You have a choice: hang out by the Sea of Galilee all day
relaxing, or getting up at sunrise and hiking the Nahal Ammud for 20
miles. Pick the latter and you'll have an awesome time seeing some of the
most beautiful terrain in Galilee. The Ammud is famous in Israel for its
springs and lush vegetation. We didn't exactly start out planning to hike
20 miles, but by the time we got to the expected end, we couldn't help but to
finish the day off by hiking to and up the Arbel Cliffs!

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The group of 17 here crosses over
a brook on the bridge. The guys took the chance to get their
picture taken together with the beautiful hills of Galilee in the
background. |
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Along the way we came to an
abandoned pumping station. The surprise was the countless stairs
(actually they counted 462) going up both sides of the
canyon. Nearly everyone climbed up to the top; nearly everyone
felt like an idiot for doing it only because Todd said he had done it. |
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Break time. We traveled hard and fast
and breaks were few and short. For snack: peanut-covered peanuts. |
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Josh Brackett points to the way ahead while
Megan looks on. |
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Leo had to get just the right angle
for this picture. |
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Kasey and Josh found the skull of a cow and proudly show
it off. |
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If you didn't know better, it almost looks
here like Amy is waiting for a proposal. John just stands there. |
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Galilee apparently has emu farms. Craig and Josh did
a bunch of crazy things to get the emus' attention. The emus
thought it was a mating dance. |
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We have to admit that when we got to the top of Arbel at 5
o'clock, we were pretty proud. We had conquered the Nahal Ammud and
Arbel! What a feeling of exhilaration! The chasm of the
Nahal Ammud can be seen in the middle of the picture. Hikers
included: Pat, Sarah (who didn't tell anyone she was sick), Amy, Craig,
Nate, Leo, Kasey and Brian. On the right side: Josh, Preston,
John, Megan, Kim, Brian, Wendy and Allison. Todd took this picture
on 17 different cameras. |
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