Hiking Mt. Meron

It was two days before I had to leave Israel and like any sane person I decided to go for a hike. 

I decided to stay with an Israeli American family in the North of Israel in a settlement called Esh'har near the larger city of Karmiel. So I hitched a ride and took the bus to the base of Mt. Meron. The bus took us to a stop ahead of the entrance of the trail so I had to backtrack down the road about a 3/4 of a mile. 

So I hitched a ride and took the bus to the base of Mt. Meron. The bus took us to a stop ahead of the entrance of the trail, Nahal Meiron, so I had to backtrack a bit on the road.

Once entering the trail head I met an Ethiopian Israeli guy named Yako going the same way so we decided to hike together. He had just finished his military service and although he swore he had received extremely high marks in school for English we had some interesting periods of silence while he searched for the words he had forgotten. 

We made our way through the 8 hour long hike. Along the way we passed many Jewish camps enjoying the good weather and hiking as well. Israel has a huge hiking culture with a trail that connects from the North of Israel to the South called the National Israeli Trail (which I've created a short video for another project I was part of in the desert which I will link to here.)

This trail was apart of that longer hike and is marked throughout the terrain for those hikers completing the full thing. The National trail takes about 3 months depending on how fast of a hiker you are. There are various pitstops along the way for hikers to rest similar to the Appalachian Trail in America. 

Along the trail there are waterfalls and streams connected to each other. The valleys and mountain sides are riddled with flowers. 

We stopped in a valley of yellow flowers to drink tea. 

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