were two paths, the free one and the paid one? It seems that the guy who guards the paid path has seen them! And they did not even pay the guy!
Going Uphill
Ah, the start. When we were at the foot of the mountain, there were two ways to reach the first peak, either by the old path or the new one. The new one was farther by a bit and much steeper, said our tour guide, while the old one is much direct but less steep but would cost 10Php Pesos. The cheapskate that i am would rather take the new route which is free, but i though to myself, its cheap, just give them the few peso and climb. So we paid for the old path which is also a bit faster by a few minutes.
The first peak is the worst. Very steep like climbing disorganized stairs. “It was fun, just like a little walk and just taking some steps to a flight of natural stairs”, i thought to myself. The first 50 step was a breeze, thinking to myself that this would be a cake walk. While hiking, of course we had little chats and making fun while traversing the mountain. We had also been talking to the other hikers from our group, they were really friendly and pretty helpful. Out of all the 5 peaks(the 5th one is the summit), this is the hardest. In my recalling, this is the steepest part, pretty long hike, and as a beginner, it challenged my lower body the most when going upwards.
When we reached the first peak, my girlfriend and I took a picture. That was fun. We made some vlog style video of ourselves for ourselves as well.
The joy of hiking was great at the start. I thought to myself “I will never do this unless someone i care deeply invited me to.” It was a good experience and totally humbled me as a human being. To be honest, compared to daydreaming, watching, and reading books about life and adventure, being in the moment, like hiking, will immensely develop your character and understanding of being a human. While i do not like that i paid to hike and tire myself out, I am glad that I have tried this at least once to check myself and help me remember that i need to be in touch of hardship so that I can truly live.
The next peaks, the second and the third peak, were the same as the first trail of the first peak. It is hard, but not as hard as the first. I remembered that we bought some drinks for the hike, we bought a 900ml of gatorade and after the first peak, i have drank half of the gatorade we had. This really signals my weakness in stamina, and in physical health in general.
My girlfriend tripped on something as well, she was recording it. When she tripped, my first reaction was “was that on the video?”. For some reason, that was my first question when she tripped herself. Pretty funny though.
I will send some photos of the scenery that we have seen while hiking. Just to let you know that we barely took photos while going up. We did not really take a lot of photos of the place alone, but it included us so, I might not upload a lot of photos here.
I have observed as well that there were burnt ground on the place. It seems that this mountain has experienced some natural forest fire, if that’s a proper term. The mountain is mixed with green, brown, and black. Looking back to the ground, you can see the path we have taken, and the river that is flowing close by. At the horizon, you see the rural view of the small houses and their fields. To me, I would like to live in the rural area compared to the city. While I know there are a lot of opportunities in the city, in the rural, there is peace and a tight bond with your community if you put your intentions into it.
In the second peak, again, going there is harsh for me since i suck at stamina and it is still uphill. We have to be careful and creative in traversing the mountain. Going to the second peak is the part where our group just go on their own pace. We were usually behind from the others. As I remembered, in our joiners group, it is composed of 5 groups in total. They were pretty friendly and nice when you talk to them, most of them seemed to not be tired at all. I remembered theres this group where we have been in the same pace going to the first peak. They were pretty chill, around the same age as us. They took some of our photos as well. I asked them about their past hiking experience and the reason why they do it, they said that they have a few experience with it and they just do it for fun and to get away from life and have a hobby.
Going to the third peak, sometimes I don’t even talk to anyone. I just focus on the walk and steps that I take. My body wants to quit, but I keep telling myself that I have to continue this, I do not want to whine most of the hike since that would look bad on my end, and possible start an argument with my lady. There was even a times where my girlfriend was talking to me, wanting to hold my hand and I said “Don’t. Let’s focus on the hike.”. Looking back, I know it sounds a bit rude but I HAVE TO DO THAT HAHAHAHAHA, I have to lock in just to take a step one at a time. My breathwork is garbage. Inhale through nose, big exhale through the mouth. We have started to eat what is on my backpack, mostly I ate the stuff, my girlfriend seems to be not be wanting to eat anything heavy, just some simple snacks. I think the backpack was also one of the reason why I am tiring out. It was heavy since I have the liquids and foods, also the bag was heavy as well. I have tried to pickup my girlfriends, bag, hers was kinda heavy also. So i learned that I should pack light. Just bring some trail mix and water with pink salt. Also at the summit and the 4th peak, there were people who brought a Jollibee Yumburger. Why did I not thought of that?
Also there were cows on the second and third peak. And we found the two lady hikers on the second peak or third, i kinda forgot.
Summit
When we were at the fourth peak, it was basically the peak. A lot of people were there already there. Everyone was happy and just having fun, making jokes with their friends. Ecstatic and tired is what I felt. There were some drones at the peak, it seems that other hikers brought one. We also took a photo as a group for remembrance. We were so happy as well that our trip came true. My girlfriend was so happy that this has finally happened since she was bugging me to hike for quite some time now. I think we have reached the peak at 10-11 am. We relaxed a bit. At the fourth peak, we have sit for a while and looked at the horizon, eating anything I can get on my back, at that moment, it was a peanut butter sandwich. The Gatorade was finished as well. What’s left is water and Cobra, an energy drink. Back to the summit, We took our before and after photos, and review the hike, i guess.
I think climbing a mountain was a big progress in my life, since while I know that this is just a side quest, it brings me happiness and again, humbles me. I still think I am a ultra competent-in-any-fields alpha man, just pretending to be a weak little boy. But having an example like hiking, snaps me back to reality.
Yes, Imagine yourself as great, while working to reach it.
Going down
All good things must come to an end.
Our hiking guide was looking for us since we were going to descend from the summit. There were two options for us; either we go back to the trail we hiked on or move forward and hike down from there. All of us decided to do the second option and go down by hiking down from the summit, straight down so that we can go head straight to the river that we will be going after the hiking. “At long last, we will be taking a break after this, going down should be easy”, I thought to myself, not realizing I was in for a surprise. Every step down I do, I feel the back of my legs heating up. I know that it is normal, it is a sign that that group of muscles are under pressure, working. But I did not know that it would tire me out to go down.
After a few minutes, probably around 10 minutes, I was happy going down. Finally thinking of going to the river and chill while we are there. But I have noticed that while we are going down, again, like taking the stairs, it is working a different muscle that I have just felt at that moment. I do not really workout these days since my excuse is “I walk to work, thats a workout”. There were conflicting emotions inside of me at that moment, being happy that we were going down now, and pain and suffering from my legs that need recovery every 5 minutes. I had also drank the Cobra energy drink since we have limited liquid now going down. My girlfriend was great though, she was going downhill like its nothing. Meanwhile, I have to duck and squat just to properly place my foot on the wedge that I can put it on. Not to mention, I have a stick that I found lying on the ground back when we were walking towards the start of the hike, which became a boon. It seems that it is not helpful for me to have that stick downhill. But I did not want to let go of it, since I thought to myself, “I’m not gonna let go of this stick, I found it at the start of the hike, I’m gonna carry this until the end.”. Yeah I had that personal objective in me to not let go of that stick. Seems childish, but it was a goal that I felt instinctively.
After 30 minutes, I was down as Debbie. I am the pinnacle of Sadness and Anger combined in the movie Inside Out. I am perishing from going down, working out the back of my legs at the same time. I started to feel trembling on my legs. I was not that tired though, but it is starting to start. Oh yeah, imagine an ant army going down a tree, that is the current scenario i’m in. We were at the middle of the pack, there people behind me and there are a lot in front of me. Every step down I do, would take a few seconds causing the people behind me to pause for a bit. I was also amazed that the hiker guide seems petiks or easy going downhill, three things that I can think of as to their advantage is their expertise, weight and how little to no equipment they have. All of those things, I do not have.
An hour into the downhill hike and I want to end it all. In my mind, the voice “I wanna quit” is loud compared to the start of the trail to the third peak. Every step I take is tiring, every step down I do is hellish. In a way, this is a meditation. My mind does want to end, focused on the track, barely no daydreaming was made during this time. I also thought of the other people, what do they think about this part of the hike? Some people are just treating this as usual, no remarks about it. Some are in the same status as I am, want to go home, suffering legs and just panting and want the pain to stop. It is nice to think to have a collective mindset of just doing the same thing at the same time, feels like i’m one with a community. I think a mindset shift would also assist me better in those times. I have read some mindset changer or some positivity talks that talks about hardship and thrive in it. While it has helped me when in trouble at work or working out before, I felt like no positivity talk can aid me at that time. That only talk that is on my head is to just focus on the next time. Less of the metaphorical side of motivation and discipline, but just to take a step, then another, and then another. In some way, that is the inner motivation and discipline that no external can provide you, the motivation and discipline of life.
An hour and a half from the trek down, (Just to let you know I am just guessing the time here), we were in the part where we have to lean towards the side of the mountain since if we just walk straight, there is a low of falling. There was this moment where I was so tired that i want to let go. Just quit, just die there. I sat at the side of the mountain. I want an elevator to just appear for us to go down to, but no. I sat there, having my girlfriend and one of our hiker guide to check up on us, which also offered to take my bag, which I gave to him, there was this also one of the joiners that is having hard time to go down the mountain, but she is older than us, she’s like in her late 30s or early 40s. She might have viable reason to tire out, but I should not. I do blame my lifestyle as to why i tire out so easily. I barely move and barely use my body to workout as much as I can. My diet will never be good for me since I am always exposed to junk foods. But whining aside, I accept what I am currently am. While resting at the side of the mountain, I was eating space for the other hikers to traverse on, meaning I could be one of the reason someone may slide off the mountain. While no one was hurt while I was resting, I have been thinking that time. I was thinking about my body, and my mind. My body hurts, I do inhale on my nose and exhale through my mouth, these inhales and exhales were full. The main hiker told me to control my breath, just use my nose and don’t breathe out all of the oxygen. My legs were aching, the back of my thighs hurst every step, I got cramps on my waistline as well when bowing down so I had to always crouch when going down. The right heel of my feet hurts when stepping before this hike, and this has worsened it, also my achilles hurts on both of my feet until this day. It seems that this is permanent now, oh well. I have also been thinking about Yeshua/Jesus saving me there while admiring the view. I thought that if I were to die there, I wanted him to tell me. My body was fully in pain and I think that I was near death, even though my situation there was pretty controllable. I think I was being dramatic there, but I think I was fine just being in that position for an hour. But after 5-10 minutes, we continued. And every 5 minutes, my sides would hurt from the energy drink earlier, and we would need to rest. My girlfriend had some cooling patch salonpas for me to use for my cramped legs. There were also water vendors kids in some spots as well. These kids treat the mountains like its nothing. Just running down the mountain like it's just a straight hallway. While resting to a new spot, were we are not in the way of the hikers, in the cover of the trees, there were some handful hikers there as well, lamenting about the journey down. Me too. I was urging to pee as well so I peed at the side, I thought I was gonna pee blood from there, but it wast just normal. After a few more minutes, probably like 10-20 minutes, We have rested once more, but this time, we were at the foot of the mountain, what’s next is an easier path. We have travelled once more and tadah, we were at the river.
River
When we have reached the camp for the river, we have rejoiced! Finally we can just hang around and bathe on the water. There were two rivers, by the way, but I have forgotten about the diferrence. From there, we ate a little and we enjoyed the waters. My girlfriend and I just hanged around and watch at the other people jump at the little cliff that is on the river. It was fun, a lot of people were there and my girlfriend and I talked about the trip and the mountain as well. We discussed what was my expectation and the reality. She actually wants to go hiking again after this, since I have promised to do some activty atleast once a month. I don’t think I would survive if we would hike this march again. What’s important from there is that we have checked one of her favorite things to do.
Going back to the minivan and going home
After an hour or I think 30 minutes on the river. We were told we will now go back to the main drop point. Since we were the last person from our group to arrive, its pretty sad to go early. I think the time we spent going down was around an hour or an hour and a half. While we spent less time on the river, we were thankful that it is time to go now.
When going back, we walked for a bit to reach a tricycle terminal. While walking, we also noticed that the parts of the trees in the mountain are on fire, a forest fire. At first, I thought that it was a natural thing that happens here, while I know that the trees are luscious green, there may be a chance that this could happen. But our guide said that there were some residents that are purposely burnign those trees down since they were hired by a company to burn it. I forgot the reason, but probably they are going to mine these mountain to get their natural resources. Of course, I felt negative about this. It seems that the corporation are doing some underhand tactics to get what they want. While I am not as rich as them or as ambitious, I would like to know why they do things the way they do things. I need those drive and passion and transmute it to something I would like to create.
When we have reached the tricycle terminal we were given the option to either ride to the hiking drop point or walk. Since we have walked to the foot of the mountain, we have decided to take the tricycle. Oh yeah, the we found an iPhone in the locals stand, we asked if someone may have lost it, and a lady said that it was theirs, that lady was one of the two ladies that went their own way to the mountain at the beginning to the hike. They did not even thanked us after pointing her phone out. I don’t know why, but it kinda stings a bit. I also thought there that maybe if we did not bring the phone back to her, we can sell it and get some moolas. Oh well, what’s done is done.
The tricycle were open, no roofs on our head, just a side car made of metal bars and two wooden seat with a sturdy cushion on it. When we rode the tricycle, we did not know what it would be pretty rough. The road was only dirt and rocks. So you have to hold on to the side car to survive, since the driver would need the speed to recover to up slope, you would levitate for a bit and you would be pushed a bit outside the cart. My girlfriend does not want to continue anymore since this was really a bit of a pain to ride on. But we have to endure this to go back. There were a lot of this time to, there were also some uphil that you have to get out of the mobile for the tricycle to finish, then hop back on. I’m not really a person who likes thrill or extreme rides, but since I just finished climbing a mountain, I did not mind the tricycle ride. After 45 minutes, we have arrived to our location. I still have the stick while in the tricycle, by the way.
After the ride, we are at the drop point. The other joiner groups are already there. They bath already and finished eating, again, we were the last ones. Before going to a bath, I have let go of the stick, said our farewell and just toss it aside. I hope that other hikers would find it and use it to reach the summit of the mountain. The people there also offered us to use their bathroom to clean ourselves for 50Php, around a dollar. Good thing we brought our bathing utilities and extra clothes for us to change our dirt clothes. Oh yeah, my blue sandugo hiking sandal became black thanks to the journey that we have made. After taking a bathe, we also ate at the locals for a price as well. Oh yeah, I saw that they have a little monkey on a cage as well, I just want to point that out since it was quite weird to find one.
After all was done, we were done. We went to our minivan, and bid farewell to the locals and the mountain. I played a bit of Mobile Legends while travelling, that I slept for a bit. After a few hours, we were in Manila, and we were dropped of near the meet up point. We commuted to our places and went to sleep.
Conclusion
And yeah, that’s it! It was fun and challenging. Would i try to hike again? Preferrably not, but it did humble me and Mount Mariglem straightforwardly said to me to workout, so I will try to incorporate more movement in my daily life. I have also been taking the stairs on our condominium to simulate a bit of hiking there. It does not get easier, I tell you that. If I would rate this mountain about its difficulty, it is a 5 out of 10. While the other hikers reviewed it as a 3, as an unhealthy man, this is pretty hard. I highly suggest as well to travel light, pack only light and nutritious foods and some carbs as well, stretch before hiking, and stay hydrated.
Core memories were made as well. I do see the allure of this activity and as to why it is becoming a popular hobby. This feels instinctual, something that we were used to do. A getaway from the modern day routine and a little side quest to achieve. While it is just a taste of what harship is, it can be used to live life, to have fun and experience a vast amount of things while energetic and less responsibilities. While I do not think I would be making this as my main hobby, I have been thinking of storing useful resource in case of emergency, apocalypse, or if society collapse. The thought of starting back and harnessing your own resource seems to be similar to trekking and challenging your body, in my opinion. Hopefully me beginning to prep for survival blossoms into something productive and meaningful.
That is all of my experience while climbing Mount Mariglem with my girlfriend. I hope you had fun reading this. I am pretty sure that I have been trying to write this for a month now, and each time I start writing this piece, my head hurts. Anyways, that is all for now. Hopefully we have another adventure soon!