Hiking the Israel Trail (Part 1: Intro)
A 1000 km hike across Israel from north to south in Fall 2017
Israel 2024
Israel is at war. This series is a way to remember the beauty of Israel and the people of Israel and the special calm feeling of sleeping alone in the middle of nowhere in a country that feels tense even when it’s not at war.
But that’s not why I’m writing this now. I wanted to write it after it happened so it’d be fresh, but my writing and reading just happen to be on an approximate seven year delay from when I wish they happened. (I first opened Infinite Jest summer 2010 and completed it in late 2016. And yes, I know this is a cliche book. And yes, I would like to read it again.)
תכלה שנה וקללותיה, תחל שנה וברכותיה
“May this year and its curses come to an end, and may a new year of blessing begin.”
Prep
I had never really done long hiking before, but had done some organized bike rides and shorter non-organized hikes like Yam el Yam (Sea to Sea). I was well versed in setting up a tent, but not well versed in cooking. Previously I had used a lot of dehydrated meals, where you just boil water and pour it in and stir and wait 10 minutes and voila. But they don’t really sell those in Israel and so it was time to learn how to cook more sophisticated things like…rice!
In the north you’re never too far from civilization, so I figured that I could divert into random stores and gas stations as needed. I was expecting the desert part to be logistically the most challenging (including dealing with caching water) and assumed by that point I’d know what I was doing.
I went to REI to pick some things out before the trip. This went pretty well. I was experienced enough to know that I didn’t need the “I’m an American person embarking on an adventure trip so I need to buy clothes that make me look exactly like that person” clothing, but not experienced enough to quite see the value in packing light.
My Favorite Trip
Hiking in Israel is already an activity I love, but this was primarily my favorite trip for five reasons:
Highly independent: This was the first trip I did that required being fully responsible over a long period
Challenging: Sometimes logistically, sometimes physically, sometimes mentally
All the people: There were all the hikers on the trail, but then also so many random people on the streets, nearby the trails, and the Trail Angels who I frequently stayed with for a night
Special nature: Not just beautiful like in California or Switzerland, but also very special
Fulfilling: It’s fulfilling to accomplish something challenging over an extended time period!
Background
I reluctantly went to Israel for the first time in December, 2008 on Birthright. I loved seeing Jerusalem and loved the relaxing Shabbat at Kibbutz Lavi near the Kinneret.
A confusing thing to me was this activity called hiking. I was 23 years old but had never tried it before. My initial reaction was to question why we’d walk on uneven terrain with obstructions when sidewalks could support the task much better. Much like my Blackberry phone camera, I wasn’t developed enough to capture the beauty of the activity.
Having lived almost my entire life in the Chicago suburbs, there was definitely an underlying tension in Israel that I wasn’t used to, with many security checkpoints, even to enter any shopping center. Tel Aviv seemed dirty to me, and was full of stray cats. As we were leaving from the airport on the final day, there was word that Israel might be invading Gaza. I decided that the trip was great, but this place was too much. I’d seen enough and maybe I’d come back in 30 years or something.
Four years later I was living in Israel and had just started a master’s degree. Weird. How’d that happen? I took a backpacking trip in 2010 that made me more curious about the world. I lived in Toronto in 2011 and decided that it didn’t make sense to live abroad in basically the same environment I was already living in (Chicago).
Living in Israel, I learned a lot about the culture. The stereotypes are that Israelis call Americans naive and Americans call Israelis aggressive and rude. Much like the value arbitrage that every American living in Israel gets used to (e.g. get iPhones in America and health insurance in Israel), I found it really valuable to understand both cultures and to find which elements resonated with me.
Which elements were those?
The Israeli travel style: Many Israelis travel for six months after the army as their “big trip” abroad, often to places like Southeast Asia, India, and South America. My American mindset was that a good trip depends on the quality of the hotel and planning. I learned that the best trips had some element of freedom/going with the flow and some element of mid-long term adventure.
More likely to ask why: It seems like Israelis are less likely to nod and agree and more likely to engage and ask why and push you to question your beliefs through an aggressive version of truth-seeking.
Nature appreciation: I had no knowledge of nature whatsoever as a kid and maybe if I was a boy scout or grew up in California it would’ve been different, but this seems very common for Israelis!
I finished the degree in May 2017 and decided to take a year for traveling immediately afterwards, which started with a USA roadtrip (a lot of North America west of Illinois) from June to August. Next was Israel.
Pre-Trail
I traveled to Israel in late August 2017 to hang out for a bit and to attend a friend’s wedding. September 20 was Rosh Hashanah dinner:
The next day I traveled to Kibbutz Ein Dor in the northeast of the country, near the Kinneret for a five day silent meditation retreat with an organization called Tovana, which means insight in Hebrew.
Unlike the popular Vipassana meditation retreats, this one was only five days instead of 10. That seemed more reasonable to me. Also this one included walking meditation in addition to sitting meditation, which seemed like a useful thing to practice in advance of walking 1000 km.
In addition to no speaking, there is also not meant to be any writing, which is annoying to me because I don’t like keeping thoughts in my head to remember, which then means I’m distracted by trying to remember things, or I forget them and then am distracted by the annoyance of forgetting things. (Probably you’re just supposed to embrace not writing things and I’m bad at meditating.)
The only time that talking was allowed was during our volunteer period in the kitchen about essential food-related things (my favorite topic). The vegan food was surprisingly delicious — lots of curries with rice and vegetables.
Was the retreat valuable? Kind of. It felt like a calming and contemplative few days before starting the hike, but I kind of just don’t like meditation, and this didn’t bring me around. I also seem not very good at it, but haven’t fully given up. And by that I mean I for some reason still pay for the Waking Up app that I never use.
At the end of the five days, finally we could talk! It was interesting that some people made connections during the meditation despite the silence. Finally I could communicate with these people that I’d been sitting next to for so many hours each day!
This included a girl named Shir who I sometimes sat next to and who helped me with my very poor meditation positioning. I also talked to others who I hadn’t seen much during the retreat, but then saw me with all my hiking gear and asked me (paraphrased), “What the hell are you thinking carrying that much stuff on a long hike?”. Which turned out in fact to be a good question.
I knew that keeping things light was an important principle, but obviously I needed to cook eggs in the morning so brought a separate pan and 12-egg safety holder. And obviously I needed to carry two books, in addition to the Israel Trail red guidebook. And of course I needed lots of changes of clothes since doing laundry would be pretty rare. Also I felt pretty strong and who knows if the people telling me to lighten the load even lift. Also practically, the meditation spot was nowhere near any friends that I could leave things with, so figured I’d get started and if I needed to lighten later, I’d be able to drop things with family in Haifa.
I had the popular red guidebook, but didn’t have an exact plan. It seemed like keeping things open was the way to go. I did have a flight back to the US for Thanksgiving as my only semi-hard cutoff, which was about 8 weeks later.