Travel Diary: Mount Ulap

Travel Diary: Mt. Ulap - For Beginners

Located at the heart Itogon Benguet and only takes an hour away from the bustling city of Baguio, Mount Ulap offers an extraordinary experience where one can find solitude among the mountain ranges and get drown with the morning scent of dew and the fragrant smell of pine trees. This place is perfect for people who are looking for a place to de stress. My friend and I visited this place last summer and I was mesmerized by how close this paradise to my house is (Im from Baguio) but I have never had a chance to set foot on this before.
Mount Ulap is absolutely recommendable for people who just love to do trekking or a leisure walk. The difficulty level is only 3/10 which means this is suitable for beginners. We actually saw some group of hikers who brought their children ages 3 to 5 and it was absolutely incredible. (Im actually hoping to meet hikers with dogs)
For people who are interested to experience Mount Ulap, it is advisable that you start the hike at the base camp early in the morning to avoid getting tired easily due to hot temperature (yes,we do experience high

temperature). As for my fellow mountaineers, we left Baguio City at 3:30 am and reached Brgy. Ampucao at around 4: 30 am. We directly proceeded to the registration area after parking our car inside an open gymnasium with hundreds of people (yes, hundered especially weekends). Paid for the registration fee, P100 per person and P1000 tour guide fee for 8 people, do some stretchings and a prayer (we need that for a safe hike).
Our entry point was at the Ampucao trail because it is way easier (we actually went there with some Japanese fellows and beginners) and i

t was pretty dark so it is advisable that hikers who would start the hike as early as 4 am should bring emergency lights such as flashlight. While trekking we could actually see a p

art of Itogon and Philex and since it was dark, the lights from the main town look like stars flickering and shinning brightly. It was wonderful.
Hills, pine trees, some cows, grassy land, wild flowers,

fog - they make everything breathtaking. But the highlight of the view is the sunrise. I was transported into another world and I believe its whimsical. I fell in love with the place.
Mount Ulap is a very convenient place because at the heart of the mountain, some shops are placed to cater the hikers. They sell various products from water, chocolate bars, noodles, barbecue (yes they have barbecue, just don't get surprised with the price) and even souvenirs such as t-shirts, key chains and others.
While hiking we happened to stumble upon with some group of

campers who pitched their tents at the peak of the mountain and spend overnight there but you can also finish the hike within a day. It took us a total of 6 to 7 hours to hike including the time we spent for photo ops (you know you can't leave instagram out of this). After a fulfilling 7 hours hike, our exit point was in Sta. Fe, Itogon where our rented van was already waiting for us. We ended our hike in a festive lunch (that's around 1 to 2 pm already) in main town Baguio City before heading back to our places.
The hike was tiring but it was worth it and I would definitely go back to that place given another free time but this time I would be bringing with me my bestfriends and other co - mountaineers.

Here are some of the Photos we took.