Shvilist

Well, I should definitely increase the update rate – I’ve got about 10 more hikes to tell you about, and since i’m hiking at least twice a month, (more if I can help it), by the time that I’ll tell you about them, I’ll have fifty more

Besides the hikes, I’ve recently completed the Golan Heights Trail (I was thinking of naming it the GHT… care to comment?) – a 130 km long trail, going from the Hermon mountain all the way to Hammat Gader. It Took me five and a bit days – but I will tell you about it later.

Last Saturday we set out for a spontaneous hike in the Meron region. We changed the path several times along the way (It started when I decided to stop the car near the grave of Rabbi shimon Bar Yohai  – quite unexpectedly).

The final trail is about 15 km long, in the shape of the figure 8 (one small circle connected to a much larger one, to be exact). It is of medium difficulty level and the hardest part is in the first km.
Short version of what I’m about to write: from the parking , via blue marked trail to the INT, then head north along the INT till you meet another blue marked trail (this one is at Afaim mountain). Turn left to the blue marked trail, follow it all the way through. It becomes paved road, the trail markings become red, then blue again, then green (now you’re inside the village of beit-Jan, for those of you which are looking at the maps). Follow the green marked trail through. at the second fountain (Ein Hazaken) you turn left and continue along the green marked trail – till you connect to the blue marked trail again, then you turn right into the trail, and follow it till you meet the INT again – then you turn right and follow the INT back to the parking.

Since that was a little quick, let’s elaborate. As I said, the trail begins at the parking near Meron (the one located at the beginning of Amud river). This is exactly where my 38th day of the INT started, and this hike will meet the INT later on. From that point, the INT goes towards Sod stream, and so We took the other way – a beautiful unnamed wadi  (actually, I was surprised to learn that in has no name, despite the fact that it is quite tiny.You find in the map of Israel names for almost any curve of every mountain…. and a lot of places bear more than one name).
This ascend begins in a small fountain named Ein Meron, and climbs the beautiful wadi. I should mention that it is probably the most difficult part of the trail (I rate it : medium. The rest was easy, save for two more parts: the descend from Afaim mountain, and the ascend inside Beit Gan, which were also of medium difficulty due to their slope )

The trail then connect to the Israel National Trail (INT) at the fountain of Ein Zeved (there’s a tree planted on top of this fountain… remember this point, for we will come back to it – this is the connecting dot of the 8 that I’ve mentioned earlier.

From that point, we leave the blue marked trail, and follow the Israel National Trail northward – enjoying the views from mount Hen.

When the trail gets to mount Afaim, we leave the INT and follow the blue marked trail along the ridge. This part is one of the most beautiful in the entire hike (along with the ascend at the beginning  and – to a lesser degree – kziv river). This trail ends with quite a descend (going from the ridge side into the wadi) and then it connects to a paved road that leads us into Beit Gan. We’ve descended one ridge – and now we will climb the opposite one, circling mount Zeved and mount Hessed.

The same paved road is marked in three different colours : first red, then blue, then green. The marking here are not so good – so just keep on climbing along the road….
The green marked trail reaches the fountain of Ein Garna, and then descends into the upper part of Kziv river. Along the way, we were fortunate enough to see a wild peony, which is quite rare in Israel and could only be found in this region. Further more, this flower blossoms about two weeks per year – and we were quite lucky to catch the last glimpse of it.

Kziv river begins at a fountain called Ein Hazaken, and at that point we turn left, along the green marked trail. about 500 meters from that point, the blue marked trail (the trail that this hike started with) connects to the road – and so we turn right and continue for another 500 meters, till we reach Ein Zeved again. Instead of descending the blue marked trail, we now turn right – along the INT, and go around Sod stream – all the way back to the parking lot.

Summery :

The hike took us about 8 hours to complete – and it was definitely worth it

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve last updated this Blog, and it’s not like I didn’t hike all that time…. so now I’ve got a lot to tell you

We’ll start with a truely magnificent hike in Betzet stream, up in the north of the country. This trip began at the little village of Granot Hagalil, and is marked with a blue marks. It’s not a circular one, so prepare a pickup in advance…..

The trail enters the wadi, and follows it all the way to the village of Ya’ara. It’s a very easy trail (4 km long), well suited for families. There are several fountains in the wadi (which are being pumped up – all is left is a knee high pool, into which you can get in, as well as a trickle into which you’re not suppose to). There’s also a bat cave (but you can’t get in).

There are some truely impressive plane trees  which are fun to climb, and many oleanders – don’t drink the water…

As I said, it’s a very easy trail. I didn’t follow it all the way through – but instead I switched into a different one (marked red) after 2 km. It’s a bit difficult to find the connection, but once you’re out of the bottom of the wadi and you found the trail – it’s easy to follow it. This trail climb the northern slope of this wadi (about 300 meter. for any of you that had any doubt- this part is not for families…. unless the entire family are in a good shape). you have spectacular views of the stream and it’s surroundings, and it ends with the famous arch of Me’arat Keshet (literal traslated to cave of the arch, even though it’s not a cave at all – the arch was formed when the ceiling of the cave – collapsed)