Hello steemit friends! Today I'll be sharing with you my first undeniably tiring yet worth it mountaineering experience at Mt.Capistrano. I actually wrote and shared this blog for my Bitlanders account yet I'm sharing it again to you here at Steemit :) I just edited some parts of it but nevertheless still a 100% own content. Hope you'll enjoy reading❣

MY FIRST MOUNTAINEERING EXPERIENCE

Last July 2016, my history teacher back in high school posted at Facebook this event poster of Adventure to Mt. Capistrano and Nasuli Spring. He is a traveller and a photographer as well. This caught my attention since there have been a lot of people including some of my friends who has amazing pictures on Facebook and Instagram of the breathtakingly beautiful view from the peak of Mt. Capistrano and to climb a mountain even once in my life has been one of the things I really like to try.

Mt. Capistrano is located at Sitio Binalbagan, Purok 9, Brgy Simaya, Malaybalay City in the province of Bukidnon, Philippines. This is one of the minor summit in the province of Bukidnon and it is a 610 meters high land form which is visible in the highways of Malaybalay City.

So early in the morning on July 31, 2016 I went to the meeting place at Divisoria with my mom and lolo accompanying me to meet my high school teacher Sir Kim, the event organizer as well to asked about some details about the climb. After that, Sir Kim made some orientations to the group. We brought packed breakfast, liter of water, and I remember I took vitamin to boost my energy. We were grouped for our van ride and then we headed to Malaybalay City a 2-hour travel from Cagayan de Oro City where the beautiful Mt. Capisrano is situated. It was raining that time around 5am, I am with my 3 college friends, my adventure seeker friends Nneka, Naume and Ellaine along with other 30+ climbers. We were praying that the rain will stop pouring when we will start climbing so that it won’t be that muddy and slippery as well as to that we can capture pictures with at least a little rays of sunshine. So we arrived around almost 7am and now I get nervous and excited as well, nervous because I’ve read blogs about their experience of Mt. Capistrano and says it was a hard one and exciting because I’ve got to try another first time experience! That kind of masked my nervous feeling.

We arrived at the jump point of the summit

Every climber needs to pay an environmental fee at Ms. Imelda Villaruz' residence, we listed our names in their logbook. We also paid barangay fee and a climb permit fee but it was already included in the package so Sir Kim took charge. We met our tour guide Sir Jairo and he told us more about Mt. Capistrano, he even rated the difficulty level of this mountain at 8/10 and it needs around 2 hours with a lot of trails to reach the peak. Trying to be chill but still a little nervous inside. I can’t back off now!

So from the jump point we walked through plant fields and there is a concrete staircase after it which marks the assault. It is around 300+ steps after heading to the open trail, there are installed ropes which is a life saver to me. The rain stopped the moment we arrived in Malabalay City, God answered our prayers. After awhile the ropes were now nowhere to be found so you need to keep your balance since it is starting to be steep. We were heading up but I am already thinking how to go down without ropes and with the other trails ahead of us! Kind of scary.

Next to it is a forested trail which I find to be the most difficult part of the trail since it is very steep and this one is always wet and so slippery. Balancing skills will be tested here, you can crawl to keep yourself on the ground and in this part you will really get mudded. Although twigs and roots are spreading through this trail for you to hold- another life saver indeed. There is a campsite after it where trekkers pitch their tents to spend the night with, we were there for a day-hike so we moved forward through the Steep Rocky Trail, limestone rocks begin to appear – a sign that the summit is near. It is not that difficult but I find it the most dangerous one since you can accidentally wound yourself with abrasion or scratch or worst, you will fall. You need to secure yourself by being careful with your steps and movement with this one.

Arriving at the peak

So after all of the struggles now a beautiful rock formation at the summit will welcome you - and not just that one, also the breathtakingly beautiful view of the City with the amazingly cool green rice fields and mountain ranges which includes Mt. Ragang, Mt. Kalatungan and other mountains of Bukidnon. You can hop from rock to rock to get your amazing picture poses.

The only thing I don’t like about there is that there were a ot of vandals in the rock formations and trash can be seen in the ground. Climbers should really be disciplined with this one, climbers should not leave any trace of vandals and trace there, it was so sad to see it at the summit. We should always love back the nature because it awes us with the breathtakingly beautiful views like this one.

Heading down

We started going down after an hour of enjoying the nature, eating breakfast and having pictorials at the summit. It was also very difficult to go down the mountain! My butt was full of mud since I am using my sliding skills to get through that downward slopes! But it was indeed so fun and satisfying I get to check another one in my bucketlist even with all the struggles, all will vanish when you reach the top! So after the climb, we dropped by a calenderia downtown and went to Nasuli Spring afterwards, just about 30mins ride from Mt. Capistrano jump point. Such a relaxing place to stay after being so tired!

This is really one of the best experiences in my life since I've been always a fan of Nature! I am blessed to have witness such amazing and wonderful creation by our almighty Father. And I hope that every climber will know the importance of taking care of our environment and be oriented with simple mountain climbing rules like: "leave no trace behind" -expecting us to be considerate to other visitors and of course conserving the beauty of nature by taking your trash with you. 💕

THANK YOU ALL FOR READING!

GOD BLESS! 💕
Photo credits: Sir Kim Libutaque and bukidnonphotojournal.blogspot.com

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