Route type: Circular
Difficulty level: Easy
Waze to start/end point: 31.841469, 34.993422
Notes:
- Start early to beat the heat and the crowds.
- Much of this trail consists of bike paths. Be prepared to jump out of the way quickly of bikes coming towards you and from behind.
A while back, I had hiked a shorter loop in Park Canada. This week, one of my hiking partners suggested trying the longer route, so we set out to explore it.
“Park Canada? That’s a strange name for a park in Israel,” you may be thinking. A quick Google search provided me with this background about the 3,000 acre park: “In 1972, Bernard Bloomfield of Montreal, then President of JNF Canada, spearheaded a campaign among the Canadian Jewish community to raise $15 million ($80m in terms of 2010 values) for the park’s establishment. The road leading to the park is named for John Diefenbaker, the former Canadian prime minister, who opened it in 1975. The project was completed in 1984.”
You can read more about the park and it’s history, landmarks and flora and fauna here.
Just after the 1 km point, we spotted a structure with a white dome just off-trail to the left. The structure commemorates General Ibm Jabel, who according to the Muslim tradition perished in the Emmaus plague. Ibn Jabel is a mythical figure. An inscription in Arabic, found above the entrance, said that the structure was built in 1288 by Jashnchir Mancoresh, the Mamluk governor of Jerusalem. The site looks over the Ayalon Valley and the coastal plain.
The terrain was gently rolling with a hint – just a hint – of freshness in the breeze, indicating that the weather might be starting to turn in our favor. Later in the morning, we revised this assessment.
Treasure spotted! Porcupine quill.
As I walked along, I had my eyes on the ground and spotted an item of a dusty terra cotta color and picked it up. It was clearly a pottery jug handle fragment. I have participated in 3 archeological digs in the last 2 years but of course do not have the knowledge to date what I found. (Later on the hike, one of my partners found another jug handle fragment!)
We could have foraged and eaten very well on this hike – the wild figs, pomegranate and fruit of the prickly pear cactus were ripe.
Sometimes there is one picture that stands out to me from a hike that I deem to be the Picture of the Day. For me, this was it. I love the blue sky, white fluffy clouds and the expansiveness of the view.
We passed through stands of pine that smelled wonderful – earthy and, well, pine-y.
To conclude, the consensus was that such a long hike as this at the beginning of September was still a bit too hot and that we will have to stick to short water hikes for a few weeks more.
