Please everywhere you hike take out more than you bring in!
Hikes (north to south)
Leg 1: Golan to Tel Hai
Leg 2: Tel Hai to Mount Meron New section: Nachal Dishon revisited!
Leg 3: Mount Meron to the Sea of
Galilee
Leg 4: Sea of Galilee to Mount Tabor
Leg 5: Mount Tabor to the Carmel
Mountains
Day Hikes: Carmel Mountains - Yagur to Nahal Me’arot
Day Hikes: Nahal Me'arot to Caesarea
Day Hikes: Caesarea to Tel Aviv
Leg 6: Highways: Tel Aviv to Ben Shemen Forest
Leg 7: Holocaust memorial Forest: Ben Shemen to Jerusalem
Jerusalem Trail
Leg 8: Nights of fire: Jerusalem to Tel Azeka
Leg 9: Winter Wheat: Tel Azeka to Dvira
Leg 10: Forests: Dvira to Arad
Leg 11: The Desert: Arad to the Machtesh HaGadol
Leg 12: Fossils: Machtesh HaGadol to Mt. Akev
Leg 13: Water in the desert: Hod Akev to Mitzpe Ramon
Leg 14: Illness in the wilderness: Mitzpe Ramon to Gev Holit
Leg 15: Back in the saddle: Gev Holit to Tzofar
Leg 16: Barach and Vardia Canyons: Tzofar to Shizafon
Leg 17: Shacharut Village and Milhan cliffs: Shizafon to Timna
Leg 18: The end of the Road: Timna to Eilat New
Who we are
We are walking the Israel Trail in segments of 2 to 4 days, with occasional longer hikes, because we are not free enough to be able to leave our family and other responsibilities for the amount of time it wound take to hike the Israel Trail in one go. However, I want it to be clear when I've finished that I walked every step of the way so I found a small stone up in the Golan where we began the first leg of our hike on May 12th 2009. I plan to carry this rock from the Golan to Eilat. Every time we begin a new segment we’ll start by finding the rock and when we finish a segment we’ll hide it at the place we leave the trail.
Getting There:
Part of the challenge of hiking in segments is planning where to get on and off the trail. The Egged Bus company has vastly improved their web site. You can now easily find the schedule of every Egged bus route in
The train system in Israel is also growing and improving. The trains don't go to every little town, however, they are sometimes much faster and have good connections with the buses.
We are hiking the trail with our Dog. The Israeli trains and Egged buses allow dogs as long as they have a muzzle. On the buses you have to pay half fare for your dog.
Of course, the easiest solution to getting on and off the trail is to find someone to take you to your start point and pick you up when you reach your destination. We thank our son Beni for often being our driver.
Don holding the Golan stone where we found it on the Golan Heights
Leg 1: From the Golan to Tel Hai
Leg 2: Tel Hai to Mount Meron
Leg 3: Mount Meron to The Sea of Galilee
Leg 4: The Sea of Galilee to Mount Tabor
Leg 5: Mount Tabor to the Carmel Mountains
Day Hikes: Yagur to Nahal Me'arot
Day Hikes: Nahal Mearot to Caesarea
Day Hikes: Caesarea to Tel Aviv
Leg 6: Tel Aviv to Ben Shemen Forest
Leg 7: Ben Shemen to Jerusalem Trail
Jerusalem Trail: 42 Km loop around Jerusalem
Leg 8: Jerusalem to Tel Azeka
Leg 9: Tel Azeka to Dvira
Leg 10: Dvira to Arad
Leg 11: Arad to the Machtesh HaGadol
Leg 12: Machtesh HaGadol to Mt. Akev
Leg 13: Mt Akev to Mitzpe Ramon
Leg 14: Mitspe Ramon to Gev Holit
Jacob Saar has just come out with the 2nd edition of Israel National Trail - Hike the land of Israel series – 2011 A must have for every Israel Trail hiker.