On December 5, 2025, my sister, my boyfriend, and I went on a private tour to see the Pinatubo crater lake. “There would be a hike before we make it up to the lake.” Okay, sure, we’ve all hiked before. “It would be a 3.5 to a 7 km hike, depending on the day’s and the path’s condition.” Yeah, sure no problem. “The trail is mild with little elevation and some stairs.” Sounds great.
Reader, that was one of the most hilarious mistakes I’ve ever made in my life.
We’ve made some hiking-related missteps before, like when a hike in Sagada ended up involving some scrambling over boulders, or when we visited Masungi Georeserve and were stunned when we saw that we had to climb down ropes a few times. This Pinatubo hike was an extraordinary experience, because while 7 km didn’t sound daunting, the trail was rough, and there were so many river crossings.
But the crater lake itself was beautiful, and it was a very cool, sunny day. We spent an hour up there admiring the view, winding down from the hike up, and psyching ourselves for the hike down.
We were the slowest among all the groups that visited that day; we were expecting to catch up to a group or two resting at some point, but it appears that they were all superhumanly fast. We still can’t figure out how everyone else appears to have completed the hike so swiftly; my only guess is that the volcano hated us and did its best to inconvenience us, although if it did hate us, then wouldn’t it have wanted us gone as soon as possible?
The return trip to where our 4 × 4 vehicle was waiting was pretty hellish; we could see the vehicle from afar but even after a half-hour of walking, it didn’t seem like we were getting any closer. There was also the panic-inducing fact that the rivers were rising and flowing more powerfully than they did in the morning and that the sky went dark a few times that I was honestly worried about getting caught in a possible downpour and dying by flash flood.
My takeaways from the trip:
- Lose weight
- Own hiking sandals
- Even the toughest experience can be fun when you’re with the right people.
I’ll be posting a video of the trip. I’ll even make it look like the most amazing time I’ve ever had. But holy shit, that hike was TOUGH and, if I can be honest, seeing the place once is enough.
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