The Israel National Trail, Day One

Israel trail day 1, 2-25-19. Eilat to Yehoram Mountain Camp, 9+ miles, 8am start, got to camp 1:45pm. We are the Flying Alter Kakkers.

The Israel Trail is approximately 650 miles long, stretching from the southern port city of Eilat, cris crossing the country up to the excavations at the City of Dan. I’d hiked several day hikes on the INT, several years ago when visiting Israel with my wife Katie, and was really impressed by the natural beauty of it, and the incredibly fascinating historical sites it traverses. It takes you through the Roman hippodrome at Caesarea, Pontius Pilot’s capital. I could just see Ben Hur hurtling around that track. The City of Dan, is a site that was ancient when the Patriarch Abraham walked through the gates, 5,000 years ago. It winds down a canyon near the city of Safed, where the Kabbalah originated over a thousand years ago, and in which still grows the first wild wheat, from which all our modern wheat is descended. The history, the physicality of a long walk, the wonderful Israelis we met, and of course, that fabulous Israeli food, all conspired to put this hike on my list. When I heard that my newly retired dear friend Roman Furberg was planning on starting the trail in late February, I signed on. Having an Israeli buddy who is fluent in Hebrew couldn’t hurt, especially as the first 3 weeks in the Negev Desert would require arranging water drops at many of the campsites. Roman and I had done a stretch of the John Muir Trail and Mt Whitney last summer and had a ball. So this will be good.

Roman and his sister Yael.

I arrived in Tel Aviv on 2-23-19 and was met at the airport by Roman, and we spent the night at his sister Yael’s home just outside of Tel Aviv. What a fun person, and a fabulous hostess. She fed me real food! Fresh Israeli salad, eggs and just the perfect meal as the plane food had been awful. And I got to see Audrey, Roman’s daughter, and a second daughter to me, who will be joining us for the first 3 days on trail.

Our start at the sign.

The next morning, all three of us bussed, trained and taxied to Eilat, and after an evening of getting me a new SIM card and purchasing supplies, we headed to a great fish dinner on the beach and then bed at an outdoor school located at the start of our trail.

The starting rock. We will be following blazes of Orange, blue and white all the way to Dan.

We were treated to a 1am wake up by way of 15 to 20 very drunken students, whooping and hollering till 3am! It was the worst night at a trailhead I’ve ever experienced. We were a a bit worse for the wear by morning. But we hit trail at 8am, a relatively late start, and soon were climbing high into the mountains behind Eilat and looking over the Gulf of Aqaba. Oh, man, the views were spectacular, the mountains of Jordan rising with the morning sun and Saudi Arabia just a few miles south of the Jordanian city of Aqaba. But it was the immediate immersion in the geology of the place that was so striking. Sedimentary layers rose vertically and twisted into mountain pretzels, shot all about with basaltic, and volcanic intrusions. Within a few steps I’d be hiking on granite, then sandstone, which metamorphosed into flints and marbles and then find myself over what appeared to be volcanic pebbles and bombs. I may be way off on some of this, but the latent geologist in me was going nuts!

The view across and into Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

The first hills led us to ridge lines and cliffs that descended with sheer drops of 1,000 feet or more, and to our left, a fence and road that marked the border with Egypt. The dark topography of this section, black crags and canyons, reminded me of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in the Southwest. Lots of today reminded me of the best of the Southwest for that matter.

The desert is gorgeous!

Eventually, the trail led us down into broad wadis, dry water courses, which were the only places with anything green in them, and then up the narrow tributary canyons which quickly became slot canyons, every bit as beautiful as those I’ve hike in Canyon Lands National Park back home. It was a scramble fest! I’d be on my butt for sections, then pulling myself up with whatever handhold I could find and glad of the traction afforded by new shoes, with great tread. Then it was metal ladders and rebar rungs fixed into the sheer climbs out of the slots.

There are rungs in some of the walls for climbing out of the slots.

We passed other backpackers all morning long, and realized that our team name was not going to be just, Alter Kakkers, but Team Flying Alter Kakkers! Roman’s marathon training, he completed the Tel Aviv Half Marathon just 3 days ago, and my incessant training at home on Mt Diablo and Tamalpais, and Audrey’s workout schedule, all really made the day. Without it we would have crawled most of the hike. Thank you Burma Road Crew, the bunch I hike with at home, and all the wonderful folks who come out to knock out miles in our Bay Area Hills, because it really paid off today. It was a strenuous hike. The Red Book, the guide book for this trail, claims that the first two days when hiking south to north, are the hardest. No joke so far.

Lunch was in the shade of a slot Canyon, cool and pleasant, as the shaded rock faces give off coolness like an air conditioner, just as the rocks in the sun emanate heat like a gas furnace. After the repast, we began to meet groups of teenagers out on a field trip, hiking down what we were going up. Whenever they heard we were hiking the Israel Trail, they’d set up a cheer. Really nice kids, and then we met one of their guides, Ben, who hiked the PCT in 2017, one of the highest snow years ever, and of course we had to talk. I can’t resist a good conversation on any trail.

Our Mylar umbrellas really came in handy today. It was hot!

Hiking with Roman and Audrey was a delight today. Both of them kicked butt on trail and the fun and fellowship made the beauty of place all the more dear. Audrey calls both of us on any geezer crap we pull, so the mistakes we make become the spring of deeper fun and fellowship. It’s so nice to hike with friends who can absolutely smoke me at times out here. I’m pushed among and not worried about losing someone.

We made it to camp shortly before 2pm and promptly had no idea where the real camp was. A bit of scramble and we found water that was cached for us and others, and settled into a nice sandy spot, when a group of people walked past us and Danny Gaspar, happened to be one of them. He’s one of the reviewers of the Red Book, and a nice guy, who told us where the camp really was, and we headed to a spot off the road not far away. And, yes, we crossed a road twice today.

A spring we’ll pass tomorrow.

All afternoon and evening, hikers wandered in and we directed them to the water and campsite. I’m sure we’ll get to know the thru hikers over time as there are a number of them.

We’re high on a hill near the peak of Yehoram Mountain, and the views are stunning, and tomorrow will be a long day, the second hardest of the hike. So, jet lagged as I still am, I’ll try and get a long night nonetheless. Today was about push, great beauty, and camaraderie. Not a bad start for a long walk.