New Tremping Route

It has been a few months since I began working in Yeshivat Ahavat Chaim in Kochav Hashachar. I've tried all sorts of ways to get there and back, except for one tremping, that's hitchhiking via Shvut Rachel-Kida and the Alon Road. I keep saying that I'm going to take that route on a Monday instead of going via Sha'ar Binyamin or the Junction of the Alon Road and Highway 60, but I end up "chickening out." Yesterday morning, for instance, I made a point to get to Sha'ar Binyamin in time for the 10am #49 bus to Kochav Hashachar, since there are few rides in the morning.

Kida Junction

But when I finished work just and went out for a ride home before 1:30, I ended up tremping northwest though the mountains to the east of my house in Shiloh. Usually I get a ride home (to the Shiloh-Shvut Rachel Junction) from a staff member, but before I saw anyone I know, a car came out of Kochav Hashachar going to Maale Efrayim north of the Kida Junction. I got in and got off there. A few weeks ago a small "army post" was set up there to watch that part of the Alon Road, so it's not "standing in the middle of no place."


Since there are usually a few staff members passing at that hour, I was pretty confident that I wouldn't have to wait long. I was right, but it wasn't a staff member who picked me up; it was a woman from the Shomron visiting her children who live in the area. She dropped me off near the Achiya (or was it the Kida?) Junction. From there I walked to a bus stop and couldn't resist taking lots of pictures.

I was enjoying taking a nice slow look and taking pictures when pretty quickly a ride came out of the Achiya Road on its way to Shiloh. I got in and got out near our supermarket. I started walking up the hill to home until my next door neighbor stopped and invited me in.

I think that the entire trip took less than forty minutes, about double it would take traveling in one vehicle door-to-door. And I enjoyed it.