Getting Lost in the Carmel

June 14, 2010 - 11:03 AM by Brian Blum

Finding the red rock marker

After a successful first tiyul, we tried our hand at hike number two – this time in the Carmel Mountains near Haifa. To remind: we’ve planned a series of 12 treks in Israel prior to our son Aviv’s bar mitzvah next year. The first was just outside of Jerusalem. This time we drove two hours north.

The first thing we noticed was how gorgeous the tiyul route was. From the opening path through a grove of lovely overhanging pines to the hike up to the top of Har Shokef, Aviv couldn’t stop noting how favorably it compared with our first outing – which was beautiful too, but in a rockier, wide open vistas kind of way.

The tiyul was proceeding fine until we began our ascent up the mountain – some 500 meters above sea level. We had carefully followed the trail markers and we were now on a black trail. The trail seemed clear as we began the climb. We were so intent on getting past the toughest part that we didn’t notice that the black and white painted rocks had disappeared.

No problem, we thought. The trail was so obvious – there was only one way to go: up – we figured that the trail marking people must have decided they didn’t need to put up as many rocks as on a normal route. So on we went, 10, 20, 30 minutes.

And then we reached a junction, with no trail markers. The “straight” continuation seemed to head towards an Arab village, not the mountain we had assumed we were climbing towards. The other way led to a large clearing. We sat down and ate our lunch while trying to figure out where we were and what – if anything – we’d done wrong.

We also tried our hardest to cover up our nervousness – I mean, we were lost in the mountains a long way from our car, on a Friday, with Shabbat looming in just a few hours.

A pair of bicyclists reached our clearing. We called to them – “can you look at our map and tell us where we are?” we asked. They admitted they were lost too. Eventually we identified where we’d gone wrong and decided that the path to the right, rather than the straight and seemingly logical choice, should lead to a short jeep path that would eventually lead us to the red trail at the top of Har Shokef.

Which, thankfully, it did. Once we were back where we needed to be, we relaxed and were able to enjoy the hike down again.

Total time for the tiyul: 4 hours (including getting lost).

Key learning: if you don’t see a trail marker within 1-2 minutes, turn back!

Tags: , , , • Category: Travel 

Comments

3 Comments on Getting Lost in the Carmel

  1. My search for knafe | ISRAELITY on Mon, Jun 21st 2010 9:37 AM

    2. [...] came as we were heading up north from Jerusalem for a hike in the Carmel Mountains (see my previous post on that tiyul). Our route took us through the Druze village of Daliat el-Carmel and there, on the [...]

  2. Hidden jem near Bar Giora | ISRAELITY on Wed, Jul 14th 2010 9:46 PM

    3. [...] rather barren- a few bushes here and there but nothing like the lushness we found during hike #2 in the Carmel Mountains near Haifa. But after about 30 minutes on the trail, the scenery changes and we were suddenly [...]

  3. Search for the Perfect Knafeh | This Normal Life on Tue, Aug 31st 2010 2:50 PM

    4. [...] came as we were heading up north from Jerusalem for a hike in the Carmel Mountains (see this post on Israelity that I wrote about that tiyul). Our route took us through the Druze village of Daliat [...]

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