A few weeks ago, we hiked the tallest mountain in Panama, Volcan Baru. We did the whole hike in one day, on foot, no cheating. The peak is at 3,475 meters, and we started around 2000 something meters. Besides going up (and down) about a kilometer, we also hiked about 14 km from the bottom of the trail to the peak.
We started a day before we got to the peak ago, waking up at 11:00pm so we could drive about 2 hours to get to the bottom to start hiking at 1:00am, which would get us up the mountain with enough time to see sunrise, around 6:30am. Normally going to sleep around 8 would be difficult for me, but the fact the fact that we did a three hour hike earlier that day made it slightly easier. This advantage was canceled out by the intense heat we had due to a lack of wind on the boat. So after about half an hour of tossing and turning, I finally fell asleep. After talking with everyone else the next day though, it seems I was the one of the lucky ones. Some people couldn’t sleep at all, be it nerves or heat.
Anyhow, we all got up and ready, and we drove to the foot of the mountain. The first thing I felt as soon as we got out of the car was that it was COLD! I wore zip-offs (what they lack in style they make up for in functionality), a long-sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt, and a windbreaker. We were dressed warmly as we’d learned that the peak would be close to freezing, which is like a 50 degree difference from the boat. We also had flashlights, because when you hike at night, it’s dark. The beginning of the hike was nice; we all had energy, we (I, at least) were excited, and the hike started off pretty mildly. We saw a 1km marker and cheered. We were well on our way. Heidi and I saw a little mouse. It was cute. Everything was going nicely until about 2km later.
At the (first) 3km sign, we noticed that the sign said we had 10.5km left to the top. This wouldn’t be so bad if we didn’t think that the hike was less than 8km, and we were almost halfway. Unfortunately, our day (night) just got a lot harder. We thought we were making really good time, but realized that if we wanted to get to the peak for sunrise, we would have to push harder uphill.
It’s hard to describe our hours we spent toiling through the dark. They were hard, and we had to take breaks with some regularity. If we stopped for too long though, we’d get cold, so we just had to push through. We barely saw anybody else, save for a few people whizzing by us in cars. The dirt road/path (it was more of a road) was dusty and rocky, so any slip would kick up dust and displace rocks, and cars made it look like Tatooine during a dust storm.
After five and a half brutal hours, going back and forth on thinking we would make it on time or not, we made it to a scenic vista, just below the peak. We all collapsed on to rocks where we could see the sunrise, and waited a few minutes for the sun to peak up and start the day (for the not insane people who don’t wake up at 11:00pm). It was pretty. Maybe that’s understating. I tried to take a picture but to get the full picture, you have to hike for hours and collapse on top of that mountain for yourself. I’d recommend it, as long as you know what you’re getting yourself into.
Once the sun was up, some of us had some snacks, and then we pushed on to the tippy toppy peak which was the official highest point in Panama. You gotta go all the way when you only have about 30 minutes left, right? We got to the top, took some photos, admired the beauty, saw lots of clouds, and then started to think about going down. Before we did though, we stopped again to eat some more and rest a bit. With the sun up, I wasn’t even cold, and I just about fell asleep up there. Unluckily for me, we still had a whole 13.5km down, starting around 8am.
In theory, it should take about half the time to go down as it did to go up. Our ascent took about 5.5 hours, so down should be between 2 and 3 hours. I thought we’d get to the bottom around 11, 12 if we really messed up. We quickly realized that down wasn’t nearly as easy as expected. We all had achy feet, were sleep-deprived, and ready to go home, but the hike wasn’t ready for us to leave. I swear that mountain grew an extra kilometer or two on the way down. We pushed and stopped and saw a white-nosed coati (kinda like a racoon who runs around during the day instead of the night). He charged Heidi when she turned a corner. It was hilarious. I took some selfies with him. We finally got back to the car around 1:30, bringing our descent to 6.5 hours, LONGER than uphill!! How is that even fair?!
Still, we all felt really accomplished at the end. We hiked over 23 miles, blistered our feet, and slept soundly that night. Well, it was still a bit hot, but I was exhausted. We felt even more accomplished after signing in to the ranger logbook, because we saw that a group that started two hours ahead of us only beat us by about half an hour to the peak. So, ultimately, I felt like we’d done a good job, especially considering none of us are in superb shape right now. Nobody died, and we all made it to the top. That’s a win for me.
If anyone is interesting in hiking Volcan Baru, I’d advise you to know that we saw distance markers at 1km, 2km, 3km, 4km, 4.5km (the stretch between 4 and 4.5 is brutal uphill, and feels like a lot more that 0.5km), 6km, 7.5km, 9km, 10km, 11.5km and then a 12.3km right before the top. Budgeting six hours to ascend might have been a bit easier, but five and half isn’t that bad if you don’t mind pushing yourself. The loose rocks make the going slippery sometimes, and the dust gets everywhere and makes you dirty, but that’s more of an annoyance. Well-fitting shoes and early detection and treatment of blisters will make your recovery time quicker, so you can get back to hiking quicker (if you still want to after this one). If you want to see the top but don’t want to hike, you could take a car, but where’s the fun in that?
Until next time,
Fenton
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