How to hike in the summer
Sunset on the Neve Ilan trail
Summer vacation is almost over but the heat remains. Whether it’s a result of global warming or just bad luck, this has been one of the hottest summers in memory in Israel. But don’t let that stop you from getting out into nature. Even with temperatures in the mid to high 90s (33 and up in Celsius) you can still tiyul around the country.
Here’s the trick: hike in the late afternoon. The risk: it gets dark before you’re done.
As a result, the whole process is highly scientific: pull out the map, count the squares (each one marks a kilometer), add some time for hills, and factor in a comfortable snack break or two.
We recently tried this method on a hike to the wadi (valley) just north of the moshav of Neve Ilan. It’s called Nahal Ital and it’s off the road from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. You can park your car in one place – you end up where you started.
This hike is particularly breathtaking, with compelling vistas from both high atop the hills and down in the valley. But, as our son Aviv – who is keeping a blog about his hikes in Israel – noted, “once you go down you must come up…and oh boy oh boy oh boy! Let me tell you, that climb is the steepest climb I ever did.”
He was right. From bottom to top on this hike is a good half hour straight up with only a single brief level patch of ground; just enough to numb you into thinking the worst is over.
But here’s where the scientific planning comes in handy: when we got near the top, the sun was starting to set. That’s always a pleasure, but ours was doubled because, since we were still climbing, the sun seemed to stay put, extending the time until it dipped below the furthest range of mountains.
Of course when the sun did disappear, it started to get dark. The sweat which we’d previously accumulated so prodigiously began to cool, and our destination was nowhere in sight. But the trail at that point was a straight shot with no tricky turn off’s to consider. We eventually arrived back to our car without having to turn on our flashlights (which we had packed to be on the safe side), just in time to shuffle our sweaty selves past a wedding party celebrating at the Neve Ilan events hall.
To get to Nahal Ital, drive to the far end of Neve Ilan and head down the black jeep trail. Make sure you have the Israel trails map #9 (which covers the greater Jerusalem area) and loop your way around. The hike takes just under 4 hours (there’s an extension that brings it up to 5 hours, but we didn’t take it).
Afternoon hike: Hirbet Itab
Filed under: Environment, History and Culture, Travel
I wrote earlier about the plans we have for the year leading up to our youngest son’s bar mitzvah. Aviv loves to hike, so we will be taking 12 tiyulim around the country between now and next March, with a concluding trek, just after his bar mitzvah, in the Nepalese Himalayas.
The biggest challenge to planning our Israeli hikes was that we have only one car, so each trip needs to be a loop, finishing where we started. But with the help of our friend and erstwhile tour guide Asher Arbit, we’ve identified enough to get us going.
We kicked off our touring program last week with a four hour-hike in the area around Hirbet Itab, a Crusader fortress (and ruined Arab village) near Bar Giora (up the road from Hadassah Ein Kerem outside Jerusalem).
The starting point is the “Bar BeHar” rustic restaurant (with clean bathrooms, plenty of parking and ice cream – a real motivation at the end of a hot day). The hike itself winds through vineyards and valleys with a fair bit of rock climbing to keep an antsy 12-year-old happy. The Hirbet Itab ruins, which come mid-way through the hike, are situated at the top of a 665- meter high mountain with stunning views all the way to the Mediterranean.
The first part of the walk is on a quiet and mostly deserted hiker-only trail. Indeed, despite it being a Friday with near-perfect weather (sun and a cool breeze), we saw only one family – of all people, friends of ours from Jerusalem including one of Aviv’s classmates. The last third is on a jeep trail where there were a fair number of 4x4s kicking up dust.
One important aspect of the tiyul was that it was our first one alone in nature without a guide. That meant we had to carry – and more importantly – learn how to read a map. Asher patiently walked me through it. Now I know how to read elevation markings and locate wells and springs. It reminded me of the first time I encountered Hebrew – it all looked like random squiggles until I cracked the code.
The Hirbet Itab tiyul takes about 3 and a half hours, including stops for snacks and sandwiches. Except for one relatively steep decline, it’s a pretty easy walk for hikers of moderate fitness. And at only 25 minutes out of Jerusalem, it’s a worthwhile jaunt for a family looking to take a break from YouTube and Facebook for a few hours.
12 hikes for 12 years
One of the guiding principles of my relationship to Jewish tradition is to try, whenever possible, to develop creative approaches to time-honored rituals in order to add personal meaning. When my father died last year, for example, I took on a project to honor his memory by editing and publishing the book he’d been working on.
I’ve now turned my attention to my youngest son’s bar mitzvah. The 12-year-old loves to get out into nature and hike, so I thought it would be wonderful for us to plan together 12 tiyulim around Israel during the year before his big day, culminating in the overseas trekking experience I described in a previous post for hike number 13.
We started our hiking journey this week with an easy walk through Sataf, a lovely mountainside stroll with a few steep inclines, suitable for kids of all ages. The area was originally settled during the Chalcolithic Age; its ancient system of terraces dates back 4,500 years.
There are several routes you can take in Sataf. Most lead down the hill to a pool fed by spring water which is used by some ultra Orthodox Jews as an outdoor mikve (a ritual bath).
Picture from Israelity writer David Brinn
When I first visited Sataf years ago, I was rather shocked by the sight of several skinny men shedding their black and white clothes, jumping in the water with just underwear, then removing said undergarments, holding them in the air and dunking.
This time around, our trip was during the final days of the Passover break and the are
a was packed with tourists. The men (different faces, same clothes) were still there but they kept their bathing suits on.
Sataf has ample parking and the trails are all clearly marked. Entrance is free. There is a snack bar with “Italian” ice cream (pretty good, actually) at the starting point and an information station. But don’t believe what the woman at the desk says. She told us our tiyul would take two hours plus; we finished it in just over an hour!
I’m now compiling a list of places to hike – I’d appreciate your suggestions. Please leave your comments at the end of this post.
High school musical – the hike
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Travel
A uniquely Israeli creation, the tiyul shnati (Annual trip) has been part of our family’s lives since our oldest child was big enough for one of the outdoor overnight, multi-day trips.
Whether they attend secular or religious schools, the annual trips are generally chock full of walking the land, camping in the rough, rope and ladder climbing water hikes, barbecues, cameraderie, pranks, and living and breathing Zionism.
With 10 months spent cooped up in the classroom, middle and high schoolers earn their three days out in nature, and our 15-year-old son was up bright-eyed and ready at 5:30 am this morning waiting for one of us to drive him to school.
Of course, it’s not primarily about Zionism, it’s primarily about pranks. When I asked him what kind of pranks the kids play on each other these days, he recounted one successful mission last year of entering another tent in the middle of the night, and scrawling in red marker the name of a body part on the forehead of a ‘friend.’
The preparations begin days earlier, with the required trip to the candy story for obligatory ‘junk’ bag of everything we don’t let him have the rest of the year. The school list of required equipment includes enough bottles of water to stock a small pool, but he also insisted on buying a six-pack of Coke. Both the portable music player and the cell phone stayed at home, which was an accomplishment in itself, and almost worth the cost of the trip.
Which is a sore point – a number of students weren’t attending the trip due to the expense involved. On top of the annual school fees and miscellanous charges, the school charged NIS 790 (almost $200) for the trip. I know that there’s the costs of the buses, the guides, etc… but they’re not even staying in youth hostels or hotels, they’re camping out!
If it’s a class trip, meant to build a spirit of student togetherness, there should be a way for all the students to go, even if it means cutting out some of the schedule and shortening the outing by a day.
It’s a macro problem, but this morning, we were dealing with the micro, hastily digging the forgotten sleeping bag out of the closet at the last minute. With that squared away, our young man took his last shower for three days, packed an extra pair of shoes for the water, reluctantly stuffed in something to wear if it got cold at night, made sure he had his red marker, and put his candy in a water-proof section of his backpack. With attention to detail like that, he’ll go far in life.
Foto Friday – Sukkot in Jerusalem
Filed under: Art, coexistence, Foto Friday, General, Holidays, Religion, Travel
The awe-ful part of the Days of Awe are behind us and now it’s time to party! Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, is the holiday when Jerusalem gets itself all decked out…
© RomKri
…and small wooden sukkot, or tabernacles, spring up overnight…
© monti_clif
…dotting the urban landscape.
© Pes & Lev
The Municipality of Jerusalem gets into the act too, with a large public sukka – the perfect opener to this month’s Autumn Nights Festival…
© RomKri
…as well as the annual Jerusalem March, attended by walkers from all over the country…
© monti_clif
…and from all over the world!
© monti_clif
Another event taking place at this time: the International Christian Embassy’s Feast of Tabernacles festival, this year celebrating its 30th anniversary. The festivities begin today with a worship concert at Ein Gedi, continue with a week of prayer and Bible teachings, and conclude with the Jerusalem March on October 6th.
Below is a montage of photos from last year’s Feast of Tabernacles. The photos above are courtesy of the wonderful Jerusalem Shots website – always worth a visit. And here’s wishing a Chag Sameach (happy holiday) to us all!
Feast of Tabernacles 2008 Photo Montage from ICEJ on Vimeo.
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