But among them, the one via Sto. Tomas Batangas, which was properly named as the "Sto. Tomas Trail," is the most difficult or challenging way to explore Makiling. This trail has a connection to the UPLB route thereby most mountaineers, after climbing via Sto. Tomas, goes down via the UPLB trail. The hike will entail you to pass by most of the volcanic peaks of Makiling, like Peaks 2 and 3 as well as other minor peaks especially from the Batangas side. The trails during the traverse from Sto. Tomas to UPLB passes by unestablished routes making the hike more difficult. The presence of thorny plants, fallen threes which will require you to crawls underneath as well as limatiks adds up to the difficulty of scaling this part of the mountain.