Day hike in Panimahawa Ridge Travel + Budget Guide

Are you into hiking? Into adventure and stuff? If you are then you’ll gonna love what I will be sharing in today’s blog.

April 23, 2017.

We conquered the Panimahawa Ridge last weekend. It is located at Impalutao, Impasug-ong, Bukidnon which is just a two hour travel if you are from Cagayan de Oro City. The place is managed by The Ant Farm Outdoors, with their head Sir Bob. Panimahawa Ridge is higher than Kapayawan Ridge (which was the most visited place for the last years have passed) and has a more stunning and scenic view.

If you are planning to visit the place, there are now a lot of package tour that includes the Panimahawa Ridge, Cedar and other nearby tourist spots. But if you are like us who prefers to explore the place on our own, you can just directly contact Sir Bob (0997 801 3135) of The Ant Farm Outdoors and inform them when you’d like to visit the place. That way you can save a lot than getting a package tour. The fee is 300.00 pesos which includes all of the expenses (local guide, sitio and barangay payment). If you want to take a side trip to CEDAR (Center for Ecological Development and Recreation) they require fee of 100.00 pesos per head and 25.00 pesos/head for the motorcycle transfer from Ant Farm to CEDAR.

My friends and I planned this adventure long time ago but only had the time to do it last week. Since it is just a day hike tour, our call time was 1:00am. Meaning by 1:00am we should be arriving at the Agora Bus Terminal. Luckily we got there on time and there’s a bus that’s going to depart soon. We rode the bus Davao via Buda route and paid only 90.00 pesos for the fair and told the conductor to drop us at Impalutao Elementary School which is where the guide will fetch us. We arrived at exactly 3:00am at Impalutao and informed Sir Bob. He said that the guide will just fetch us from the waiting shed. There were few hikers who are waiting in the same area. Since our guide didn’t arrived sooner than we thought we just started hiking going to BMEG entrance, along the way we bumped into Sir Bob who let us rode through his motorcycle. The hike from the waiting shed to the Ant Farm is 1km apart. It will be a good warm up for us hikers.

When we arrived at Ant Farm we then signed the waiver form and paid 300.00 pesos to the incharge. They gave us a stick which is a good alternative to trekking pole if you don’t have one. And can very helpful especially if the trail is a little bit muddy due from the rain. From there, Sir Bob introduced to us our guide named Bugoy Estrada.

To our dismay, the trek that should’ve started 3:00am was moved to 4:00am. Since the trek is 2 hours for beginner to normal pace hikers but if you are no longer a beginner you can reach the top for an hour and a half.

We started trekking 4:00am and arrived at the ridge just in time for sunrise. Although we assumed that our arrival time will be 5:00am but from all the waiting and other stuff our trek got delayed for an hour. In the middle of the trek each group are advised to offer some coins along the way so don’t forget to spare some coins on your pockets.

Upon our arrival we were surprised by how many campers are there. They were so friendly and thoughtful too and even greeted us “Maayong buntag mamahaw ta!” which is Good Morning, let’s eat breakfast in english.

We are in awe with the view as soon as we arrived on top. Even though we arrived later than we expected, we still got to see the sunrise and a little bit of sea of clouds. Everyone are having there best of time in taking pictures. We picked a place for us to have our photo ops too. After all the must have picture taking we then enjoyed our breakfast in front of the beautiful sunrise.

Here are some of our captured moments.

Other side of the ridge

If you are in Kapayawan you will really get to see the sea of clouds better than here.

Mt. Kitanglad overlooking along the trail.

We didn’t stayed long because of the heat of the sun. You wouldn’t want to have sun burn, right? After a 30 minute stay in the summit, we started trekking back to the jump point and arrived 8:00am. We took a short break before heading to CEDAR.

We arrived in CEDAR at 9:00am we didn’t got to explore the whole place for our feet can no longer handle another hours of trek so we just opted for photo shoots. There are four falls you can visit in CEDAR and they also have a little pool. The entrance fee in CEDAR is just 10.00 pesos and you get to enjoy all the beautiful falls. But in our case, we’ll just explore the falls next time.

Here are our photos at CEDAR.

Here is an ideal itinerary I can advice to you readers.

12:45 am     ETA at Agora Bus Terminal

1:00 am       Depart from Agora to Impasug-ong

3:00 am       ETA at Impalutao Elementary School

3:15 am       ETA at Ant Farm Outdoor

3:30 am.      Start trekking

5:30 am       ETA in Panimahawa Ridge

5:30-6:30am  Picture taking and breakfast

6:30 am.      Start trekking back to Ant Farm

8:30 am       ETA Ant Farm

9:00 am.     ETA CEDAR

11:30 am.   Leave and bound to CDO again

Our breakdown of expenses

Bus fare – 90.00 x 2= 180.00 pesos

Ant Farm fee – 300.00 pesos

CEDAR fee – 100.00 pesos

CEDAR entrance fee – 10.00 pesos

Total of 590.00 pesos/pax. Make sure to bring packed breakfast and snacks or trail mix and of course water to keep you hydrated.

Reminders:

Make sure to contact Ant Farm day before your trip. Don’t forget to wear proper outfit, although the trail is easy but wearing proper gears will protect you from injuries. Bring enough water and food. Bring flashlights/headlights. And lastly don’t forget to bring your camera because you wouldn’t want to miss the beautiful view of the ridge. What we used for this adventure is the new Supremo 4k Action Camera.

Hope you enjoyed reading! And keep posted for our Mt. Kibuwa traverse to Kapayawan Ridge adventure.