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Showing the way By Moshe Gilad Tags: walking, Israel travel  Israel is a 'trail superpower,' with some 10,000 kilometers of marked hiking trails. They have opened the wilderness to families and other unskilled walkers, but have recently begun to attract bikers and cars as well. A blue streak of paint smeared on a rock between two white lines. For the hiker walking along the trail, this familiar sight can inspire a feeling of relief. The trail continues here, he mumbles to himself, meaning we haven't gotten lost and we should even be able to find our exact location on the map. Tzvi Gilat, author of the "Mapa Guide to Shvil Yisrael" (Hebrew), calls trail marks "helpful crutches." In his view, frequent and accurate marks make it possible for the hiker to focus on other things along the way: the beauty of nature, the view and the chirping birds. The marked trail spares the burden of searching and navigating. Menahem Markus, a veteran walker who has written many hiking guides, praises Israel's status as what he calls a "trail superpower" and admits that hiker's lives, especially in the Judean Desert, have been saved thanks to trail marks. Nonetheless, he also sees another aspect of the question: "Marking trails take away one of the main thrills - the navigation challenge," he says. "This challenge is one of the things that excite me, besides the view. Let me be a bit alarmed, let me make some mistakes. After all, it's an important part of the experience." Advertisement More than 10,000 kilometers of marked trails are spread throughout Israel. This is astonishing, considering that the country's length, north to south, doesn't exceed 500 kilometers. The marking of this intricate web of trails began in the mid '60s. It is a huge project, with few places in the world approaching Israel. The effort includes tagging the trails, ninety percent of which cut across nature reserves and national parks, marking them, both on the ground and on maps, and maintaining their condition year round. In circles Yossi Feldman, chairman of the Society for Preservation of Israel Heritage Sites, is one of Israel's trail-marking pioneers. According to him, the practice started a revolution because it created a new type of tourism. "We marked the first trails in the Judean Desert, a dangerous and difficult place to hike and navigate. Until then, only very skilled walkers went hiking in the desert. Only an accomplished few dared to risk it. All this changed thanks to trail marking. Today, the desert is a place for family trips, where people with children aren't afraid to explore." The trails chosen for marking generally include the most beautiful and the safest, and those that would cause the least damage to the environment, wildlife and agriculture. Uri Dvir, head of the Committee for Trail Marking (a joint institution of the Jewish National Fund, the American Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Israel Mapping Center), knows well the changes that have taken place in the field over the past 40 years. He says that when the first trails were marked, in the Judean Desert region and later in the area of Eilat, those in charge weren't really thinking of family trips. "The trails that were marked were long, and the crowd we had in mind were youth movements, organized tour groups, schools and groups of soldiers," he says. Circular routes, which are better suited for families, were marked during a later stage, in the Carmel region. "In hindsight," says Dvir, "I would have marked more circular trails, but these days the problem is solved mainly because the trail web is so crowded. An experienced hiker can easily plan a circular route, one that begins on one trail and completes the circle through another." Risk of Accidents Marking the trails not only helps people get acquainted with Israel, but also protects the environment, by steering hikers to specific paths. As evidence of this positive effect, Dvir points to the significant rise in the number of hikers in the Negev since the marking of the Israel National Trail (Shvil Yisrael), which cuts the entire length of the country, from Dan to Eilat. The Trail, which was opened in 1995, serves as something of a spine, connecting many trails that existed before it did, and stretches a length of more than 900 kilometers. According to Dvir, in the spring and summer months more than 1,000 people walk the trail daily. But people don't only walk on the trails: there is a rapidly growing phenomenon of people driving through them. Their vehicles include bicycles, ATVs (all terrain vehicles) and even regular cars. Dvir estimates that when the Israel National Trail opened, 80 percent of those using it were hikers and only 20 percent were people with vehicles. Today, he says, the statistics have flipped, and he thinks there should be separate trails for walkers and for bicycles and other means of travel. Yoav Kaveh, Haaretz travel and vehicle reporter, agrees on the need for separate trails. The problem is also disturbing, he says, from the point of view of drivers: "There are marked trails that begin as paths for vehicles and farther along, even though the marks remain the same color, turn into a path for hikers," he explains. "Drivers, with their limited navigability, can't tell by the existing trail marks if they will be able to complete a route, because the level of difficulty and navigability aren't indicated on the ground or on the trail maps." Kaveh says that the majority of drivers prefer to stick to the trail marks and routes because they don't want to risk getting stuck and because preserving nature is important to them. Ya'acov Shkolnik, editor of Eretz magazine, thinks that bike riders cause the most severe problem in the pedestrian trails. "It's not hard to assume that in the near future there will be accidents between pedestrians and bike riders who charge down the trails at high speed," warns Shkolnik. Cheaper maps Shmuel Shapira, head of the safety and security department of the Nature and National Parks Protection Authority, sees things differently. About the vehicles that travel on the trails he says: "Let these be our problems. They show the popularity of these trips and that many people really want to spend time in nature." In Shapira's view, the problem is that "trail maps from the Society for the Protection of Nature are very expensive. The price of one map - NIS 82 - isn't affordable to everyone. We plan to rectify this situation." According to him, in the next few months the Nature and Parks Authority will begin to release a cheaper series of marked-trail maps. The series will appear at a 1:25,000 scale, as opposed to the 1:50,000 scale of the current line. The first map slated for publication will feature the Haifa area. Within a year, a line of seven maps of Northern Israel should be out, and will be followed later by a line of 33 maps, covering all of Israel. And if all that wasn't enough, since the start of April, the old trail-marks maps have been accessible via the Mapa Web site, www.mapa.co.il. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Condemned cinema Dutch Jewish group: Anti-Islam film is 'counterproductive.' Suspecting Syria UN officials: Syria still suspected in Lebanese PM Hariri murder case.

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