Road story: Doron Sela

Managers: We left the bikes with Manny and Danny at the beginning of the route in Lahavim, and Amnon and I drove the cars and left them at the Dead Sea hotels. From there we took a bus to Lahavim.

Day 1: The route began with a beautiful loop in the Goral Hills. We arrived at the peak of the yellow flowers blooming and took a lot of photos. From there we went up the Alon single and stopped for a popsicle at the Joe Alon center. Then the wonderful Rimon single and Sansana single with an interesting visit to Khirbet Sansana. Stopped to stock up at a gas station in Meitar and from there on the Meitar single and Yatir forest to Mount Amsa, where we arrived in the dark. At Mount Amsa we coordinated in advance and slept in a private compound that was set up for hikers on the Israel Trail. Due to the war, there were no guests there for a long time, and the owner Deda was happy about the opportunity to spend time with us and invited us for a beer and snacks in his private pub.

Day 2: In the morning we went up to the 360-degree lookout point on Mount Amsha and from there we descended the wonderful Roman road to Dirigat. We crossed the Arad Valley and passed by the base of the Nahal, where we passed through the Nahal Brigade's training area and met soldiers who the next day went to fight in the Gaza Strip. The gap between our hobby and the reality around us screamed to the sky and yet we continued. We rode over the Upper Tze'elim River and stopped for ice cream and a water refill at Havat Nokdim. Later we passed through Nahal Menachem, which some of us walked more and some rode more. We continued on the fast 4X4 roads up to Zaron where we descended the winding and wonderful single track. At the last light we bathed at the back of Zaron and from there we rode administratively to the hotel vehicles.