Trek Day One: Biking Down the Malaga

We woke up around 5:00 to get to the top of the mountain to start biking.

As we were driving up the mountain, we started to drive into a cloud, which I assumed we would probably drive out of soon. When we kept driving and stayed inside of the cloud, and eventually got to our destination still inside of the cloud, it was pretty cold, but we were all excited to start our trek and didn’t really think much of it. Also, being inside of a cloud was pretty cool. As soon as we started biking though, that changed.

From our Trek Day One. Photo by Ashley Boman.

It was already pretty cold, and the humidity was extremely high as we were in a giant ball of mist. And when we started biking down a mountain at 20+ mph, it started to get very cold. With our hands completely numb, and being soaking wet from the condensing water, everyone wanted to get out of the cloud as soon as possible. It’s funny how everyone want’s to know what it’s like inside of a cloud but once we were there, we wanted to be anywhere else.

After biking through the cloud for a while longer, while avoiding piles of rocks that had fallen off the mountain and crossing streams, it was worth it. The view from the mountain was amazing, and the biking was great when you could see and feel. We got to a small town, and from there we were bussed to where we would be staying for the night.

We ate lunch and then we were offered the chance to go on a small hike. Some of us stayed back, but those of us who went got to get a taste of what our hikes for the rest of the week would be like. We hiked for about half an hour to this waterfall, and at the end there was a waterfall that we got to stand at the base of. With water spraying our faces we stood there and took some pictures and then walked back.

Back at where we were staying for the night, we ate some great food (as usual), and went to sleep to prepare for the rest of the hike that we had ahead of us.

From our Trek Day One. Photo by Abby VanHaitsma.

Share!