PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, PHILIPPINES – Another jewel of Palawan’s capital is slowly getting noticed, especially among those for whom adventure means standing at the zenith of a mountain, breathing the freshest of air.

Standing 1,148 meters above sea level, Mt. Beaufort offers unparalleled views of the city below, the exhilaration of a good trek, and a taste of what fulfillment feels like.

It wasn’t so long ago that trails were cut and this mountain opened to the public. There had been exploratory climbs — climb-at-your-own-risk affairs — in the past, but in 2014, a community-based people’s organization, through the efforts of the Palawan Conservation Corps (PCC), began managing the trails. The PCC aims to conserve the flora and fauna in the city’s remaining forests while helping local communities build an alternative livelihood.

The day hike to the top of Mt. Beaufort takes around four to five hours. Between catching your breath and taking the next step, expect to pass an old mining site and roads left from previous logging operations. From the early ’70s till the late ’90s, Puerto Princesa was open to mining and logging. It was only in the later 2000s that the city closed its doors to these environmentally destructive activities and turned its focus to sustainable tourism and the conservation of its natural resources.

The forest seems to have recovered from that damage. Various insect species, several kinds of snakes, birds among the trees, and even unique plant life catch the eye as you walk the leaf-carpeted forest floor beneath a canopy that shades the trail all the way up. I was particularly struck by the pitcher plants of different sizes along the way, and, closer to the peak, by the pine trees standing tall.

Into the forest of Mt. Beaufort, a new jewel of Puerto Princesa that has started attracting mountaineers from across the country. – Photo by Ronces Paragoso

We expected the beautiful views others had written about upon reaching the top: Honda Bay and Puerto Princesa Bay, and the peaks of neighboring mountains — Mt. Thumbpeak, Mt. Pinamunuan, Mt. Tapyas, Mt. Bahile, and the mountains of Sabang, including the towering Mt. Saint Paul and Cleopatra’s Needle. Instead, all we found was the famous crocodile ridge.

The sky was having a bad day, it turned out. Dark clouds blocked the whole view of the city and its surroundings — zero visibility, gathered in unison, standing between us and the view we’d hoped for.

Whether that was because of rivers long gone dry below, or a quiet appeal for us to do better by the environment, we don’t know.

One thing is certain: human carelessness keeps putting nature at risk, and our greed does the rest.

Conservation can feel like too big a word, and climate change too vague a concept, for many of us. But everyone’s practical efforts to conserve resources, even if they don’t save nature outright, still matter greatly. Avoid single-use plastic. Dispose of waste properly. Start with the basics — it’s what environmentalists keep telling us.

Standing atop Mt. Beaufort may not have given our eyes a feast of natural wonders that day, but it never failed to deliver the fulfillment we’d all been after. At the zenith of this mountain, I felt like I’d touched the sky, and something in that moment reached the deepest parts of our hearts. I came down a better person, and I promise to be back again soon.

Different species are found on the way up to the peak of this mountain including this beautiful insect. – Photo by PinoyMountaineer.com

TOUR TO THE PEAK OF MT. BEAUFORT
Palawan Conservation Corps.
3rd Floor Puerto Princesa City Coliseum
Barangay San Pedro, Puerto Princesa City, 5300 Palawan
Phone: (048) 434 9854