Yam L'yam Day Three

Saturday, November 12th marked the beginning of Day Three of our Yam L'Yam trip. Camping-wise, we had competed our third night of four, however we were unsure where we would end up that evening, as our research had only turned up results as vague as "somewhere near Tzfat." Hiking-wise, we still had half the trip to go. It seemed crazy that two more days of hiking lay ahead, and even crazier still that we had maintained the necessary pace thus far. Our soreness was doubly compounded from the day before, yet we still had to endure 40 kilometers of aching, moaning, whining, and groaning before our feet and back had a chance to fully recuperate.

The night before hadn't been the best, with at least four separate occasions of hearing boars approach the tent. The first one happened before dinner, and the others while we were asleep. Personally, I wanted to leave the tent, thinking that there would be no escape if the boar actually tried to get the meat inside our tent. But apparently boars are fearless, and chase people regardless of provocation. So maybe we were safer inside, the tent acting as an obstacle that the boar was too blind to notice wasn't a tree. Morning brought forth the refuge of light and safety, and luckily, no boars. We woke up at 6, ate our usual breakfast of couscous, egg, and melted string cheese, and packed everything up in time to leave at 8:30. Before we left, we asked the people camping across the parking lot whether boars lived in this area, and they confirmed that indeed, there were boars. Our map indicated that for the rest of the trek, we would be walking along "Shvil Yisrael" - the Israel National Trail, which stretches from the very northern tip of Israel to the Red Sea in Eilat. As you can see in the picture above, the "Shvil" (as we liked to call it) is marked with White, Blue, and Orange, a symbol of mountains (snow), water (the Mediterranean and Kinneret), and desert. Apparently this trail takes 45 days to complete - making our four day excursion seem like child's play!

The first hour of the day was on a trail similar to the end of the second day - woodsy, very shaded, with nice smells all around. The first two days started with pretty easy terrain, but this trail was right up the side of Har Meron, the mountain which we thought we had avoided the day before. Climbing the mountain was intense and tiring, but not terrible.

Reaching the top of Har Meron gave us a spectacular view to the north. We could see for miles!

One of the many poses of Chelsey. At this point, she was stretching her right calf, which had been hurting after the ascent up Har Meron.

After another twenty minutes or so, we reached a slightly higher peak of the mountain. During this time, we came across dozens of hikers - mostly groups of old people and families with kids. We "shalomed" everyone we came across, and nearly everyone replied back with an equally genuine "Shalom." We were even lucky enough to receive a few "Shabbat Shaloms" and "Boker Tovs!" We figured out that hiking must be a popular activity for the less religious Israelis during Shabbat.

Can you see the Kinneret from here? We couldn't either.

Left. Left. Left, right left! One of the uncountable steps of Chelsey.

It was nice and sunny on the top of the mountain. The weather had been treating us well the entire way, as we commented on frequently throughout the trip. After walking the peak of Har Meron for a while, we descended part of the way and reached a parking lot full of Israeli tour buses and cars. It was a popular day for Har Meron. After stopping for a quick snack, we continued through the parking lot into an area of plains. We thought this was a good opportunity to walk side-by-side, (which we only ever did when the terrain was flat and easy) but our idea was ruined by a brief incline.

The marker on the left was another version of the "Shvil" marker. The orange arrow indicates desert to the left, (just a mere 400 kilometers away) and water (and mountains) to the right.

Chelsey's calf had been hurting more than usual, and suddenly the pain got even worse. The pain was "unbearable." The previous day it had been hurting and sore, but this was different. She could barely take a step without yelling out in pain. This was scary for both of us, because we didn't know how difficult it would be to continue, and whether we would even be able to finish the hike! Chelsey asked me what I thought was causing the pain, and I said that it probably wasn't a pulled muscle, because that usually happens from sudden overextension. I guessed that it was strained, because our movement had been pretty constant and similar over the last few days, and while strenuous, didn't seem like the type of exercise that would cause a pulled muscle.

Here's where we rested while Chelsey tended to her hurt calf. We ate and Chelsey stretched, and we decided that the best option would be to take it slow for a while. We walked through the plains area very slowly, to avoid hurting Chelsey's calf. We felt lucky that we had started off the day pretty quickly, because otherwise it was unlikely we would make it to camp before nightfall. The plains were hilly, but the terrain was pretty easy - just dirt and small rocks. We slowly but surely picked up the pace until we were walking pretty comfortably without causing Chelsey any extra pain.

Here we came across a strange "bottomless" pit. I threw a couple of rocks inside to hear the echo and see how deep it was, scaring a few birds nesting within.

We came across a shepherd with sheep and goats. Baaaaaa!

The terrain was nice and easy here, thankfully.

But suddenly our rocky downward descent began. This was very annoying, as we had to slowly maneuver our way down the rocks to avoid hurting Chelsey's calf. We did not expect such a quick change from flat to steep downhill.

A cool rock formation during our descent down the mountain.

Another rock formation. Notice the "Shvil" marker in the bottom left-hand corner of the picture.

Down, down, down into the abyss.

Finally at about 12:45, we made it to the bottom of the mountain, where we stopped for a lunch break. I was happy we had made it this far without further injury to Chelsey's hurt calf. We had definitely taken the last couple of hours slowly, but we had reached another checkpoint without any additional problems.

We walked through a parking lot, where we found the next "Shvil" marker, which you can see in the top right corner of the picture. We had to duck under this bridge just to reach the next part of the hike!

Still going strong!

We had to do some stone stepping again - Chelsey helped me across because her shoes were waterproof and it was shallow enough for her to just stand in the water. This was the only stream crossing we had all day.

Soon we reached the beginning of Nahal Ammud Nature Reserve, where we would spend the rest of today along with the next morning.

Soon after beginning our hike through Nahal Ammud, we came across hikers going the other direction. They asked us where we planned to sleep that evening, seeming somewhat concerned that we were going the wrong direction, especially because the reserve closed at 4:00. We said we were sleeping somewhere near Tzfat, which seemed to appease their curiosity.

The trail started off with a bunch of rocks and incline...

but soon leveled out into a nice flat path. During this time we continued to encounter people going the other direction, some of whom again asked us where we were spending the night. At this point we were somewhat worried that we wouldn't make it to camp in time, so I started to set a blistering pace, which Chelsey fortunately managed to maintain as well. We kept this up for a while, continuing to pass people going in the other direction. By about 2:45-3:00 we stopped running into people, which wasn't a very good sign. We were deep within a valley enshrouded in trees, plants, and shadow, and nightfall was rapidly approaching. We weren't sure how near we were to a campsite, or whether we had missed our turnoff earlier, or how far it was until highway 85. By about 3:30 we started searching for potential places to set up camp illegally inside the nature reserve. For a few minutes we considered a flat area on the side of the path, but the prospect of sleeping in the middle of a forest with boars wasn't too appetizing. Worried that we would run out of time, we decided to continue on. Just a minute or two later, we came across a sign indicating a trail that led to Ein Kovess (half a kilometer away) and Tzfat (2 kilometers away). We decided our best option was to take the trail.

While we finally had some sense of relief, knowing that at worst, we could find somewhere to sleep in Tzfat, we also had an extremely grueling uphill climb to battle. This was the steepest uphill climb we had yet to make, requiring us to essentially rock-climb, using our hands to pull ourselves up onto the next rocks. With heavy packs and tired legs, we slowly but surely made our way up the hill. Chelsey was complaining like no other saying things like, "This isn't a path, why do people make these paths?" It was heinously difficult facing the steepest and most difficult part after having already hiked for 7 hours.

Finally, we reached the end of the rock climbing. Still, we had another 10 minutes of walking uphill, but at least we had conquered the most difficult part. By now we were officially out of Nahal Ammud, approaching a clearing leading to a parking lot. Knowing that we had no energy left in the tank to reach Tzfat, our only question was where we would find water. Up ahead we saw a sign, along with a family finishing their hike (miniature by comparison) and heading to their car. The sign mentioned something about "mayim" (water) that I could not understand, with an arrow pointing to the left. I honestly thought I saw a water spigot, but in my deliria it must have been a mirage. Not wanting to have to hike an additional 1.5 kilometers to Tzfat, I decided to ask the family if they knew anywhere we could get water. The middle-aged man pointed to a small pond-like area we had just walked by, which we had earlier dismissed as dirty water. Upon closer inspection, there were pipes that drained out into this small pond. The man explained that he has been drinking that water since he was five years old, and that it is perfectly safe. He even offered to drink some right then to prove it! As we were walking away, I noticed that he had stripped down to his underwear and hopped in the water! So strange.

We were SOOOO relieved that we found water nearby to drink, and that we wouldn't have to go to Tzfat in the morning. And of course, that we were done hiking for the day!

The path leading from the edge of Nahal Ammud to the foothills of Tzfat. I told Chelsey that I would go ahead to search for water, so she didn't have to walk more than necessary (which is why I'm a blip in the middle of the picture).

The stone structure on the left is where the pipes drained into the pool of water.

We set up camp and enjoyed the sunset, happy that we had solved the problem of finding camping for the final night. We noticed some cows grazing nearby, and wondered if we would have another boar encounter. A cow with big horns started approaching our tent. Suspecting that these were wild cows, we still didn't know whether they were dangerous or not. The cow got nearer and nearer. From inside the tent, we watched with the tent flap open, peering out at the slowly approaching cow, plodding along in a straight line directly towards the tent. 50 feet away, 30 feet away, 15 feet away. Just like with the boars, I debated leaving the tent. The cow walked even closer, right up to the side of the tent. We were frozen. Then it sniffed, took a step or two to the right, and plodded on past the tent.

After the cow incident, we exhaled, and Chelsey started writing about the day. While she was writing, we heard another stupid boar in the distance! UGH! At least it remained far away this time, and was the only boar we heard the entire evening. After a dinner of cooked salami and couscous, with dried apricots, cranberries, and dates for dessert, we retired to the tent, exhausted from the day. Chelsey read aloud "The Pit and the Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe, and by 8:30 we were ready for sleep. Just as we were entering the realms of dreamland, we were woken up by a whipping wind, thrashing the tent about and causing the sides of the tent to implode before releasing with a lull in the wind. This continued on for an hour or so, and we couldn't sleep. I decided to stake down the corners of the tent, thinking that it would partially prevent the sides from caving in. With the full moon providing light, and not a boar in sight, I pounded in the tent stakes with a rock. Soon afterwards the wind died down, and we were able to finally fall asleep.