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| | | Mt Apayang Nasugbu Philippines (662 m), WW | | | |
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Mt Apayang Nasugbu Philippines (662 m), WW
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| Hiking | 5.82 Miles |
1,949 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.82 Miles | 5 Hrs 2 Mns | | 1.65 mph |
| 1,949 ft AEG | 1 Hour 30 Mns Break | | | |
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| no linked trail guides |
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| no partners | | Note: stats are for both Mt Apayang and Mt Talamitam.
We stayed at the Canyon Cove resort which is right on the ocean, in the Nasugbu area. The resort is a great option to stay at in this area. The pool was one of the largest I've seen at any resort, and there was a good breakfast buffet included. It was $84, including taxes, for Saturday night, and significantly cheaper for all other nights. I believe I paid $38 + tax for weekday nights which ended up being $46 after taxes. The hotel had reliable WIFI, a balcony with a view of the pool and ocean, an indoor area for eating breakfast. There was a place inside that sold snacks and there were 2 different food truck sized places outside on site that sold Filipino, Japanese and Korean foods. We didn't see any other options for food so one day we drove out to an Italian restaurant that was 5 minutes away in the town of Wawa and had a good pizza.
The drive from the resort to the trailhead was about 30 minutes, maybe a little more. I set the alarm for 4 am, and Roann and I left the hotel a little after 4.30 am with the goal of parking and starting the hike around twilight at 5.25 am. When we arrived it was still dark and there were confusion about where to go to register. The building where I registered in 2023 was all boarded up. We saw someone outside at a small store and they told us the registration was a few minute walk down the road. We got back in the car and drove to where we saw a registration sign. There was only room for parking 1 car. We expected to just have to pay a 50 pesos registration fee and go. But, there was some new God damned commie regulation that REQUIRED us to pay for and have a guide. I told them I hiked this 2 times before AND had a GPS track, but it didn't effin matter to these commies. At this point it was all about money. See my section on the registration process and my frustrations. Before this hike, I had plans to hike A LOT of other places in the Philippines, but after experiencing this effing authoritarian pumpkin, I'm MUCH LESS enthusiastic about hiking these areas, although the nature is beautiful.
So, we arrived around 5.15 am and by 5.30 am, the guide was ready to take us. The 1,000 peso fee is at least twice the normal working wage over here. There are many restaurant workers working an 8 hour day here and making only 400-500 pesos. So, the guide fee is ridiculous for 4-5 hours of so-called 'work'. Had we done the third peak, it would have cost us an extra 500 pesos (about $9 extra), but we decided it wasn't worth it to pay 1,500 pesos for 3 peaks, although it was still lower than the quoted RIP OFF price of 700 per peak (2,100 pesos total for ALL 3 which is 36 USD). Had we been in a group of 10 people, splitting that cost among 10 people MAY have been worth it. But, paying 1000 pesos or 17 USD for 2 small peaks was more than anything I can think of in the USA. I believe the Grand Canyon had a $20 entry fee as recent as a year ago before the fees were jacked up this year.
We started hiking around 5.40 am. I told my guide I had hiked this trail 2 times before and knew exactly where to go. We walked down a steep paved road and turned left to drop down to a cement bridge going across the Galo river. There were some nice photos of the fast moving river below us. Just after crossing the river, there was another metal bridge crossing another branch of the river. I asked what about the bamboo bridge? The guide told us it was broken. Looking up stream I could see it. I walked over to it and got a photo. I had some fun memories crossing the bamboo bridge in 2023 and in year's past when the bridge was functional. Why nobody took the time to repair this bridge, I don't know. It was still standing and it seemed like repairs could easily be made. But, this is a Country of disfunction and chaos. Sensibility is hard to find.
After crossing the 2nd bridge, the trail was a bit muddy in some places. We turned left and walked up a steep trail which had a few muddy spots that we tried to avoid. There were some good places to step and there were a lot of tree roots to step over. We were in a jungle area and it was early, so shade wasn't even needed here but this would be helpful for shade on the way down and later in the day.
We exited the jungle and the trail weaved around some treed areas. After about 30 minutes, we traveled about 1 mile (roughly 2 MPH pace) which I felt was a good time considering how much uphill there was. It was Roann's first time hiking a mountain and she was doing very good. I was quite amazed that she was ahead of me and didn't slow me down once the entire time. After 1 mile we arrived at an open area with a small gazebo where we stopped to take a rest and guzzle some water. Even though it was only 6.15 am by this time, it was humid.
We kept following the trail up through a grassy area. There were still some trees, but before too long we got out of the jungle area. There would be trees higher up but this area of the hike was full of grassy hills, with cows, horses, goats, and some dogs. We saw a baby horse, which is called a foal, the cutest animal you will ever see. I got some good pics and videos. When we were close it would hide behind the larger horse which we assumed was the Mother. The cows, horses, and goats grazed the hillside well so there was no tall grass around here. The trail was pretty easy to follow and I remember it from 2 yrs ago. From this point, we could look up and see the peaks. Talamitam was straight up and Apayang was to the left. From here, it looked like Apayang had more tree cover. Based on the topo map, we could tell that Apayang was higher, about 660 meters tall, while Talamitam was 630 meters tall.
We got up to the so-called private property where there was a store, but it was closed when we got there at 6:47 am. Maybe they normally open at 7 am. We were told it was closed so there was no fee / 'toll'. That was a bit of a relief. We continued on the trail which headed up between the 2 mountains, but stayed more on the Talamitam side. There was a trail junction East of the saddle. The left junction was the way to go to Mt Apayang. The right junction would continue to Talamitam. We turned left and went to Apayang first. From the junction it only took 10-12 minutes to get to the summit. The trail was in good shape and weaved through a forested area. There was a clearing at the top and a sign at the high point labeled Apayang 660 MASL. A few minutes after summiting, a small white dog arrived! He must have followed us up and we didn't know why. Our guide said it was a dog from the town below. We didn't have any food for this dog... We took our photos and a video at the summit and continued back to the trail junction where we would make a left and continue to Talamitam.
It was probably 30 or 40 minutes total roundtrip from the trail junction to Mt Apayang and back. This is why I thought paying 700 pesos extra, or $12 USD was absolutely ridiculous AND a RIP OFF for under 1 hour of hiking and probably what amounted to 0.7 miles of total distance. Whoever sets these fees really does not understand business. Give customer's a fair price and they will gladly come back again. Screw the customers and they will discourage everyone they know about these crooked commie practices and probably not come back again. There are many other good choices. See my trip reports for Susongdalaga and Mt Mariglem in Zambales province.
We continued on to Talamitam. From the trail junction we go to the top of Mt Talamitam in 14 minutes. There was a group of about 8 hikers already at the top. We took a bunch of photos and enjoyed the cool breeze and the views. I took a summit video. We decided to take the trail leading off the East side of Talamitam to get down, leaving the summit just before 9 am. This trail was steep but relatively dry and not hard to follow. After about 20 minutes we found ourselves back at the private property. The store was open and we had to stop there to pay the commie fee, roughly $1 per person. It's pretty annoying to have to pay a registration fee at the start of a hike and even more annoying to have to pay again DURING the hike. I've never seen this in the US, of course. We paid the fee, and decided not to buy anything from the store as we didn't want to reward CROOKS. We had more than enough water. I greatly over-estimated what water we would need. I believe I carried 5.5 liters of water and snacks. We didn't eat anything the entire hike and probably only drank 2-2.5 liters total between the both of us.
We continued down the trail and hiked back the same way we came. When we got back to the metal bridge, we crossed it. I went down into the river to wash the sweat off my face and cool off a little. Then, we hiked back up the steep paved road to the starting point. All in all it was a great hike and I was annoyed that I was forced to pay for a guide which I absolutely did not need. If it's your first time there you may want to have a guide. If you want to hike this, my best advice would be to join a large group which will dramatically reduce the guide fee. I was told the maximum group size is 10.
Driving info:
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Drive time is roughly 2 hours from Manila airport.
Traffic in this area is hellishly congested so plan for longer.
The best driving directions should be according to Google Maps.
Simply navigate to Talamitam jump off.
Approximate location of Talamitam jump off: 14.088632, 120.775247
I stayed at an ocean front resort called Canyon Cove Hotel & Spa, which was in Nasugbu.
The drive took about 30-35 minutes from the resort. We arrived at about 5.15 AM and it was still dark.
A website told us that twilight was supposed to be at 5.25 and sunrise was supposed to be at 5.45 am.
We ended up starting around 5.40 am. It was already light enough to see at that point.
maps.app.goo.gl
Registration process:
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I described the registration process from 2023 in another trip report. It used to be nice and flexible. Since I already hiked this peak TWICE before, I did not need a guide. In Oct 2023, I believe I paid 50 pesos (about $1 USD) and told them I did not a guide because I knew where to go. I did the hike myself and my only regret was starting the hike so late.
Today in 2025, the original registration booth near the highway was all boarded up. Notes:
1. The marker on Google maps showing 'Talamitam jump off' is the OLD location which is no longer valid. It's necessary to drive 1-2 minutes down the road until you see the current registration area. There is a sign, a parking place for 1-2 cars, and a bamboo gazebo with seating on 2 opposite sites.
2. There was someone there at 5.15 am
3. We were told there was a Philippine tourism fee of 40 pesos (roughly 70 US cents) PER HIKER.
4. We were told that it was REQUIRED to have a guide. The guide fee was 700 pesos (roughly 12 USD). I was annoyed that this was a requirement because I hiked this 2 times before. They didn't care. This is what I call corruption, stupid regulation, and third World authoritarian B.S. I felt that the guide fee itself was reasonable but requiring someone to have a guide who's hiked this before was my major complaint.
5. We originally planned on hiking the trilogy, that is, Mt Apayang, Mt Talamitam, and Mt Lantik. Annoyance #2 is we were told the guide fee was 700 pesos PER mountain. Now the round trip hike to Talamitam was about 3-4 hours from the starting point. Adding Mt. Apayang to the hike only added another 30 minutes total. Based on time and distance, adding this peak should have been trivial, however, we were told it would be an additional 700 pesos (roughly 12 USD). I showed them my GPS track and told them that it's ridiculous to charge that much extra for an additional 0.7 miles / 30 minutes. At this point, it was not about the money. It was about the principle of ripping off tourists/hikers. I told them I would be willing to pay 1,000 pesos total (roughly 17 USD) for Apayang + Talamitam, take it or leave it. They agreed, maybe because it was a Monday and they probably did not have a busy schedule that day. We decided to skip Mt. Lantik because of the ridiculous extra cost and it was lower than the other peaks anyway.
6. We were told there would be another 60 peso (roughly $1 USD) fee higher up the mountain, charged by a property owner. I didn't have to pay that in Oct 2023 when I was there the last time.
Summary of frustrations:
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1. change of location where registration was required AND NO signs on the main road
2. guide requirement even for repeat hikers**
3. excessive guide cost for cluster of peaks which are not far from each other
4. had to pay another fee to a so-called private property owner about 1/2 of the way down. I was told the property was bought in 2024 and the new owners where Chinese communists. OK, I added the commie part hehe ;-). But having to pay a registration fee in the beginning and another 'toll', for lack of a better word, was a complete annoyance.
Stats
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distance (round trip): 5.82 miles
AEG (feet): 1,949 feet
strava moving time: 3 hrs 8 mins
strava elapsed time: 5 hrs 2 mins |
| _____________________
Michael Williams
IT Professional
Rocky Point Vacation Rentals
Ocean Front Condo in Rocky Point, Sonora, Mexico
www.beachfrontmexico.us
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Route Editor
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