Tita Hike Series Episode 2: Hiking in San Juan, La Union

Last Updated on October 13, 2021 by Tina

Welcome to episode 2 of the Tita Hike Series. After 3 years, finally, we have our second episode. I started the Tita Hike Series in my blog in 2018 thinking that my friend and fellow Tita (Tita in the Philippine context refers to women in their early adulthood to midlife years who confidently live their unmarried, unattached lives) Violet will go on more hikes together. I’m not really sure what happened. We probably got busy living our own lives that we never got to go on hikes together again after the first episode. Last Saturday, we had our second hike together, but it was a short one because our guide couldn’t find the trail. Keep reading if you’re interested in hiking in San Juan, La Union.

My neighbors and I were planning to do this hike to the hill at the back of our house last year, but every time we set a date, it would always rain. Until we forgot about it already. And then last week, while Violet and I were at the beach, I asked her if she wanted to go hiking. She said yes because she wanted to do something new. So I asked our store staff if he could guide us for the hike and he agreed. Our plan was to hike from Urbiztondo in San Juan to Bangkusay in San Fernando and back.

We started the hike at 8:00 in the morning at the vacant lot beside our house (TBX General Merchandise). Last year during the two months lockdown, our neighbors would hike to the top of the hill. They established a trail, put ropes along the trail for people to hold on to when climbing, and they also built a resting hut at the top. The hill is not too high. As per the Strava map, it is only less than 100 meters high.

The climb to the top was not that hard, thanks to the ropes. But it might be difficult if you’re not wearing footwear with a good grip especially when it just rained because the rocks are slippery. When we reached the top, it was a super easy walk already. But I got bitten by ants and mosquitoes, even though I applied and reapplied mosquito repellent. The mosquitoes were so fierce.

However, our guides had a hard time finding the trail because shrubs were everywhere. They had to brush off some so that we could pass through. During summer, these plants die because of the heat.

The sad thing is that we were not able to do our original plan of hiking up to San Fernando because the trail that they used to take was already fenced. They need to make a new trail if we want to push through with the plan but that would take time so we decided to just do it some other time. The alternative would have been taking the bike trail, but they also couldn’t find the way to get to the bike trail. That’s why the plotting of our hike looks like that. We had to go one way, then go back. Try another way, but then it’s not the right way, so we go back again. In the end, we decided to just do it next time.

Read also: 7 Mountains Near Metro Manila, Philippines for Easy Day Hike

We took a different path on our way down. It was the same path we took the first time we climbed there in 2019. And of course, we had to take a picture of that same spot where we had our picture taken 2 years ago.

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So that concludes the second episode of the Tita Hike series. We will probably do this again in my next field break, I just need to inform Henry in advance so they could prepare the trail. And maybe when they reopen Tangadan Falls again, I might ask Violet to join me there. So stay tuned.

Need more information about traveling to La Union? Check out San Juan, La Union Travel Guide During the Pandemic.

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