by Elizabeth
The Mt. Ulap Eco-Trail ended up being my favorite hike from our one-month trip to the Philippines. It has the winning combination of great views, some nice climbs, and decent trail. Unfortunately, figuring out some of the practical information about the trail, such as how to get to the trail head using public transportation, ended up being a bit of a challenge. I’ve included some of those details in this post in case others may find it helpful.
Despite my difficulty finding helpful logistical information regarding the trail, it turns out that the trail is really popular. There is a cap on how many people can hike the trail each day (I believe it is 500), and on weekends the trail is packed. We visited on a weekday and saw several groups out on the trail. Being only two hikers, we were the oddball group. Filipinos appear to hike/travel primarily in large groups.
As an initial note, one of the things that I found most confusing about the trail was its name. Is it the Mt. Ulap Eco-Trail or the Philex Ridge Trail? Are those the same trail or different trails? As far as I can piece together, the official name of the trail is the “Mt. Ulap Eco-Trail.” Public access to and regulation of the trail appears to be relatively new (October 2015), so the flashy name may be as well. All reports that I’ve seen of the Philex Ridge Trail describe the exact same trail, so I believe that it is actually an alternate name that refers to the same trail, or at least a portion of the same trail (maps.me shows Philex Ridge Trail possibly extending further than the Mt. Ulap Eco-Trail).
Getting There
The Mt. Ulap Eco-Trail begins near Ampucao National High School in Itogon. We were staying in Baguio and wanted to take public transportation instead of hiring a driver or joining a tour. We caught a jeepney on Lakandula street (which is more of a parking lot behind the Jollibee) that had an Ampucao signboard. Other signboards might read Itogon or Philex Mines, but it’s best to confirm that they’re going to the right spot. I confirmed with the jeepney “manager” (the guy yelling the destination, not the driver) that the jeepney was headed to Itogon. This wasn’t specific enough for him — he clarified that the jeepney was going to Mt. Ulap. I think that this is because Itogon is the region. As it turns out, the trail is well known amongst the jeepney drivers for this route so it’s easiest to clarify that you’re going to Mt. Ulap. I believe that you can also catch a jeepney on Calderon Street near Burnham Park (this is where we were dropped off at the end of the day by our taxi).
We waited about 45 minutes for our jeepney to fill up and head out to Ampucao. I had pinned what I thought was the school where trail registration occurs on maps.me, so when after 30 minutes or so our jeepney turned onto a different road we became a bit concerned. It turns out that I pinned the wrong location (in a town called Itogon, which is in a completely different location) and that while maps.me does show the “Philex Ridge Trail” it did not show the school or town where the trail begins. Luckily, basically everyone in our jeepney was headed for the hike and the drivers know where to drop you for the Mt. Ulap trail. I believe we paid about Php. 30 ($0.60) each for the 45 minute ride.
The jeepney dropped us off at an intersection marked with these signs:
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two backpacks, no plan 