[Hitch]Hiking

My Hebrew language course finished at the end of September and my graduate classes didn't start until the end of October, giving me a month free from classes. I hadn't had this much time off in years (and years and years!), so I decided in addition to celebrating Jewish holidays with Israelis and meeting the President that I would go hiking. The Negev hiking trip was so successful that I got one of my friends from that trip, Moriah, and we set off to find a trail through the Jerusalem Forest.

I read online that the trail goes right out from the Hadassah hospital parking lot in Ein Karem, so naturally we thought it would be super easy to find. Wrong. After a long ordeal of awkward hand gestures and asking five different security guards in Hebrew if they knew where the trail to the Jerusalem Forest was, we finally found it (I wrote about this in an earlier post). In case anyone wants to hike in the Jerusalem Forest, it's really easy to get there: just go to Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital and go to the back parking lot (it is the biggest one). Go out the exit, walk down the road about 200 meters, and the trail is on your left (it sounds simple, but it actually took us a really long time to find out where the trail head is!).

Moriah and I were gung-ho and so excited to be hiking since it had cooled down considerably the past few days. But guess what? That day was one of the hottest days of the summer! We were dying. Naturally, we decided that walking to somewhere with water would be the best choice, and so took a trail that passed two springs.

I know, impressive, right? :) It was so hot that I crawled in that little hole to feel the cool air drifting up from the underground spring. Moriah laughed at me, but I was ready to keep crawling back in and explore the cave instead of hiking in the heat!

The views were pretty awesome, though, despite the heat. This is looking back at Ein Kerem Hadassah hospital.

The trail also cut through a lot of peoples' orchards and olive groves (I'm sure it was nice for the owners to have a trail maintained by the city that went up the mountain to their trees!), and this beautiful little garden on the side of the hill. It might not look that cute until you look around and see that it is all barren hills and olive trees except this little patch of land!

 

We found a couple of old houses (we weren't sure if they were legit or just built by the government to add excitement to the trail!) along the way, which were pretty sweet. The one below was a teeny house but had what looked like a watchtower next to it. I can definitely imagine someone spending the night in this structure, looking out over the valley and watching for enemies who might come in and destroy their trees.

Because I thought the weather would be much cooler than it was (we were hiking early in the morning in the forest! Shouldn't it be cooler than hiking in the desert?), I was sorely unprepared in the way of water. I took just one liter with me, and it was gone long before we finished the hike. By the time we came out on the top of the mountain across the valley from the hospital, both Moriah and I were exhausted. There was no way we were walking the 6 or 7 miles along the trail back to the hospital. So we started thinking about our options.

There was a road right next to the trail head that lead back to Jerusalem, so we decided if worst came to worst we could just walk back along the road. "Or we could hitchhike," suggested Moriah. "Yeah," I said. "But I've never hitchhiked before, unless you count the time my car ran out of gas at midnight on the freeway in Utah and some guy picked me up off the side of the road and took me home." Moriah had never hitchhiked either, but people do it in Israel all the time (it's not as dangerous or uncommon as it is in the US). But I'm not quite as adventurous as my sister, who sleeps on benches and in ferry station showers, and I was hoping and praying that we could find another way back. I had these horrible visions of being stabbed and thrown down the side of the mountain.

Anyway. Moriah and I were sitting on a bench discussing our options when three girls came up and asked us to take a picture of them. Happily I obliged, and then, in a subtle hint, asked if they knew if there was a bus back to Jerusalem. "Sorry, we aren't from around here," they said, and walked away.

Well, it was worth a try, I thought. And then. AND THEN. One of the girls turned around and called back, "Hey, do you need a ride back to Jerusalem?"

Yes! YES!!! Moriah and I tried to hide our excitement as we grabbed our stuff and ran to join them. "Sure," we said nonchalantly, as if we were just planning on strolling back if we couldn't find a bus. "That would be nice. You girls heading that way?"

They dropped us off right in the center of town, and Moriah and I couldn't thank them enough. And as the car pulled away, Moriah and I both decided that we could totally claim that as hitchhiking...

Welcome to the Wilderness

Happy Rosh Hashanah everyone! I am spending the holiday in a small farming community about 45 minutes west of Jerusalem. The blog-worthy stories are pilling up; however, until the holiday is over I will just leave you with some pictures of my recent hike in the Negev. And welcome to the wilderness.

The graduate program I am in is part of Hebrew University--however, it caters to foreign students and is an English-speaking program. Periodically there are graduate student activities that we can participate in, if we feel so inclined. Tuesday was the day after our Hebrew level test and also the day before Rosh Hashanah started, which made it a perfect time for the graduate coordinator to plan a hiking trip in the Negev desert.

And of course I was game. Who wouldn't want to go hiking in the desert?

The funny thing is four and a half years ago, I stood overlooking this very spot as a student at the Jerusalem Center and thought, "One day I want to go hiking there!"

Friends, I have now accomplished my dream.

It was hot, even at 8 am. Before we got off the bus, our guide told us that he wasn't letting anyone go who didn't have a hat. And guess who didn't have a hat? Me. I never hike with a hat. I guess I should have been more prepared for the desert, eh? The bus driver was nice enough to lend me one of his hats. And I totally rocked the old-farmer hat look.

The Bedouins mark trails with piles of rocks like this. I saw a bunch of these when I hiked in Petra--unfortunately, I didn't realize they were trail markers until too late!

And this is how Israelis mark trails. Just paint three stripes on the rock.

There was this random Bedouin tent in the middle of the desert with places to sleep and hot drinks. (I have never understood the concept of hot drinks in the desert. All I want in such heat is ice and a swimming pool!) Anyway, I wasn't going to miss out on a chance to practice Arabic, so I ran up to her and started talking to her. It was so great to finally speak a language that none of my peers could understand! They thought it was so impressive, but really all we talked about was how hot it must be sitting by the fire--and she asked me why Asians always look so young! I didn't have an answer for her...

Look! It's not a rock! A bush in the middle of the desert!

We were just walking in the middle of the desert when all of a sudden--BAM! An oasis with water right in the middle of nowhere. It was like Lehi and his family--if you don't have a guide who knows where the water is, I can see how a Liahona would be vital for daily survival!

This was our guard. I felt safe with him and his big gun protecting us (from the rocks, perhaps?) until I saw that he wouldn't pass the Judges 7:5 test. I knew I had to fend for myself after this!!

And just in case life didn't get random enough, I saw this loaf of bread sitting on top of a bus stop.

A Summer of Fun

This post is only a few months overdue. :) This summer I told myself I was not going to let the summer fun pass me by--after all, it had been two years since I had been in Provo in the summer, and I might not be back in Provo for a summer for a very, very long time.

I was taking a ridiculous number of classes and working, but that didn't stop me from exploring some beautiful hikes around Provo.

The first hike was to Battle Creek Falls: fun enough to do twice. The first time was with my roommate and her fiance.

Despite the look of pretended terror on my face, the hike was quite easy.

The best part about the hike? There is a waterfall less than a mile in. So just when you start to get tired or bored or the kids start crying, there you are at the waterfall.

Because it seemed like the perfect hike for a young married couple with a baby, I invited my sister and her husband and baby to come along the next time.

Peter was terrified of sitting in the baby carrier thing and cried for the first half of the hike, but he was quickly content when his mom broke out the food.

This is my favorite picture of the three of us. I think it really brings out my best feature--my left eye. :)

Early in May, some people from my ward decided it was time to take a road trip to Goblin Valley. I was game. I took my homework, fell in love with George Herbert's poetry (who, strangely enough, I hadn't encountered before--he took a seat next to John Donne on my list of favorite poets). My camera batteries died after about 5 minutes, so this is all you get.

Over the 24th of July weekend, I went with my sister up to Bear Lake. It was a dream.


And even though I don't have pictures, we can't forget about the Scottish Festival in Payson. I went with my roomate (the engaged one) and we explored my Scottish roots, found out that not only is my mother's Campbell side Scottish but my White ancestry also has Scottish roots. Unfortunately, my roommate didn't find any Scottish crest with "Borg," her last name. But we did eat funnel cake and listen to bagpipes. It was pretty awesome.

During finals week, my former roommates convinced me to go with them to pick raspberries at 6am. Then we bought the ones we picked and ate them. It was a pretty fun experience--nothing like an early morning hike through a raspberry farm in high heels before going to take a final. :)

Finally, early Labor Day morning my roommates and I hiked the Y. The best part, in my opinion, was this picture. I was pretty proud of myself.


Jealous of my summer of thrills?