Sukkot Hike and Acceptance to Madiso

During Sukkot I had a 10 day vacation from OTZMA programming. The first few days of the vacation I spent doing a very popular hike in Israel called Yam El Yam (Sea to Sea) which is a four day hike from the Mediterranean Sea to the Sea of Galilee. I went on the hike with four other friends (Nikki, Tracy, Vlad, and Michael). In order to prepare for the hike, we all went to the shuk (outdoor market, kind of like a farmer’s market) and bought lots of nuts and dried fruit to create a trail mix and some peanut butter and bread for sandwiches. Since none of us are true hiking specialists, we were somewhat nervous about making it safely on the correct trail across the country. Nikki and I bought a trail map and a compass and read as many blogs as we could in order try and decipher what the “sea to sea” hike actually entailed. Little was written in English, but after talking to a lot of people we thought we had some idea of where we were heading. So on Friday morning we set out each with a large backpacking bag filled with 6 liters of water, food, sleeping bags, a first aid kit, and limited clothing and started on the hike.

On day 1 we made our way to Ma’alot. We were having a great day but realized near the end that we were unsure if our ending location had a place to refill our water so Nikki, Vlad, and I  decided to hike out of the valley to go refill water. After our 2 hour detour that took us not only up the trail and out of the valley but also 3 kilometers down a road to a kibbutz where we used the dining hall’s bathroom to refill our bottles, we headed back on track with the remaining members of our group. When we finally reached Ma’alot we were exhausted and sunset was upon us so we had to quickly find a place to set up camp. However, we were literally in a suburb and didn’t know of any campgrounds so Vlad and I approached a random house and rung the doorbell to ask if we could sleep in the driveway of the home. The mother of the household answered and told us that we could sleep in the backyard. It turns out the family had three sons (a 4 year old, 12 year old, and 15 year old). The family was way to kind and brought us platters of fruit, coffee, and even small mattresses to sleep on. Before going to bed we all played with the youngest son and Nikki played guitar with the 12 year old. 

The next morning after a really interesting 2-hour conversation with the father, we headed back down into the valley (which we had to hike out of to sleep in Ma’alot) and began our day. However once we were back in the valley we were told by a park ranger that the trail ended for 10 kilometers and that the only way to get to the start of the next trail head was to hike BACK our of the valley (now for a third time) and hitch hike to the start of the trail. Since we refused to hitch hike, we decided to hike out of the valley and walk along the road for close to 15 kilometers. With most of it being uphill, by the time the sun was setting we were still 5 miles away from a campground and could not go any further. So, we stopped at a popular Druze restaurant and once again found a very nice Israeli who said we could sleep in his backyard. However, he lived in one of the villages we had walked through that day so being driven back to his home was defeating to say the least. This time instead of sleeping in the backyard, the man we were staying with said he would be much more comfortable if we slept inside in his yoga room. So, we headed inside and slept on the floor of his yoga room. 

The final morning we got up and hiked back towards Ma’alot and started along a trail. The trail that morning was beautiful as we walked on rocks right along a small stream. About an hour into the trail we found a dog, which we later named Spots, who followed us the rest of the day. 

After hiking for five hours (at about 10:30 am) we arrived at the bottom of Mount Meron (the highest mountain in Israel). At this point, Tracy was struggling and said she was unable to hike the remaining six hours up and down the mountain to the next campsite. Since Tracy didn’t have a phone at the time and speaks little to no Hebrew, Nikki and I decided to take her back to civilization via the bus. While we didn’t necessarily finish the hike, I enjoyed a great three days of hiking with my friends. That being said, I plan on redoing the hike again (without all the extra hurdles) so I can finish the hike.

After the hike, I went to Tel Aviv and spent a week with Abby. Abby is currently on a 5 month program called Career Israel in which she is completing an internship in Israel. It was really great to get to spend time with Abby and see her part of Tel Aviv. We went and dined at great restaurants, went to the dog park near her home, went to the beach, went for walks around the city and played a lot of shesh besh (or what Americans call backgammon). Overall, it was a great Sukkot break. 

 

On a different note, I received an email yesterday that officially accepted me to not only the University of Wisconsin’s PhD program, but also to Enid Montague’s lab. I am very excited to start at Madison in Fall 2011. While it was very likely that I would be accepted to the program again this year, there was no guarantee. It is really nice to finally know for sure that I will be attending The University of Wisconsin next year.

Sending all my love home,
Jenn