Lag Ba'Omer Hike

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To celebrate Lag Ba'Omer this year, I decided to go camping near the town of Meron. Meron is just across the valley west of Tzfat, and every Lag Ba'Omer there's a tremendous pilgrimage to the grave of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, author of the Zohar, the book most central to the study of Kabbalah. The festival itself is too noisy, crowded, and chaotic for my tastes, but I'd never hiked all the way to Meron before, and I didn't want to pass up the excuse to do so. I left well after dark, and even though the moon hadn't risen yet, the starlight was quite sufficient for the walk down to the creek at the bottom of the valley. After that point, the tree canopy was thick enough to block out the stars and I had to use my flashlight for most of the rest of the trail.

I passed by a group of young Americans camped out by a wooden bridge. I also heard plenty of the wild boars pass by in the darkness, and even though I know they're harmless, I got quite a startle the first time I heard their own startled snorting as they noticed me and hustled away. At one point, I stopped to drink and rest, and all the night sounds of the forest gradually emerged: crickets and frogs chirping, boars tromping, leaves whispering, brook babbling.

When I got close enough to Meron to hear the loud music and smell the bonfire smoke of the celebration, the moon had finally risen high enough to peek over the hilltops. It was about midnight and I was too tired to bother facing the crowds in town, so I just picked a spot to set up my sleeping bag a little bit away from the trail inside the nature preserve.

After a good night's sleep, I headed into town to see the remnants of the party and to catch a bus back home. The hillsides right next to Meron were covered with the tents of other campers, and the loudspeakers were still belting out religious music. All in all, it was a fun little adventure.