"Yam L'Yam" or "Bananas to Bananas" or "How to Lose Inches off Your Waist in Three Short Days!"

With our vacation time finally overlapping, we decided to spend chol ha'moed hiking in northern Israel, from the Mediterranean to the Kineret. With a trail map, canned tuna, and lots-o-matza we figured we were as prepared as we were going to get, so off we went.

The earliest we could catch a bus to the coastal city of Naharia was 6:30, and that didn't get us there until 11. While not ideal, it was the only option available. We began at Akziv beach, at the city's northern end, and proceeded east. The first forty-five minutes were spent trekking through banana plantations. Certain we were lost, we called the makers of the map who assured us that "you might have to walk through banana fields. There are lots of them there." Might? After an hour of walking we made it through, and found ourselves at an avocado farm. Luckily there was a farmer who pointed us in the right direction. Now on the trail we followed the dried-up river Kziv through many twists and turns until we made it to Montfort, a ruined Crusader castle atop a mountain in the middle of Goren National Park. The views were spectacular, but after having hiked through the heat of the day we were looking forward to refilling our water bottles at the station the map promised would be at the peak. Our first lesson in hiking - pictures on the map cover more ground than the items in reality. The faucet was actually on the next peak over, so we didn't get to refill. After wandering the hilltop we descended and began to hike through the heavily forested area surrounding the peak. There were many cool rivers and springs, with lots of families and other hikers enjoying the location. Noting that our time before dark was running low, we hurried toward our campsite. Second lesson about hiking - elevation lines do matter, a lot. Our site was at the top of yet another mountain, but this time we were running out of daylight and energy. We made it to the top at seven, with thirty minutes to get set up. Luckily we had practiced pitching our tent at home first, and so the process was pretty quick, and we got ready, ate dinner, and got to sleep to prepare for our next, much longer day.

Wednesday morning we woke up and were warned by a couple in a neighboring tent that the temperature was to rise to 37 degrees Celsius in the shade. Not realizing quite how hot that was, we thought we could rely on our second day's supply of water to see us through the day. We discovered our error when the hike downhill to the trail and the following hike uphill to the city of Ma'alot, where our trail actually began, consumed much of our supply. We therefore stopped in the city at a quaint little market to restock our bottle water before continuing. We followed highway 89 to our trail at the base of Mount Hermon, where we hiked over rocky ground, past a series of springs (many of which with cows pooping or naked babies bathing). In this park we bumped into Jon's cousin Oren, who was hiking with his school in the opposite direction. After a short break we continued on, making sure to ration our water supply by drinking every twenty minutes. After a few hours of hiking through the heat we realized that drinking that sporadically was not enough, as before beginning our third hill of the day Jon decided, and his total lack of energy corroborated, that he was dehydrated. We took a short break to rehydrate from a nearby supply, hitchhiked to the summit, and then hiked down the other side. That our last hour (out of nine) of the day was spent on a decline and in the evening sun was really pleasant, and made for an enjoyable end to a very long day. Our trail finished at the Spring of Bar Yochai, which for some reason is a crazy camping scene for the Chareidi public, who nightly set up tents and barbeques that cover the entire area. We found space beneath the party scene in a public area nearer to the spring, but this was overrun by a youth group that had turned the cute park into a refugee camp. A little farther off we pitched our tent with some other groups of displaced hikers, and passed out for the night.

We planned to start our third day with a visit to the Spring, but after a local advised us that it was dry, we chose to pack up and head out early. Our final day kept us on a single trail (Nachal Amud) which is also part of Shvil Yisrael (which runs the entire length of the State). This made the navigation easier but made it more difficult to gauge how far we'd travelled. Happily we met up with several other hikers and did the trail with them. We began with a group of Australians, one of whom is taught by a friend of ours here in Israel, then moved on to a nice Israeli couple, and ended with some Americans on break from their year-programs. Thursday was probably as hot as Wednesday, but with less shade. We trekked through a canyon, bordered on all sides by thorny shrubs, towering rocks, and full of scorching sunlight. There were some fantastic rock formations, as well as caves and wildlife (a boar!) After ten hours of hiking we were able to see the coast, the shore of the Kineret. Of course, this is when our bodies realized that we had been eating nothing but matza and jam for three days, and decided to protest this unfair treatment. After stopping four times in the last kilometer, as well as wading through yet another banana field, we found ourselves at the beach. We soaked our tired feet in the water, and realized that the rest of our bodies were so tired that we couldn't even enjoy the beach. We decided to collapse onto the bus to Jerusalem, and when we arrived at 11:30pm rewarded ourselves with matza-pizza and the most relaxing night of sleep we'd had in days.

The hike was a lot of fun, and we greatly enjoyed the views, people, and exercise (although it would be nice if our pants weren't so loose on us), but 65 kilometers in three days seems a little excessive. We were in such a hurry to make it through each day's quota that we didn't have time to swim or relax. Still, the opportunity to see so much of the country, whose beauty is inaccessible by car, was absolutely worthwhile.

Random tips:
Cheese and chocolate sound like fantastic snacks after a long day of hiking, but do not react well to temperatures above those found in your refrigerator. They will still be delicious, but you will need to eat them like astronaut food, squeezing the melted goo through a hole in the packaging.

If you've been hiking for three days and your face feels like it is covered in sand, give your skin a lick - the grit may well be the salt from your sweat dried to a cake-like film on your body.