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.

Yam L'yam Day Two

On the morning of our second day of the hike, we woke up at 6am in order to get an earlier start than the day before. The picture above was taken of our campsite after the tent was packed up. After waking and getting dressed I made our usual breakfast of couscous and two eggs in our campstove while Rafi packed up our sleeping bags and such. Except he had some trouble. My sleeping bag did not want to fit back inside of its compact travel bag. He tried and tried to no avail so we decided to take a break for breakfast. After eating, Rafi again tried to stuff the sleeping bag into its case, but it would seriously not fit! We were getting irritated and it was getting late. I told Rafi, "Use your manpower!!!" He tried, but failed miserably. We figured out that Rafi had packed my smaller sleeping bag into his larger case and was now trying to put his larger sleeping bag into my sleeping bag case! This was because we had accidentally slept in the wrong sleeping bags.

Now we were ready to resume our adventure by starting off on our second day. The sleeping bag debacle had lasted quite a while so by this time it was already 8:40. We set off on the road, which was nice to walk on as a "warm up." We had decided to walk to Elkosh and not backtrack into Abirim to get water. We still had 2 liters of water left over from the day before and knew it would last the five kilometers to Elkosh. This is a picture of the gate, right outside of where we camped illegally in the nature reserve. The green post you can see on the right hand side is the reserve sign which clearly states that we were prohibited from camping there. At least no one important saw us there. Early in the boker (morning) while I was cooking breakfast, I got really nervous because a man and a woman were walking through with their dog. I was worried that they would be rangers or something but they did not do anything except pass through and let their dog sniff at our tent and at an area where I had peed that morning.

The road walk was pretty nice as it enabled us to warm our muscles and get our sore stiff legs working again without having to brave rocky terrain. We had to walk on the side of the road and make sure that we were very wary of passing cars.We reached Elkosh on this beautifully sunny morning and walked up the hill toward the moshav. This is where we planned to replenish our water vessels. We looked around for someone to ask about getting water. We saw a few people working in their yard on a hill, but they seemed too far away to ask, and they were very busy pruning trees. We walked a little further and saw a man talking to someone in a car outside of a house. Rafi asked him where we could find water and the man told him, "Regah." He finished his conversation with the other man and then turned to us and led us into his house. He told us that we could use the sink to fill up our bottles and also use the bathroom if we needed. He then offered us something hot to drink, but we respectfully declined as we needed to get back on the road as soon as we could. Walking through the small moshav of Elkosh, one hears a lot of squawking about.

As we continued walking on the road and descended down the hill we encountered some beautiful sights. When we are home, ask to see our other pictures because we captured many lovely landscapes and are not able to post even a fraction of them. After leaving the moshav, we turned left onto highway 8944. We continued descending until we came to an intersection with highway 89. At this point we had to consult the trusty map. We took a while trying to figure out where the mouth of the green trail was to begin. Thanks to Rafi's great map skills, we realized that the turnoff was probably before the intersection to the other highway so we ended up backtracking a few meters to turn onto a dirt path. We did find the marker for the trail here and were very excited that we had not yet gone the wrong direction like we did the day before. Above is a picture of the marker stating "Nahal Kaziv." When we reached the mouth of the green trail, right under highway 89, we stopped for a snack break. It was well worth it to replenish our energy and feel the comfort of removing our large, heavy packs. The terrain was very green now. It was lovely. Tons of lizards ran about as we took each step forward. We felt fortunate to not have to cross the wet streambed as we had the day before. Since we were still in Nahal Kaziv, we were bracing ourselves for another day of stone stepping across the water.I was so excited because I came across two praying mantises during this part of our hike! This one was the first. It was so neat because I had never seen one in real life before, but had learned all about them in science classes as well as through nature documentaries on the television.The terrain this day was very interesting. It was foresty and lush

and then it became a bit rocky in the path, although the rocks were nice and flat and not the horrible round ankle-twisting kind. The scenery was so gorgeous here!!Here I am pointing to our first cow of the trip. From afar, Rafi thought it was a lion. He could not believe that it was a cow. We ran into many more as the day progressed. We are not sure if these are wild cows or not - some were tagged, but others were not. They seemed wild because we could not find a single shepherd person that belonged to them.The rock formations were so cool! They sloped upwards in layers similar to stairs. We walked over them like they were skinny platforms. Since we were in a valley, the middle of the area was a watery area full of green plants and trees. In the above picture we were walking to the right of the streambed. Notice the green trailmarker on the bottom right corner of the picture above. We saw hundreds of these and they made us happy at the sight of each one. As we walked along on the trail, we encountered a bull standing square in the middle of it. It was happily eating from the tree next to it as well as the grass in front. The path was not that wide so if we were to walk next to the cow to pass it, we would have to touch it, either with our bodies or our backpacks. This was not a risk we were sure we were willing to take. We still did not know whether these cows and bulls were tame or not (and we still don't know - we think they were wild). This one in particular had horns that did not look too pleasant. I kept thinking about all of the stories about people getting rampaged by horned animals in the woods. We decided to wait for it to move out of the way. It did not budge - it was enjoying it's tree meal too much. We then decided to try cutting through the brush off of the trail and going around the cow. We had to walk through brambles and thorns. Once we were nearly past the cow and back onto the path, it decided to move forward, again placing us behind its large rump. Nooooooooooooooooo! Eventually it moved to the side far enough so we could pass through, which we did quickly but without too many sudden movements or noises. Soon after passing the cow, we came across a few goats on the trail making their funny goat noises. We walked a little further and came into a clearing in which we discovered the motherload of goats. There were goats to end all goats here! Inside the clearing sitting atop a tall rock were a man and his adolescent son. They were the goats' shepherds and based on their accent, they were probably Arab. They told us that in total, there were 300 goats in their herd. The goat area was also where the blue path intersected with our green one, another landmark as seen on our well-marked map. We continued on the green path up the rocks. It began to incline.The terrain became a bit rocky here, but the rocks were larger and jutted out of the ground. It was as simple as just walking around them.We came upon a stream with water in it. The trail markers directed us to the middle of the stream, walking on the stones sticking out of the water. While we stood there, in the middle of the stream we could not find the next trail marker. It also looked as if there were not enough stones to go across. Rafi investigated while I waited somewhere safe. It turned out that we did not have to cross the stream at all and once we figured that out, we quickly found the gate out of the nahal and onto the road.We crossed the street and continued on the green trail, knowing that we would be turning off onto the red trail as soon as we saw it. We were expecting it to be rather soon.We were right! We came across the red trail after walking through ankle twisting stones next to some orange groves. Once on the red trail we walked for a few minutes on the dirt road looking for a spot to stop for lunch.We found a shady spot sitting on some rocks passing through olive groves. We ate our staple items: pita, peanut butter, dried fruit, wafers and water. It was nice to relax for a while. On the hike, I get hungrier faster so it is nice to stop often to refuel our energy.I am happy.Ooooooh! The magical forest appears! After lunch, around 2:00, we kept on the red trail which took us into a dense forest. It was darker here than we had experienced before due to the lovely leafy trees packed tightly against each other. A sprinkle of sunshine came through every now and then and glowed between the leaves. Even though the sun was not shining directly on our bodies, we were still quite comfortable with the temperature. The smell of the forest was deep and earthy. I breathed it in deeply and asked Rafi to do the same - it is good for the soul!The dappled sunshine coming through the treetops. This would be a forest that fairies could live in :)Due to our quick pace, and easier terrain, we were able to reach camp earlier than the night before (around 3:15). We actually had sunlight still! We took a moment after throwing off our packs, to sit and let our bodies relax before setting anything up. We were located at the base of Har (Mount) Meron in an actual campsite complete with running water and port-a-potties. Yayy! We set up camp and relaxed in the tent, tending to our wounded feet. We had both sustained owies on our poor feet - they were so sore and tender to the touch. Mine even throbbed uncomfortably just laying there in my sleeping bag. Ow!! I was so happy to be at our campsite for the night! While we relaxed in the tent before Shabbat, it became dark...really dark. The previous nights of camping were lit wonderfully by the moon. This night was much darker because of the trees that surrounded us and blocked out the moon's glow. While we talked to each other in the tent we suddenly heard a horrible grunting and clomping around outside of our tent. My stomach felt weird and adrenaline surged through me. We both fell dead silent, listening to the horrifying sounds. We did not know what to do. I suspected that it was a wild boar based on the sounds it was making. Rafi wanted to get out of the tent because our food was inside with us and he figured it would be safer to get away from the food source and have an ability to run away. I did not like this plan at all. I was way too afraid to get outside of the tent - as long as I did not see the boars, I felt safer, even if it was a false sense of safety. We did not even know if the boars were worth being worried about, but the grunt they produced sounded very menacing and scary. After a few tense minutes, the boar noises drifted further away and faded. We exhaled our held breath and mustered up our courage to take the chance to go use the bathroom and make dinner. We walked with our flashlights and with the beam of light, saw two glowing animal eyes peering at us from behind a rock. It was eery but we think that it was just a cat. We returned to our tent and began to fall asleep after a time. Multiple times throughout the night, we were jolted awake by the heinous sounds of wild boar. Each time, a new surge of adrenaline and fright coursed through my veins. We remained completely silent during the boar encounters and after the noises ceased, we would turn to each other in the dark and whisper, "Did you hear that?" At one point, one of them noisily slurped from the water faucet near our tent and even turned on the spigot which ran until morning because we were too afraid to leave our sleeping bags. We never saw the boars but they were so loud that we knew they could not be more than 10 feet away. We managed to get some sleep through the mayhem and fright and were relieved to see the sun come up in the morning.