Dinosaur head (giant pinger heart! lol!)
Completing the trilogy hike do-able in this area, I now present to you guys Mt. Binacayan. The other 2 peaks in the trilogy are Mt. Pamitinan & Mt. Hapunang Banoi.
I can consider this my favorite peak amongst the others since I have climbed this peak the most compared to the two. I already lost count by how many but it is safe to say that it is more than 5 times already. And as usual, we started hiking super early (4:30 AM) to get the sunrise view above.
shoes assemble (lol)
It rained hours before our scheduled hike so we were both excited and worried at the same time (I still remember our crazy group chats conversations hours before we departed haha!) Why? Because first (the negative), the hike will exponentially be harder to do when everything is wet.. But given that it either rained or just even drizzled (the positive), it means more chances or should I say thicker sea of clouds can be seen at the summit. Well, I guess the phrase "The harder you get something, the more valuaable it gets when achieved" is perfect for this situation. You choose your perspective.
Despite the unfamiliarity of Paolo (gray shirt) and Jay-Ar (white shirt) with the trail, I guess I can consider them boy scouts as they came really prepared for this one. They came with complete gears and our phase was really fast. Good job mga kuys!
early morning hike
As far as I remember (even though resting on some points), this is so far the earliest time we got to the summit since we used the 90 degrees trail going up - my first time traversing this uphill. We usually use that trail going down on all of my previous hikes. It has a different feel so I guess I kind of liked it since the experience was a little bit different from my previous ones.
With that, we were blessed with this view that morning. Wow! Just wow! Even though I hiked this a number of times already, the views I get manage to become better and better each time. This one is the thickest by far I have seen it.
Awed
After resting a few minutes with this view, we decided to use the drone here capturing different horizons from above. Yes, different horizons in each direction which you'll see on the video below. With just a few days to practice prior our hike, Paolo managed to pilot Jay-Ar's drone capturing these stunning footages in this video right here:
We also took advantage of the great lighting that moment as the sun rose right in front of us. Can you guess what were our themes on these two given group pictures? LOL!
"Kung fu" daw
"Wrestling" daw haha!
By the way, we were only hiking with just one group at the same peak at that time since we went up on a weekday. It was a smooth run as we took our time in most of the spots. We even solo'ed the parking lot arriving at the jump-off area first. The odd thing here is that the trail was not that wet so Philip and I acknowledge that that is the Lord's favor upon us. Thank you Lord, as always!
Anyway, as we go down the mountain.. even though we were all feeling the pain in our knees already, we pushed through (as if we have a choice lol) and managed to get back to the bottom still with the record-breaking time of around 9:00 AM. Man, that was fast. I still remember the time of day because we were deciding on where to eat after but since the malls were still closed, we all agreed to go to the ever-first choice, Mang Inasal branch to eat near the area.
Well, it seems Paolo and Jay-Ar are already ready for the next climb, shall we? ;)
Reaching the summit of Mt. Binacayan
Related climbs: (All can be done on the same jump-off point)
version 1:1. Mt. Pamitinan2. Mt. Binacayan - THIS3. Mt. Hapunan Banoi
version 2:4. Mt. Lagyo5. Mt. Susong Dalaga6. Mt. Parawagan
others:7. Mt. Kapananan
