6.5 mile<\/a> hike today ending in Nes Harim.<\/p>\nThen two things happened.\u00a0 The path grew narrower yet, a sort of ditch, and then came the rocks.\u00a0 Yes, rocks were already in the path, sometimes wonderfully positioned to allow me to step over the water that was flowing downhill from the rain.\u00a0 W<\/p>\n
When I say rocks, though, I mean ROCKS, way more than \u2018three score and ten\u2019<\/h3>\n
![\"Wadi](\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/image-photo\/fisheye-view-on-avakas-gorge-260nw-294137183.jpg\")
For about two hours I climbed over rocks, up rocks, sometimes using railings installed, all while it was raining, so the rocks and the railings were slippery.\u00a0 This was turning from a hike to a slog.\u00a0 Every 30-40 meters another obstacle presented itself, some with railings and some not.<\/p>\n
Several times I had to size up the situation first, remembering the one day I spent climbing up Table Mountain in Cape Town.\u00a0 Look for the handholds and the footholds.\u00a0 Handholds be hide as even three fingers can give you purchase to move safely.\u00a0 Mr. Walking Stick was often unable to help during these scaling.\u00a0 I had to toss it just a little ahead and trust I would get there.<\/p>\n
Remember that it was raining and the rocks were often wet.\u00a0 Even if my shoes were not caked with mud, they had a slick coat from the sandy soil.\u00a0 Also, this was a narrow valley and there was next to no cell coverage.\u00a0 One mistake would be too many. \u201cI will not die on my 70th birthday in Israel,\u201d I muttered to myself.\u00a0 No cute obituaries for me.<\/p>\n
A bracing walk in the biblical woods had become training for of wilderness survival.<\/h3>\n
While there were some dicey moments, I did make them all, and no I am not going to scale El Cap next.\u00a0 The one time I came close to real worry was on a steep slope of mud, and I could barely keep my feet from sliding down.\u00a0 They did, in fact, and I grabbed a tree limb quickly to rescue my effort before losing both grip and balance.<\/p>\n
The rocks did end, for a while.\u00a0 And the rain also quit, for a while. Making it to a flat spot with a dry rock I took off my raincoat and hung it on Mr. Walking Stick, sat down and removed one shoe and sock to allow all three to get a little drier.\u00a0 There appeared some brightness in the sky.\u00a0 It might be a pretty good day, I thought.<\/p>\n
After changing socks, eating a cheese sandwich and drinking some water, it was time to get going.\u00a0 Twenty meters after starting I met the most daunting rock of all.<\/p>\n
I pondered that one for several minutes, but not \u2018three score and ten\u2019<\/h3>\n
Even for a moment considered going back down the path to a gravel road that would add miles.\u00a0 Then, as if by respecting it, the rock revealed a![\"Wadi](\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/image-photo\/trees-stones-cave-valley-israel-260nw-2309667083.jpg\")
handhold on the far left, which let me get up onto a sloped edge where I found another handhold.\u00a0 Mr. Walking Stick went ahead, and I kneed myself up onto the broad ledge, finding an empty Coke can waiting for me.\u00a0 How?\u00a0 Turns out there was a gravel road just 30 meters further on.<\/p>\n
Now it was all rocks and mud, a combination which is not good.\u00a0 Slick feet on slick rock is a recipe for injury.\u00a0 And just to keep me from getting cocky, it started raining again. \u201cReally,\u201d I said to the sky, remembering the joke about the man who stumbles into a church after one calamity after another.\u00a0 He lifts his face to the heavens and says, \u201cWhy.\u201d\u00a0 And from the sky come an ominous voice, \u201cbecause you piss me off.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what it felt like up there, a cosmic smack for even existing.\u00a0 Wet, muddy, shoes and socks squishing, I followed the waymarks \u201cwith drooping pace\u201d and James Weldon Johnson put it.\u00a0 Just keep putting one foot in front of the other, I said, knowing there was only one way to get to the end and that was to go there.<\/p>\n
I reached a rock I needed to descend.\u00a0 There was the coke can.\u00a0 I had walked in a giant circle, following the waymarks in the other direction.<\/p>\n
Out comes the phone.\u00a0 There must be a road somewhere.\u00a0 There was.\u00a0 Gravelly, rocky, with regular ponds of brown water, but a road.\u00a0\u00a0In negotiating the water and mud, I used Mr. Walking Stick to probe ahead and to balance when going from rock to rock.\u00a0 Many times it stuck in the much, and, being foldable, the lower section might stay stuck when I pulled up.\u00a0 Then I would have to stop and reconnect them.<\/p>\n
Today, though, when nearly losing my balance, it bent a little.\u00a0 Nuts.\u00a0 And now, going toward a giant pond of water, I put it in the dirt and when I went to pull it from the mud, the lower section broke off.\u00a0 Mr. Walking Stick was no more.\u00a0\u00a0This happened back in \u201817 when I got to Dover England.\u00a0 That stick had been with me since \u201812.\u00a0 What I had was its replacement, and had a similar lifespan.<\/p>\n
But what to do now? Not knowing what rocks and ponds lay ahead, I elected to back track to the gravel road.\u00a0 No giant rocks there at least.\u00a0\u00a0I went back, consulting the phone for a new route out.\u00a0 Yes, there was a road that took me to the main road to Nes Harim, a village where my hguest room mwas.\u00a0 Holding the pieces of my companion in my hand I trudged up the long hill (always up, up, up) until I reached my lodging.<\/p>\n
Shoes and stick stayed outside.\u00a0 Once inside, pants were rinsed, shower taken.\u00a0 But being Shabbat, and thus no stores being open, my birthday dinner will be my other cheese sandwich and a chocolate bar, chased with some watered rum.\u00a0 Take that Nietzsche!<\/p>\n
(note: the two photos are purloined because mine were too large to use.\u00a0 It looks a lot better in good weather, doesn\u2019t it)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is what I did a year ago, February 4th: It is my birthday, marking the biblical three score and ten, so naturally I decided to come to Israel and honor my passage here, with a long walk in the biblical woods, in the Shefla of Judea to be precise.\u00a0 No snow, no ice, no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4842,"featured_media":1248,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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