Ammud Hike
Ammud Hike More Great Galilee Shephelah trip Crawling in Caves

Home Up

 

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!

 

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.

 

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.

 

Break time.  We traveled hard and fast and breaks were few and short.  For snack: peanut-covered peanuts. Josh Brackett points to the way ahead while Megan looks on.

 

Leo had to get just the right angle for this picture. Kasey and Josh found the skull of a cow and proudly show it off.

 

If you didn't know better, it almost looks here like Amy is waiting for a proposal.  John just stands there. 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.

 

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.

 

 

1