What's up, everyone? I've been sharing so much of my beach travels in my previous posts and now it's time to head up to the mountains. In this post, I'll be sharing with you about the time I climbed Osmeña Peak with my friends. The trek was not the most challenging. In fact, it was a piece of cake. But that trek was a pivotal moment in my life because of my realizations. You can read the poem I wrote about it here.
Osmeña Peak is the highest point on the island of Cebu. It's located in the southern part of the island in the town of Dalaguete. We decided to climb the mountain during the summer of 2019 when my friends and I had a lot of free time to ourselves. I remember we went on so many spontaneous trips together during that time.
I have seen amazing photos of people enjoying beautiful sunsets and sunrises on the peak but one of my friends told me that in most cases, it's not advisable to trek very early in the morning or late in the afternoon because the whole place would be covered in fog.
With this information, we decided to start our trek early in the afternoon to get most of the sun and the least of the fog. Unfortunately, when we arrived at Dalaguete and rode the motorcycles that would that us to our destination, we saw that the starting point of the trek to Osmeña Peak was full of fog.
Part of our reason for avoiding the fog was to get the best photos. I still wasn't blogging on Hive (or Steemit) back then, but I was diligent in taking photos and posting them on my social media accounts. We were quite disappointed when we saw that the visibility was poor. Of course, we couldn't go back. We were already there. So we started climbing towards the famous peak.
After registering at their entrance and paying a fee, we started our trek. We didn't get a guide because we knew the path to the peak was quite established and not difficult to follow. We passed by a sign that said, "Welcome to Osmeña Peak. Highest peak in Cebu province." For me, it was a bit strange that the highest peak of the island was so easy to go to. I think it was because the place produces many vegetables that thrive in high altitude areas and that roads were constructed to easily transport them.
I think the only difficult part of the trek was the beginning. There was a rocky and steep terrain that we had to climb. The soil was also a bit wet which made it slippery. I didn't consider myself a mountain climber before but I knew I was fit enough to climb mountains.
After the rocky terrain, we reached a clearing that was overlooking the main road and some houses. The plains below didn't look too far from where we were. If I didn't know how high we already were above sea level, I wouldn't have thought we were pretty far up high already. Osmeña Peak is around 1000 meters above sea level (MASL).
While in the clearing, we stopped to take photos. The fog was still covering things up but it didn't stop us from capturing some of the scenery and of each other. I remember we stayed in that location for around 20 minutes just to take pictures. I think I read somewhere that the trek was only supposed to take about 10 minutes. We were definitely overstaying. We weren't in a hurry but we also didn't want to arrive at the peak during nighttime.
It was already past 3 pm when we continued with our journey. We passed by this beautiful meadow full of flowers but we couldn't take clear shots because of the fog. There was a bench along the way and we asked someone to take a photo of us before moving on.
After a few minutes of walking, we saw the peak and the famous hills I saw in the pictures. The other hikers were all going there. We were very close but we decided to stop in our tracks. We didn't want to reach the peak with the crowd. Instead, we headed back and walked across the peak. There was this rock formation overlooking the mountains and the hills.
The fog was still covering most of the mountains but it was still an amazing sight. We stayed at that location and again, took a lot of photos of each other. We also waited for some of the people to head back down before going to the peak.
If I went there now, yes, I still would've taken photos but after a few minutes, I would put my phone away and enjoy the view and let the power of awe fill me up.
We continued with our journey to the peak and climbed the last hill towards the vantage point. The fog was starting to clear up and we were hopeful that if we stayed for a while, the fog would completely go away.
We could see the sea far below and the outlines of the jagged hills along the mountains. It was cold up there but it was manageable. We still had so much energy and we had a lot of time to enjoy the peak.
I mentioned earlier that my friends and I had a lot of free time for ourselves. We were all going through some form of heartbreak. I had a breakup and was on the verge of resigning from my job. I thought life was so difficult. But while up there on the mountain, I felt a shift in my perspective and I thought to myself that I was tired of living a difficult life. It was there that I decided to take on a new responsibility of making my life better and easier for me.
To our delight, the fog cleared up and we could see the view below. We all took turns climbing the rock formations and had our picture taken with the spectacular landscape as our background.
We could now see clearly how far up high we were. The sea and the plains below looked extraordinarily distant and obscure. I could see Badian, a town on the west side of Cebu and that island is Zaragosa Island.
It was actually challenging to climb some of the rock formations because they were high and the wind was picking up. But we had each other to motivate us to go up and honestly, we also wanted to get that money shot for our social media content.
It was more tiring to take pictures up on the peak than the trek itself. I remember we did some very specific shots that we wanted to achieve but found out that some of them were really difficult. We all just laughed while we goofed around on the peak doing silly poses.
Here are some more cool shots I took while on the peak. I was still using my iPhone 6 back then and the dynamic range of the photos was not the best. So the photos don't really give justice to the real view. Still, the views look amazing to me.
Around 5 PM, we started to head back down because we wanted to go home before dark. As expected, the trek down only lasted less than 10 minutes. We passed by the clearing again and we took some photos without the fog.
I took this photo of my friends and I think they look really cool against the gray limestone background.
Near the entrance, we took our time with the flower garden. The flowers look all strange and foreign to me and I suspect they only live at high altitudes. My mother was still not collecting plants back then but if I had to return now, my mind would be focused on what plants I could bring back home.
The trip was quick and I'm wondering now why I haven't returned. I think I want to camp or go to the next peak during my second trip. I know there's another famous mountain beside Osmeña Peak. There are also those who trek from the peak all the way to the famous Kawasan falls on the west side of the island.
That's it! This post is making me anxious about going trekking again. There is a plan to climb the highest peak in the Philippines and I'm growing excited thinking about it. I know I have to train for it because I'm sure it will nothing be like Osmeña Peak.
For my next post, I will still be sharing about another trekking experience but it will involve a waterfall. Watch out for that one. See you then. Cheers!
