NASUGBU | Mt. Batulao: A Year After

I wanna start my first blog writing with the first mountain I ever climbed, Mt. Batulao. Well last month we just had revisit and wondered if there's any change happened on my first love mountain. Jump-off from Evercrest Golf Course was still the same point where we started our trek, passing Don Bosco Chapel, Caleruega church and Charles Huang Retreat house.

Weather was still awful, it was totally hot, extremely hot! Aside from it was summer time, because of lack of shady trees and just tall grasses along the trail, there's no chance to hide yourself from too much sun rays. However, the swishing air aide us somehow. Due to weather, soil was so dry that made trail slippery. Be very cautious if you are traversing a steep trail coz it might really bring into trouble.

Trail is still good. We just follow the path until we reached the campsite. It was partially steep and continuous until we reached a branched trail to new(right) and old(left) trail. You could just choose which one you like, but according to other mountaineers, the latter is much harder. As we continue our hike to new trail which we also took in my first ever climb, I notice something. 

From our last year's hike, I haven't noticed this part of the trail where they plowed and cultivated the soil just to plant. I'm partly impressed that people are so good they thought about it to earn or for daily food source. However, I was sad because it wasn't theirs and made the trails not so nice, it looks like half bald and I think eventually they'll totally eradicate the other half. 

Two hours of walk from the jump-off, we reached the camp 9, the registration area. We logged and paid P20 for our day hike trek, rest for awhile and headed to summit. Because we knew which trail was easier and faster to summit we decided to choose it so we can ascend and descend in a shorter time to avoid over sun exposure. After traversing steep trail, we passed between two huge rocks at our right, continued and entered the forest for shade an ease path. It was the easiest and the safest way to summit because of absence of cliff along the trail, minus the slippery way due to arid weather. However, after the forest trail we still had to pass a steep last meters to summit.

Another two hours pass and we're at the summit. We saw the other twin peak and wondered again if people can get there. Unlike my first hike here, I haven't noticed that that's the twin summit until I reached the foot of the mountain, haha. It was like a hill below the zenith we are standing and no established trail seen.

We met other mountaineers and my buddy had some conversation about mountains, as usual. Me, I took some photos I felt I never had a chance to have from last year's.

The 360 view from the peak was amazing. We saw how hills and fields are beautifully arranged together with the glittering shore of Batangas.

Another interesting part at the summit was the image of Mary. Locals said that it was brought by group of mountaineers and left it there. It was the unique thing I saw as to compare with other mountains. As a respect, some people left their bracelets of something they can leave to leave a mark.

After couple of minutes staying, we went back to registration area where we kept our huge bags there. At the summit we planned to descent via old trail but unluckily we left our things at the other part of the trail, new trail. We reached the campsite two hours from the summit and waited until sun rays tamed so we can trek back without toasting our skin much.

Because our friend said they will follow and have an overnight camp, we waited for them for a couple of hours and I had a chance to wait for the sunset..Yey!

I would like to share this itinerary to you guys so you can have an idea how you could manage your time in your Mt. Batulao hike. Here's my proposed itinerary for day hike and night hike, checklist and expenses.