You Only Lived Once: My Twin Hike Experience

"Climb mountains, not so the world can see you, but so you can see the world."

Hiking is the best workout because you can hike the mountains for three hours and not even realize that you are actually working out.

It also gives yourself some time alone that enable you to refresh your mind and relax away from the stress and pollution.

It is one of the most exciting activities, especially if you have high cravings of nature and adventure.

If you are thirsty for aching feet and sore muscles, I think hiking these two mountains will definitely give that to you.

It is just near Manila and only takes a few hours of your time to travel here.

Just for your information, there's a recent typhoon here in the Philippines that actually destroyed the bridge going here.

That's why for today, I would love to share with you my Mt. Pamitinan & Mt. Banoi twin hike experience which is located in Brgy. Wawa, Rodriguez, Rizal.

Mt. Pamitinan is approximately 426+ meters above sea level(masl) with a difficulty of 3/9 that can be a trek to the summit in 2 hours and 30 minutes while Mt. Banoi is 517+ meters above sea level(masl) with a difficulty of 4/9 that can be a trek to the summit in 3 hours.

How to get there?

Public Transport: From Commonwealth

Ride a Jeep from Commonwealth going to Montalban Bayan that cost P17 by estimated 30 minutes travel time.
Then, once you are in Montalban, ride a tricycle going to Sitio Wawa that cost P20 by estimated 20 minutes travel time.

Finally, reach the jump-off.

Private Transport

Head to Rodriguez via Marikina and San Mateo, Rizal(use Waze)

You'll then find the directions to Sitio Wawa along the way.

Once, you reached the jump-off point, there are some fees to be paid such as:

Registration Fee(DENR) - P2

Registration Fee(Barangay/Tourism) - P5

Shower/CR - P25

Gloves - P40(but since I have gloves, I didn't purchase this)

Guide Fee - P1650 for two mountains (approx. 10 people)

Total - approx. P235-P300 per person

Budget - P500 - P600

We leave Manila around 4:00 am and we reached the place around 6:00 am since there's no traffic that time on Saturday morning.

After we paid the registration and guide fee, we proceed with starting off our adventure.

It is raining that time, so the trail is quite challenging as there as some soft soil pathway and slippery rocks.

The first part of our trail is when we crossed the under construction bridge because originally we should cross the hanging bridge which is, unfortunately,  that time is closed.

Then, steep rock formations showered us along the way.

I might say as my opinion, that this trail is not for beginners since there is some kind of wall climbing activity.

It took us 2-3 hours before we reached the summit.

There is some queuing when we're there and we take chances to get the perfect pose and waited also for the rain to calm a bit so we can step on the rock without getting slippery.

It is indeed a heart-stopping experience when I am able to step on the stone and get my 'buwis buhay' or what do you call near-death life experience because one wrong move can certainly kill somebody.

Of course, your outfit counts when you are posing for this kind of view, maybe you want to check out my blog post here -> What to Wear on a Day Hike

I take first the courage to step on the peak even I am the only girl in our group.

No matter how exhausted I am, it is very fulfilling when you reached the summit and also by seeing the stunning view.

Then, after this, we proceed to Mt. Hapunang Banoi, which is higher and more challenging with the previous mountain.

There's a lot of rock formations wherein your rock climbing skills will be a challenge.

The view of the summit is also breathtaking though space can't accommodate a lot of people unlike the previous one.

It is indeed an amazing experience wherein I am able to twin hike mountains in one day.

I know this is not my first time, but this time it is more challenging because of the sharp and edgy rock formations.

We descend the mountain and reached the barangay at around 4:00 pm.

Everyone is exhausted and hungry after that tiring yet fulfilling experience.

Always remember to bring 2L of water with you because it can help in many ways and also you can read my blog post here for more tips -> Hiking Essentials

How do you find this adventure?

Have you ever tried hiking two mountains in one day?

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks for reading.

XOXO

ZARRAH