Mt. Tagapo Hiking January 2024 : We Got Lost Again

Watch the Facebook reel of our hiking here: Mt. Tagapo Hiking 2024

Another core memory to treasure with my friends as we started and greeted 2024 with a hike in Mt. Tagapo. There's nothing new with Mt. Tagapo, I always share a blog about this (I think yearly?) as we are always going here each year. It is not a tradition, but we are just looking for experience and trying to make more memories.

We planned this last year before the Christmas break, it should have happened before Christmas, but since it was the final term in our school and we had a bunch of school work to prioritize, we decided to move it this January.

This blog happened last January 4, 2024, with my friends from the boarding house that we are living near the school.

Also read my previous posts about Mt. Tagapo:

• An Adventurous Yet Fun Experience In Mt. Tagapo Philippines
• Mt. Tagapo Hiking 2023: A Creepy and Adventurous Experience

We have a friend from Tanay, Rizal and he said that he wants to try going to our place and go to Mt. Tagapo. All of us are from Talim Island Binangonan Rizal except him. We planned to go there by noon on January 4, so he went to one of our friend's houses by morning.

My friends went to our barangay to pick us (I am with my brother) because we live 4 barangays away from our meeting place (which is our friend's house). We took a video on the way for documentation and to preserve the memory.

Watch the Facebook reel of our hiking: Mt. Tagalo Hiking 2024

We packed our things and prepared everything after arriving. We cooked adobo for our food when we went to the top, bought a fish that we can grill, and rice. There's also a marshmallow from our friend's house so we decided to bring it. We ate lunch after the preparation and we were all excited to leave.

As you remember, I went there before many times but we got lost and couldn't find a way (but we still went there anyway). It was funny because this time, we got lost again. There are different ways to go there depending on the barangay, but we decided to go on the way where I got lost before.

I even showed them the way where we got lost before (I was with another circle of friends) and they just laughed. I never thought that we would get lost again this time because the friend who served as a compass is a bit confident. But when there were 3 ways, we hesitated which one was the right one. So we've done a trial and error for all of them but we were always on a dead end, the "compass" said there was only Ulingan (Kaingin?), and then it was a dead end.

We decided to go back after trying all of them and went to another barangay to try another way. We were a bit shy to show up on people because you know, we got lost again. We can have a tour guide but it was expensive.

Another friend knows the right way in the other barangay, so we gave it a shot. It was exhausting because we walked for a long time but it was the wrong way. On the way, we saw a Ulingan again and my compass friend said that it was the same one that he saw. So technically, we were actually on the right way earlier (perhaps) but it looked like a dead end because of the tall grasses. January is not the hiking season here, it is always the holy week so maybe it is one of the reasons why there are a lot of grasses, it wasn't cleared by the committees.

Mt. Tagapo, having 438 MASL, is not that much I guess compared to other mountains but we were all tired when we were already halfway to the point that I couldn't take a picture anymore. Maybe because of the one hour of walking in the wrong way and being sedentary during the Christmas break.

Anyway, we still made it and reached the top. We cooked our grilled fish first, prepared the food, then assembled the tent after eating. We also had a small bonfire and had a lot of fun. We put marshmallows on fire, put some alcohol on our hands then put a fire on it, and had a fun conversation.

We also had stargazing where we saw a lot of meteors. For me it was the best experience that time, stargazing with your friends and seeing the meteors together you will see the excitement when all of you reacted when there was a meteor and all of you saw it.

We went inside the tent for about 1:00-2:00 am and slept. We said that we were going to the summit by 5:00 am and wait for the sunrise. I couldn't sleep that time because we were 5 inside the tent and we were like sardines in a can putting ourselves in a small space.

By 5:00 am, we boiled water to prepare a coffee. I wasn't used to drinking coffee, so I had a bad stomach while going to the summit. But we still went to the top and took a lot of pictures and memories.

A lot of things happened after that, our friend lost a phone but we still found it, and while looking for his phone, I saw a working speaker so I had a souvenir from Mt. Tagapo. Then while going back, going down from the mountain, we walked across to other people who were also going to the top.

It was a fun experience going to Mt. Tagapo again with my friends. I hope it will happen again soon! I also wish to hike to other mountains soon when I have more time...also a money (LOL).

About the author

_{Laurence, also known as Laurenceuuu and anonymous02 is a student who is currently taking a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. He is expanding his knowledge and skills by blogging where he mostly writes about digital marketing, productivity, and making money online.}

---

_{Graphics are made and designed by the author using Canva. All images are mine unless stated otherwise. Page dividers are from TheTerminal.}