Gloomy Sunday Hike from Talamban to Budlaan

Hello everyone!

To purge the doom and gloom out of my system, I guess it's time for another gloomy post. This has been in my drafts for one year and the time has come for me to hit that publish button. This time, it's the literal gloomy weather when we hiked one of the less traversed trails in Talamban, Cebu City. At least this was when it wasn't yet well-known in Facebook. Now, it became a common hiking trail because of its proximity to the city and beginner-friendly difficulty of the trail.

Since @mariasalve invited her friends from work and Kara also invited her housemates, we were merrier in this hike compared to when we hiked during the first weekend of January 2024 from Banawa to Napo.

The original plan was to have a chill hike from Talamban to Budlaan. I woke up at 5:00 AM with only an hour of sleep. As a night owl, I usually sleep at around 3:00 or 4:00 AM. I was reluctant to join this hike, but I have friends to guide. With almost no sleep, I didn't take a bath and immediately went to Jollibee Talamban as it was our meeting place and also the jump off area.

We had actually been exploring a lot of trails during this time because we wanted to find a lot of alternative hiking routes as the mainstream hiking routes became too crowded. As we became more like titos and titas of Cebu's hiking trails, we became more allergic to noisy hikers. If you're interested to know the full context of this exploration, you can read @mariasalve's blog here and @kev.incredible's post about our hike a few months prior.

Back to the hike, we initially didn't divulge the exact route, but eventually it became well-known because another group also found the route. Although there might be variations in the path, the stopping points for picture taking are exactly the same. Anyway, we started in Sunny Hills, Talamban and followed the Bonita Trail until we reached the usual resting area, the viewpoint overlooking Talamban, the helipad owned by the Lhuilliers.

It was in the helipad that we stayed longer to admire the view of Talamban and also to get to know the group. Since it was two groups merged into one, we had a great time getting to know @mariasalve's group. It was also the time to catch up with Kara and Joanne. They were my classmates back in college and were my very good friends in the Mandaue group. We only meet once a year because life is life-ing, when Queenie comes home from New Zealand. During our annual get-together, they suddenly expressed desire to hike with me.

After the much needed rest and socials, we decided to hit the trail again. But before that, let me share the last two remaining photos of the helipad:

We were debating if we would go down to the lake or fishpond, which is still owned by the Lhuilliers, or immediately go to a different route to Budlaan. At first, I was reluctant to go to the lake because it was out of the way and we would eventually climb back to where we started, but eventually agreed because Kara and Joanne haven't seen the lake yet.

The lake is the second stopping point in the whole route. It was not open to the public last year and I don't know if there are changes because some photos surfaced online about people entering the lake. Take note, the whole area is fenced and there are guards stationed at the gate near the lake, so we didn't dare to enter the lake just to take a few photos.

After the lake, we went back up the the other gate near the helipad and then hiked down towards the small river. We followed the river and then hiked up to Budlaan via a route that hasn't been hiked in a long time. It was fun at first, but eventually became a nightmare maze of small trees and cogon grass.

Upon reaching Budlaan, we had lunch and then they decided to go to Budlaan Falls, but we didn't go with them. It rained and we were already tired from the exploration earlier. We then head back to Sunny Hills, the jump off area, via a habal-habal ride.

I guess that's all for this post. See you on the next one!

Kim Ybañez

_{Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits remote destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines). He's also a trying-hard photographer, so stay tuned as he shares his photos and his thought process while creating them.}

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