Hiking matters #20: Exploring San Pablo’s seven lakes

Last weekend, my blogging partner Ivan Henares and his two pals Paolo Rieza and Renz Sumera came over to San Pablo, my hometown, and we visited all the seven lakes in one day. Prior to that I didn’t even think it was possible to cover all seven in such a short span of time, in fact I didn’t even view the lakes as a trekking destination.

The allure of the lakes, however, grew on me especially since I get to see them a lot when climbing mountains in the area. All seven lakes are visible in Mt. Kalisungan and Tayak Hill, and you may also chance upon them atop Mt. Banahaw.

So we set off at 0800H, first going for Sampaloc and Bunot lakes – the most developed ones, and then we proceeded to Lake Calibato, which involved several minutes of trek. The setting for these lakes are very serene and relaxing.

The highlight of the trip were the twin lakes of Pandin and Yambo. With only a few houses around it, Lake Pandin was clean enough for us to swim in it; bamboo rafts float around with lilies, which had beautiful pink blooms. The 20-minute trek to Lake Yambo was very rewarding, for it is the most pristine lake of them all, virtually untouched and utterly picturesque.

Lily-covered Lake Palakpakin and Lake Mohicap, another image of tranquility, completed our journey. In all, it only took five hours for us to visit all seven lakes (from San Pablo City proper) and that includes a refreshing dip in the clean freshwater of Lake Pandin.

Afterwards, we proceeded to Kusina Salud to celebrate. After all, it has also been a year since the idea of PinoyMountaineer was conceived. We dropped by my grandparents’ house and my friends were given my lola’s sampaloc candies as a pasalubong.

Taken as a whole, the Seven Lakes trip is a unique adventure: instead of mountains or waterfalls, you’ll be seeing lakes, seven of them. It requires light trekking – perhaps a total of 90 minutes, and roadtripping around San Pablo. Try it for yourself! An itinerary of the Seven Lakes trek will be posted soon PinoyMountaineer.

Panoramic images of the seven lakes taken by the blogger on July 26, 2008.