Friday, October 12, 2012

Mt. Sto. Tomas | Into The Towers

Last weekend was indeed a big blast of Baguio experience. For 3 days or so, we went here and there around the tourist hot spots in the city of pines. For my post regarding this weekend trip to Baguio, please click this link.

It was a tour package deal set for us by Azalea Residences, to my surprise Mt. Sto. Tomas was included on our itinerary, extremely awesome, nabuhay bigla ang dugo ko. Been planning to go here for a long time pero ngayon lang natuloy, my big thanks to our favorite hotel in Baguio, Azalea Residences.

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Saturday, October 6, 2012 

We're on the second day of our stay in Baguio City and we're scheduled to hike the closest high mountain in the city, Mt. Sto. Tomas. Thanks to Azalea Residences, getting to the summit was hasslefree.

Mt. Sto. Tomas (summit with towers) and Mt. Cabuyao (summit with radars)
From the city center, it took about 30 mins up to the zigzagging road to the summit of Mt. Sto. Tomas. The ride was pretty smooth but turned a rough ride past the summit the Mt. Cabuyao.

we were blessed with great weather
A few hundreds meters from the radars of Mt. Cabuyao, we decided to get off our van and start moving by foot. The road leading to the towers of Mt. Sto. Tomas is wide and straight forward, yung mga wala sa sarili lang ang maliligaw sa bundok na to.

We were a group of 9 but only 6 dared to trek up the summit. At fast pace, I was the one leading the trail, kasi medyo excited akong makarating sa summit. But after a few minutes, nurse Jela caught up.

the road to the summit
Nurse Jela excitedly caught up with me, it was here first time to hike. I saw on her eyes her eagerness to reach her first summit kaya pati ako na-excite para sa kanya.

Mt. Cabuyao from the trail to Mt. Sto. Tomas
almost at the summit, gradual lang ang akyat.
The scenes from the trail were really amazing, the whole of Baguio City is visible to the east, and the province of La Union and Pangasinan to the west. There are also some vegetable garden, and magnificent-looking rock formations along the trail.

overlooking the province of La Union
The trek was quick and easy (kung mangagaling sa summit ng Mt. Cabuyao). In just an hour, we already reached the towers of Mt. Sto. Tomas. It was a summit packed with different tower stations and cell sites. Men were at work when we arrived on the site but they greeted and welcomed us with big smiles, super friendly people. In fact they even let us climb one of the towers, medyo wala nga lang kaming ma-view farther than 1 kilometer kasi biglang nagkaroon ng fog.

cell sites and towers at the summit
I reached the summit with some of the coolest travel bloggers: Dong Ho of escapeislands.com, Mervs of pinoyadventurista.com, Lauren of epicpotato.com, Christine of jovialwanderer.com.

congrats to nurse Jela for reaching her first summit
under the tower
At 10 AM, we started to descend the mountain and it only took us 45 mins to get back on our van. Whew, easy hike success!

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23rd mountain completed


5 comments:

  1. Cool pics you got here Ivan,
    my camera was reduced to being a pouch and didn't take pics na cause i was so tired. Didn't know that i was going to get sick. Must be the Dong-caused insomnia. Haha

    Cool special pic for Nurse Jela, wishing her more hikes with you :D

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  2. Cool! I have been wanting to climb this too. I hope I have enough time when I go to Baguio...

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  3. Sir baka pwede makahingi ng contact numbers and other info so we can also try this hike when we go to Baguio. Salamat! :)

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  4. Do you have any contact number and other info for those who also want to climb up these summits? :) Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. you don't need a guide to reach the summit. All you have to do is follow the road. Take a cab to the jump-off

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