Yam L'Yam 4

Sunday (5/1) - Third day of Yam L'Yam – “The Easiest Day=LIES”

On Saturday we were under the impression that Sunday would be a long day, like 30 km but all down hill and pretty easy. Boy, were we wrong.

Naomi woke us at 5ish AM and we were up and ready and out of there by 6ish. Sometime yesterday, Jessica’s water bottle got statched and got a hole in it. There was water bottle that was left from some people, so Jessica took a strangers water bottle! It was necessary. The Israel Trail boys were up at 6 but didn’t leave for a long time. We were making bets as to when they would pass us. And whenever someone passed us we had to take a double take to see if it was them or not.

The trail leads from the campsite, under the road, through an old river bed to a nature reserve. This is שביל ישראל, it was beautiful. We walked forward, right, left, up, and down. We stopped for breakfast—peanut butter sandwiches by a rock. Eventually we came to this area that seemed to be infested with fairies. Like literally the bugs in the area looked like what I, Rachel, would imagine fairies to be. It truly was a magical forest.

Jessica wasn’t really paying attention to the surrounding areas, or the magical forest as Rachel and Monica calls it, because she was in the back worrying about your feet, usually after she would walk for a bit she becomes accustomed to the pain—wasn’t so this time.

We started up this cliff, don’t worry Mothers, it had a railing. It was still pretty scary and beautiful. We got to the top, took a water break, others took off some more clothing and we just looked out. Jessica, and others, were thinking to themselves that wasn’t today supposed to be all down hill, this isn’t right? But it was…thank you Yael for incorrect information! We started down the cliff which had a metal ladder to help you down. It was early enough in the day that the metal wasn’t too hot to touch. It was kind of shaky. As we climbed down the ladder one by one, we had to wait for each other. Then we continued and came to river crossings—they had bridges! Katie: Jessica, turn around (for a picture). Jessica: no.

(The whole time we were walking in the valley, switching between the two mountains)

We were now over to the left side of the mountain. Jessica needs to take over the typing for a bit… it was so scary this part…..

We started going uphill for a bit and pulling ourselves up rocks. We were actually rock climbing. Jessica thought it was fun when we would be on sides of cliffs just holding onto the side. We all went slowly, shuffling our way, and when it was Katie’s turn, she just walked…didn’t hold onto anything. No big deal that there is a 100ft drop! Sorry Mom’s, there were no railings this time. Rachel bumped her knee against a rock at this point. Ouch. We were walking for a while on the middle-ish elevation of the mountain hoping we wouldn’t have to summit it. We kept on going up and down, like a roller coster, and eventually Rachel gave Jessica her water bottle because it came out twice, but surpisingly, Rachel caught it before it “fell down down down” (from Enchanted). Kol HaKavod Rachel! Naomi was a beast and she held onto her water bottle, meaning she only had one free hand! Rachel says “Yeah, what was up with that?” with some ‘tude. Jessica thinks it’s just jealousy.

At a break, high up in the mountains, all of our cell phones went off reminding us to be at Muza’s at 9AM for Shevet Paintballing. Followed by Joe calling Rachel. Rachel didn’t answer.

Along with the rock climbing (which Jessica liked because it stretched her), we had to go down some rocks. We had to slide down some rocks. Katie and some others jumped, but Rachel likes to get down on her butt and slide down so it is easier on her knees. Jessica’s feet still hurt her. While sliding down, some of these rocks were not smooth and would bang our butt and it was not always easy for the shorter people. One time, Rachel couldn’t touch the bottom and thought she was going to fall (even thought it was 3ft) and screamed for Naomi to come help while she looked so funny. Jessica every now and then would choose a different path to go down, and one time she banged her knee too. Ouch.

At a resting point, which we had too often, but they were needed because some weren’t feeling well, the Israel Trail boys passed us. We were expecting them. They had their packs, and hiking sticks, they seem to glide when we just stumble. They sat with us for a bit before they moved on. Other Israel Trail hikers passed us throughout the day…all of them asking us where we were from and what the hell we were doing—we saw almost all boys—and we were a bunch of dumb girls. The Israel Trail boys were planning on sleeping at the Kibbutz that night and recommended that we stay there too. Israel trail boys coming from the opposite direction told us that the road that we wanted was 3-4 km away. The Israel Trail boys thought it was about 300-400 meters away. So we weren’t sure if we heard the first boys correctly…damn metric system (which Rachel now thinks in).

Jessica was thinking that maybe we will be done when we see the mountain end. Rachel thought that it was amazing to see how far we had come whenever we stopped. You see a mountain way off in the distance and before you know it, it is behind you. Loved it!!!

We continued along the path for a bit before the mountains gave way. We were now on a dirt road, in the blistering sun (almost noonish), we wanted to get to the road to have lunch in some shade, but first we had to get there. Judith and Michal were a pretty tired and Monica kept feeding them water. When we thought that this road had ended there was another uphill to accomplish. Judith kept saying how we would never get there. But we would and we got there. After the top of the hill was another downhill. We were all pretty separated at this point, but there was no way to get lost here and we could all see each other. There were signs explaining what שביל ישראל is and a map of the whole thing, that was pretty cool to see. We re-gathered at a shady spot right before the road. Two Russian/Israelis, who had slept next to us, and had passed us also along the way were there. They were optimistic ones who told us that we could make it to the Kineret THAT day! Finally, people that believed in us! Jessica and Rachel were so happy and hugged. Jessica was flying high at this point—she had been really upset that we were going to need a fourth day. They were going to make it to the Kineret so we could too.

When bugs landed on us, they drowned in our sweat.

We had lunch—another peanut butter sandwich—under the freeway, in a tunnel. We were planning on taking a 30-45 min lunch; it ended up being almost an hour. But it was a really hot day, and we needed a break. There was some interesting graffiti in the tunnel. Spirits were high and we were ready. “What is that smell?” We repacked, after all going to the bathroom and started for the “Valley of Death!”

We had passed some prickly plants throughout our whole trip. But this valley was overgrown with them. We were all in shorts, so we all got pretty cut up. Throughout the 4ish km you hear different people cursing when there was an especially prickly plant. Don’t worry, Monica’s Lion King and other Disney music to help us along, until Judith yelled at her and told her to shut up with the Lion King. But the Lion King was very suiting for this environment. Aukuna Matata…It means no worries, for the rest of our days… We took a break wherever there was shade. Rachel was happy with the Disney, much better than Jessica’s Taylor Swift…oh Lordy. At one stop we started talking about boys, which set off Monica on a tangent. We got up and ended up being in two groups—Michal, Monica, Jessica and Katie in the back, let me hear you clap. Elana, Judith, Rachel and Naomi in the front, let me hear you grunt. At one point the front four met up with other Israel Trail people, they always ask where we are from—Rachel said California. One guy was like you are about to pass another girl from California. Awesome. So we came to the other group—a GIRL and two boys doing שביל ישראל. She had just graduated from Berkely and was doing it with a bunch of Israeli boys. I asked her if she knew Jessica Felber, did she ever! Her boyfriend is good friends were Jessica’s boyfriend. That was pretty cool. Later when Jessica, Katie, Monica and Michal also ran into them, they had a different kind of conversation.

While she and Rachel were talking the other two, Naomi and Elana started walking. Judith and I were a bit behind them when we could no longer see them. They were becoming a little nervous because Judith was slowing down and the sun was beginning to lower. They started calling out for Naomi and Elana to stop, eventually they did and the four of us regrouped. They were a ways ahead of Rachel and Judith. Katie, Jessica, Monica and Michal were way the hell back there. And we started yelling out for them. When they were able to finally hear us they kept telling us to keep going. But we were yelling at them that we needed to wait and that they needed to hurry up because we were going to loose light and they walk faster when they are between us—well when Jessica and Katie aren’t together. The 8 of us all started, Judith and Elana were in the back. Judith didn’t like that, she likes the middle. They fell behind. When they yelled at us to stop, Judith had a little break down. We yelled,“Judith! Elana! Judith!” Judith yells back “JUST LET ME F***ING SIT DOWN!” Us, “NO! WE NEED TO KEEP MOVING! ITS GETTING DARK!” Elana explains, “JustLetHerSit!” Then Naomi had a bit of a breakdown because we weren’t moving “why can’t she just suck it up like me?”. It was during this day that we found out that Judith has a history of fainting, but its okay, it hasn’t happened in a while. Great, thanks for telling us now. Rachel and Monica kept yelling at people to walk faster. We ran into two different sets of people who gave us a message to call Nadav, the Israel Trail guy that was helping us the whole time. It was so sweat, that they were concerned about us. At one point we came to a river point where people can go swimming. Rachel gave everyone a 5-minute limit but kept shortening the time—we needed to keep moving. We kept crossing a dry riverbed that was filled with rocks. We had to two options, walk along the path that crisscrossed or stay on the rocks. We walked along the path b/c we were getting tired and the rocks are a great way to sprain ankles. Monica was in the front and kept announcing which way we needed to turn b/c it was so windy (whindey? stam). Judith kept telling her to shut up b/c we didn’t need to know. Eventually Rachel went to the front and she and Monica were hauling ass, trying to encourage others to f***ing move. Monica kept yelling that we were almost at the road, we can hear cars, and to hurry up your asses. We finally got to the road. We had a water break but needed to keep moving.

So we came to a fork in the road—continue on the path (5ish km) downhill to the Kinneret or 1.5 KM uphill to a kibbutz to sleep. At this point we were set on the kibbutz so up we go. Did I mention that this was a very steep road, with cars that go to fast and there was barely any shoulder? Yeah, it was great. We start moving up. Monica singing “Mi Ani?, Who knows?” (the song during Pesach). Singing about Alokim while walking up hill, doesn’t really help that much. We continued up, and up, and more up. A car passed us about 5 minutes away from the kibbutz, therefore she wouldn’t give any of us a ride, even though Judith had had enough. Rachel kept yelling at Katie and others to get out of the ROAD!!!!

We got to the kibbutz and some of us were going to go find out where we could sleep while others sat with our bags. But then they talked to guys driving who told us and so we didn’t want to go back for the others. So Rachel had to explain to the sitting people to get up and walk. We went to a hotelish place and asked them, because they were in the direction that we were told. We weren’t going to pay to sleep but they let us use the bathroom and told us where we could get cold water. Katie had face soap! We all kind of bathed in the bathroom. We filled our waters which was just outside the Macolet (like 7-11). We all got ice cream. Jessica had two ice creams. There was this kibbutz dog that kept trying to drink water from the faucet just as Jessica was trying to fill her water bottle and was dehydrated. She of course let him drink.

As we were there Nadav calls Naomi. We had called them earlier but they didn’t answer. Rachel picked up. R: “Hello, How are you?” N: “Good, where are you?” R: “We just got to the Kibbutz, we are at the Macolet. Where are you?” N: “We were just there, we are walking to the Kinneret, do you want us to wait?” R: “umm, ummm maybe? Let me go ask the others.” R: (to others) “Naomi, Monica, listen! Its Nadav, we can go to the Kineret! Talk to him!” Rachel, Jessica, Elana and others? Wanted to keep walking with the guys, Monica and some others wanted to hitchhike and stay with the guys tonight. Judith wanted to stay and couldn’t keep going. After much deliberation we decided to stay at the kibbutz :( Rachel and Jessica were heartbroken. We were so close to doing it in 3 days, now when we explain it to people we had to explain that it was 3 days and 5 km away but we had to go up 2 km instead….Rachel is about to cry again. Its just so sad. Now laughing. We are in a coffeeshop blogging right now. Acting like fools. Anyways…back to the story.

Jessica caught Rachel walking in the road but it was on the kibbutz so Rachel doesn’t think that it counts but Jessica does.

So while at the Macolet two different people offered up their lawns. We went with the lady that also offered up her bathroom. She told us that we could shower, but none of us to shower b/c then when we finally got to the Kinneret we wouldn’t be that dirty. So we brushed our teeth and got to go to the bathroom in an actual bathroom—Jessica still prefers the nature. We ate a little bit and went to bed around 9—our latest night yet.

Jessica’s story about her toes/blisters – so the mamma blister gave birth to more blisters but she was still pregos, the first baby blister was delivered while we were hiking, and just like a normal birth there were foreign fluids. Jessica’s wool socks were red to begin with so it was hard to tell what was blood. Michal’s feet were pretty cool, too. Jessica and Michal were just amazed as to how soft their feet were. Their feet had not been soft since they first came to Israel!

Jessica was mad because Monica was sleeping only in underwear and we were outside on a kibbutz and people weren’t out but still its public. And she kept babbling and Jessica wanted to fall asleep before Rachel.

Rachel finally told her father that they were on Yam L’Yam and not to tell mom yet. Dad was jealous.

Everyone was able to charge their phones. But Rachel, who had an extra battery, was still okay.

Lila tov…