Finding Mio

The majestic Mt. Pinatubo Crater Lake Mt. Pinatubo is an active volcano. Its eruptive and disruptive history was unknown to most, not until it decided to “wake up” sometime March or April of 1991, two months before that fateful eruption of June 15. The volcano's eruption on June 15, 1991, was “ … the second-largest eruption of the 20th century, second to the 1912 eruption of Novarupta in the Alaska Peninsula .” (Wikipedia) To make matters worse, the eruption was made more catastrophic “ … by the arrival of Typhoon Diding , bringing a lethal messy mix of ash and rain to towns and cities surrounding the volcano. Surrounding areas were severely damaged by pyroclastic surges , ash falls, and subsequently, by the flooding lahars caused by rainwater re-mobilizing earlier volcanic deposits. This caused extensive destruction to infrastructure and changed river systems for years after the eruption.” – Wikipedia But like a phoenix, Mt. Pinatubo has risen to become one of

Our trek started at 5 a.m. with a short prayer and a briefing. Our 2 trek guides briefed us on the safety precautions and rules to follow when hiking such as 1. Never go ahead of our guide, and 2., which is the most important, “Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints, kill nothing but time.” In other words, we do not leave our trash behind. What we bring up, we must also bring down. After everything has been said, we started the hike.     As I’ve said in my previous blog, the uphill climb wasn’t a problem. It was fun actually. I was getting my cardio exercise and enjoying the view at the same time. Nothing beats the feeling you get when hiking: the cold fresh early morning air, the fresh scent of pine, and the view! Oh how do I begin to describe the view? The view just puts you in a state of calm, a state of peace. And it seems that every angle my phone camera captures is just perfect. So I clicked away like there was no tomorrow. An early morning scenic view

The last time I hiked a mountain was eons ago, when I was still in college. Back then, I loved the tranquility and isolation it offered. Up there, you and your friends could shout and laugh your hearts out because nobody would mind. 20 plus years and a bald head later, I climbed a mountain for a different reason. To borrow Eivind Kjorstad ’s reason for climbing mountains, “It’s healthy. I’ve got a job where I sit in an office in front of a computer most of the day. As such, there’s a high and real risk that I’ll suffer health-problems or even die because of inadequate physical exercise. Hiking in the mountains is probably the (healthiest) vacation possible. Beyond the exercise there’s also health-benefits like zero stress, like fresh air, clean water and friendship.” In a nutshell, Mr. Kjorstad summarized what I thought of. Aside from that, I am at a point in my life where I wanted to open that little notebook of mine again and tick one item off my bucket list