My First Time at Peak 2
by Oliver Carlos
My hometown Los Banos is known for the mystical and majestic Mount Makiling. It is a dormant volcano shaped like a woman lying down. The best angle to see that kind of shape is to view the mountain while standing on Los Banos soil. If you are standing in Calamba, Bay, or Sto. Tomas, the mountain isn’t shaped like the reclining goddess Makiling.
Mount Makiling has 3 peaks, the tallest they say is Peak 2. That’s the forehead of the woman-shaped mountain. Peak 2 is 1,100 meters above sea level, and it takes a 4-hour hike to reach the summit. I was able to climb it all the way to the top in the summer of 1990, after my freshman year in college.
I had 2 companions in that hike- my old batchmates and friends way back from elementary school. We were Elbi boys, kids who were born and raised in Los Banos. We went to the same elementary school, high school, and college. One of them was my very own first cousin, Eric Aragon, who is now a medical doctor. The other guy is Earl (not his real name), who also became a medical doctor. Of the gang, I’m the only one who didn’t enter med school.
I slept over at Eric’s place on the eve of the hike. His house was right at the foothills of Mt. Makiling, inside the UPLB campus. He’s the veteran climber and our guide. He already made the Peak 2 ascent in the past. Earl would just meet us up in the morning.
Eric gave me a very valuable advice that night- TRAVEL LIGHT! He said all we need to bring is a bottle of water, and a bottle of rubbing alcohol. The latter is for keeping the leeches off our bodies. He said we don’t really need food because we will start hiking at 5 AM, and we’ll be back home by lunch time. We also won’t need a bolo because there’s a clear foot trail to follow.
So we met together a little before sunrise at the UPLB College of Forestry campus, the entry point towards Peak 2. It was after the Holy Week. Eric set up the date. He said it isn’t advisable to go up Mt. Makiling on Holy Week as there would be hundreds of other hikers with us. We wouldn’t enjoy the trip that way.
The hike was long and difficult. Half of the route involved walking on a lonely eroded asphalt road that cuts across the forest of huge trees. That road would narrow down into a trail that would lead to a flat grassland. After that, the trail gets narrower and would pass through a steep slope covered with weird bushes and moss. There’s no more large tress at that point. Then, the most challenging portion- a 90-degree stonewall, around 10 feet high. We literally crawled up that obstacle, using our bare hands, grasping some protruding large roots on the “wall”.
We reached the summit at mid-morning, as expected. We were the only ones there. The level ground on Peak 2 was just around 25 to 30 square meters. On the summit, there’s a small 10-foot tall tree that is easy to climb. People would use that to see the best panoramic view from Peak 2. However, we didn’t see any nice view as it was a cloudy day. Anyway, we just enjoyed the clouds smushing on our faces. On a clear day, people say that one can view from there the whole province of Laguna, and Taal Lake. The skyscrapers of Makati are also said to be visible from Peak 2.
It took us 4 hours going up, and just 3 hours going down. We got a little help from a friend named Gravity as we made our descent. We were also noisier going down. We were laughing all along at Earl. He was so slow going up and also going down the mountain. The reason? He had his whole house with him in the hike, figuratively speaking. In fairness, he was not aware of Eric’s advise to travel light. He had a very big backpack with lots of things that may be nice to bring, but can be left behind at home. He had lots of canned food, probably good for 3 days for a family. He had a little “kaldero” and a small pouch of “bigas”. He also had a sleeping bag, a pillow, a tent, a hammock, a bolo, a huge flashlight, and many other stuff that we really didn’t use. Earl was huffing and puffing trying to catch up with me and Eric the whole trip.
This experience reminds me of Hebrews 12:1 (NLV):
“…Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”
Life is indeed like a hike. We will have ups and downs and difficult winding trails to traverse. The Bible tells us to travel light. Let’s repent and leave behind our sins. That’s the way God wants us to come to him. That’s the way he wants us to finish the race.
