Mt. Sto Tomas is Baguio’s highest peak with a height of 2256. If you are at the summit of the mountain, you can get a view of Baguio City and also a sneak peek of La Union and Lingayen Gulf of South China Sea. It is Baguio’s most hiked mountain, alongside Mt.Cabuyao, because of its accessibility and there are different trails to reach its summit. Most hikers would ride a jeep to Green Valley and then hike all the way up. But I think the best trail is by traversing Kennon Road. As a mountaineer, this was my first climb and it was not that easy or that hard.We started our hike at the Hydro where there was a hanging bridge. We hiked for 3 hours before we reach the campsite and there we took our dinner and socials before resting for the night. We continued hiking in the morning for about 2 hours before we reached the summit. As the famous mountaineer blogger here in the Philippines said: “The best time to be at Mt. Sto Tomas is morning because clouds obscure the views in the afternoon, even misleading some hikers because of the poor visibility”. Maybe this was the reason why our team leader chose the morning to climb to the peak.
There is a water station half way your trek that is why you don’t need to worry about running out of water. After climbing the mountain, we started our descent which was an easy one because the road was paved. There was no need to walk in a single file anymore. There was this trail though, that we called “shortcut to hell” because this trail was steep, but it decreased our trekking time by half. After the shortcut, we walked on the road once again until we reached Green valley and there we waited for a Jeep that will take us to the town.