313 Miles Later: Israel Ride Wrap-Up

After 5 days of actual riding and 313 miles, I am pleased to report that I completed Hazon Israel Ride 2009.  Israel Ride raises money for the Arava Institute of Environmental Studies and Hazon, and proved to be a very unique and interesting way to see the country, as I was hoping it would be.  Over the course of the 5 days of actual riding, Shabbat, the days before the ride in Tzfat, and the days after the ride in Petra and Eilat, I met and rode with a very interesting group of people, and visited many places, including many points of interest in the Negev where I had never traveled extensively.  If you had asked me how I would arrive in Sde Boker, Mitzpe Ramon, or Eilat for the first time, I don’t think I would have answered by bike.  But that is how I got to those places, and it was a great experience that I don’t think I will ever forget, and maybe I’ll get to do it again someday.  What follows is a day-by-day recap of my entire adventure.  Note that larger versions of the photos can be viewed by clicking on them, and holding your mouse over a photo will result in a caption popping up with information about what the photo shows.

November 2 & 3: Training Days, Tzfat

My adventures began by bus (not bike) in the mid-afternoon on Monday, November 2, when I went to the bus station in Jerusalem to catch a bus to Tzfat in Northern Israel.  It was from Tzfat where the ride would be starting.  Although we weren’t required to be in Tzfat until the next day, I figured it would be good to arrive early so I’d have time to make sure I had a decent rental bike and such.  The weather both on Monday and Tuesday was less than ideal for biking, with heavy rains at various points (though they created a beautiful rainbow viewable from the bus when we were near Afula).  Dinner reservations were made in local restaurants for the riders who had already arrived in Tzfat, and I also met and socialized with other riders back at the hotel following dinner.

On Tuesday, the weather was still rainy.  There was a walking tour of the Old City of Tzfat that pretty much revisited the same synagogues that my Birthright trip took me to nearly three years ago.  The tour was led by Bill Slott, a licensed tour guide who did the ride and offered insight and also led one of the riding groups on many of their tours (incidentally, he is from Bethesda and went to Cornell).  After the tour, I went to be fitted on my rental bike.  The Segal road bike they had for me was a bit too small, and it turned out their “hybrids” were very lightweight (lighter than my Gary Fisher in Maryland and also my bike here) with thin tires, so I opted to use the hybrid instead.  The weather precluded a long training ride, but they did take us for a short spin so we could get used to our bikes.  We also had a safety briefing, which included usual reminders such as helmets being required at all times, and also items unique to biking in Israel (i.e. Israeli drivers, don’t cross the border into Egypt, don’t enter IDF firing ranges, etc.).  This briefing was longer than most, though we did have a daily briefing each night to go over the next day’s route and schedule.  Then, it was off to get ready for the first day of real riding and sleep.

November 4: Day 1, Tzfat to Ma’agan

Distance: 73.8 miles

Route: Click here to see the day’s route in Google Maps

Elevation Profile:

We woke up at about 4:30 and had to be ready to go on our bikes at about 5:45.  However, the roads were still a bit wet so we didn’t depart until about 6:15.  We almost always started this early so that we could take advantage of cooler temperatures in the mornings, and because the sun typically set between 4:30 and 5 and we had to be off the road by then.  In general, there were three riding groups, called Chalutzim, Tzofim, and Shomrim.  Chalutzim were the fastest paced group and did two challenging climbs over the course of the entire ride that the Tzofim skipped, both groups generally did 60-70 miles each day.  The Shomrim did less riding each day (usually 35-40 miles) and did some more touring.  I figured I would see how I did riding with the Chalutzim and then drop back to the Tzofim if need be. 

We started with a short but steep climb out of Tzfat towards Ein Zeitim.  About 17 miles into the day’s ride, we stopped for breakfast at a lookout with a view of the Hula Valley, near Ramot Naftali (we had coffee and cake in the hotel before starting so we didn’t go hungry those first 20 miles, and it wasn’t a bad way of doing things to have nearly 2 hours of riding before a long stop for breakfast since riding before it got hot was always pleasant).  From the breakfast rest stop, we descended into the Hula Valley.  At the end of our descent into the valley, we came to be within less miles of Metula, Israel’s northern most town.  From there, it was across the Hula Valley towards the Pkak Bridge on the Jordan River, where we had another rest stop.  It was in the Hula Valley where the ride organizers finally let the Chalutzim move at a faster pace than we had been going most of the day, though we were still moving slower than I would have liked (13-14 MPH according to those with speedometers). 

Our lunch break came at the site of an ancient synagogue near the Kinneret.  From there, it was downhill to the lake shore, where we then followed part of the route from my Chol Hamoed Sukkot ride around the top and east sides of the lake, passing Gofra Beach where we camped out on Sukkot.  The day’s ride ended at Ma’agan, a kibbutz on the south end of the Kinneret.  At our briefing that night, they informed us that the Chalutzim would have a faster pace the next day (a few other riders were disappointed by the slow pace that first day and rest stops that were longer than we thought to be ideal).  Then, it was off to bed.  This night (and many other nights of the ride, but not all), I roomed with a junior from Columbia named Adi doing a year of study abroad at the Arava Institute this semester and at Hebrew University in Jerusalem next semester.  We weren’t the youngest riders on the ride out of the 42 riders; there was a 13 year old doing the ride with his father for his bar mitzvah project, and also a 16 year old rider.  The next youngest riders were aged 29, 32, and then I think 40, everyone else had to have been 50 or older.  The group itself was quite an interesting mix of people and good group to spend time with.  There were always interesting conversations, whether we were on the road riding or at meals and in hotels.  Additionally, as is to be expected in this type of gathering, there was Jewish Geography to be played.  Several riders knew my aunt Marga or her kids, and one rider went to elementary school with my dad. 

November 5: Day 2, Ma’agan to Sdot Yam (Yam el Yam)

Distance: 76.7 miles

Route: Click here to see the day’s route in Google Maps

Elevation Profile:

This was my best day of riding over the course of the entire ride.  I had momentum and was able to maintain it on account of reasonably timed rest stops, not to mention there was the feeling of accomplishing something I never expected to do when I signed up for the ride.  We started out from Ma’agan, heading south towards Beit Shean.  After riding through Beit Shean, we stopped for breakfast.  It was at this rest stop where the Chalutzim broke off from the rest of the group to climb up Mount Gilboa (elevation: 1759 feet above sea level).  The climb itself, as shown in the elevation profile above, was about 7 or 8 miles long, with grades of 7% or greater.  It was a long, slow climb, but very rewarding to finish, since when I initially saw the elevation profiles once I signed up for the ride, I figured I would be with the Tzofim and wouldn’t even try going up this huge climb.  Needless to say, the water and granola bars provided at the rest stop at the top were well deserved.

The descent from the mountain was quite nice and much easier than going up (one just has to ride his or her brakes, far easier than biking up the hill).  At the next rest stop, we met up with the Tzofim, and the Shomrim boarded a bus to go for a tour of Caesarea.  As I passed quite a few riders and found myself at the front of the group, I got asked how I could have this much energy after doing the climb, and stayed right behind the pace rider up the next big climb towards Ramot Menashe (which had a relatively gentle 4-5% grade).  From there, it was all downhill to lunch, provided in a tent where we were the guests of several Druze (I think) living in that area.

We only had about 20 miles of riding from lunch to the end of the day, which went fast.  We crossed an army base where their firing practice was suspended for 15 minutes so we could cross the base safely, while the soldiers waved to us as we passed by.  From there, we continued westward, passing into more built up areas and encountering more traffic.  Eventually, the smokestacks of the Caesarea Industrial Zone came into view, indicating that the end of the day’s ride was near.  However, it would not come without a slight mishap.  All of a sudden with just a few miles to go,  I heard a noise and stopped my bike to discover that the bottom of one of my water bottle cages had fallen off the bike.  Fortunately, the riders behind me were able to stop without colliding into each other, and after finding a place to store the broken part of the cage and my water bottle, I continued on.  Upon our arrival at Sdot Yam, a kibbutz just south of Caesarea, I had a photo taken of me in the traditional celebratory pose of holding my bike over my head on the seashore before going into the water to catch a few waves.  Then, it was time for a shower, dinner, and route briefing for the following day, before boarding a bus that would take us south for the remaining 3 days of riding plus Shabbat.  As a result, even though the day’s riding ended in Sdot Yam, we spent the night and continued biking the next day from Mashabei Sade, which is south of Beer Sheva.

November 6: Day 3, Mashabei Sade to Mitzpe Ramon

Distance: 36.5 miles (plus 8.8 miles of off road biking)

Route: Click here to see the day’s route in Google Maps

Elevation Profile:

Although this was the shortest day of riding by far, it was not necessarily the easiest.  The bus ride from the previous night took me as far south as I had ever been in Israel, and therefore, each subsequent pedal revolution for the remainder of the ride took me to a new southern extreme within the country.  The most noticeable thing upon leaving the kibbutz was that we were no longer in the lush, fertile north, but we were clearly now in the desert.  Often, there was nothing but sand, rocks, and other natural formations to see in any direction for the remainder of the ride. 

The day’s riding began by riding along Route 40 south towards Sde Boker.  When we arrived there, we had breakfast, and also a chance to visit former Prime Minister David Ben Gurion’s gravesite.  After this, we were provided with off-road bikes to bike along the Zin River Bed to Ein Ekev, a desert spring that is truly an oasis in the middle of the desert.  According to my guidebook, it isn’t recommended that one swim there on account of the significant difference in water and air temperature, but that recommendation is largely ignored.  It took me awhile to get into the very cold water, but once I did, it was very refreshing.  We then returned to Sde Boker on our off-road bikes.  This was my first time doing real off-road biking over rocks and such, and may very well be my last.  At the very least, I have no plans of doing it again for a very long time.  Off-road biking is so different from road biking in so many ways they are almost entirely different sports.   To mountain bike successfully, one has to pick out the “best” route ahead of time and be very on top of gear shifts and such so as to not be caught trying to go up even the gentlest of inclines or over the smallest obstruction in too high a gear.  It happened to me quite a few times, and I had to dismount and roll my bike to where I could start up again.  One also cannot just stay in the saddle while riding off-road but rather has to move up, down, and to the sides in order to maintain balance and not fall off the bike.

 After we returned to Sde Boker, we had lunch, and then continued again along Route 40 as we made the long, gradual climb up to Mitzpe Ramon.  It took a bit of time to get my momentum going again on the road bike, and the rest stops were a bit longer than ideal, but I made it to the hotel in Mitzpe about 40 minutes before Shabbat started, which was just enough time to get to the room and take a shower before getting some much needed rest. 

November 7: Day 4, Shabbat in Mitzpe Ramon

Distance: 0.0 miles

Although many cite Shabbat as being a highlight of the Israel Ride, I found it to be slightly underwhelming.  That said, it was still very enjoyable.  Services were a bit more liberal than I typically prefer, and we barely got a minyan for services on Saturday morning.  Saturday morning marked a non-riding accomplishment of sorts, I read the Akedah (Genesis 22, the same Torah reading for the Second Day of Rosh Hashanah) using regular Ashkenazi trope instead of the High Holiday Sephardi/Mizrachi trope that I learned from my dad.  I even attempted for a dramatic reading, but I’m pretty sure some people didn’t pick up on it.   Anyway, on Saturday afternoon, we had a panel of Arava Institute Alumni speak to us about their experiences in the program.  It was very interesting to listen to the stories of the Palestinian students describing the process they had to go through to get permission to study in Israel (3 years in one case) and the Palestinian and Jordanian students describe the reactions of their parents and friends when they told them of their decision to study in Israel.  Also interesting was that the Arava Institute does not advertise where it is located when it runs ads in places such as Jordan.  For Havdalah, we walked out to the edge of the makhtesh (the Mitzpe Ramon “crater” is apparently not a crater and shouldn’t be called one, even though makhtesh translates to crater in English).  Havdalah was followed by a route briefing, and then it was off to bed to get ready to go back to the regular routine of riding again.

November 8: Day 5, Mitzpe Ramon to Kibbutz Ketura

Distance: 62.2 miles

Route: Click here to see the day’s route in Google Maps

Elevation Profile:

The first part of this day was one of the most enjoyable parts of the ride, perhaps second to the Yam el Yam ride.  After stopping for a group photo at a location with an overlook of the makhtesh, we descended down into the makhtesh itself for the next 7 miles or so.  (A note about photos, we were allowed one piece of luggage that was transported from hotel to hotel, and a day bag that we had access to at times during the day.  I only brought my large DSLR which I could not keep on my riding jersey, and as a result, could not take photos unless I had access to my day bag.  This arrangement was fine generally, since I don’t like having to stop frequently.  However, I never had access to my bag at Mitzpe Ramon, so I was not able to get photos there, the only place I really wanted photos that I did not get them.  I’ll also mention now that some of the photos here were taken by David Eisenberg and appear in his online photo album of the ride.)  Because we were riding through the middle of the desert with practically no intersections or traffic to speak of, the ride organizers really let people spread out and go at their own pace for most of the day (at least that was the plan, it changed later).  And truthfully, there was nothing out there.  There were times I’d be going along and I would see no other cars and no other bikers.  Occasionally, a truck or car would pass, honking its horn in support (Israelis think this somehow helps bicyclists) but aside from that it was just me going for a ride on my own through the desert.  As shown on the elevation profile above, some of the downhills were quite steep, and many didn’t have switchbacks, allowing for very high speed.  According to those with speedometers, speeds in excess of 40 MPH were being attained with little effort.

Lunch marked a turning point on the ride so to speak, and not a good one.  The 18.4 miles that we biked after the lunch break that day were among the longest 18.4 miles I have ever biked.  The wind had picked up during lunch, and as a result, we spent the rest of the day biking into a headwind that was estimated to be between 20 and 30 MPH.  If you want to get a sense of what that is like, imagine biking uphill, even though the ground is level or slightly downhill (the elevation profile shows slight uphills for most of those 18 miles, but there were downhill segments where the wind effectively took away the ability to coast and roll down the hill).  There was a rest stop at Naot Smadar, at which time we were encouraged to buy the organic ice cream for sale there.  I did so (even though it wasn’t the end of the ride) and it was quite good.  Then it was on the bike again to fight the winds.  Even the long, steep downhill into the Arava Valley was slowed significantly by the winds, one person said he was doing 18 MPH without using his brakes on a 7% downgrade, which is very slow for a hill that steep.

We spent the night at Kibbutz Ketura, home to the Arava Institute.  After a quick swim following our arrival there, I went on a tour of the kibbutz and institute facilities.  We then had the chance to meet current students and to listen to them talk about their studies and research, prior to the route briefing and a barbeque. 

November 9: Day 6, Kibbutz Ketura to Eilat

Distance: 56.5 miles

Route: Click here to see the day’s route in Google Maps

Elevation Profile:

Unfortunately, most of the first 42.7 miles of this day’s riding were a continuation of the last 18.4 miles of the previous day’s ride, and if there is any one part of the ride I wouldn’t mind forgetting, it would be this one.  Tzofim started the day from mile 9.1, at Tzomat Naot Smadar, which meant they skipped the big climb at the start of the day’s route (which was the same downhill that we did to get into the Arava Valley, if you look at the route maps you can see where we doubled back to before entering “new” territory).   I figured if I made it up Gilboa, I could make it up this shorter climb, even though it would be first thing in the morning, which meant no real chance to warm up.  I did OK on the climb considering I wasn’t warmed up, and also did OK on the remaining segment from Har Ayit, at the top of the climb, to Naot Smadar.  I figured that like on previous days, I’d gain my momentum and get into my rhythm shortly after the first rest stop, and I felt that way as we left the rest stop.  Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, we met a headwind, a hill, and I just couldn’t get it going.  For some reason, I couldn’t attack the hills properly and I was also having trouble on the more level segments.  Something was just “off” all morning, and I’m still not sure what it was, it may have been something in my left knee.  In any event, even after each of the rest stops, I wasn’t able to get it together.  I also broke two spokes on my back wheel over the course of the morning.  The route itself was quite pretty, even as we continued through the desolate desert, past the Ovda Airport, and eventually along the border with Egypt (literally, just a barbed wire fence about 100 feet or so from the road). 

We had our lunch stop at Har Hizkiyahu, along the aforementioned Egyptian border.  Our tent for lunch couldn’t have been more than 150 feet from the border, and an Egyptian watchtower was maybe another few hundred feet further along the border.  I think that on a clear day, one can see Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia from this point. 

After lunch, we got on our bikes again to continue as a group (the Shomrim had gone touring in the morning and had rejoined us at this point) for the descent into Eilat.  I suppose the long lunch break allowed me to get over whatever issues I was having in the morning, because as soon as we left the lunch stop, I was at the front of the group, and successfully attacked the first uphill that we encountered.  We soon came to the start of the long, windy 5 mile, steep descent into Eilat.  Since I was up front, I was not held back; they wanted to space out the group to avoid collisions and such on the hill.  This was another 40 MPH plus segment according to those with speedometers, though I was still able to take in the views while safely making my way down the hill.  We regrouped at the bottom of the hill, biked through the city, and ended at the beach across from our hotel.  I got a photo of myself holding a bike over my head (though not mine, it was about 5 deep where we parked and I had no way of getting out when I was ready to be photographed), had my celebratory post-ride ice cream (maintaining a longstanding tradition that Heidi and I have following long rides), and relaxed.  That night, we had a celebratory banquet at our hotel.

November 10: Day 7, Petra

Israel Ride allowed everyone to sign up for a tour in the North on the day prior to the start of the ride, and for a tour of Petra (in Jordan) for the day following the ride.  I had little interest in the former, but going to Petra was on my list of things to do while I am here, so I figured this would be a good way to accomplish that.  Seventeen of us, including myself, from the ride went on the tour, but some of the people to come along were riders’ partners and didn’t actually do the ride, so there weren’t actually 17 riders on the trip.  There were 2 other people not affiliated with the ride who were in our group as well. 

We were taken by bus with an Israeli “guide” to the border, where we had our passports stamped, and then crossed the no-man’s land to the Jordanian side.  There, we met our Jordanian guide for the day.  Unfortunately, the guide was not so good.  The first issue is that while it did not appear that he did anything to slow down the processing of our passports, he didn’t seem to do a whole lot to speed things up either.  It ended up taking 2 hours to get through the border.  After we got through, we boarded our Jordanian bus, and the guide announced that because we were late, we would now go on a driving tour of Aqaba, the Jordanian port city located across from Eilat.  The Aqaba tour is among the 20 most unproductive minutes of my life, as we drove around and our guide pointed out various 5 star hotels, a 6 star hotel, and McDonalds, in what seemed to be an attempt to convince us to spend our money in Aqaba instead of Eilat in the future.  I’d say his attempt was pretty futile; no one found this to be terribly interesting or a good use of time.  From there, it was on to Petra.  Once we arrived and entered the site, the guide began to lead us along the tour.  Unfortunately, he had little insight to add beyond what my guidebook or the plaques along the walkway said, and would chastise anyone who asked him any question by saying “if you were listening, you would know” even if he hadn’t answered the question.  We were quick to stop paying attention and to sort of look at things on our own while staying near the group. 

Although the guide did little to enhance Petra, I still enjoyed it very much and after reading a brochure that I picked up and my guidebook after getting back to Eilat that night, felt that I understood enough to appreciate what I saw, though in all honesty, I probably learned nothing more beyond what I would have if I had been self guided.  The narrow As-Siq gorge, which is the main entry into Petra, is a very fun place to get photographs, and there are lots of interesting lighting conditions to play with.  Additionally, horses pull carriages through the gorge and over cobblestones dating to the Roman era, and I tried photographing those too. 

Since lunch was included at some fancy hotel in Wadi Musa, the modern day town next to Petra, we had to stop there on our way back to the border.  We could have done without lunch, but we were powerless to persuade the guide to go off the planned agenda for the day.  We made it back to the border, and crossed into Israel after about 30 minutes, and then it was back to the hotel yet again.

November 11: Day 8, Eilat

My original plan had bee to use this day as a travel day to go to Jerusalem.  However, while flipping through my guidebook, I realized that if I visited all the tourist attractions in Eilat that interested me on this trip, I would probably not need to return to Eilat for a long time.  Since I don’t really like beach towns much anyway, this was a very good plan.  There wasn’t much that I wanted to do (nor is there much to do in the first place), so after breakfast. Sheldon (a fellow rider) and I set off for the Underwater Observatory Marine Park.  Most of the exhibits are like what you would find at any other aquarium, and we saw sharks, Red Sea fish, and an exhibit on the Amazon.  We then went for a ride on the Coral 2000, a boat with an underwater deck featuring large windows so that one can easily observe the fish and coral reef that the boat goes through on its 20 minute ride.  After this, we explored the underwater observatory itself.  This observatory is about 6 meters deep, and provides a view similar to the one afforded from the Coral 2000.  After seeing all the different vantages available from the underwater observatory, we took a break for lunch.  Then, we went to the Dolphin Reef.  One can make a reservation to swim or snorkel with the dolphins, but we were just as content to see them from the pier in the middle of the water.  I put my feet into the water (which one can do) but no dolphins came up to me (or anyone else) while I did this.  We didn’t need to spend much time here before we had seen enough, and then it was back to the hotel to wait for our various forms of transportation home.  I took the bus back to Jerusalem, which was uneventful aside from the fact I should have made a reservation in advance to guarantee a seat; the buses to and from Eilat are the only routes where reservations are able to be made.  Fortunately, the bus was not sold out so the driver sold me a ticket and I was able to travel that night as planned.  I didn’t spend anytime exploring the center of Eilat, though there isn’t really much to explore.  It seems like a nice enough of a place if one likes the beach, but as I said before, it isn’t a place I intend to return to anytime soon.

Since my return to Jerusalem, I have been trying to segue back into my regular routine.  I have not been on a bike since the ride arrived in Eilat, the longest I’ve been off the bike for a long time, but hopefully I’ll get a ride or two in before it gets too cold to ride. 

The experience of doing Israel Ride was everything I wanted and even more.  I never thought I’d arrive in places such as Sde Boker, Mitzpe Ramon, and Eilat for the first time on a bicycle.  I also never expected to do Mount Gilboa or the climb out of the Arava Valley when I saw the elevation profiles and routes when I signed up.  I hope to have the chance to do another trip like this at some point in my life.  I’d consider doing it in other countries, but I definitely would jump for the chance to do it again in Israel as well. 

I am also very pleased with my fundraising efforts and do want to thank everyone who has donated to support me and the charities that Israel Ride supports.  I reached my second fundraising goal, and have raised over $3600 to date for the Arava Institute and Hazon.  Although I’ve reached my goal and the ride is over, it is not too late to make a tax-deductible, secure donation online with your credit card at http://arava.kintera.org/2009fallride/orentree..  You have until the end of December to make a donation. 

 

If you still want more…

Click here to see more of my photos from the ride

Click here to see more of my photos from Petra and Eilat

Click here to see photos on the Israel Ride site

Click here to see photos from David Eisenberg’s online photo album