My Solo Adventure to Mt. 387 and Aloha Falls

Oct. 22, 2017 

Mt. 387, Nueva Ecija and Aloha Falls

Sunday

For this day’s adventure, I went on a solo hike once again.

What I mean solo is that I don’t have friends who’s tagging along with me and I was just all by myself with a group of strangers.

It’s been a month since I last hiked. And I wanted a mountain wherein a trip to a waterfall is included. Mt. 387 is just so perfect because we could also go to Aloha Falls and deep into its cold and fresh water! Oh, I so love waterfalls!

Thanks to a friend whom I met online and who’s an event organizer I was able to join a group of hikers. Shout out to JM! Thank you so much for being our photographer, tour guide as well and a very smooth event organizer. What I like about him is that he’s a kind of organizer who also hike with his guests.

There were organizers who are just staying in the jump off area and just wait for the guest to come down. I personally don’t like it. 

We were total of 13 in the group and I was only the one who has no friends joining me! Ha-ha! It’s okay and I’m very used to it. 

Sometimes it’s a nice feeling to be with strangers and able to meet new people at new places.

Our meeting place was at McDonalds Greenfield District (Crossing) at 12:30 a.m.

At 1 a.m. we then rode a van going to Carangglan, Nueva Ecija. Perfect time for a short rest and sleep before the hike.

After almost three hours, we had a stop-over at Cabanatuan to have a very early breakfast.

It was more than a four-hour travel.

At 5 a.m. we reached the jump off, registered, had a short orientation, and had a short group prayer, then we’re all ready to start the morning hike.

Mt. 387 came its name to the total hectares of the mountain which is 387. Its total height is 724+ MASL and from the top you can see the whole Nueva Ecija. 

It was also sometimes called as Chocolate Hills of the North because of the mountain ranges that varies its color depending on the season. During summer, the mountain ranges are brown while during the rainy season, it is green.

It rained the day before so it was a bit muddy trail going up. There’s a lot of assault but I may say that it wasn’t that difficult.

As we reached the summit, there was no clearing at first and we were all so disappointed as we were not able to see the beautiful view up there. It was a foggy summit indeed as if we were above clouds with zero visibility. 

So we tried to wait under the tree that they called as the Lover’s Tree.

We rested for a while.   

And thanks God, the sun came out as well as the breath taking view the mountain offers.

According to the locals, Mt.387 has been the grounds for Japanese soldiers during the Japanese era here in the country. Even the famous General Yamashita once camped there. Some also believes that gold were buried in the mountains.

Illegal loggers and treasure hunters were present before in the mountain but thankfully to the concerned locals, this has prevented for quite some time. And they also thanked us hikers because when Mt.387 has been opened to public for hiking, most of those ruthless people leaves the mountain alone.

This has been also the sources of income for some locals plus they now have funds for maintaining the mountain. They also required hikers to plant seedlings to replace those trees cut by the illegal loggers.

I planted a Narra – our national tree seedling!

There were visible holes you can see at the trails and this was because of those treasure hunters.

Shout out to all those heartless people! The mountain itself is already considered a treasure more valuable than golds. Stop digging!

To those illegal loggers, we need more trees. Yes, we are using woods and trees but I hope that illegal logging will already be stop before it’s too late.

We don’t need tree less mountains.

Back to my adventure trail for the day, after the unlimited photo ops, we were then so ready to take the traverse path going down to Aloha Falls.

It was muddy and it was hard! My legs are shaking because of the almost 90 degree slopes going down. There were times that we need to sit down and slide just to prevent slipping.

It took us more than an hour going to Aloha Falls. The hard trail was worth it. 

We had our lunch at the falls, rested for a while and some of us enjoyed the falls.

At 1:30, we went back to the main road where a truck will take us back to the jump off area. It was a thirty-minute trail rocky and watery walk.

I enjoyed the path going to the truck because we had a lot of river crossings. Gladly I was wearing sandals so it was convenient for me unlike the others who were wearing trekking shoes.

I really love shallow rivers!

I didn’t take much photos for I enjoyed more the view using my own eyes rather than my lenses.

We then rode a truck. It was a rough ride as if we were riding a 4x4 due to the rocky road we were heading before the main highway road.

We washed up and we were then ready to go home.

We dropped by somewhere – I already forgot the name of the place to have dinner. It’s called Kambingan and I ordered papaitan. So yummy plus it was cheap!

By nine in the evening, I was already home!

It was a tiring day and surely the following day, I will have body pain but then I won’t regret for I had so much fun! All my stresses were gone.

I am recharged and ready again to take new life challenges that tomorrow and the following days has to give.

Thank you God for the happy and safe trip! Till our next adventure!