Lower Nahal Amud with Al-Hashvil
Photo album: Israel Trail Hike 2022-04-28
An Israel Trail hike on Yom HaShoah might not be a typical way to observe this solemn day. But it is not inappropriate. Were we not hiking, many of us would have been working in an office, or at home like me, stopping only for a moment of silence and not otherwise engaged. Today I spent time with a group of people who love this land as much as I do, wending our way through a ravine filled with stunning cliffs and fragrant wildflowers, and admiring the construction achievements of the state of Israel.
We started the hike by crossing under Highway 85 through a pipe tunnel.
Emerging from the tunnel, we headed down into the southern section of Nahal Amud. This was the steepest (and the only significant) descent of the day.
For most of the morning we hiked single file on a narrow path through tall meadow grasses.
Sometimes the trail was smooth and soft.
Other times it was rocky.
Sometimes we climbed over and around boulders.
Later in the day we rock-hopped several crossings of the stream.
* * *
Our first rest break of the day at 9:30 lasted until 10 a.m., when sirens sounded throughout the country for two minutes, and we stood in silence to honor and remember the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust.
Our guide asked if anyone had a personal story to share. A fellow hiker name Ron stood and told us the harrowing story of his father, who narrowly escaped certain death on several occasions. Ron’s father never spoke to his children about his experiences in the Holocaust. It was only later in life that Ron discovered a trove of audio tapes and papers, testimony that had been recorded many years earlier by a college student doing research. It was the first time Ron heard, in his father’s own voice, the story of his survival. In the final minutes leading up to 10 a.m., when the wail of the sirens from the surrounding towns reached us in the depths of Nahal Amud, we listened to a recording of his father’s testimony, played from Ron’s cellphone.
Later in the day I walked and talked with Ron, and heard how his brother and bar-mitzvah age nephew discovered Pages of Testimony in Yad Vashem that were submitted by his father in the 1950s. These forms, which serve to restore the identities and record the life stories of the millions of Jews, revealed to Ron the history of his very own family.
* * *
The National Water Carrier pipe crosses Nahal Amud covered with concrete in the form of stairs. It goes down and up 150 meters without requiring any input of energy (the law of communicating vessels). Built in the 1960s, it is a landmark and an object of wonder on the Israel Trail.
The cliff and cave formations along the trail are natural features of beauty and awe.
The other prominent landmark on this segment of the trail is the limestone pillar (amud), formed through erosion, which rises to a height of 20 meters, and from which the stream derives its name.
I could not resist the opportunity to dip my feet into the shallow pool fed by the waters of Ein Amud (Amud spring).
The trail eventually emerges from the deep ravine, and the path widens. This made it easier for us to walk-and-talk on the latter part of the hike.
The Sea of Galilee, the Kinneret, comes into view in the final kilometers of the hike. By now we were feeling hot and dusty, and glad to be reaching the end.
We finished the hike at Ein Nun (without entering the newly developed park surrounding the spring). A waiting bus shuttled us back to our cars.
A sampling of some of the wildflowers spotted on the hike. This was likely to be the last hike of the season with such an abundance of flowers.
The complete set of my photos in a Flickr album: Israel Trail Hike 2022-4-28
Eleven years ago I hiked this segment of the Israel Trail, also in April. I find it interesting to see the similarities and the differences. My blog post from 2010: farewell-to-spring-on-the-israel-trail/
